Some pics
27 Mar 2008 No Comments
in gigography Tags: gig, live, looper, music, photos, piano
Two photos of me from the gig at Grüner Salon in Berlin on March 13.
Back on track
18 Mar 2008 No Comments
in bread crumbs, In the Studio Tags: lyrics, mp3, music, piano, recording studio, strings
Sorry for staying away without any further notice… I had a horrible experience last friday and it took me a while to regain my footing. Hence no music making and no blogging. It wasn’t my intention to vanish like that, but I needed the time.
I’m happy to say though that I’m back making music. Still working on ‘Hearts first’. Things are starting to fall into place. I always had the feeling that something was not quite right and whenever I played the final part I did it faster than the rest. Slowing it down seemed wrong somehow so I tried adjusting everything else. And voilà, much better. So the song is a bit faster now. Also I finally have the string arrangement for the beginning and the end. There are still a few kinks to be straightened out, but I’m getting there. Once I’ve recorded the piano the mixing and checking if anything else is missing will be much easier. A real piano sounds way better and I reckon the sound can carry a lot more than the fake one now which sounds a bit thin.
I also rehearsed playing the piano part to a click track with headphones on today. I arranged to record the piano on thursday at a friend’s and till then I have to be used to it. It’s probably gonna take enough time to set up the mics already. I’m not used to playing various pianos and they can feel quite different from each other. Also starting writing lyrics for a new song. Just fragments so far, but no pressure yet.
Last, but not least another long awaited sound snippet of said ‘Hearts first’. It’s the very beginning of the song and just a teensy appetiser:
[audio http://boxstr.com/files/1396342_v2l8z/heartsfirststart.mp3]
Gigs and changes of heart
13 Mar 2008 No Comments
in gigography, In the Studio Tags: gig, music, piano, recording studio
Had a bit of an undecisive day yesterday when I had no clue if the arrangement for ‘Hearts first’ was any good, especially the beats. So I didn’t make all that much progress – adding things and deleting them again.
I ended up going to Antje Öklesund to see Phoebe Kreutz play live. Always a pleasure. It looks like I’m gonna play there, too.
Today I wrote and recorded a new ending for ‘Hearts first’. The indecisiveness completely gone. There’s still quite a bit to do to finish the song, but I’m gonna play at Grüner Salon tomorrow night at VoicesUp so I started rehearsing the songs I will play. ‘Hearts first’ amongst them. I’m gonna perform it on the grand piano, sing and sometimes tap a rhythm on the piano. Maybe even integrate the looper. More rehearsing tomorrow and then more work on music on friday.
Piano
09 Mar 2008 1 Comment
in In the Studio Tags: music, piano, recording studio, vocals
Got a really late start today after coming home from the party in the early hours of morning.
I’ve got the second verse and refrain working now and recorded some nice reverberated backing vocals for the refrain. I have the feeling that ‘Hearts first’ wants to be very pure, basically piano and vocals only. Everything I tried today seemed to just clog the song. So I guess I’m gonna ask someone who has a good piano if I can record it. Preferably with the sound of the hammers hitting the strings so that it sounds very close up and intimate. At the moment ‘Hearts first’ feels like the closing song for the album.
x
Empty handed… almost
07 Mar 2008 1 Comment
in In the Studio Tags: music, piano, recording studio, song writing, vocals
My computer was seriously throwing a fit today. What’s different? I’ve got no idea. Slowing and then freezing even though nothing I had opened needed too much CPU. And to top it all off the building site next door was as noisy as it hasn’t been for weeks if not months. So between all that I tried to start with a song fragment called ‘Endless’ which I might have messed up royally. Maybe it was only me becoming more and more annoyed. Started getting restless because I felt like I was going backwards rather than making any progress. Skipped through all the ideas I’d already jutted down. Nothing happened but me becoming more and more frustrated. So I decided to leave the house for a bit and calm down.
When I came back I started playing the piano and suddenly out of the blue I had a nice chord progression and vocals to go along with for both verse and refrain. I quickly set up everything and hit the record button. I’m so relieved that the piano playing recipe still works. It’s quite funny how you can try for hours to come up with something and then in the last 10 minutes when you’re so close to giving up finally something emerges. And even though the productive phase today was pretty short I’m happy with the result and feel like I’ve achieved something. The working title is ‘Hearts first’. More about that tomorrow.
Now I’m gonna go to a little party I’ve been invited to, have some fun and catch up with friends.
x
