amazingly productive lately

Months ago, I started out writing poems and lyrics to eventually work with. When I felt finished or had nothing more to say, I had 22 of them ready. Unfortunately as I worked with a few to write music for them, I struggled a lot. It was overwhelming. Lately though, I've been writing and playing more with the acoustic guitar and suddenly, new ideas are spilling out. Just a couple nights ago, I came up with a moving melody, and during a short walk, the lyrics and their melody came to me. I came home and tracked a quick demo and really liked what I heard. I did this with a few different songs (having recently finished a demo for "I Am").

Now instead of feeling overwhelmed, I feel... able. But, I'm still left with a bitter feeling about all the content I wrote over the months. It feels useless. I know this isn't true - I can just go through things I've written, update them, make them fit. But it's not always so simple.

I'm looking at getting about 10 acoustic demos done, then going from there for the songs in full production. Some may be left barebones if I find them more effective as guitar and voice.

I think I've found a process that really works for me.

when it all comes together...

Regarding "Wide Smiles & Wine Bottles", it's coming along rather nicely. I recently had my acoustic restrung and it's great to have it in my hands again. I replaced the electric guitar I'd recorded with the acoustic, and it sounds quite nice. The mids and highs seem to be missing a bit, but this comes down to mic placement. Regardless, my AT-2020 picks up the acoustic guitar rather well, and I can say I'm pretty happy recording acoustic guitar with it.

When I played it all back (with drums I'd sequenced), it just suddenly seemed to have a life of it's own. I can see my vocal melody working very well over it. Since I removed the electric guitar part, my voice cut through better. Unfortunately, this opened up my ears to some issues with my singing. Yet, this is definitely a good thing, and something to learn from. Quite helpful, actually. I should be able to complete this song soon - I'm not sure if it will appear on the album. I'd like it to, but it may seem a bit out of place, unless I do a kind of remix version.