|
Fitness: I guess I did get back up to 206.4 on Monday, as I was 206.0 yesterday morning. However, after getting back on my routine diet and burning 770 calories in the gym yesterday night, I’m back down to 203.0 this morning. This means that I need to stick to my eating schedule on the weekends as best I can so I can get to 190 sooner than later. On to project evolution! |
|
|
It dawned on me yesterday morning that I had forgotten to include a reversed vocal sample in the newest Philistine on the Sidewalk track “Genius Is Never Understood in Its Own Time”, which if you recall from my [Creating a Music Project] post, is one of the five pillars that make up a Philistine on the Sidewalk song. I panicked a little bit and then listened to the song again – the reason I hadn’t included a reversed vocal sample is because it didn’t need one. There was enough interplay between the massive low-end rhythm, the higher reverse reverb guitar and the extended feedback loop to keep things interesting enough. The reversed vocal sample would have been overkill. That, along with the fact that I’ve already started tweaking with the drum loop samples (which I wasn’t going to do) by slicing and dicing them for the next song got me to thinking – do I really need to stick to the five pillars for each song? How Projects Change When I think about it more, I don’t know why I bother trying to stick to a certain sound or presets for a project – it’s fine for an album, but as soon as I’m not interested in evolving that sound any further, the project unravels shortly thereafter. I think there are at least three or four of my projects that are at the “one or two more albums, then they’re done” point, and there are an untold amount I’ve shut down because of this. That’s what so great about Philistine on the Sidewalk – there is no defined sound and anything’s game. The songs are still likely to be extended trip-out jams, but the five I’ve done so far have been distinct in that they’ve all used somewhat different elements. Amaranthine Skies is following the same tack, as the first four albums have sounded different, even though there’s a few common threads between them, and the next two (at least) will sound a little different from those as well. I’ve also been in talks with a few other folks about collaborating under the Philistine on the Sidewalk banner, and it’s likely this will close up another one of my projects (Zud). I know some bands do pretty well with creating songs with the same sound over and over again, but that would absolutely bore the crap out of me as there are so many great styles of music out there and I want to put my spin on as many of them as I can. This is why I’ll never be a pop star – the prodigious beard doesn’t help things either, as it scares the tweens. Sometimes They Change Too Much On the flipside of that, I’ve had projects that I’ve shut down because they changed too much. If you recall from my [Projects from Days Gone By] post, Forfallen was one of those cases, wherein it started out pretty close to where Concrete Mutant is now (hmm), and ended with trying to cross that sound with more mellow elements. Suffice it to say that it didn’t work at all and the project evolved itself into a corner. Natthimmel was the same way – it started out all over the place and ended up in a softer rock arena with a focus on the Yamaha DX7 keyboard. It sounded fine, but the style has been done better under my Amaranthine Skies and Philistine on the Sidewalk projects. Opening Musical Possibilities I think the best part about Philistine on the Sidewalk is that everything goes. There are ideas for the sound, but the knobs don’t have to be tweaked in a specific way like they did for my other projects. I have sheets and sheets of guitar and bass presets that I use for my other projects, and while they help to keep a project sounding a certain way, they add a sterility and precision to things that occasionally make me not want to pick up my instruments. Also, it gives me the opportunity to use all the folk instruments that I picked up during the waning days of Natthimmel and have yet to find a place for in Amaranthine Skies material (though that’s where they were supposed to end up). There are a couple of toy keyboards that I was going to use for a short-lived project that could come in useful – I could go on and on. Great Project or Greatest Project? When it comes down to it, I want to create. I want things to sound and look as shiny as they can, but when I focus on that aspect, it sort of takes me out of the creative experience. I grew up in a time when most of the music I listened to wasn’t crystal clear and had a rawness to it that gave the recording character, so I don’t worry about production too much when it comes to Philistine on the Sidewalk because I don’t have to. Also, I was going to keep Philistine on the Sidewalk an internet-only project, but now I’m getting ideas for physical media as well, because the project has a sound that would be well-suited for vinyl, I can do a CD tie-in with Concatenation Records and perhaps some other types of media for various situations. I’m also coming up with ideas for video game cover albums and maybe even t-shirts – I’ll tell you, the sidewalk’s the limit. Discuss this post at [The Forum of Jason Vincion]! Posted on February 17th, 2010. |
|
 [Subscribe to this Blog] [Friend me on Facebook] [Follow me on Twitter] |
|
 Compilation Volume Three |
 Shizz Block Volume One |
|
[February 2010 Index] [2010 Index] [Index] |
|
|
[Creating a Music Project] [For the Love of Music] [Philistine on the Sidewalk] [Projects from Days Gone By] |
|