I Give Up
Posted on | November 17, 2004 at 12:21 pm | 2 Comments
I admit it, I’m a wuss. I gave in to the voices. I finally realized there’s no way I’m going to be able to finish the solo album by the end of the month without giving myself an ulcer. And y’know, something like this should be fun, not stress-inducing. I get enough stress at work.
Oh, I’m still going to work on the songs. I’m just not going to get an album’s worth done in November. I’m going to twiddle and fiddle and tweak to my heart’s content. I came to this epiphany when I sat down yesterday morning to write the lyrics for Children Need Attention. Though I liked what I was coming up with, I just couldn’t force enough words out there, while simultaneously thinking of a melody, chord structure, etc., and while still trying to come up with ideas for other songs, and while trying to finish the songs I had. It just become overwhelming and I nearly had a panic attack. That’s when I decided to step back. I went outside and raked leaves and thought about what I was doing, and came to this decision.
I think part of the problem was that I was actually growing to like the songs I was putting into the computer enough that I didn’t want to put out half-baked versions of them. Trying to complete ten songs in a couple of weeks meant that they would all be essentially incomplete. I felt I owed more than that to the songs and to myself. I have no delusions that the final products (whenever they may appear) will be anything more than demo quality (especially since I can’t really… y’know… sing), but what I could produce by the end of the month would be even less than that. And who knows, someday some of these songs may turn into Reign of Frogs songs, and I want to put them forth in their best possible demo light before turning them over to my bandmates.
So, that’s my rationale. Plus… y’know… I really wanted to enjoy this week off and get some other things done, and that wasn’t going to happen if I spent every waking minute putting notes into the computer. Yesterday, the copy of Blue Oyster Cult: Secrets Revealed that I ordered showed up, and I really want to just sit down and read the whole thing, cover to cover…
Latre.
[Amendment: Hey, this is my 100th blog entry. Who woulda thunk?]
Comments
2 Responses to “I Give Up”
November 19th, 2004 @ 1:57 pm
You know, maybe you should just track the songs that you’re working on, and then beam them over to me for mixing (just like the big boys do it). That’s what I’ve been doing a lot of recently, and I think I’m getting fairly good at it (whereas I haven’t written a single note of music for years). I don’t think this would help you get something done by the end of November though, I’m probably slower than you are.
November 19th, 2004 @ 2:21 pm
John, I’ll probably take you up on that – I’m not very good at mixing as yet. Since I’m not doing the November thing, timing isn’t a problem. However, you’re probably going to have replace the vocals…