Well, it’s been a bit of a crazy week, which I guess is fitting for the lead-up to the full moon.
Let’s see here…
I guess the start of the week was all about frustrations with one project/album that’s already been delayed for 6 months is starting to look like it’ll be delayed another. Basically there will be some collaboration and help brought in and scheduling shit keeps coming up to add delays. Which is incredibly annoying, but it’s not like those are the only songs I have on the go, and I’m still wanting to stick to the plan there, even if it means waiting a while longer.
Vague, I know, but hey, that album probably won’t get put out til well into 2013 if not the end of next year so there’s no point in spilling all its secrets yet.
Anyway, if there’s a silver lining, it’s that there’s another album concept I was starting to work on as of late spring that I was setting aside as I didn’t think I’d have time to get it done before the other one and I figured it deserved my full attention. The working title of that album is Coldstar, and it now gets its day in court. Come October I’ll be starting to pick up where I left off, and it should be done in time for a late spring release.
And in the meantime the thing I’ve been calling “the winter EP” or “that thing I’ll be putting out at the end of the year” now has a [tentative] name: Malfeasance. I spent the day making tweaks to mixes of a few songs from Malfeasance that I’ve already finished [“fur + flesh” and “Disco Disgorge”] and I also re-tracked new choruses for another song [“Counterfeit”] which I finished the mix for at about 2am last night.
I think I’ll be re-tracking the vocals on “Lucky Paw” sometime this weekend as well as they were done last year and since then as I’ve worked on a live version the vocal tone has tended to have much more bite and vitriol in it, and I’d like to capture that for the album/EP version. And lastly, I’ve had a concept for a while about a somber song referencing drinking Chartreuse mixed in with hot chocolate and reflecting on miserable shit finally saw the light of day as the new song “Sapphire” which will also be on Malfeasance. Of course, as you might have guessed from the title, it ended up being more about gin, but hey, I like both kinds of hooch.
Hypothetically speaking there might have been some liquid inspiration from the namesake, but generally I don’t tipple when tracking because I just end up having to redo everything later. :p
Anyway, “Sapphire” is already half-tracked, though I think I have some lyric tweaking to do before I do the final vocals this week. There’s also a few other tracks up for consideration for Malfeasance in varying stages of completion.
I haven’t forgotten about the Coma cover compilation, either – made some progress on my hair metal cover this afternoon [Faster Pussycat’s “Where There’s A Whip There’s A Way”] and I also made my decision about the new wave cover [Depeche Mode’s “Lie To Me”].
What else… working on an idea for a great photo shoot which will probably happen in the next few weeks, since I’ll need new promo pics for Malfeasance. I’ll leave it at that for now, other than to say they should turn out creepy as Hell and I’m already picking up a bunch of props for the photos.
And being the night of the full moon, while I was polishing up the vocals on “Counterfeit” there was some unexpected excitement in the form of the fire alarm going off. As near as we could tell it was a false – no heat, no smoke, nothing, and when I spoke to the alarm company about which room the alarm was coming from, there was no one there. Or, if someone had tried to sneak a cigarette or joint in there, they butted out and made themselves scarce when the alarm went off and I and a couple of my neighbors were searching to figure out what was going on.
Of course the firemen had to come have a look throughout the whole maze of a building that the synth cave is in. Finally we got the all clear, and I headed back to the cave to continue my editing.
About half an hour later the fire bells start screaming again. Once again, no sign of anyone in that room, no smoke, no heat, nothing. Again, maybe someone was dumb enough to think it wouldn’t go off a second time, or maybe there’s a system malfunction, dunno.
But of course the fire truck had to come again just in case. And my landlord came down trying to figure out what was going on and to call the alarm company for a service call to check it out tomorrow.
Alongside that we got chatting about another area of the building we’re taking over where there will be new studios put in and he gave me a tour.
Down in the basement there’s an awesome little nook slightly bigger than the current synth cave that spoke to me. It’s still full over theatre props and other gear that in in the process of being moved out, and the whole zone still needs to be divied up into a bunch of new studios, but we were chatting about this nook becoming my new synth cave. I like the vibe down there, and it’s a good layout with more square footage than I have now. And for a concrete floor and cinderblock space it feels strangely cozy. Even better: twice as many electrical outlets as my current synth cave, ie: fewer powerbars!
Not sure how long it will be til it’s ready for me to rope my brother and dad into coming to help me lug my heavier crap down there, probably at least October if not November, but I have been meaning to ask which larger studios might be available since I have more toys and creature comforts [like my workstation desk, and my ottoman/cushion writing corner] now than I did when I moved in to the current studio last year – back then I basically only had a couple synths, an amp, and a couple chairs and I was using my laptop and headphones for tracking. I had other gear lived at home and was getting lugged back and forth as I needed it, which was a pain in the ass. So, it’s time. And while there’s a few bigger rooms upstairs, I think a new funky space downstairs will be a perfect fit for me.
Expect loads of pics when the move happens.
As a little post-script to the whole full moon thing: Aside from chatting with the fire department twice over false alarms, I think I must have passed by at least 5 police pull-overs on my drive home, and at different hilly parts of the drive I could see assorted police lights in the distance in different places.
I’ve heard before that emergency services are busier on the night of the full moon, but goddamn that’s a lot!
Anyway, glad to have gotten so much done this week.
