Image credit: Deviant Artist biggreenpepper
And the long awaited completion of the demos
(A quick note to those who aren’t in the know, INTELLIGI
is my music project and has been for some time now.
I recorded four demos about a year and a half ago and haven’t had the chance to get back to recording the music I’m writing. . . until now. . .)
Recording demos is a strange experience for me. I’ve spent only a small amount of time recording, and it’s never been something that I’ve found incredibly enjoyable. It can be incredibly time consuming, and no matter how much time I seem to put into it beforehand, during, or after it never comes out as well as I’d like. This of course would be alleviated by even more practice and even more recording experience, but the steps it takes to get myself and others to the point of recording has always been a struggle. With myself, it’s the process of writing that has taken up the majority of my time. Gotta love that fucking OCD, eh? With others it’s either money, time, dedication, or all of the above. When in the past we have gotten to the point of recording it’s never ended up with a finished product.
I’ve never proclaimed to be a guitarist either. Which is an issue for someone as, I have previously mentioned, is a bit introverted and picky when it comes to the musicians he plays with. Or at least, NOW i’m picky. . . Either way, I don’t consider myself to be a guitarist. I feel I’m a bassist, that has a good understanding and feel for most stringed instruments. So when it comes time to record guitar parts I feel out of place and awkward. “Why am I fucking doing this?!” I’ll ask myself, in an attempt to understand what I’ve struggled with for years:
Why can’t I get other people to play my music?!
Whatever. The short story of what I’m saying is that this shit is stressful for me because I’m out of my comfort zone and it’s not entirely enjoyable for me.
Image credit: Dan Durakovich durak28
But writing and recording has it’s moments. . .
And to explain, I need to reference. . .
Ellsworth Ramclam
-That is his real name-
About a year ago, maybe a bit more, I was at my work. I was trying to record some stuff but I got distracted and started writing instead. What eventually came out of the guitars and onto the paper was New Life, one of the upcoming demos. It came together pretty quickly, and to make sure I wasn’t going insane with what I was writing I asked my buddy Ellsworth to stop by and take a listen.
What poor Ells had to deal with was the sheer excitement that can come along with me writing and recording. Those small moments when everything just comes together well, when things fall right into place. And that had just happened, so I was spazzing out, probably yelling, playing the new track to loudly, and otherwise being incredibly annoying, as I am wont to do in these situations. But it’s those moments that make all the other tedious bullshit worthwhile, and Ells is one of the few people that have seen me when that’s happened. He’s also too nice to tell me I’m annoying. So I got lucky that he was there to show, and not someone who can’t deal with me.
That's him.
Image credit: Anthony Dalesandro supercollider
But that’s what it’s all about - Those moments where it all makes sense. And this week while editing the Turdmoil demo was definitely one of those moments.
After editing (At least if you call what I do editing) Turdmoil (Needs a better name now. . . Turdmoil was given it’s name because when I finished writing it I hated it. It’s now grown on me) and hearing the breakdown (No more fucking parenthesis! These are stupid!!) I swear I’ve never been so energized by a song. I spent the next thirty minutes just looping the song and air drumming and yelling. I’m sure my neighbors hate me, and probably that song. Since they’ve now heard it more than me practicing those fucking Machine Head songs I practiced for a month nonstop. But if I’m not pissing anyone off I’m probably doing something wrong.
“What we play is life.” - Louie Armstrong
And life for me is just the moments where you work through something, you ignore all of the other bullshit that’s going on around you, and you’re proud of something you’ve created. Those moments where I listen back to something I’ve written and get the uncontrollable urge to jump around, to shout and laugh and cry, to air drum till my arms fall off, where I’m breaking low-B strings left and right cause I’m playing too hard. It’s hard to imagine a feeling much better than writing something you love, unless it’s playing the music you’ve written and seeing someone, anyone, react positively to it. Nothing better.
So, long story short, I’m very proud of the new demos. I’ve still got the last song to finish writing, and then I’ll be even more proud. I’m sure all of this will go to my head here sooner or later. Probably the first show I play of my music. Holy fuck, that just seems like a pipe dream. SEEMED like a pipe dream. Never thought I’d get this close to having my own album. Here’s to the future! *hat tip*
CeeDubH
Shout Outs
Not sure if this will become a regular thing or not, but I felt that there were some shout outs that should be made, and I should publicly recognize some of the awesome artists around me lately and point out how they help me along. I’ll just do one shout out per post, or as the situation arises. And like the Oatmeal says, “Art is not born in a vacuum.” And I do draw inspiration and feedback and general assistance from friends and family, and they all deserve to be mentioned.
Dustin regularly has input on the drums that go into the INTELLIGI tracks and has rewritten numerous parts on numerous tracks of mine. He’s also always looking for new projects and keeping himself busy, which in turn occasionally has kept me busy in the past also. He’s also so fucking good that he’s on tour with Angel’s Fall right and just generally ripping it up all over the place. You can see him drumming like a mad man here on his YouTube page:
www.youtube.com/user/dustinyewelldrums
And barring out anything going horrible wrong (Or horribly well), Dustin will be the drummer on the Intelligi album. So you’ll hear even more of him soon! Can’t wait for him to get off tour to collaborate more and more with him.
BITCHES LOVE CHICKEN!!!
