hey guys. i threw together some scratch tracks for the "wasteland" song and mailed them off to you both today. forgive any sloppiness, but i was in a hurry. aside from my keyboard's shitty piano sound, i also used it to put some strings on the chorus just to help build the sound since there's no drums. although we could actually do REAL strings and do them well if you guys want. just throwing that out as an option.

jesse - i am up for trying synth sounds, although it's something i haven't really done before so it's kind of uncharted water for me. as long as we don't use keyboards to impulate some real tangible instrument we could go to the trouble of recording (like strings). but experimenting with weird sounds could be interesting and add to the mood.

micah - i seriously really really like the stanza of your lyrics where you say "the lion in my chest" or whatever it was. VERY inspired. i want to hear it set to music. do you still think you can come over here to record in april?

Once Upon A Time

Here are some more lyric ideas for a new song. Please add or take asway as you both see fit. This is just what I have for right now. I have worked out a chorus and a verse arrangement on guitar. I know it would be a million times better with nate and jesse involved. Well here are the lyrics:

Once Upon A Time

Once upon a time
a husband left his marriage bed
a widow fell asleep
and then they found her dead
and....

there was a time
when we didnt know anything
and there was a time
when we wore magic rings
and.......

I should have fought for you
when I had the chance
before life put to sleep
THE LION IN MY CHEST

and she heard the stories
about how david killed the giant
she heard about the storm
and how jesus made it quiet

There was a time
when we didnt know anything
And i dont want to know them now
i dont want to know them now
there was a time when we didnt know anything
and I dont want to know them now

There praying
there trying
to see the lion
to see the lion

Keys

Any chance I could talk one of you guys into adding some keyboards to the project? I'd love to hear what kind of textures we could add to the music with some spacey pad chords or arpeggios. I've gotten some really interesting sounds by running a keyboard through my pedal chain and
preamps, especially with fuzz box, reverse reverb, tremolo and long delay.

Also I'd like to work together with Micah on guitar tone. I was listening back to some earlier recordings and it sounds like are guitars aren't playing nicely. We might both need to make compromises in order to create a sound that really gels this time.

Jesse

Introduction to statistics was definately interesting. I liked it quite a bit. Say hi to your family for me.

Micah

I accept the mssion

Natewhore,

I had some ideas but nothing in stone. I definately would like to listen to your verse. I think we can both agree that the only solid lines I sent you were the opening lines but I believe that they would work in a chorus well. I am definately interested in hearing your verse idea. I thnik jesse should take a look too because he always is good at seeing a concept and improving on it. As soon as I get your scratch traks I will work with it. I would like to hear " around you".

whatever

I just wanted to check in.
I have to do stupid boring grown up stuff all day so I'll check back tomorrow. Thanks for creating the blog, this will help a lot.

-Jesse

What's New

here's what is happening music wise in nate-land...

i finished mixing the first song i recorded with that drummer i told you two about back in early january. i'm pretty pleased. while there's still room for improvement, i feel like i'm getting better and better at this recording thing all the time. of course, that fancy compressor i bought REALLY helps. with it, i've been able to get some high end analog compression on every single track except the close mics on the drumset. and wow what a difference. the digital plug-in compressors are good, but they just don't pack the punch this thing does, nor do they impart their own little bit of magic. plus, when i get around to compressing the master bus, half the peak-and-valley grunt work is already done for me and i can push the overall volume harder. micah, i alrady sent a cd to your sister who was asking me for a copy of anything recent i had done. the mix i speak of is on there if you want to take a listen. it's called "around you". i thought the cd would be going to you, too, but it looks like she must have moved out or something cause the address i sent it to seemed different. do you want a copy hibbs?

as far as grynch music goes...

i played with those lyrics micah sent me for quite a bit this past week. micah, i don't know if you had a tune in your head when you wrote them down, but it was difficult for me to put music specifically to those words and phrasings. BUT, i really liked the idea and the theme...and in particular, the first line stuck out to me. i rephrased that line a little and made it a chorus and then wrote a 1st verse around your main idea. i think you might dig it. we'll see. i plan on recording a scratch track of just the verse and chorus i wrote and sending it to both of you. your mission, should you choose to accept it:

klotz: maybe you can take my starting point and write another verse or completely different part of your own. i know a verse AND a chorus is already a big improvement for us, but just think how awesome a BRIDGE would be!

hibbs: start writing one of your sweet ass guitar parts

me: set up some mics and start recording what i've got down so far and send it to you guys

Dear Micah and Jesse,

You are the queerest bunch of muther fuckers around, but i still love you both in a non-Cecil kind of way and can't wait to make music with you better than we ever did before. So welcome to our blog where we can bounce ideas off each other easily without things like phone tag or having to forward emails or annoying shit like that.

my first idea for our music is that we should try not to suck as much as we did before. any thoughts?