New Music

Jae's away in the Dominican Republic, spellunking and whatnot, so I'm left to fully burrow into a musical coccoon. I tweaked "Before This Moment Passes" and have been sort of floating the new one around as "Unless You Fall", because it speaks to the songs theme of continuance.

New Demo - "Unless You Fall" or "The Song Formerly Known As 'Before This Moment Passes'"

Then, I've been messing around with this other song for a couple of months, slowly sort of cooking it. Now, I'm a pretty zen guy - Jae thinks I'm too laid back sometimes and that I hang out somewhere desperately close to "passive", but this wasn't always the case. Everybody's got a dark side; how we deal with it is what makes us the kind of person we are. But without getting too deep, I'll just say that when frustrations or stress start to build up, or something in this world-gone-mad simply pushes me over the edge and I get sort of psycho-crazy, thank God for the outlet of music.

So, I've channeled my sort of angst into this piece called "Rust" and I've just worked out the vocal tracks and dulcimer inserts today. It's a raw thing and it's actually what I set out to accomplish, which is always a nice surprise.

Whisper to a scream. Just all the stuff going on recently. The obvious government politicizing of 9/11. Lebanon getting pounded by Israel. Thinking about mortality and what we do with our lives while we're here, if we know how long we've got. The words have all sorts of meanings that were intended to have many different interpretations, but ultimately, the song speaks to God, in whatever form or format you wish to acknowledge such a God, and simply begs for another chance on behalf of humanity.

I built the song up so that it increases in intensity the further it goes along, no conventional song layout, verse, chorus, etc. It just sort of vamps along on one theme in a major key, then cranks into another series of minor changes over a relentess back groove. I like chants - they're like prayer. In the prayers at the end of the song, the melody and harmony work together as a choir. Just before the lead dulcimer solo kicks in. And yes, that is all dulcimer.

"New Music: Demo for "Rust"

Ashes to ashes
dust to dust
paper to fire
steel to rust

fragile bodies
broken stone
pieces of the past
we never walk alone

sky of anger
raining black
on the heads of the hopeful
one shot, maybe never come back again

riding with the wind
go out with the tide
see you somewhere, my friend
on the other side

we came, we saw
we built it up
and tore it down again
once so asleep
and now awake
taking every moment in

we fell, we cried
and hit the ground
bled sweat and sweated blood
had faith in every saving grace
stood fast against the flood

won't you give us one good prayer
won't you shed some light in there
won't you understand my circumstance
won't you give us one more chance?

won't you let us get it right
won't you let us try
won't you steal in from the night
won't you give us one last chance?

complete 9/10/06

Copyright © 2006 J.O.B. Entertainment Inc.

It's time for a memory upgrade - it's next to impossible to EQ these songs once they get over twenty tracks in size. I go to record with the gear that I have, not the gear that I wish for.

The vocal tracks are rough, some of them very rough. But hell, like y'all haven't heard me sound like ass before. My theory this is: the more often you show your ass, the less of a surprise it'll be when people see it. Ya heard?

"My theory this is"? {Insert Yoda joke here.}