Happy New Year to all. It’s been a bit of a sad 2016 with the passing of Prince, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen among others, as well as the recent passing of Carrie Fisher… I suppose it’s only natural as the icons of the 70’s and 80’s age…
Anyways, I have just finished my last demo for 2016. Since turning 43 I’ve decided to work on a demo every month and put it up on Soundcloud (and Reverbnation). Maybe later I’ll try to make more professional recordings if I find the right singer.
So far I’ve held to my commitment: one song as a demo per month and one Munhwa Experience cartoon per week since going through my brief ‘mid-age crisis’. The latest demo is somewhat of a knee-jerk reaction to America’s election of Donald Trump and my fears for state of our planet -not just with global warming but general pollution problems. Personally, as an Australian, I’m also concerned about natural gas fracking and the damage it as on underwater reservoirs.
Anyways, he’s the song which I’ve uploaded on to Soundcloud and Reverbnation. I’ve written the lyrics below.
(Verse 1)
Once in a past time, I laughed and held your hand.
Once in an old world, we cared less.
Once many a day gone, we surfed a rising curve
Once many a day gone, we lived like kings.
(Bridge 1)
Now I see the wrinkles round your eyes as you just shrug your shoulders
Now we stoop and watch the streams go by
(Chorus)
Don’t look back now Keep on moving closer
Towards the future that’s stopped smiling at us
(Verse 2)
In the halcyon days, we lived on borrowed time
In the halcyon days, we roamed the world
(Bridge 2)
Now those days are gone and I’m alone and your whole face is fading
Now there’s nothing left but memories
(Chorus)
Don’t look back now Keep on moving closer
Towards the future that’s stopped smiling at us
(Bridge 3)
Now we’re treading washed up waters sliding down a downward curve
Now we feel the heat from blazing skies
Here it is, a song I got professionally mixed and mastered. But I won’t sell it, it’s available for download on Soundcloud -too much of a hassle to put up on iTunes and other sites, often requiring more payments and fees while I don’t expect many, if any, people to pay to download it.
The name’s from a screenplay I’m working on, I guess it’s like an accompaniment in my mind.
No, not the arch-enemy of Doctor Who… I’ve decided to take the plunge and get one of my electronic tracks mixed and mastered for iTunes as a kind of learning experience. Because I’m often on the move, (teaching in Sydney now then back to Japan in September), there’s never been a point to get studio monitors or convert a room to home studio… besides, I still don’t have the ears of a professional when it comes to panning the stereo field, adjusting the equalisation to rid muddiness etc or the software to boost and compress it for a professional sale.
Even though they say you just need a computer to record and distribute music, there’s still no substitute for the professional mixing and mastering. Besides, if you want to sell on iTunes you need sales codes encoded in the file.
So, I’ll see how it goes, and might do a couple more songs down the line, not that I expect many sales since I haven’t even had many free downloads. But it also means the song is ready for use if someone wants to use the music in a documentary or Youtube video for instance.
I’ve put making demos on the back burner at the moment while I research into getting a track or two remixed and mastered. It would be nice to put them up on demos and off a sync licence for Youtubers or something, though I know there’s very little chance of making any money of the tracks. It would be a ‘vanity project’ so to speak. Anyways will look into it while I’m in Sydney, and then I’ll be back in Japan in September for my next 5 month teaching gig.
Strugmo on iTunes
Finally, my demo for May 2014 is done! I’ve called it Nerd’s Anthem, because I use nerdy sounds from Reaper’s default synthesizer as well as some old Roland samples I have. Again I’ve categorised it under my own genre of ‘amatronic’.
Yes, this is my latest ‘amatronic’ demo…
And my latest Strugmo cartoon.
I think Myspace been trying to reinvent itself because I checked my account the other day and there’s been lots of changes like the left to right scrolling action. Anyway, I didn’t see much press about it until I did a specific search, and found this. But I thought I’d upload my latest song onto it just to see how things go…
My latest demo is kind of a blues/spiritual I’ve been working on. Unfortunately there’s no real bassist and drummer, so it’s midi-city for the backing tracks, and my voice isn’t in the best condition, but it’s just a demo… done on Garageband with direct guitar input.
I’ve managed two instrumental demos this month -one was done on Garageband (first on my iPad and then on the mac, that’s why it’s called ‘Padexi’) and the other was done on recording and mixing software called Reaper using a lot of quirky midi sounds I have stored up.
Struggling Muso 