After trimming a song down last week, I've totally self-indulged this week with a song that lasts more than five minutes. It's a 6/8-er which even has a 'shoop shoop' section, and I'm not ashamed.
I've spent ages getting the guitars right, and probably need to spend more ages, as I get better playing through it. I've swapped from a semi acoustic to a solid body to get a bit more twangle in the sound, and I've been positioning the overdubs in the space and meanwhile making a list of what I need to learn (fades, for starters: I'm still using an ancient version of Logic and they didn't have fades in the Stone Age).
I'm learning by experience about microphones and what they do to a (my) voice, too. I've been using the SM58 for guide and backing vocals, and have become quite used to the resonance it gives a vocal in the chest voice: a kind of friendliness, almost. So now I have a friendly microphone and an unfriendly one for those cooler, more aloof vocals. I'm getting every song to the 99% finished stage so I can really enjoy icing the cakes when the time comes- that's putting the final vocals to them, and then mixing them properly and editing out the rubbish. How many songs have I started? Six. I think I'll do ten for this album. If I write more between now and releasing it, I'll edit some of them out, but I'm happy with the ones I have chosen because they are meaningful and I don't consider any of them to be fillers.
I know my ears, and I know my ears are tired. I'm going to read a detective novel for a while to absorb some nothing. That vinyl/streaming radio show is on tonight, late. I've done my homework and I feel a bit silly for thinking it was yesterday- I took the call on the high street with traffic roaring by. I might even post my homework here on my blog, because I think it's quite interesting!
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