4 songs now in development and looking pretty good so far.
Did I mention how much Excel type spreadsheets are part of our daily lives? :p
I keep an online google sheet of our repertoire and development pool.
Anyway, we now need to put drums down. Haven't sent you two new guides yet, still working on lyrics.
Javier re-did the acoustic for Psy. Surf, drums needed.
Hawkie had a go at sax for fix is in but...i think imma just finish it with that I have
The Yearning has had first pass vocals, now needs rebuilding which will be drums/vox and gtr redo, also maybe some key changes maybe rearrangment dunno.
Heavens on my shoulder is waiting on lyrics
Robin trower thing - no lyrics, too nascent to share yet.
Liquidator remix in progress, maybe 1-3 version, maybe a STURMKELLER ep?
Stormcellar Instrumental collection basically rady as soon as I wanna do the work of exporting, uploading and arting.
Things are going pretty well under the circumstances, would be good to have a few more gigs to pay for some proper studio time :)
I got a bug to remix Liquidator. I've been live streaming some of my mixing sessions for the last while, Mac and X seem to get a kick out of it.
My mate Vertical wandered past and said it's a bit Bob Ross. It's kinda boring in some ways cos some of the mixing stuff is straight up work work but I get it.
Next crop of 4 songs are starting to bloom. When I'm done here imma sit and work on The Yearning.
Quiet month otherwise, but plenty to do if one is so inclined.
I'm keen to make a video for liquidator :) Might wind up using the image generator tho and doing it shotlist fashion cos it's a way of getting visuals done without all the expense of a film crew. One day. LOL.
I'm sharing all the development work on Patreon cos it's easier to manage access, also you can support us that way.
As I am doing the mixing/mastering it's important to get other input.
Theo's given it a tick for levels, order and song choices.
I'll send it out for further review from the other chaps, let a few days pass and then it's ok for release.
Nice.
So far we've released compilations of country/rock/blues so if I counted the compilations as albums we'd be now around 18 released albums...but two of those were ep's sooo....
I've been wanting to get this done for some time so it's a nice sense of satisfaction to see it completed.
As I share the mixes etc, I am glad to get your feedback as well :)
Meanwhile, we're reviewing the approach Javier took with Psych. Surf. and onto new stuff.
We have a few weeks of low gigging which is good also cos now the other chaps have got this rotten cold that's going around sydney.
Javier is looking at acoustic guitar to rebuild psychedelic surfer from guide to recorded track. needs some additional arrangement.
Mr Wizard just laid down a new one we are calling 'robin trower' for the time being and today we're working on 'the yearning', a kind of Springsteen-y ballad.
This really is some greenhouse action, as each thing blossoms in it's own time. So far this year we have released 4 singles, this crop looks like another easy 4 over the next 6 weeks, so we are roughly on normal time frame for an album's worth.
I expect I'll be sending guide tracks in the next tidal cycle, you'll get'em when the lads get them, and you'll join us each step of the way as we make'em.
Thursday, still had the end of this cold. Achoo. Missed Henry's funeral. Knew he would have understood. Recovered enough to try leaving on Thursday night. Packed car. Car wouldnt start Bought jumper leads Car wouldnt charge Changed cars Left late Travelled through moonlight, no traffic, all the way across the Blue Mountains, listening to the instrumental compilation, Rogues State/Safe Harbour and Basilisk. Got to Bathurst, still awake, let's push on. Decided to go to a 24 hour motel in Orange. google lied. None of them are open. Farrrrrrk. 2am, sleeping in car at rest stop. Dave back home is worried we'll freeze. I'm in Dad's car, its insulated, we get some rest. 5:45 am we're back on the road. Google tries to take us off the main highway and leads us through the back of nowhere with kangaroos hopping across the road at dawn. Fortunately I was driving slowly. Got to Cobar at 11am, got some sleep, did gig. Got up next day drove to Dubbo, did gig, slept in traditional old country bar/hotel. Got up next day and drove to Orange, gig was cancelled by venue, they took us to lunch instead! Nice lunch. Drove home. There were a few moments of driving through the open spaces that did me a powerful good ;) It's a big country and it's enough to make you remember that the other problems are smaller than they appear, especially in the rearview mirror.
Ok so the robots work well for generating new stuff, but matching songs from multiple mixing and mastering engineers from 16 years worth of work?
Dion sent me a video. I am yet to watch it. I did all the stuff that I knew to do and...levels between the songs are still ...well...i might actually be sort of ok but I am kinda freaked out by it and to master a 20 song compilation right means listening to it over and over aaaand...ok so yeah I am a little concerned. God bless but we're not up for springing for the dough to get someone else to it for us. COVID etc meant low revenue times.
Soo...it's gotta be me (for now) and I think my last proper attempt at it was 4 weeks ago. Ok. i wanna get this done before our trip out west thats an excellent deadline, as ya know what, it sounds pretty nice.
My target is to start playing the album and not to have to touch the volume control, matching acoustics/electric instrument tracks is requiring more learning on my part. Oh the joys of growth.
I posted a sample on the patreon thing but it's way not ready for release. It'd be nice to have it for next week tho.
Meanwhile, Mr Wizard confused Greenhouse 3 with Greenhouse 2 because between listens, some of the songs we moved into 3 were 'meh' which is why they havent emerged yet. Ah! But one of Mr Wizard's other aphorisms, songs develop from Meh to Yeah! during play and production has already been proven to my opinion-changing-satisfaction. Soothesayer for example was a fleeping zombie fleeping song that WOULD NOT DIE!!! Just would not die. I tried to get out but it kept dragging me back. And it's a fave now :)
My Kung-Fu level of file management has meant we have been able to carry the seeds of ideas until they blossomed, like 'Brave with your heart' for example which took multiple approaches and I think almost 7 years to crystallise. Whenever we were jamming or travelling it was easy to grab the phone and capture stuff.
The Fix Is In which is a rebuild from 2017 that didn't make it to Rogue State is now actually right for the times, it's waiting on some last instrumentation. Psychedelic Surfer (guide track on patreon) is in production for a re-recording and there are 2 other newies that will fall in line shortly thereafter.
I think we're heading for 4 releasable tracks in the next little while so we are more or less on cycle for an "album's" worth this year, sort of, as I am not sure these are album, EP. singles or...I just dunno.
Since necessity dictated that we bring production mostly 'in house' it has influenced output styles and approaches. I'm totally ok with it because it feels like appropriate creative growth while maintaining the core of what we do - make what we can, when we can. I really think we embraced the 21st century options for making music.
We're in a way a period spanning band simply cos we're in C21 straight outta C20, represent!
Same time, Freedom is scary and not for the unwary ;) A certain God Fearing approach is wise.
Listening to that small voice in your head is our job and what we do comes about for its own reasons and perhaps purpose. I think it's more stewardship that ownership. We have been remarkably fortunate to find so much freedom to become ourselves, shh don't tell anyone. It's been nice out here on the perimeter, to borrow from the lizard king, stone, immaculate, amongst the stars.
If I had my druthers, i'd be glad to crank out a coupla vids as well. Plus the Stormcellar screenplay. I am testing the idea of telling our story as a band the way I did with Mallee Boy last year. It's cos I watched those Beatles cartoons as a kid, I am sure of it.
Baaarrrthoollllemeewwwww.
Meanwhile we're trying to get the backlog from COVID into the live show. Tracks from 'Sweet Grace of Mercy' and 'Signposts'.
If possible, I'll also film a buncha stuff while we're on the road for the mini tour.
Stay tuned, much happening, if you'd like to support us join our patreon and get all the work in progress for this year, plus some albums of your choice.
