And the new plan of attack for the Cancer album
(A quick note to those who aren’t in the know, Intelligi
is my music project and has been for some time now.
I’ve put it off for other bands, but now I’m dedicated to
finishing the album I‘ve written)
INTELLIGI has been at the forefront of my mind for about a year and a half now. It’s always been something I’d wanted to do, but after the last few bands I’ve been in I’ve come to the realization that I need to get this done. Some of the recent bands have shown promise, but the music always ends up lacking, or members can’t pull their weight. I know that if I finish my own album, and then find the musicians I want to play with, as opposed to the other way around, I feel that I can get this project off on the right foot. I’m creating the foundation if you will. A foundation based around a solid album, and not just a couple of demos and a couple of ideas. Because that’s how this has always played out in the past:
Me: I’m looking for musicians to write and play. I’ve got four tracks now, some half written. Interested?
Musician: Well, I’ve already got this guy and this guy interested in these five tracks that I’ve written, but I’m sure that we can work in one of your songs sometime on the second album. So yeah! I’m totally interested!
And then everything’s great for a few months, then everything falls apart. Happens all the time.
. . . yeah. . . I’m just kind of fucking done with that noise. . .
And my recent need to make Intelligi into what I’ve always wanted it to be? I think that besides the overwhelming urge to complete my musical creations, It has less to do with anything else other than I feel I have nothing to show for my... fuck I don’t even know what you’d call it. A love for music? A musical career? Musical dream? Life? Whatever it is. I’ve got a failed demo from Clandestine and I’ve got a failed demo from Hillsphere. Don’t get the wrong idea, I’m not looking to pin this on anyone else but myself. I should be practicing harder, writing more, and networking more. (Although the lack of networking is also due to my introverted nature, and harder to get past.) And if I look at the musicians I’ve played with and the music I’ve played in the past, I should strive to meet a higher personal expectation. There were so many times that I was upset with another musician or another song even before I joined a band, but I’d still join the band in the hope that it would go somewhere or that it would evolve into something I wasn’t disappointed in. This of course is like scoping out a new living space and seeing that the support and floors are misaligned or rotted out, but if I put down the right couch or the right rug, it will work out perfectly... um... no...
But none of that really made any difference in the current course of INTELLIGI.
Bloodbang
I have always struggled to keep track of my music. I’m a poster child for scatter brained when it comes to writing music. I’ve got notebooks of hand written bass clefs and musical staffs, binders full of self-printed tablature paper, random iPhone voice memos and Four Track recordings, videos of random acoustic ideas. A lot of this was alleviated with the advent of a MacBook Pro and Guitar Pro 6, which lets me keep track of all of my ideas in a well organized (albeit slow) fashion. The other side of that coin is my OSD. And when I first started using GP6, I had to spend hours tweaking the guitar distortions and bass tones. This resulted in a “Good for MIDI” sound, and helped me get an idea for what I was writing, but over the last year that sound has slightly pervaded my ear canals as a “good” sound. It’s tweaked my perception of good sound and the way that my music should sound. And with that sound I wrote out another 8 tracks, but only I and a few close friends had heard them. So I started this blog as an attempt to show that progress has been made, to make sure that I was letting the few fans I’ve accrued (Sorry if that sounds as though I’ve monetized you fans, that’s not what I mean.) that I hadn’t forgotten INTELLIGI in the wake of Hillsphere and Machine Head.
And so after I posted the 4 currently existing demos, I posted this
I INSTANTLY regretted it.
Not because of the song. I think it’s a fun as hell track that as a one off would be crazy fun to play live. But it’s an unfinished product. An uncooked sample. The argument can be made that even the demos are unfinished, but they’re all me. They’re my bass tracks, my guitar riffs, and my hard work put into the drums. It’s something tangible, and something that allows the listeners to see that there is something there, and something that will be more. But the MIDI? That’s an insult to anyone that I let listen to it. “Hey guys! Here’s some half assed audio that equates to me typing for hours! Like it on Facebook or some shit! Yay! I’m doing something!”
FUCK THAT
I’m not in the business of shortcutting the music I make, for my own OCD’s sake and for the sake of my fans. And so I refuse to upload anymore MIDI tracks. And so I’ve started prepping the demo tracks for another 4 songs that should be recorded within the next 2-4 weeks. These songs are heavier, tighter, more mature than the tracks that you’ve heard on the site, and should hopefully be enough to tide you over for the next four tracks to record, and the very last song to be written. I’ll make sure to keep everyone posted here on the site and on Facebook.
CeeDubH
Afterword
About halfway through the writing of this post I heard the news that Jeff Hanneman of Slayer fame has passed away from liver failure. Slayer have always been an amazing band, one of my introductions to thrash metal, and one of my earlier influences. The intro and verse riffs to Cancered were heavily influenced by Slayer, and most of the music I love from Slayer was written by Jeff. It was even the giant DK sticker on his guitar that led me to check out the Dead Kennedy’s, another band that I ended up loving.
Jeff - You were an influence, you were an innovator, you were amazing. You’ll be missed.
This patch has been on my strap for almost 12 years, and it wouldn’t have been if not for Jeff
I’ll crank some Show No Mercy and some Fresh Fruit for you.
