Demos, Demos, Demos...

I realised today that I don't really have any decent demos to point people towards as and when I post/respond to band-member ads.

D'Oh!

Around a year ago I promised myself that I would record some stuff but then never got around to it. I was going to have another crack at some before I started my search again, but, well, I have the self-control of... someone without much self-control.

What to do... what to do...

I still have my book of 101 unfinished song ideas that I need to get back to... along with my head full of 101 unstarted song ideas. Need focus. Joining the band and attending Rockschool really took up all my spare time and creativity. Now that I'm band-free I guess I should force myself to get back on track.

Actually, what I need is a month off work, somewhere sunny, with a (metaphorical) tape recorder and my guitars... oh, and a beach (if I'm dreaming I might as well dream, eh?)

And a drum machine... and a bass.

I suppose I could download some backing tracks and just jam over them. That'd be a start, at least. I'd prefer to work up full songs of my own devising, but that takes time, which would be a luxury at the moment.

What's a boy to do, eh?

Don't answer that.

Summer Strum

I realised last night that I haven't actually posted any music here lately, so I figured, well, I might as well upload a sample of the work-in-progress song I've been screwing around with over the past few days, originally entitled "Five Minutes Of Summertime" but now the working title is simply "Summer Strum" as I want to leave myself open to all possibilities.

It's a long way from a polished demo or even a complete song, so don't expect too much! I basically just sat down with the acoustic before bedtime and strummed the chords randomly for a few minutes, paying no need to verse/chorus/bridge structure. Next I got down to the task of adding some drums on top.

I'm terrible at programming rhythm tracks, so that's actually what takes me the time on demos. In total, including set-up, the guitar parts took around 10 minutes to get down. All I needed to do was plug in the mic, hit record and after a couple of false starts they were in the can. The drums took forever, though!

At about midnight I figured I might as well draw a line under the drum track and have a go at getting the flavour of the melody down. I recorded my first pass through then blanked out anything that went horribly wrong. That first recording is what you hear on the tape, complete (or incomplete) with gaps and accidental noodles, where I forget that I was supposed to be writing something that can actually be sung!

Here it is... "Summer Strum (Work In Progress)"



Non-project news? A while back I heard that one of my favourite musicians, Derek Trucks, had started work on a home studio with the aim of recording his band's next CD there. The Derek Trucks Band is a group that I don't talk about much here, mainly because I tend to gush about them. I absolutely love them and take every opportunity to see them play live, which is really their 'thing'. Previous albums have been good, but live they're absolutely great. Check them out on the Live Music Archive if you don't believe me. I have to be careful about listening to the dTb as once I start I often listen to them compulsively, ignoring every other band.

Any road up, I'd not heard any news about them for a while so I thought I'd do some googling and I came up with a recent report that got my pulse racing. Cherry picking snippets from various sources, it seems that not only is Derek's new home studio complete, but it's a 2,300-square-foot affair, designed by the man who built Electric Lady Studios. Sounds like a no-expense spared effort, with Derek even purchasing the 1970's soundboard that was used in the Kinks’ studio in London.

What really got my attention, though, was a quote from Derek which suggested that the new dTb album is in the can and that they spent months working on it as opposed to the usual 7-10 days in a rented studio. What does that mean? I'm hoping it means that the band have been writing some new material. My guess is that even if the record has been finalised it probably won't be released until late 2008 or early 2009, though. D'Oh! I already know what I want for Christmas!

Update: I just checked out the Live Music Archive and it looks like the latest dTB recordings all feature new songs, or at least ones that I've not seen them perform live before. I'll have to get myself, my broadband connection and my iPod down there quick smart to see what's shakin'. I'll bet they're honing some new cuts on the road...

Drunk Boy Blues

Spurred on by the jam track that Ig of IG BLOG posted a while back, I decided to write my very first blues song. Over the weekend I taped a quick 12 bar blues in Em and set to penning some lyrics for it. Taking inspiration from my somewhat drunken attempt to jam over Ig's track I figured the theme of "Drunk Boy Blues" would be vaguely appropriate. When I've worked out the fills and solo guitar (not sure whether they'll be electric or acoustic at this point) I'll record a version and post it here.

In the meantime, here are the first draft lyrics to "Drunk Boy Blues"

I woke up late this morning
Soaked down with the booze
Yeah, I woke up late this morning
Really feelin' the abuse
Y'know these days I always wake up
With those mean ol' drunk boy blues

I reached out for a pillow
Thought I'd take myself a snooze
Yeah, I reached out for a pillow.
But you know, it weren't no use
I'd been sleepin' in the gutter
With my mean ol' drunk boy blues

Started drinkin' whisky
Bourbon chased by brews
Yeah, it must have been that whisky
It's always been bad news
My hands just get to shakin'
With these mean ol' drunk boy blues

One day I just won't wake up
I'll have fin'ly paid my dues
Yeah, one day I just won't wake up
I'll have nothin' left to lose
But that day I'll fin'ly kick off
Those mean ol' drunk boy blues

Action Plan Update... 289 Days To Go!

First off, I've decided to start using people's full first names instead of commuting them to initials. If anyone doesn't like being referenced, let me know! It's simply getting too confusing as I sometimes forget to do it!

1) Get Good
Check! Or at least I reckon I'm on track. I'm much more confident playing (the inevitable stage fright notwithstanding). Getting good is a continuous process, but even if it's just strumming up a storm on rhythm, I'm there. I learnt a lot of useful stuff on the WAES course that I'm putting into practice.

There's been lots of good advice flying around about how to keep improving, including stuff on IG Blog about learning one new thing a day. With that in mind I've dug out all my back issues of "Guitar Techniques" magazine so that I can reference new licks if I get stuck for something fresh to learn.

Now that Red (my electric) is back on the team I can start playing loud and proud again.

2) Record Demos
Still haven't really started on this one. I have a few ideas for new songs and a couple of covers I'd like to do. Time to focus on this one, maybe with some outside help!

3) Look The Part
Actually, not doing badly. The gym's been paying off. The Fillmore Five Project's officially endorsed No. 1 Groupie (Hey Diana!) noticed over the weekend that I'd bulked up. Just need to stay away from beer and pizza (like that's going to happen!)

4) Get Out There
Over the past weeks I've been trying to put out feelers using 'find a band' type web pages. Not much luck on that front, mostly because of ageism. It's okay to be 18 and useless, but if you're over 21 you're OUT! In fairness, it may just be a generational thing, in that older people don't use those sites much? Dunno. I'll keep on with the websites, but I need to explore other avenues, too, possibly local newspapers, putting cards in shop windows etc.

It's looking a lot more possible for collaboration with Gayan from the WAES course, which would be cool. He's really enthusiastic about making music. What I can't tell right now is whether he's only really interested in a solo gig. I need to email him to make sure I maintain contact over the next few weeks. Collaboration's also possible with an old friend, Nigel, who's getting back into playing again after taking a sabbatical.

At some point I have to grow some cahones and front up to the open mic thing. I'm going to fall flat on my face but that's part of the process, isn't it?

So where to go from here?

I feel like I have clear blue skies and right now I can see for miles. The 'Get Good' action is now on autopilot so I can shift focus away from that. Same thing goes for the 'Look The Part' one. Any look I go for is going to evolve from where I'm 'at' musically and who I'm playing with... just no flares, okay? And no spandex!

Which pretty much means that recording demos is the next big thing. 289 days to go and my new, improved action plan now goes something like this:

1) Record Demos

2) Find Other Musicians To Play With

3) Get Out There

Action Plan Update

Okay, so I'm 16 days into 2008. It's a bit early to lay out my whole action plan, but I do have 3 steps. In reality some of these steps will overlap, but I think it's valuable to lay them out so that I have something to focus my efforts.

1) Get Good
As before, I need to start off this year with practice, practice, practice. If I'm not ready to jam with other people and actually sound credible then I'm not going to get anywhere.

2) Record Demos
I've recorded stuff before but I always tend to focus on the detail rather than the big picture. Take the embedded mp3 test file I posted last week for example. It started off as a jam track for me to practice guitar over and I ended up spending hours recording harmonica parts. What I need to do is take a step back and realise that all I need to do is set up a SIMPLE repeating drum loop, add sparse rhythm and then practice/record lead over that. That way I'll actually be spending time refining my guitar playing rather than wasting hours piddling around on the computer. The other side of that is that I fall into the trap of recording what's meant to be a backing track then jump straight into trying to tape the lead on top, usually in piecemeal fashion. What I should do is burn the backing track then go away and spend time polishing the lead performance in its entirity.

3) Get Out There
I'm already on a number of 'find a band' type websites and have been to some open mic's etc but once I've got some material to showcase I need to get it out there and get myself out there more. How? I'll probably set up a MySpace page for 'The Band', but also maybe hand out cards at open mic's..? Find a local music store and put up a notice? Obviously I haven't worked out the details of how to become visible, but it's gotta happen.

Running in parallel with the other action plan steps is another task. I need to get myself an image. Even at the open mic's I noticed that each performer went to the effort of making sure they looked distinctive (with the exception of the blind guy, who obviously got some dodgy pointers from somewhere... possibly a partially sighted or colourblind friend?). Creating an image is going to be a two step process.

First off I have to 'Look Good Naked', that is that I need to lose a few pounds. I'm not at all unhappy with the 210lbs of solid muscle that I cart around each day; it's the additional 20lbs of loose fat gained over the holiday season that's weighing me down. Since coming back to work I've swapped my high-fat, overstuffed foccacia roll lunches for lean turkey sandwiches and fruit. I'm already noticing the difference, much to my surprise. I just have to keep it up to keep it off. I'd settle for the Kenski of 9 months ago on Mykonos island...




The flip side of the coin is that my wardrobe doesn't exactly say 'Rock Star'... it says 'Bloke'. Y'know I could just play stripped to the waist (with the guitar covering my burgeoning midriff) and back-comb my hair, but I think at close to 40 that might not be a good look for me. I ain't Iggy Pop!

Maybe I should start with a new 'do. Something office-friendly by day, cutting edge by night...