The Title Track

Having been reinvigored by a poignant reminder from a friend that I should be doing this for myself and not for anyone else anyway, I have reentered the studio with a more relaxed attitude, and I'm really happy with the results. Last night I did two songs, "Can't See the Forest" and "Aldous Huxley", and I've pleased with how they came out, especially "Can't See the Forest", which I believe to be one of the best songs I've ever written (both in terms of writing and in terms of production).

I haven't yet heard back from the aforementioned friend about her opinion on these tracks, but I did play them for the person who "Can't See the Forest" is about, and he liked them both and additionally approved of the songs release, albeit with a couple of provisos. I realize I'm being sort of vague, which makes this blog sort of pointless, but some things need to remain personal.

Anyway, I edited them today. The mixing is still pretty suspect, probably (I wish I had monitors) but for the most part they're set. I might be getting a little bit echo-happy. Because of the way some of the beats are arranged, several songs have a sort of "dead time" in between the verses and the hooks, which I've been filling with a single word echoing. We'll see if I have overdone it or not. I also decided to throw some distortion onto the verses and even more onto the chorus of "Aldous Huxley." I'm taking the risk that it makes the song sound a little bit rawer, instead of just making it sound cheap. It's another intense political song, dealing a lot with electronic surveillance, so I'm hoping (and we'll see what others think) that it sounding somewhat like it's coming through a walkie-talkie (albeit a walkie-talkie with pretty good quality) will fit thematically.

Tonight I'll be recording some more songs...I may try to do the intro and outro songs tonight (both are short), and in addition, I'll do a full length song. I have to schedule it somewhat carefully so that the tracks that require the most energy (read:yelling) don't all fall on the same night, thus causing me to destroy my voice and resulting in the kind of cutting corners that happens when I get tired. So far I think I'm avoiding that fairly well, although I won't say I haven't cut any.