Category: Musical Musings Of An IDIOM

In my more than restless sleep last night my mind wandered to the construction of my first album; covers, CD labels, track orders, promotion, all the daily household chores of getting music in a single package for people to keep. Is it worth it?<br /><br />Of course it's worth making an album or two, but is it worth all the aggravation of having CD's printed/ burned when most your album, if not all of it will end up being converted into MP3 and jammed into a mini player in someone's pocket? <br /><br />Take an examination of the practical and non practical aspects of albums these days and I think we will find the answers. So here we have a CD collection. Let's say there are 500 CD's all catalogued and neatly arranged within a cabinet for easy locating. Now, while it looks impressive, and while it's a lovely focal point and great conversation starter: "Jeez, you got one hell of a collection!" I have a question: When it comes time for you to move..........<br /><br />You got a mini van for most of your stuff and a semi for the CD's. They're heavy, bulky in boxes and a damn nuisance to shift. Shoulda got yourself an MP3 player dude, cause the other side of the coin is a whole lot rosier.<br /><br />Same scenario, but you're showing a friend your collection on your PC. Album art decorates the folders and you have 30GB of pure beauty at your fingertips. Easy to carry around once in an MP3 player/iPOD and you don't have to wait to get home to listen to your favorite album. Then of course it comes time to move and really, there's nothing being transported that you didn't already have. Music files don't make your PC heavier.<br /><br />So as an artist and musician, what would you aim for? The practical side of album creation where the files could be stored easier without taking up any physical room in the apartment/house, or the eye candy album; a physical reach out and touch object that you have to find a place for inbetween your partners favorite trophy or figurine?<br /><br />I know which one I'd rather shoot for.

Umph!<br />Bah Humbug!<br />etc...<br /><br />You know when you've become obsessed with something when you're awake at 3.20am staring at your software and the lifeless notations within, pondering whether to give that corrupted tune one more shot or just hit delete.<br />The problem is folks, a song is like a pet dog: It's with you for a long time and even when it's ill, all life being sucked out through it's eye sockets, you just can't bare to let go of the poor creature. So we have to find a miracle cure; that one magic medicine to cease the rampaging disease that ravages the nerve endings of that beloved creature you have nurtured since birth.<br /><br />So here is that one track, sat here in FL Studio, looking at me as if to say <strong>well, Jackass, if you had thought it out a bit more I wouldn't be in this goddamn mess</strong>, and you know, it has a point. I was reaching deep, attempting to extract a simple notion, that of betrayal and the madness that ensues, and came up with something resembling a broken toaster.<br /><br />It's now 3.26 am and still it's not right.<br />One improvement was to turn the overall bass and drum lines into a muddy bath to simulate the feeling of depression, add some reverb to create a rumble over several synths to bring forth the nerves about to rip into pieces. A dark track indeed, a very dark, non melodic painful expression of something very close to home.<br /><br />And this is where the problem may lay. When I wrote lyrics I wrote from experience and found some words harder to come by because my innerself would not open up to that time and place. Maybe this too applies to this stubborn monkey that looks up at me now like a demented goldfish.<br /><br />Now 3.30am I'm going to end this ramble and proceed to some sort of sleep and hopefully in the morning the world will seem a much happier place. <br /><br />........<br />.........<br /><br />Oh to hell with it..back to work<img src="images/smilies/face-devil-grin.png" border="0" alt="devil" title="devil" />