The One Where Machine Becomes Egotistical

[Machine]

So yeah I'm making yet another journal, this one is for updates in my own writing, recording, and my own musical adventures if you will that I will embark on myself. Don't expect this one to be to constantly updated, but whenever I'm recording or doing anything of the sort I'm going to record the experiences right here in this journal.

Monthly Musical Madness is still going to be my main journal if you're wondering, and I have big things planned for that.

As far as the State of My Album/Song Of The Day it will come back soon enough.

[Oriphiel]

Hey, good luck man!

[Machine]

Entry 1

It's cloudy, it's cold, and I have the worst fever I've had in a long time. I should be at school right now, instead I'm laying on my couch listening to music and eating french onion soup. But above all else I want to write, and record, I mean all I have is a four track recorder, but my ambitions are still fairly big with it. Alas I don't really have the energy for it, so instead what am I doing I'm revising a map of what Im sure will end up being the longest song on Empty House (Scruff). Getting everything down has turned out to be really tough, apparently I have more ideas than I really need, and I'm still debating on weather it's going to be noisy yet lush, or a bit more free-form sounding. As of now I seem to be gravitating more towards and orchestrated mess over, well I guess a more natural mess. That brings me to a crossroads in myself seeing as I am a person who loves to do improv and a person who loves improvisational or free-form music, yet when it comes to my own music I become very calculated. It's a dilemma for sure and one that's keeping me from recording my album because I want it to sound good, and I don't mean a high fidelity good, it's going to be lo-fi, but there is really nothing I can do about that, but I want it sound well put together, I want to impressed when I hear it. That's what is so difficult for me, I want things to sound perfect, so when anything is off by just a little I get frustrated, and end up blaming myself. So I'm sitting here wondering where must I stop with adding elements to the album, yet still have it sound good... It's a question I constantly ask myself and as of now no idea.

[Oriphiel]

Ah, the perfect imperfection dilemma. It's sometimes very tempting to go with extremes (to just do everything live and improve, or alternatively to just sit down and perfectly write down every note to every song), but the answer usually lies somewhere in the middle. I hope everything works out, and that your fever goes away quickly!

[Machine]

Originally Posted by Oriphiel

Ah, the perfect imperfection dilemma. It's sometimes very tempting to go with extremes (to just do everything live and improve, or alternatively to just sit down and perfectly write down every note to every song), but the answer usually lies somewhere in the middle. I hope everything works out, and that your fever goes away quickly!

Thanks me too.

[Machine]

Entry 2

So with the release and Trollheart's subsequent review of the Goodbye, Good Riddance (single), I have been working on many of the full arrangements and orchestrations of most of the songs on Empty House. I've decided long ago the album was going to be a labor of love that I'm putting absolutely everything into. So far I have mapped out the 13+ minute freak out of an opener that is Scruff, I have the arrangement for Goodbye, Good Riddance which will have guitar, vocals, piano, bell set, brushed drums, and trumpet, and many others which I'll get into next time.

The next single I'm working on is called Chief Of Police with a few b-sides that I have yet to decide. Also in other news my former project Stone Down Sunshine will have a song on Empty House called Blindly Wishing The Days Away which was originally a piano ballad that was approx. 4 or so minutes, which has turned into a fairly rambling story that lasts nearly 12 for better or for worse I don't know. So big news ahead for the album and everything seems to be going well with it, and I'm a lot happier with the project than from my last entry. The only problem I now face is to find a way to get many tracks and overdubs into one mix.

Well anyways goodbye and have wonderful night/day I'll keep posting for any new update that happen.

[Machine]

Entry 3

This is my entry on the Chief Of Police single and how it'll work with Empty House and the numerous smaller releases that will come before it. So over the last few days I've been working on a track list for Chief Of Police and trying to record them sufficiently. So I decided I'd go with Chief Of Police (obviously), then I remembered a song I had written over the summer that I had never used and was not going on the album called To Whom It May Concern. Then come the weird tracks first is a spoken word piece called A Short Fall which will be included in Empty House, but not in the traditional sense I'm going to sample my voice in at certain points of certain lines of the poem which if it all works, should add a lot to the songs. So while by itself is nothing much more than a poem is more of a basis for sampling. Next comes the instrumental a quick recording I made with a bunch of ideas I had compiled while improving on guitar and realized they loosely worked together. This is an idea that I'm seeing if will work on Empty House another element if you will. What I mean is its an attempt to see what people think because I'm interested in putting bits of odd improv like this on the album at more open ended parts of the songs, or if I should just fill those up with other types of insrrumentation. Well either way this single was partially made to preview some new ideas I had for the album. This leads straight into my next item.

So now onto the topic of future smaller releases before Empty House. I'm planning on releasing at least another single, a few EP's, and a few demos of ideas and elements that may or may not show up on the album. This is partially due to the mentality of having a lot of material and ideas that I can record fairly quickly, while recording the album slowly and steadily making sure everything works. As of now only one song is fully recorded for the whole album, I'll be previewing things like this on the EP's. Whereas I have quite a few songs that won't be on the album, leaving me with the mentality of having more output in smaller releases than longer wait times between full project.

[Machine]

Entry 4

After a stagnation after my recording and subsequent release of the Chief Of Police single I'm not to sure where to go because I'm fearful. Fearful that I may not be able to record at the Grand scale I initially wanted fearful that it will be a disappointment to myself when the finished project is done. It also scares me how getting everything just layered seems to be quite the challenge, you see I'm completely inexperienced when it comes to recording and production so I'm left with a TASCAM 4 - Track recorder and a friends laptop at my disposal things are left in the open a lot. And I keep wondering how it will all work out in the end because I don't want to take forever on the recording. So I guess above anything I'm fearful of my own ability to make music I would enjoy...

[Machine]

Entry 5

My recent excursions into jazz drumming and guitar playing have taught me a lot. I've always been a huge fan of jazz, and after a few years of playing drums in a big band setting my confidence in the instrument has been exponentially increasing. My use of the techniques I have picked up I hopelessness to not only influence my ways of playing, but to effect and enhance the nuances of my own songwriting and compositional structuring in a more loose way. I see already the visions of sound and recording of tracks like Scruff, I Like When Wind Blows, Outro/Intro, and Last song when recording Empty House. It opens me up to a new area of my own writing abilities and time will tell if I use these new techniques to my advantage or if it might be part of an accumulation of self-doubt, and internal fear of perfection. Until next time...

[Machine]

Entry 6

So this is the big Christmas announcement I was talking. I've been working for the last week on my first album, which I decided would not be Empty House but instead a project I've been composing for. It's comprised of a series of drones that very in length, it'd the first thing that I'm truly proud of the outcome. The first track (on the mountain) is a song that I wrote over a year ago and was never satisfied with, not being as noisy as I wanted finally I got the settings just right and boy do I believe I got it right on this one. The next track (just wanna fall asleep) is really long one, more based on textures than abhorrent noise and again I think it sounds perfect even when I'm walking around it seems to fit into it. The last two track are much shorter only equating to 11 minutes the third (sounds of industy) is my favorite thing that I've ever recorded. It just starts off fairly soft and ends up being this hulking mass of noise and clashing rhythms that just makes me very happy that I was able to record something that sounds this good. If anyone is interstellar in hearing it PM and I'll send you the link.