Some Day I'll Learn

Happy Birthday!!

2011-05-19T22:21:00.002-04:00

Today, my love you celebrate conquering another year on this planet. There is no one like you and never will be and I am so thankful to have you in my life. Celebrating this special day with you is the icing on the very delicious cake that is our relationship...which will soon have been going on for three years...but alas I must save some romance for that very occasion, so I will leave you with this:

More than I have bargained for
But too priceless to be bought
You lift my spirits to the sky
And captivate my thoughts
So when I hear you sing
That so delightful sound
It makes me wish to do the same
In your hidden message found...

Wha? Hidden message you say? Why yes, hidden within this very blog post is a link to something or other.

Are you stumped? Don't be. I have no dot that you will find it...not a single dot in my mind. Stop saying dot. Dot. Just look for a dot.

The Big Move

2011-01-05T14:35:00.003-05:00

The SDIL Blog is no more! And that is because the "Some Day I'll Learn" concept is old news for me, and while I will STILL be recording a new album, it is currently set to be titled "Wiser Creatures." A BRAND NEW recording blog is up and, like last time, it will outline the recording process of that new album. I'm hoping to get it done this year, fingers crossed. That also means that new demos, videos, and really anything music related will make it's way there instead of here.

So come along with me, and we will all become much Wiser Creatures!

See you on the other side,
Joe

Bring it on back now...

2010-09-28T16:20:00.003-04:00

Howdy. So it's been a while...hasn't it always though? In this thrilling episode of "I'm not going to neglect my online fingerprint anymore," I have begun to once again actively use my Facebook fanpage, and included it in the sidebar of this very blog so pretty much anything I post there, you can access here...and I may just post here as well....and vice versa. There's been some serious YouTube activity for the last little while, and I will proceed to post the new videos both here and there. Check 'em out, and hit that "Like" button...you know...if you actually like what you see, and what not.

Peace and peaches,
Joe

John Mayer's "Perfectly Lonely"

Jason Mraz' "Dead End"

My first original song on the piano - "Time"

Plenty o' gigs make me say giggity!

2010-07-26T18:23:00.004-04:00

Err'thang you need to know is in the videos! Am I lazy? Well...yes.

Enjoy =D!!

Vlog:

New song:

Peace and looooooove,
Joe

We're on our way...

2010-05-20T19:51:00.003-04:00

I haven't had a lot of time for anything these days, especially not blogging...fortunately that trend won't continue into next week and my summer should be slightly more free. This video will explain some of it...more to come very soon..including even more new music.

Boom.

Peace, love, and three different kinds of cheese,
Joe

YouTube Crazy!!

2010-03-10T01:39:00.003-05:00

So I posted a plethora of new covers on YouTube for you guys to check out...That's right, after weeks and weeks of inactivity, I go YouTube crazy on yo' asses, so check 'em out and let me know what you think:

The first one is "Expressions Of Love" by Raul Midón. I was in a very jazzy mood and listening to his music when I remembered that I had actually learned how to play this song a while back and I figured it was definitely worth relearning. The only difference is that this time I learned it the proper way and played the difficult barre chord transitions at the beginning of the song rather than using a capo on the first fret like I used to.

The next tune is "On Love, In Sadness" by Jason Mraz. Now this one is a throwback to Mraz' first CD and it's one of the first songs by him I tried to learn when I was just getting good at the guitar so I figured I would bring it back and see if I could actually play it well and it came out better than I thought it would. At least I think it did...Right? =)

So this one is yet another Incubus tune, perhaps one of my favourite ones yet that took me quite a while to learn, so I'm quite proud of myself plus like I said I just LOVE this song.

And last but most certainly not least is my Bob Marley cover of "Is This Love?" The story behind this one is that I covered it because it's my favourite Marley tune but I also pitched it for "Cover Fridays" on the official Marley Facebook page, and that's what garnered it so much attention. It's currently my most watched video after being up for just a few days, with over 9,000 views so far and overtaking all of my other videos by a longshot. Exciting stuff man!

For the record, there is still original material floating around in my brain. I am in the process of writing a couple of new songs: One brand new one care of my adventure visiting my girlfriend at York University and playing guitar in a large hall as busy students walk by...the other is the Psychokinetic Daydream project I introduced in the last blog...the song needs to be finished, and we have others that we will work on once we have the time. It'll all be good once we find the appropriate, freed up, relaxing atmosphere type environment in which we have more time to record music and be merry...

Summer, I'm looking at you!

...Please hurry. =P

Peace out,
Joe

The Psychokinetic Daydream

2010-02-23T22:01:00.006-05:00

So here I am. Yes it's been a while and I know I haven't updated in a while. What else is new? I've been focusing a bit more on my personal blog over at joechammas.blogspot.com and school has also been eating up most of my time. Hopefully I'll have some new updates over my fast-approaching reading week(three more days!!!). What I can tell you is that the new album (SDIL?) is pretty much 95% written save for maybe a song or two that I'm trying to collaborate with some people on. Also, I have officially started a little side project with my best friend and the window ep producer Ron Schuller, called "The Psychokinetic Daydream." Here's one of our demos...enjoy:

*Link removed, no longer functional*

Hope y'all like it! More updates soon, I promise!

Love and music,
Joe

The song remains the same...

2010-01-12T21:54:00.004-05:00

Hey there!

Last post: demo, new song, Ladybird.
This post: demo, new song, Ladybird, finished product.

I actually wrote more lyrics to this tune and added a bridge and everything, hooray for finishing another song. Readers, let me know if it's a keeper, I trust your opinions.

Love and ladybirds,
Joe

Back by unpopular demand...

2009-12-27T16:46:00.001-05:00

Yes...it's been a while. But do I feel like typing? Absolutely not. Hence, the video blog:

Oh, almost forgot to mention: there's a couple of new covers on my YouTube page for you to check out and some holiday music over at myspace.com/joechammas from a quick Christmas EP I put together over my break. See? I Haven't been COMPLETELY lazy.

Love and gingerbread,
Joe

Clockwork...and unfortunately, many other kinds of work...AND A NEW SONG!!

2009-11-03T02:54:00.001-05:00

Hey! Been a while I know (as usual) but here's a new video blog as I sometimes find it easier to just go ahead and make an ass of myself on camera rather that typing out my thoughts and getting to edit my buffoonery. I debut a new song in the video and will now provide you a demo of yet another one that's almost finished =O ! I'm on somewhat of a roll...

Shazam!

And here's tonight's video blog:

Right on time...

2009-10-04T05:09:00.000-04:00

Oh, look at that! Another month has passed and I haven't blogged. Quelle surprise!

...Yeah, I'm a goof, but what are you gonna do? And what are you gonna do when you have nothing to report? Blog about nothing? Well, I guess that's not true, it's not like I have literally NOTHING to report... For example, I have learned a couple of new covers to take with me to shows and add to my repertoire and they are: "Okay, It's Alright With Me" by Eric Hutchinson, which is a VERY catchy tune that has been getting a little radio airplay lately....AND "Track You Down" by Sondre Lerche. I highly recommend you check out both artists because they are amazing. Especially Sondre.

I had the pleasure of seeing him live a couple weeks ago. Viki gifted me the tickets for our anniversary when I had expressed interest in going and it did NOT disappoint. He was incredible, and inspiring...I think to the degree that I HAVE been writing lately, almost sub-consciously. I do have a few riffs that I am playing with now that have been bandied about in my brain for the last couple weeks.

The all-inspiring trip to the cottage that provoked the eventual completion of my old but not dead song "Found My Way" was supposed to produce at least one more BRAND NEW song for me..at least that's what I had hoped. Incidentally, some other stuff that I wrote at the cottage coupled with another recent riff have evolved into a newer instrumental which is structurally the basis of that entire BRAND NEW song that I was looking for. Currently it's still residing as an instrumental. I used my newly revamped studio to record it along with some lead parts for Adam to use in our cottage photo show this year. It was like a damn recording dungeon down there... That coupled with the fact that there is a country vibe to it have allowed me to lovingly call it (temporarily until it has some actual lyrics) "Dang Ol' Dungeon." But it was fun to record in the new environment...

Wait...did I mention that I revamped the studio? You know upon closer examination, I've realized that there is actually a whole buncha shit that has gone on (musically) between the last blog and this one, and I didn't know what the hell I was talking about. Ron and I DID get around to revamping the studio, it's pretty much fully set up now except for some minor decorative stuff. The drumkit is down there and ready to be used...mostly by Viki when she jams out with Ron and I! I did mention the full-band dynamic quite briefly in the last blog and we actually DID get around to doing it. We were able to jam on a song that Ron had written and I finished most of the lyrics while we were playing it in Viki's basement. Ron's working on a bit of a slower riff now that's more up my alley and I'm really excited to write for it. This is something I've never done before and so far the experimenting is going really well, I really like what we produced the first time we all got together.

Well, other than that there's not a whole lot except for the fact that I have been just itching to play a show so I'm gonna keep scouting around, keep writing, and damn it I'm going to keep working my way to recording a new CD...I want it to happen very, VERY soon so I'm going to do my best to write a few more kickass songs to really establish myself.

OH and one more thing! I entered the Toronto International Music Awards with my songs "Mandy" and "Stargazing."

WISH ME LUCK PEOPLE!!

All my lovin',
Joe

P.S. I've included the all instrumental + lead guitar of "Dang Ol' Dungeon" if anyone is interested...and here it is...bam:

And the change is so contant over me...

2009-09-03T13:38:00.000-04:00

How hauntingly fitting that title is. I say haunting because the song that it's from was playing on my iTunes and that line happened to come up just as I started this blog...seemingly fate for me to make that the title. Anyhoo, similar to my old MySpace blog, I'm gonna do a song of the day, or quote of the day or some campy shit like that in each entry, and the song I'm referring to this time is "November" by Tristan Prettyman. Not a particularly easy song to find but I do recommend it.

Anyway, it's now September...yikes! And let's see how I ended my last blog:

"So that's what's going on on my end, hopefully I'll be back much sooner next time around...
...ahh who am I kidding, I always say that."

Yep...well at least I embrace my blogular truancy...and tendency to make up words...

And as annoying as my school scheduling conflicts have been, I'm still maintaining that I'm gonna embrace the hell outta this last week of freedom and make time for more of some of my recent musical endeavours which I wil explain in further detail as this post goes on. I will do this because as John Mayer coincidentally was repeatedly singing in the live version of "Clarity" that I was listening to yesterday, "summer isn't over." That's two musical coinky-dinks in two days. There must be something in the air this week.

Getting to one of the points of this entry, Ron and I had the long-standing idea of recording a live CD in my living room and we finally did it. It went off without a hitch. Using Viki's amp as a mixer for guitar, vocals and crowd noise, we got a decent level for the recording and the CD is currently being produced for all those in attendance. In addition to that, we decided to make it an annual event. Viki may actually share a full set with me for the performance/CD next year.

Speaking of CDs, serious consideration is finally being put into recording a new CD to follow up the window ep because serious progress has been made. A song Ive been working on for almost three years was finally finished when I went up to the cottage this year, just needs some tweaking. Some older, more upbeat songs have also been revamped and come out of the woodwork. I'm thinking about redoing four songs from the EP, with the rest of the new CD being all original tracks, making this my first official full-length "album." It's exciting, but its going to be a lot of work.

Coupled with that is the fact that I'm still writing (or trying to write) some new songs for the new CD and as always I'm getting stuck here and there. In terms of gigs, Viki and I are doing Starbucks on Church and Shuter again on the 13th of September, and possibly a set at Free Times Café in downtown T-Dot along with an absolutely awesome band called The Livin Art whom we met while playing Guy Doucette's Patio Plays. Not to mention I've made it my mission to figure out why you never see buskers in Mississauga and how I can become one of the first...

Perhaps one of the most exciting things going on, is that my best friend/producer/partner in crime Ron-Peter Schuller is finally getting back into writing some music of his own, and combined with my lyrics/vocals and/or guitar and Viki's drumming and/or piano skills, we're going to do a little expirimenting with the whole band thing. I talked about it in an earlier blog, and I've never done anything like it before so it's pretty damn exciting to me. We've decided to split up and write some stuff, then come back and put it all together, as well as try implementing "band versions" of our own acoustic songs.

Anyway, I leave you with a demo of my newest song (if you can call something I've spent almost three years on "new") "Found My Way," coupled with "The Last Goodbye," both live from my recent "Acoustic Show and Summer-End Shindig" or ASSES 2009 as I called it! =D

Peace, love and above all else...
MUSIC!!

-Joeybear

Here comes the pride

2009-07-21T01:46:00.000-04:00

Wow....last published: May 21st. That is truly sad...but damn it all I am back, and I wanted to return with a bang, with a brand new demo, with something set in stone, but alas that seems not to be the case tonight. On the other hand, things are actually starting to look real got-dang busy on the music side of things which makes a pseudo-excuse for this posting tardiness. Folks, August is gonna be one HELL of a ride.

Well the fun really starts this month with my friend Amanda's wedding where I'll be playing...wait for it...

The Wedding March

I, Joseph Michael Chammas, will be responsible for the music that plays while a friend of mine walks down the aisle...that's pretty huge!!...and I absolutely CAN'T screw that up. With that said, I've got a whole heap of practicing to do between now and the 26th which is the day of the wedding. I'll also be doing some light instrumentals during the ceremony (that shouldn't be too hard) as well as The Sundays rendition of "Wild Horses" as requested by the bride-to-be. Luckily, Viki's gonna help me out with that one. And after that? Well let's see, I've got two potential shows at a couple of Starbucks (the one on Church and Shuter, downtown Toronto where I played last time, as well is in Streetsville), Guy Doucette's "Patio Plays" arts festival, also downtown, possible jam night at Marcello's and Viki's show at the ESC where I may hit the stage for a song or two...and that's just the music side!

August also includes another wedding where we'll be marrying off my cousin Elaine who's been like a sister to me. There's also a few concerts to inspire me, a possible camping trip, and the ever present end-of-August week-long trip up to the cottage to forget all my worries and cares. I invariably come back from these excursions with at least one new song written. In '07 it was an old demo which lends itself to some newer material I may be releasing on the next CD. '08 was much the same bringing me "Every Message Sent." Hopefully this year the tradition will continue.

On top of that there IS a new demo that I'm pretty confident with but have yet to record. It's upbeat for a change and has a funkier, groovier feel to it starting with that plucked Am7 chord (a la "Energy"). It's even got a few lyrics to boot! So I'll try getting back on that and finally churning out a demo I'm actually happy with, seeing as the SDIL title track demo I showcased in the last post/video wasn't exactly how I'd envisioned the title track of this next CD sounding like...

I also plan to jam with plenty of other musicians that Viki and I have met through this musical grapevine, AND finally get around to recording a cover song with Ron. It looks like it may be a Billy Talent tune from their newest CD, a song called "The Dead Can't Testify."

So that's what's going on on my end, hopefully I'll be back much sooner next time around...

...ahh who am I kidding, I always say that.

Peace and love,
Joe

SDIL possible title track and other random ramblings from the mind of Joe...

2009-05-21T23:22:00.000-04:00

Yes, I'm back.

I'll leave the rambling up to the video, but firstly, the Raindrops song I keep mentioning in the video thinking I had already posted it here, but actually didn't:

And here's today's video log:

A fond adieu =),
-Joe

SDIL Pre-Production, Possible Possibilities and Probabilities Playing the Music

2009-04-11T17:50:00.000-04:00

A video that was supposed to be just a couple of quick demos turned into a full-fledged video journal a la "the window ep sessions." Now I remember why I preferred the video medium...it's much easier...while still encompassing all of my random tangents.

Enjoy:

Also, if you're interested in hearing the full demo of "Sugar High" with some experimental (at least for me) layered guitar tracks, you can check that out here:

Peace out party people! =)
-Joe

It is not enough to weather the storm, you must embrace the warmth of the sun as well

2009-03-26T10:29:00.000-04:00

Another month without posting...woe is me. I need to be more frequent, but to be fair, school has been raping me lately. Also my blog was inexplicably taken down because of some content issues and I had to send a message to get it reviewed. Apparently there's some bot to check the content and it's not always the most accurate. Anyway, what has happened?

Well, Viki and I are hitting the ESC again this coming Friday, but personally, my ties with that venue are starting to thin out. Don't get me wrong, I love the place, and I love Jacquie our wonderful promoter, but she's losing money these days if we're not able to bring out at least 10 people to every show we play. The thing with me, and I'm pretty sure it's the same with Viki, is that each of us invite at least fifty or sixty people to every show. Sometimes only three will show, sometimes fifteen will, we really don't have a say. It's up to them. People are people and people have plans.

For me, it's getting to be a nuisance trying so forcefully to get more people to come out. The fault however is not Jacquie's, it's the establishment. They of course require a cut, and naturally hope to generate more business. Now the ESC is a pretty sweet place to hang out, and sure you gotta make money somehow, but what about the love of the music man? It's pretty damn sweet getting paid to do what I love, but truthfully, I could do without if it's gonna 'cause a stink with the higher-ups.

That much-talked-about (at least by me) Starbucks show is officially a go, and I'm gonna try my damndest to put on a good enough show that I sell a bunch of the many EPs I plan to press for that gig. With the Summer creeping closer, (or at least the better weather) outdoor festival gigs like the "My Mississauga" series or the Mosaic Festival should eventually be in tall order. I've got ideas galore for the coming months of semi-freedom (it'll only be "semi-freedom" providing I find some kind of full or part-time summer job). I was even giving some thought to putting together a trio to try and jam out for a couple shows, with me out front with acoustic, Viki on percussion, or piano for her original tunes, and Ron on bass (or percussion when Viki's playing piano.) That way we keep it acoustic, but add a little extra flavour, and maybe it would register us as a "band" for those places who require full bands rather than singer-songwriters with a lone instrument. The funny thing about this idea, is that I'm posting it here on my blog without even discussing it with Ron yet, so we'll see how that goes over. I ran the idea by Viki though, and she was definitely into it.

Another thing the ladyfriend and I were discussing for the summer, was getting our busking licenses. Think about it. Playing music in the sunny outdoors, making money, and an excuse to walk around aimlessly exploring the streets of downtown Toronto. Sweet fucking deal.

In other news, school is starting to wind down but we're really in crunchtime now. My goal is to get it all done and shift my focus to the pre-production aspects of a little record called Some Day I'll Learn.

As it stands now we got:

April 3rd - Jacquie's birthday show at the ESC
April 23rd - My last day of first year Broadcast Journalism, YAY SUMMER BREAK!!
April 25th - My two hour gig at Starbucks
May 1st - Show at the ESC
May 29 - Show at the ESC

No extra media today...I wanna do it...but I been busy...and I'm full of excuses...and ellipses...but I'll have somethin' new up soon...that's a promise...

Adios for now folkels,
-Joe

Keep me where the light is...

2009-02-24T05:02:00.000-05:00

What a completely up-and-down couple of days it's been...

Thursday, was the birthday party gig that I was somewhat skeptical about. I figured: small place, a lot of people I don't know...to be honest I was feeling kinda bummed leading up to it and not entirely sure why. Well the thing went off without a hitch, it was fantastic! They dug the Jason Mraz tunes, and they dug the originals, they were fans of Mayer and Mraz which is the bulk of my cover repertoire so I was able to fill a few requests. The birthday girl said her friends and family were impressed and would book me for other occasions, not to mention she's the community leader in charge of booking artists to play at the nearby Starbucks. I also got an order for five copies of the window ep. Told ya I was gonna sell those damn CDs!

Tonight was yet another In House Theatre show downtown, and that same strange feeling came over me, where I wasn't "feeling" at all. But THIS time it had something to do with me receiving an e-mail from the International Songwriting Competition...the finalists list...and I wasn't on it...shit. After my constant daydreaming of all those prizes and how useful that money would be right now in my little financial crunch, there was what I thought was almost a sure thing, ripped away from me. I wasn't sure of winning the grand prize, or even one of the category first prizes...but I thought I would place, or at least get honourable mention...And then came this show at the In-House Theatre that turned out to be a lot of fun, and I recorded it (should have some YouTube videos up soon). The awe-inspiring performances coupled with the general up and down of the last couple days, and the overall randomness of the last couple months has had new song ideas practically oozing out of me...but I just can't seem to formulate them into something. I have a strong feeling though, that I am going to break that spell soon.

Here's hopin'.

Adios,
Joe

EDIT:

I remembered that I can upload super-long videos to Google Video, so for those of you who missed it, here is the whole In House Theatre set from February 27th...enjoy!

The mid-program crisis and content realization (all within eight hours)

2009-02-17T19:53:00.000-05:00

Remember how I said a little while ago that my blogs are beginning to lean more to the personal...well get ready because this is a tale you will know all too well if you know ME well, (or if you're an extremely antsy college student like myself) or you will know nothing about if you're not nearly as insecure as I am (which most people aren't). Now then, after THAT run-on sentence and a half...

Today I woke up, and it hit me like a ton of bricks. It never fails. Just about midway through any given program I take, I stop and go "what in the hell am I doing here?" "Is this what I wanna do?" "Is this my 'calling?'" You'd think that school should be at least SOMEWHAT fun but I wasn't having any. I thought the same thing about print journalism, and the same thing about advertising (although advertising is the only place where it stung enough for me to actually do anything about it, and I REALLY knew I didn't want to be in that field. But that's a whole other story entirely.)

Luckily, just like clockwork, today happened to be the day that I got back an assignment I thought I would get a C on, and ended up getting a B. We also did some stand-ups and I got some good comments from the teacher. And the second class (though I missed yet another assignment) was all hands-on and I got to try my hand at graphics and audio in the control room while we went through the process of putting together my college's live news show. And that all got me thinking, "ya know what..this really 'aint that bad..." I think I just need to survive one more week and then take that reading week to just relax and work on my music, do a little recoop, and be right as rain the following Tuesday, back and ready to kick some journalistic ass! Yup, that's my plan, and I'm stickin' by it.

Yes that's right folks, the universe is slowly working it's way back into order. Perhaps this will give my writing the happier, upbeat influence that it needs. And speaking of writing, I better get cracking practicing and writing for the upcoming shows, and check out another well-paying gig downtown scouted by my good friend Mansoor Khan. And I am going to go do that right now, and then try to figure out a nice acoustic arrangement of "Southern Girl" by Incubus as I have been absolutely LOVING that shit lately.

Fuckin' A.
Joe "happy as a clam for the time being" Chammas

We will still need a song...

2009-01-30T04:32:00.000-05:00

It almost seems as if old man circumstance has a grudge against me these days, since I beat him that one time in Texas Hold 'em...spiteful bastard...

Yes folks the impending show that was scheduled for a week today was canceled...and why you ask? Because everyone on the bill dropped out except for Viki and I. We tried finding more acts but before we could report back to the organizer, she had canceled it. I'm sure Viki and I would have been cool with just playing longer sets, but such is life...right...RIGHT?? Well on top of that, Mr. Fretty (a name Viki gave to my guitar) has been acting up, no doubt thanks to the harsh Canadian winter (fluctuations in temperature and humidity mess with the wood on most acoustic guitars, causing them to alter shape ever so slightly so that you have to re-adjust them…just a little luthier's tip there). So now with a broken guitar and no show in site at least for another three weeks or so, I'm a little frustrated, especially since I feel like I'm so close to breaking the little dry spell I've been gong through in terms of writing new stuff.

I'm also kinda confused though as to the root of it...It seems things are not quite as mellow as usual lately, for whatever reason. And with that, for the first time in a very long time I've been listening to less mellow music. It wasn't until recently that I discovered that my entire iTunes playlist is actually pretty tame as far as "rocking out" goes, and I'm cool with that cause it should reflect the music I play, and let's face it, I don't play typical "rock and roll" music per se. I play light rock, acoustic, or folk or whatever the hell you wanna call it, but part of the reason I developed a preference of the acoustic over the electric guitar in the first place was the fact that it sounded more natural and relaxing. And although I need to write some slightly heavier, more upbeat stuff, I'm gonna continue to stick comfortably to my niche, while still exploring as many facets of this genre as I possibly can with my instrument.

On the exterior though, something's still a'brewin'. I've been listening to nothing but Incubus non-stop lately, and I just peppered in a little more Billy Talent. By no means do I wanna take my own music that far in that direction, but Matt's idea of forming a band is really starting to make sense now...although I still maintain that I want to record Some Day the same way I did with the window ep, just a boy and his guitar. My songs, my voice, that's it. But of course I wanna be new, I wanna be innovative, and I still sure as hell wanna collaborate. The originally planned bonus track for the window ep was a song called "Kiss Hello" that Matt and I wrote ages ago. I want to revisit that idea and form into a full track, with two guitars (one electric and one acoustic) as originally intended, as quite possibly the first track of the new CD. And of course, I want to collaborate with the lovely and talented Viki Pazzano, my girlfriend, my muse, and more recently, my most important inspiration. Perhaps a piano and guitar tune will really bring some new flavour into the recording process and the album in general. I'm looking to be the same old Joe, but at the same time there will be change. There must be change because that’s what comes with growth...and whether I like it or not I feel like I've grown as a musician and as a person...

Yup...I'm growing alright...too damn fast. But rather than just watch the time slipping through my fingers, I'm gonna capture it, and those few moments that I'm able to grasp before they slip away will be scrawled in a notebook or typed on my laptop, put to music, recorded onto a CD, and shared with anyone who wants to listen.

Well...it's a nice thought isn't it? That's the true meaning of beauty in my mind...Here's hoping it all becomes a reality soon, lord knows I need it...

Goodnight good people, and thanks for reading.

Until next time,
Joe

Getting back on the horse...

2009-01-09T01:01:00.000-05:00

Happy new year. '09 is gonna be the year of the Joe folks. I will start and hopefully finish Some Day this year. It'd be pretty sweet to have another summer release, but don't hold your breath, but I can promise that I will do my damndest to have it out this year. Oh yes.

NOW...speaking of Some Day. For you frequent fliers here at the SDIL blog, you know that I've been writing some new material. Well unfortunately there haven't been many avenues to show the world the new stuff. I debuted "Every Message Sent" at my last show, but that was November 21st, (the 22nd doesn't count because I lost my voice and couldn't sing that day.)

Well finally there are some more shows lined up, and hopefully the weather will get better and won't kill the buzz. I'm playing tomorrow...well technically today, Friday January 9th at the ESC and I'll be on at 8:30 in the PM followed by the loveley and taletned Viki Pazzano, who as well as kicking serious musical ass, happens to be my girlfriend...far out! I'll be at the faithful ESC Lounge once or twice monthly for the next little while, so there's ample time for you folks to come and catch a show or two.

Also, in February, Viki and I will be returning to the In-House Theatre downtown for some music nights in the basement. Should be good times. I'd better press some more copies of the window ep. I'm gonna sell those babies, every last one of 'em, hopefully sometime before I release Some Day...hopefully.

Well I've certainly got my work cut out for me in the coming week and beyond...literally. I've got work tomorrow morning, followed by a show, followed by work Saturday morning and then it's off to school on Monday...my first day back.

Wellsir, surely this will leave me no shortage of things to write about. New videos and demos soon...I can feel it son...

Adios folkels.
-Joe

Smooth jazz at breakfast time...

2008-12-29T01:06:00.000-05:00

Another long haul between entries… My apologies, but the business of daily life has only increased as the amount of money we all seem to have slowly decreases. With our Christmas show snowed in and the following week’s show set for the 26th canceled, musical activity seemed to be in low supply for your hero in the past few weeks, but only on the exterior.

Inside me emotions were stirring, new emotions, emotions that I’d never felt before and thus opted to write about, creating a few potential new songs. One had shown through indefinitely. It’s called “Twenty-Two,” and as the title suggests, it’s an homage to the fact that I just celebrated my twenty-second birthday, and just how little that matters. The fact is I’m deeply in love, and that seems to be more important, and that’s what the tune deals with. You can view it here:

I wanted to start work on Some Day this year. The hectic nature of the holidays made it impossible to do that, but on the bright side, I have been writing, and cobbling together the bulk of a makeshift tracklisting for the next album. Aside from these new writing ventures, the reason I've been remaining so chipper and optimistic about the next show (which is January 9th by the way) is because once again a MySpace stranger has swooped in to remedy my cynicism with a sweet comment:

"i just wanted to let you know that your music is beautiful and inspiring. thank you."

There you have it, just a friendly remark...she even said she was gonna try to make it out to the show on the 19th, unfortunately that's the Christmas that was too snowed in for either myself or Viki to go. And speaking of my beloved, a video that Ms. Viki posted of me playing "Butterflies" elicited a good response by yet another random who was demanding to hear more music.

Spanning a couple conversations about the industry itself, whether they were with my lovely girlfriend or with my best friend Matt, a lot has been floating around in my brain. Here are two people that are very passionate about music and believe that we all have the ability to take it further. Upon mentioning the random supporters and showgoers, Matt uttered something that really resonated with me: "that's how it starts." Apparently, that is how it starts, or at least he says so, and I'm inclined to believe him because of his status as somewhat of a musical mentor in my life.

Music has been flowing through me lately. I was on a smooth jazz kick for the last couple of days, floating around in an ambient jazz progression through GarageBand playing an improvisational and nonsensical lead part over it, and tuning to Mr. Miles Davis the following morning at breakfast time, not to mention some cool vocal improv that surfed the radio waves afterward.

All I know is that the creative juices are really flowing, and now is the time to capitalize on it. I've got so much that I want to do and the show schedule is beginning to look ever-interesting. From ESC shows almost every other week starting January 9th, to more shows at the In-House Theatre Winter Arts Festival (or at least that's what I'm calling it) throughout February, and talks of another Starbuck's show in Streetsville, graced of course by myself and the loveley and talented Viki Pazzano.

Hmm, I'm also supposed to hear back from that songwriting competition in the next couple of months...well, once again here's hoping!

A fond adieu,
Joe

All hope is not lost: The courteous non-critic that killed my inner cynic...

2008-11-10T01:20:00.000-05:00

All hope is not lost...

Folks, for the past little while you've seen me update this blog only when some new outstanding development comes about. Well this post, going back to the window ep sessions, is gonna be a little bit more personal, a little more biographical...but JUST a little...

Now here's what I don't get:

About a year and a week ago today I put out an ad on craigslist..."Musician for hire." Now this was riding on the coattails of my Starbucks show and the handful of open mic gigs I had played, and I made sure to outline those gigs in the ad. All I had at that time though, were rough GarageBand demos of my songs, full of static, with lackluster guitar playing and even poorer vocals.

But the fact remained and it was plainly stated in the ad, I was a small-time singer/songwriter looking for anywhere to play. Paid gigs or not, didn't matter to me.

Well the results poured in. People who ran open mics were inviting me out and recommending some other gigs. I even got a couple of offers to play some full sets in a couple of places scattered among downtown Toronto.

Here's the thing though...I sucked. I was just starting out...I definitely could have played most of these gigs...my performing skills were improving with every show, but the reason I sucked was because I didn't think I was quite ready yet to commit to music with as much conviction as I have had with it in the past few months. But still, the opportunities arose, several of them at once to be exact. Not huge opportunities, but opportunities nonetheless. A different place to play is pretty novel these days, and it seems like it's just what I need. It's for that reason that last week, just over a year later I reposted an updated version of my "Musician for hire" ad.

So what's changed since then?

Well I've been in my local newspaper a handful of times, some of which included pictures. I've released an eight-track EP, and I've got a bunch of full sounding, clean-cut demos from that EP on my MySpace, plus tons of videos of me performing live.

And the verdict?

Nothing. Not a single bite...well, nothing I was looking for anyway. One guy asked if I wanted to start a reggae band. Intriguing proposition, but no...

So what really irks me, is that I here I am one year later, more skills and more confidence, and yet no one seems to be as interested as they were before in a small town boy musician from big city Mississauga (and look at that, I even had to use my own song title conversationally to resurrect my dying ego).

I'm just now realizing that I started this blog entry with the phrase "all hope is not lost," yet I've been typing in lengths about the insurmountable shit-show that's been plaguing me as of late. Well let me move on now to the reason why "all hope is not lost."

A fan on MySpace, someone I don't know and have never net in my life, happened to come across my music and sent me two messages. In these two messages she stated that I have "great talent" and that I've written "beautiful songs." That's it. Just a couple of sweet messages, letting me know that she's listening and she's impressed. It all goes back to something I may or may not have said before on this blog...it's fantastic having friends who support your music, it's the best! BUT, they're your friends, and to an extent, they HAVE to tell you you're good. This woman did not HAVE to tell me she liked my music. She didn't even have to keep listening after she heard the first few notes...but she did. And that to me says something. It says...

"keep...fucking...trying."

No gigs? No problem. NO damn need kicking myself because a little online ad didn't get me the musical action I was looking for.

I checked out this great artist named Sean Pinchin this past Friday. He was playing a two hour set at the Mosquito Grill, a restaraunt/lounge in Port Credit. I talked to someone there about how I would go about getting a similar gig. She has my information. We'll see what develops.

All hope is not lost...

Booyashaka.

Peace and love,
Joe

The Notes Ring Out On Hallow's Eve

2008-10-27T10:43:00.000-04:00

Hey folks,

With the Halloween show just around the bend, a lot is happening musically in the Joe department. The Beatles show went stupendously well and landed myself and its other participants in the paper again. The Zeppelin show I was just not prepared for so I skipped out on it.

In other news, I entered the International Songwriting Competition. I took a poll for which two songs I should enter and the winners were Broken Heart Complex and Hourglass so those are the two I sent out. Finalists will be announced in February so wish me luck!

I've still been writing extensively but I just recorded another cover and threw it on YouTube so I'll leave you with that, here's "Electric" by Tristan Prettyman.

Adios for now!
-Joe

MAJOR Update + New YouTube Demo! "Every Message Sent"

2008-09-08T00:09:00.000-04:00

Okay, once again I have neglected this blog for some time. Quite a bit has happened. I have been in print and online in The Mississauga News. This would be my second time being online on the website but my first time being in the actual paper so that's pretty damn cool. You can check that out here.

I'll be playing a couple of tribute shows in the coming months. The Beatles tribute show will be October 3rd at my usual stomping grounds, the ESC. Also there will be a Led Zeppelin tribute show on October 24th at the ESC. Keep in mind as well that The Beatles tribute, in addition to being a themed show is also going to be a breast cancer benefit show so the cover charge that night will be going to a good cause. The other themed show will take place on Halloween night and will be of course a Halloween themed show, costumes and spooky decor abroad!

I'll be doing regular shows at the ESC as well on Sept 19th and October 10th. Also, there are talks of a potential spot in the Mosaic Festival or some related Streetsville shows as well so do stay tuned for that and I'll divulge full details once I get them.

And, you've seen her in some videos I've posted here, the lovely Viki Pazzano will be rocking the ESC this Friday, September 12th as well as September 26th at the Savannah Room in Toronto.

There's a whole hell of a lot going on folks and throughout it all I've been writing, and I'll leave you with the latest demo of a brand new song called "Every Message Sent."

Enjoy!

Adios!
-Joe

This Show Aint Over: The LONG OVERDUE Update

2008-08-04T23:37:00.000-04:00

Wow...WOW! So much has happened since I last blogged...and I'm not about to just let this thing die...every post from this moment on will be post-release of my first EP, the window ep...and by the way, the release show was FANTASTIC...here are a few videos to prove it:

And of course, since the EP was a huge success, I had a brief message for all the people who helped me out along the way including the readers of this blog:

A LOT more videos to come, brand new songs, and my first post-release show on August 22nd to talk about...with some possible media coverage...you'd bes best suited to stay tuned...

Thanks folks,
-Joe

Session 13: The Last Goodbye

2008-06-02T00:42:00.000-04:00

OHHHH MAAAA GOODNESSSSS!!!!

Session 12: The Beginning Of The End

2008-05-25T23:19:00.000-04:00

As we draw ever closer to completing the EP, I talk about working on the last two songs on the album "Stay With Me," and the new closer "The Last Goodbye." We found ourselves discovering new methods of recording and preparing ourselves for not just the release and promotion of this album, but work on the second one! We're almost there folks...almost there!!

Hope you enjoyed this week's video! Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion of the window ep recording blog! Coming soon!!

Peace out,
-Joe

Session 11: Blogging Out The Stars

2008-05-19T16:14:00.000-04:00

This week we finished off "Stargazing" but also made some major decisions about the album. We decided that "Kiss Hello," my track with Matt that I mentioned in Session 8, would be the perfect song to kick off my next CD. At the same time it also seemed to be a general consensus among Ron and a couple other close friends that the new song "The Last Goodbye" would make a good closer to the window ep. So "Stargazing" is now done and in total there are but three more songs to record, "Stay With Me," "The Last Goodbye," and an undecided bonus track.

And now without further ado, take a look at the the first of the final steps toward completing the ep, the second half of "Stargazing!" ...or not...well...you'll see...

That's all for now folks!

Adios,
-Joe

New YouTube Demo! "The Last Goodbye"

2008-05-13T20:13:00.000-04:00

Hey hey! As promised, here is a video demo of a brand new song, shot the same way the last demo "Alright Now" was shot...in front of a window. Sorry for the lack of creativity but hey, I like this gimmick, and the song's new and I want you to check it out, so there! This one's a shoe-in to be on the next album according to my own opinion, now let me know what YOU guys think by commenting here or via Facebook, MySpace or WHATEVER!

Enough blabbing, here be the music!

Hope you enjoyed!

Peace out!
-Joe

Session 10: Seeing Stars

2008-05-12T21:50:00.000-04:00

This week we began recording the smooth love ballad "Stargazing," which for now is the second last official song to record for the ep before we move on to the bonus tracks...bringing us ever closer to completion! It's-a comin' folks!!

Bam.

Hope you enjoyed the video!
-Joe

Session 9: Small Town Boy With Big Improvements

2008-05-04T22:14:00.000-04:00

Hear all about our triumph recording Small Town Boy. Back to YouTube this week since the video wasn't too long! Enjoy!

Session 8: Big Ol' Dreams

2008-05-01T22:48:00.000-04:00

Another session in video format, still taking just as long to post and this time LONGER than the last! I had a lot to talk about. Sigh.

ENJOY!
-Joe

Sessions 6 & 7: Big-Ass Sessions

2008-04-20T17:00:00.000-04:00

Yeah, yeah I know. I said I would post the session 7 blog earlier, and I didn't. Hell, I didn't even post session 6 yet. But have no fear!

Yes we have yet another joint-session blog but none of that long-winded text to read through this time around. Now we're going fully technological (at least for these sessions) to give you guys some insight straight from the horse's mouth, and an inside look at the happenings of our past two recording sessions. Sit back, relax and enjoy, 'cause it's Scrutin' Time!

I hope you enjoyed the video folks!

Adios,
-Joe

Session 5: Sing It Through A Smile...

2008-04-10T18:28:00.000-04:00

To say that it was a day like any other would be a lie. This session most definitely did not follow the same pattern as our usual shtick. We went for our lunch run right at the beginning of the session to get the energy we needed to survive the day. We also ran a few more errands, including picking up my guitar from Angelo's house, where I'd left it after my show the night before. I only had four guests that night and there were only three bands playing so it wasn't the busiest or most exciting of nights, which is why I'm not giving my standard bullet list recap...ah what the hell, here's the setlist:

Stargazing
Small Town Boy
Mandy
Belle
Hourglass

And just for kicks, here's a recording of the show in it's entirety! (I'll be doing this multimedia integration thing in the blogs more often...I rather enjoy it!)

Anyway, continuing on with the session, we migrated everything downstairs into the basement as it would be the new studio for the duration of our recording. We organized our areas and I tried out my guitar with my pickup on Ron's small amp that he brought over. We discussed using it for the live shows from now on. Could be interesting.

After several more hours of dicking around, we started recording this week's song, "Mandy." Right off the bat we noticed the harmonies for the song we had recorded last week had mysteriously went missing. Thanks computer! And that was only the beginning. Technological problems with recording were once again hindering the mood, or so we thought.

It was difficult to explain, but halfway through trying to record the first verse we knew something was wrong. We got some mood lights, darkened the room, lit a single candle like we did for "BHC," and we even brought in a blanket that moderately reminded me of the relationship that "Mandy" is based on. Nothing. It's times like these that I'm thankful that Ron is taking psychology.

Ron began to ask me a series of questions concerning the song's subject matter; the meaning of specific lyrics in the song and the relationship itself. What are the words that come to mind when I hear the tune? What are some of my favourite moments from my relationship with Mandy?

After the brief psychoanalysis, it came down to making a few simple adjustments to the way I connect to the song while singing it. It was obviously a different dynamic then when I recorded it, while the relationship was still in full swing. Now that it's come to pass, what I need to do to keep the same flow of the song as it was originally intended is remember the good times, and "sing through a smile." We turned on the lights, threw the blanket out of the room and blew out the candle. I had to rely only on my thoughts, and wouldn't you know I was still able to connect to the song to get the right emotional vibe across. Success!

Performance and delivery of each take increased 10-fold but we still ran into trouble along the way. Starting out verses especially took a little extra effort, as had been the case in previous sessions. It wasn't until the home stretch that the computer started giving us problems yet again, but we realized that there were a few things that still needed tweaking anyway.

When it was all said and done we noted things that we needed to work on for the next session: the first verse and the first chorus, not to mention re-recording the harmonies. Fortunately, for the most part, "Mandy" doesn't have too much left to do and we are steadily moving toward our goal!

This was a bit of a late entry so the next session will be in two days and I'll try to get the next blog up a little earlier this time around... And the blog following that one will outline yet another session along with my April 25th show at the ESC, when I will proudly be playing with my best friend Mr. Matt Marcoccia! Stay tuned for that one folks, it's gonna be a hit, a doozie, or as Ron and I say: "a burple of a jurple!"
Uh.......
Don't ask 'cause I aint explainin'!

Ah! And one more update. I have FINALLY started to do the YouTube demos I've been talking about doing for a while, so I leave you now with the first one. It's for a relatively new song that may make it to my next CD which will hopefully be a full-lengther. The song is called "Alright Now," and here it is!

...And with that I bid you adieu.

-Joe

Session 4: Between Illness and Insanity

2008-04-02T19:41:00.000-04:00

Once again the window ep begins edging closer and closer to completion.

Our targets for this past Saturday's session were "Broken Heart Complex" (or "BHC") and "Mandy." Ron showed up armed with a can of Scrutiny Juice and, to my surprise, a pad of paper with notes on it describing the various parts of the songs we were to tackle that day. As we listened to the instrumental tracks, Ron mapped out which part fit where in the song by denoting the time signature on his notepad. This would come in handy later when we needed to go back and record particular parts of each song.

This session featured two of the slower and more mellow tunes on the ep, so it was all about atmosphere. we turned off the lights, closed the blinds, hung a towel over the window and lit a single candle. Atmosphere. Fantastic.

Right away we were hit with microphone problems, to which we responded with our solution from the last session, mixing down the current instrumental into one solid track. From then on we began recording pretty smoothly. In fact, "BHC," despite a few minor kinks, seemed to go among the smoothest of all the recordings we've done to date, and much like the first track we recorded("Energy"), we were able to finish it in one session.

We were off to a great start, nailing the first verse in one take. I was happily surprised with my performance, seeing as I was still getting over a cold. The fact that Ron had the song mapped out didn't hurt either, as it showed that the song's structure was pretty straightforward which made recording it a less intimidating, daunting task.

It was right on to chorus one and two takes later it was in the bag. Finally, and not surprisingly, verse two put an end to the roll that we were on and caused us to begin to scrutinize even more. What differed however, in the process of this recording is that Ron suggested we focus on getting the emotion right rather than nitpicking each and every note. It seemed to be a more practical approach but we still had our fair share of bugs, as was expected. It was during verse two that my dwindling cold decided to make a triumphant return, straining my voice as I tried to sing out the higher, more powerful notes. We implemented the same things we'd been learning and doing in the last few sessions; using spook tracks and recording the verse parts separately, all the while going back to fix all the pops and clicks.

From that point we trucked along to chorus two which once again moved quite smoothly. We decided to take some preemptive action on the laptop, restarting it to avoid any latency. During this well-deserved break, I took a little time to warm up my voice again and played around a bit on the guitar, creating a band style spin on "BHC."

Once things were all fired back up, we started work on the bridge. The vocals in the bridge aren't too tough but they involve a lot of up and down so we had slight troubles getting it right, but nothing too difficult. The real problem lied in the fact that despite our previous efforts to give the laptop and the software a break, it decided to be bitch. That's not the technical term, but it holds up well to describe the frustration it causes when the only major problems with recording involve the technology. Nevertheless, we were able to neutralize the problem smoothly and truck along to the third and final verse.

It was sometime in these past few segments that our friends Damion and Dan showed up to sit in on the recording for a short while. As with Matt's appearance a few weeks back, Damion was in the right place at the right time to hear "BHC" which was his favourite out of my originals.

Verse three gave us the most trouble of all as it had a lot of those passionate "yell it out" vocals, that were quite prevailant in "Hourglass." After a series of good and bad takes, we brought everything together to comprise a decent sounding verse made up of two or three different parts, and the extra effort we put into verse three was certainly worth it in the end.

The final chorus, as with all the other choruses in "BHC," ran smoothly and that was that! In just over three hours, we managed to finish recording "BHC."

It doesn't seem like a lot of effort when it's just plainly stated like that, but there was a point during the session when we were listening to the playback and I was just staring into that dancing flame on the candle, daydreaming, remembering a moment from the past involving someone who partly inspired the "Broken Heart Complex."
"That's how we know we're doing things right" said Ron confidently.
Made sense to me.

We brought Damion and Dan back in once we had finished for a more objective opinion. I was happy to receive yet another positive response, and even happier to realize that this meant it was time for our break, and a Wendy's run!

Over dinner, myself and "ghetto producer" Ron (as he had dubbed himself) discussed the inspiration behind "BHC" and a little more about future of the EP. When we returned we were full of root beer, spicy chicken, and the satisfaction of having finished one song that day...which brought about the laziness that began deterring us from recording anything else that day. Insanity ensued, and we both stalled time by cracking jokes and playing random music for the next little while. Eventually we mixed down the instrumental track for "Mandy," Ron mapped out the times of the various song segments, and we moved ahead.

Listening back again to the instrumental, Ron got the idea to put harmonies in the chorus. We tried out a few things and came across something we liked after a little bit of trial and error with the piano. The harmonies gave me a little bit of trouble to just belt out, so we revisited an old approach we had used for just such a thing. Using yet another technique we had implemented before, Ron recorded a purely piano spook track of the harmonies over the main track for me to sing over. That went very smoothly, but didn't change the fact that we'd been recording for hours and were beginning to lose our minds.

"Ron, you wanna call it a day man?"
"YES!"

At the end of the day, Ron's notepad looked like it had been through a war. I guess that means we're doing our jobs.

Until next time,
-Joe

Session 3: This has been a production of Scrutiny Juice Inc. Patent Pending Patent Pending Patent Pending Patent Pending Patent Pending Pa…

2008-03-23T11:29:00.000-04:00

This week's blog once again encompasses two prevalent aspects in the process of the window ep, RECORDING and PERFORMING! This past Friday marked my fifth show at the Executive Snooker Club:

Friday, March 21st
Executive Snooker Club
Set List:

Energy
Split Screen Sadness (John Mayer cover)
Broken Heart Complex
Song For A Friend (Jason Mraz cover)
Hourglass → Red, Red Wine medley (UB40 cover)

Highlights:

I was very happy to see some new faces and friends attending their first show of mine at the ESC.
The night started off a little shaky as I had a massive hunger-induced headache, I realized that the drink ticket system was no longer in effect, and the cute waitress from last time wasn’t working that night…bummer.
Despite some unnecessarily loud and disrespectful audience members, I played a great set with minimal screwups and hit most of those really high notes I was gunnin’ for. I’m proud of the job I did.
I spoke to the organizer of the ESC shows about holding my CD release party at that venue, and in turn I was extremely excited!
After the show…TREMENDOUS FOR SOME LEMON CHICKEN!!!

The following day was a recording day. We started a little later than usual, but Ron brought along another can of something he had dubbed (expanding from the terminology of our previous recording session) "Scrutiny Juice."
After spending a lot of time in the basement transferring files between laptops and trying to determine why neither of our systems could handle any recording without latency or glitches, we got quite discouraged. When we returned upstairs to "the studio," I proposed we move on to a less busy song to see if we could manage to record. Of course, not two seconds into it we started trying to figure out what the root of our problem was to get back into recording "Hourglass" and finish that song once and for all! For hours we tried a million different things until finally our theories clicked. All those tracks were just too much for a mere laptop to handle. The state we recorded in from that point on utilized a fresh user profile on my laptop, with as many things disabled as possible; the lowest possible resolution, the lowest amount of display colours, and a completely mixed down instrumental track of "Hourglass."
"NOW the computer should have enough memory to do this."

Finally, after hours of repairing and problem-solving we were able to record. We began on the bridge, which had another one of those "screaming out" kinda high notes in it so that set us back quite a while but we were able to get it down. Later on we found out we'd deleted it by accident but then were somehow able to recover it. Today was not our day.

We plodded on to the final verse and chorus combination of the song and this time we were both manning my brand-spankin' new Yamaha keyboard to figure out some new harmonies to incorporate into the song. "Hourglass" was to be the milestone track. Also, Ron predicted that we shouldn't have any more problems with any of the other tunes after we finish it, and for both of our sakes I really hope he's right. We tried some humming harmonies which we dubbed the "mumbly-grumbly harmonies" that all turned out to be too subtle even with an all-piano spook track backing me up. That was funny because earlier on some of the normal verse takes had been too loud as a result of me "eating the mic" as Ron so delicately put it.

Once we were finally comfortable with all of our vocal tracks, it was time to move on to the solo. That's when the computer started acting up again. We decided I could do the solo any time and we could start work on the next song in our next session since we got the bulk of "Hourglass" done. We tried fixing up a few minor kinks in the song...and then Audacity closed down.
"I think we're done."
No Wendy's run today again, as we had been invited out to Montana's for dinner that night. I don't think it mattered anymore to poor Ron, who's only sustenance all day was that sweet, sweet Scrutiny Juice...

Until next session...
Adios folks.
-Joe

Sessions 1 & 2: The Spook Track, The SmackDown, The Snowstorm and The Scrutiny

2008-03-08T23:19:00.000-05:00

Seeing as I didn’t get the idea to do a recording journal until after the first recording session, this first post will encompass the events of both last week and this week’s sessions.

Firstly, here's what happened last week:

Ron came by around noon. I showed him my makeshift studio, we went over some technical things in the program I’ve been recording with (Audacity), and then we were pretty much off. Now at this point all of my instrumentals had been recorded and it was just a matter of getting vocals laid down and then mixing and editing until left with a finished copy of the window ep. I needed Ron there as a source of motivation and inspiration, a spotter to make sure I didn't quickly tire of the recording process like I'd been doing in the weeks prior.

This particular week, week one, I wanted to finish a song called "Energy" that was loaded with high notes. I figured it would be best to get the hard stuff outta the way first. After determining that the song was about confidence and required that kind of atmosphere, I had to muster up the confidence to sing it, which I did. What I noticed right from the get-go is that having Ron there improved my performance and motivation levels a good 300%. I wasn't about to just give up after four takes like I'd been doing before. Also, something as simple as having someone else in charge of the intricate workings of the record button took a lot of tediousness out of the whole process and made it a lot easier on me.

Ron also had a lot of good ideas that helped the recording process along, including singing over a previous track before getting into a current track to keep the right flow going. The spooky sounding effect that was produced when my voice was layered over itself caused us to aptly coin this new technique, "the spook track." We progressed slowly and steadily throughout the song until we reached the clincher, the bridge.

After a few too many takes trying to hit the unnecessarily high notes in the bridge of "Energy," Ron decided that it may be time to go back to the drawing board. As we were brainstorming, my phone rang. It was Matt! Matt is my best friend and someone I have made music with in the past, and coincidentally was no stranger to "Energy." In fact, the song is one of his all-time favourites out of all of my original tunes. This was all the more reason for him to come over to join the fray and see how far Ron and I had gotten. Matt was impressed with what we had and contributed a few pointers to help make the bridge sound just right.

Before we knew it, made it to the end of the song. Finally, my first song from the EP, completely finished. This called for a Wendy's run, a recording session tradition that Ron had carried over from recording with his old band. I was happy to carry on the tradition. When the three of us got back, I did a run though my set for that night's show and was glad to get a great reception from both Ron and Matt. Matt had to take off at that point but not before informing me, much to my delight, that he would be attending that night's festivities.

From there, Ron and I began recording the one tiny instrumental bit that I had left out of my upbeat tune "Hourglass." Unfortunately, this brought about the grim realization I had to redo the instrumental track from scratch. I did that in the time we had left and we called it a day...and got ready to move on to the night!

Saturday, March 1st
Executive Snooker Club
Set List:

Slight Breakdown
Read My Mind (Killers cover)
Let Go
Hourglass
Isn't She Lovely (Stevie Wonder cover)

Highlights:

Before I went on I met a very cute waitress named Natalie who remembered me as "the music guy" from last time. I ended up dedicating "Hourglass" to her.
"Let Go" is a brand new song that I tried for the first time live, and I had just finished writing it earlier on that morning and despite a little stumbling on the freshly written lyrics, I think it went over pretty well.
I tried the "Isn't She Lovely" harmonica solo and got the loudest cheer I have ever gotten.
I continued my new found show tradition by going to Tremendous for Chinese food after it was all said and done.

There you have the first week...wow...so much for the quick recap that was supposed to be.

Okay, so week two I honestly thought was not going to happen because we got the biggest winter shitstorm of the season so far...in god damn March... Well sir, c'est la vie in Canada I suppose. But even with this flying avalanche cloud looming over us, Ron was still devoted and psychopathic enough to come down and make sure that session two was a go...so...it was!

When the white knight finally arrived I was outside shoveling, to no one's surprise. Ron decided to be a trooper and help me shovel before we went inside and got to work, and my mom brought him a hat and gloves, she was like those 70s TV homemaker moms, and not for the first time that night either. Anyway, once we got up to "the studio" AKA my quirky-ass room, we swapped some stories and caught up a little and then got right down to business.

I started with a few basic vocal warm-ups and we went ahead and continued where we left off, the vocals of "Hourglass." There were quite a few bad takes because of the shaky starts I kept getting, which had me a bit discouraged already. Ron assured me that it was a common problem when beginning any song and so we plodded on. I eventually made it through and we began picking apart the various parts of the verses to get the right mixture of good takes in there and weed out any problems I had in the beginning.

When we got to the bridge we ran into the standard pops and clicks that we tried cutting out, but at the end of the bridge there was one that just wouldn't go away. There was a constant click that was driving us nuts, and it appeared to be the remnants of me doing a rhythmic scrape on the guitar with the strings muted. We tried to chip away at this problem for quite some time, taking turns in the editor's chair trying different effects and different ways of splicing the waveform but the problem was simple: even if we could get rid of that nasty click, there was an awkward pause. The instrumental track was off time. We hadn't been using a metronome, in fact I didn't use one on any of the instrumentals I laid down because this is, after all, an amateur recording that we are just trying to make sound slightly professional. The lack of metronome was a non-existent problem when we were recording "Energy" and probably (and hopefully) won't be a problem with the other tracks too, but "Hourglass" is my most upbeat song on the EP and it's a very rhythm-driven song.

After working at it for a while Ron looked up at me concernedly.
"I don't wanna say it."
I knew what he was gonna say. We had to re-record the entire instrumental track...again...after spending hours working on the vocals for this one. I was obviously reluctant but I knew it was what we had to do. Ron once again reassured me that that it was not uncommon to run into kinks like this during the recording process, and of course that makes perfect sense to me. It wasn't that we were careless, we just didn't realize that this song required a little bit of special treatment as compared to some of the other ones.

Amidst all this my mom brought us up a tray of pizza and pop, which was the next best thing to a Wendy's run, which was out of the question that day thanks to mother nature. We took a break to play WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2008 on the Playstation 2, a game which Ron had brought over. Last session we played the 2007 version which is the one I have. We found that wailing on one another with steel chairs in a wrestling game was a good way to relieve the stresses of recording.

When we got back into it, we messed around with an annoying click track to get it sounding right, alternating between headphones and speakers as a monitor. Ron also wanted to make sure that the guitar would sound the same for each part of the song we recorded so he used a ruler to measure my guitar's distance from the mic before each take. As he did this each time he would jokingly repeat the word "scrutiny," which in turn added to the new list of our recording terminology.

We were able to finish the new and improved instrumental track with a few more hours to spare so we had plenty of time to record some more vocals. However, rather than going right back into recording vocals, we brainstormed a few more new ideas for the song. We ended up coming up with a few nice sounding harmonies when we put our heads together, and Ron also noted that he thought I should incorporate a guitar solo into the song to either replace or add to the already present harmonica solo. His reasoning was simply the fact that he liked the improvising I was doing while we played back our new instrumental track. I liked the idea as well because I had also gotten a fair bit more comfortable playing lead in general and improvising.

We took another short break to shovel around Ron's car and get him backed into the driveway so he would have the momentum to get out of our street later on. We did our duty and then went back inside for the home stretch.

Once we had a solid sounding instrumental track with all the fix-ins, we got back into the vocals and my adrenaline pumped me through the last few really good takes I was able to squeeze out before my laptop said "enough is enough." While it didn't actually say the words, its freezing and crashing every time we hit the record button was a clear indication that we should call it quits for the night.

We wrapped up the evening by going over what we did, listening back to the track a few more times, and discussing plans for the next session. I'm hoping at this point that we've gotten over most of the kinks and we'll be able to start hammering out one-and-a-half to two songs per session from now on. Time will tell.

And there's your two weeks.
Tune in next week...
...Or whenever the next session happens to be...

Peace,
-Joe