A Good Way to Wake The Funk Up

I always like to start my morning very cold. Cold as in temperature; being nice and cold so that I have to force myself to get up and close the window a little. Because at 6:21 in the AM in November, the sun isn’t even out yet, and the temperature gets quite quite cool.

I then proceed to make the pot of coffee, brush my teeth and comb my beard and what ever nonsense and then the really exciting thing happens.

I put on some tunes.

This morning it was Chimp Spanners “Terminus” parts I-III. Why haven’t I checked out this music earlier? That was the first thought. Second, why doesn’t this have vocals? And then it hit me. Dudes are like me! Instrumental artist!

The idea of this style of wakeup is to immediately allow for some inspiration and some creativity to start thriving. I have a list of rainy day bands to get into when I need to just dissolve into nothing but a listener. Opeth is on that list if you can believe it; Death was on that list, Nevermore too.

Anyhow I’m just trying to give you a nifty neat little anecdote to get inspired pretty easily and harmlessly – OHHH SHIT THE SONG JUST GOT SO EPIC AND HUGE!!!! Total stokefest now.

Ok so today I work on completing more of “Land of Secrets”. The 3rd song got to a really great place last night, and I hope to finish that one today and make the 4th one the single-type track but really heavy as nails. The point is to capture the impossibility of the notion that “He Enters the Blood and Sand”. Whoaconcepts. <- Intentional.

How to Complete an Album

WORK ON IT YOU LAZY SOD!

Well that’s the blunt way to put it. The long-winded way to put it would be to put as much time and effort into it as you can so that you don’t feel guilty about living your life.

WHOA HOLD ON THERE that couldn’t possibly be negativity could it?! Well it is. And that’s lame. Nah; I worked a lot on the tunes today. I’m really satisfied with where No. 3 has gotten to and I actually feel really sleepy.

I did barely any recording; more like programming and incessant MIDI-work. Oh and far too much mixing. So far so great – it sounds really huge and epic like the other songs but it has a more old school Paul Ozz vibe with a lot of the melodies being carried by the choir this time round. As well; the ending section is a hilariously calm and jazzy rest from about 15 minutes of speedy wheedly-wheedly (a break from all the heavy metal for all you fogeys of the golden ages).

Naw dawg – it’s really awesome. It has a huge gothic vibe at the end mixed with a modernist jazz element. The only thing really lacking is the pitter patter of a ride cymbal.. hmm.. back to work!

6AM SLAM

There is no better way to start the day than with a solid amount of exercise; and extreme brutal Russian slam Death Metal.

This music is not only stupidly vicious; brutal, and assailing to the ears, but it was made quite nicely! How horrifying! Well made Death Metal? To the uneducated ear, an abrasive disgusting music, but to someone who appreciates fine production work on an album, you still don’t need to be a wizard to understand these guys are onto something. Horror and hard music. What a FANTASTIC combination?!

That’s why I play live with a Lovecraftian Technical Blackened Death Metal band called AUROCH. I even helped out on the record with some 7 string duties!

Exciting stuff. Extortionate and destructive riffs. It feeds a dark part of the mind; the one that wants ‘blood’. There is something deeply primal and again; cathartic when one plays such harsh music live.

I think it’s the insinuation of fear and the catatonia that primal fear invokes that true showmanship is able to enunciate in a live setting; at least in terms of metal.

Lessons Learned

As I sit here at nearly one in the morning, unable to sleep, I ponder.

A lot of people want to learn how to play guitar – but nobody wants to do just play the guitar. It’s like Ronnie Coleman said “Everybody wants to be a weight lifter but nobody wants to lift any heavy ass weights!” (I am definitely paraphrasing). It seems to be the same way with the majority of guitarists, and people even. If I may be so bold.

It’s incredible, when you break it down, how many people claim to have a dream of being a certain profession, do it, but only do it part-time? What? Isn’t it your dream job? Don’t you want that to be your financial support? What is stopping you? And then you realize; ahh they either are not very serious; or, they just don’t know what or who they want to be. They haven’t figured themselves out yet.

Well that plain old sucks. I’ve known since I was about 14 or 15 years old that I’ve wanted to be a musician. And over the last year or two it has suffered a great deal of stops. A few relationships came into my life and a few others went out, ‘money problems’, moving forward with my life, and finding out who I want to be were all issues that came up. As well as where I want to be in the future.

But are those good excuses? Not really. At least I can confidently say I know exactly where I want to be by September 2014. It is no guideline, merely a plan I evoked out of my own harsh critical thinking of my current situation. That’s all it really takes to take yourself to the next level of your craft or profession at the end of the day.

So the next time you pick up your guitar or your microphone or whatever; just remember that what you’re doing at that very moment is beneficial not only for that moment, but for your career. The rule of 10,000 hours to become a master of something holds very true to me and my heart. The more you practice, surprisingly, the better you get. Talent? Pfft. Try hard work and dedication. That gets you more praise anyway at the end of the day.

So as I work very diligently on my album, I realize, I’m not. I totally have to dedicate more time to it. When I do I feel good and accomplished and like I am doing something that is cathartic for my soul – something deep down. A release if you will. It is almost something spiritual. I am beginning to believe I just hear the music in my own head and I illustrate it as best as I can. It’s quite cool when you try to think of it that way. Because then it’s just a matter of being like “Oh that’s not quite right – there we are!”. Attitude is absolutely everything.

That was a lot to cover for such a late evening. Over 500 words in four minutes is pretty good though, I suppose.
I hope I gave someone out there something curious to illuminate themselves with.