An Album?

So, I got to thinking... dangerous, I know.

The band's ticking over. Everybody's keen but most of us seem to be tied up with 'life' stuff right now which takes precedence. Trying to get my own ducks in a row, let alone align everyone else, isn't easy. Ideally I'd like to rev up rehearsal sessions to once a week as opposed to once every two to three weeks, but that doesn't seem to be an option. Such is life. Not much I can do about that.

This blog started off as a motivational tool for me to learn and progress. It worked. I achieved my initial goal of getting into a band, albeit a short-lived one, and at least now I'm comfortable that I can play with a band. That doesn't seem like much, but it's definitely a paradigm shift for me.

So how should I keep motivated? How do I keep moving forwards between sessions with the band? Part of me thinks that musically I should be focusing my effort on stuff for the band but then again I also recognise that to an extent, the movements and commitment of the guys is beyond my control. I can attempt to inspire [cough] but ultimately, we're a bunch of individuals, each with their own needs, wants and situations. Realistically, the only person I can control is, well, me.

So, that leaves me with two fixed points. I want to be motivated and I'm the single thing in life that's under my control. Where does that leave me?

My gut reaction would be to say 'up the creek' (band notwithstanding) but then I thought, what's changed since I started the project and I realised that one of the big things to change is that I now have a reliable method of recording, arranging and mixing songs which isn't 'layer based', ie I can mix everything at once without having to put rhythm over drums then record lead on top, then vox etc. Oh, and also I have a method... not a great method, but a method nonetheless, of recording a bassline by pitch-shifting my acoustic guitar. Aside from vox, I now have the capacity to be a one-man-band.

Now, there's food for thought, eh? Also, even though I could do it all myself, I could also bring in the guys from the band to help out on an ad-hoc basis. If I wrote, say, 8 songs and covered a couple, that'd be an album right there. Ten songs. Doesn't seem like much, does it?

Hmmm...

I guess I was a little inspired by a guy last weekend. We went to a 'gallery' which was hosting the debut performance of a play (monologue) written by a friend of ours. After the play there was an open mic (without the mic) and this guy came onstage (not that there was a stage) and sang a medley of songs from his 'soon to be released' album. The songs were mostly two or three chord jobs, but they were all good. Made me think 'I could do that'. That's not to diminish the whole singer-songwriter thing, but... well... but.

It's just a thought, y'know... but I'm a-thinkin'.