The ten days since that last burst of activity have not been productive. My various excuses include health, work, commitments of various sorts – but, in truth, I’ve been, for the most part, putting it off. It’s not a lack of inspiration, because I find myself thinking about it quite a lot, coming up with all sorts of ideas. And it’s not specifically laziness. I’m not sure… Fear? Perhaps.
Either way, I don’t really have time for any of that anymore!
Today has been all about getting things back on track. Part of this has involved now abandoning my original plan to work on the tracks one by one. Instead, I’m reverting to my usual “approach” of mainly working through all tracks on a part-by-part/instrument-by-instrument basis. It seems to suit me. And it saves space – not having all your gear all over the shop at all times: once all the, say, bass parts are done, you can put the bass away.
I haven’t decided if there will be bass (guitar) yet. That’s one thing I’m still figuring out – the instrumentation. It was always going to be one of two options: a free for all, or imposing restrictions. Given how late in the month it is, restrictions might just have to be imposed. Which ones though? One idea I’d toyed with before Feb began was to place a limit on the number of tracks on each song – to prevent going overboard with layering and to force myself to be more selective. I might do this. Six mono tracks was the original idea. Too restrictive?
Probably the most inevitable part of the getting-(back-)on-track process was cutting down the number of songs. My quest to have an album with at least 12 songs on it looks like it will have to go unachieved this year. I’ve taken the 13 demo/sketches and taken it down to 10. I’ve also settled on a preliminary track sequence:
This something I always like to do as early as possible, preferably long long before the individual songs are anywhere near completion, so that they get sort of shaped by what will lead into them and what will follow – hopefully helping the album’s “flow”. I remember Chris Walla recommending likewise in the documentary on the making of Tegan and Sara’s The Con.
So yes. That’s how things stand as of now.
Ten songs in various stages of being written – four lack lyrics of any kind. No “proper” recordings done yet. Ten days to go.
I’m oddly optimistic about it. I know I have the capacity to do this. I’ve done this kind of thing before. It’s going to be rushed, but that’s okay. It leaves me with no chance to over-think things. That’s what is so great about the RPM Challenge and its time constraint.
I think. Maybe…
