Its a funny ol' game.

I've been looking through a load of my old notebooks and directories of lyrics and finding things I have long forgotten about.

I found my original notes for the song Assimilation, off the forthcoming EP.   According to the notes, I wrote the lyrics on the 22nd September 2003. So it is nearly ten years old.  The music was written on 10th September 2005.

We've had the demo sitting around for pretty much the end of 2005.

The song has even been played a few times over the years at open mic nights.

So we have finally gotten around to actually recording it, though it has changed a little since the original demo.

Originally, the form of the song was into, chorus (sung over verse), chorus, verse, chorus, verse chorus, middle8, chorus chorus.

 The new form is chous (over verse), chorus, verse, chorus, middle 8, Chorus, verse.

When E suggested the reworking I though he was mad.   Starting the song with the chorus over a verse was non standard enough, to then finish with a verse, sounded mad.

But as with the nature of the song, not resolving the final verse to the chorus makes for a better ending (and knocks about a minute out of the song, by having two less choruses).

Anyway, you will be able to hear the tune very soon.  We believe we have finished mixing the EP.  We will master it in the coming weeks and release it sometime in the next couple of months.

Right, back to finding inspiration for EP6.

Onwards and upwards!

Rollasoc

PS the tab is wrong anyway! 

First Pass

Initial mixes have been generated for EP5, I'm happy to say. 

A few Cubase issues aside, it has been a mostly painless process so far!  Fun with actual mixers and virtual mixers on Android have been a bit of a welcome distraction too.

We are going to live with these mixes for a week and pick up again next week with tweaking them into submission.

Hopefully, next week, we may release a un-mastered version to Soundcloud for a very limited period.

I don't think there will be a massive amount of changes needed to get these to an acceptable standard, ready for release.

So hopefully, by the end of the month, it should all be mixed and mastered and we can think about releasing it into the wild.

In the meantime, we have started collating a few new tunes and bits and bobs that we have left over from previous EPs, with the idea of getting EP6 out sometime this year, rather than in several years time.   We shall see how well that progresses! 

Mixing it up

Yesterday saw the start of mixing EP5.

It was pleasantly painless experience.  The plan was to do a rough mix of "Beijing Morning".

This was archived and mixing started on the instrumental "Bathmophobia".  So for once we appear to be getting ahead of ourselves.

So the plan is to live with this mix for a few days and then tweak again later.

More mixing sessions are scheduled for later in the week.

Below is a brief video E made, using his Android Tablet to control Cubase. Even though we normally use a hardware controller, it is interesting to see how modern technology can be used in the music process.

It also contains a sneak peak at the new song "Beijing Morning".

Happy New Year!!!!!

We believe we have finished the last recording session for EP5.

As it turned out, after comping an existing part, we decided not to rerecord the bass for the instumental, "Bathmophobia".

I had been struggling at home alone with re-recording the acoustic for "Invisible Wall", Not being happy with the current version nor the freebie acoustic version we did for the Bridgnorth music festival.

So we spent some time testing different mic setups, but especially distances between the mic and the guitar.

I then went home and re-recorded the acoustic part, which I a lot happier with.  So that is it, EP5 recorded.

Now comes the task of mixing.  This will begin next week in earnest.

My plan this week is to get all the project files into some kind of order, sorting out the grouping, topping /tailing the audio files, setting up some basic send effects and general organisation of the project. All necessary but tedious jobs.

So next week mixing begins.

The track listing for EP5 remains:-
1. Invisible Wall
2. Beijing Morning
3. Assimilation
4. Bathmophobia

We will be making a simple video for Beijing Morning.

This will also be the first EP where we have not collaborated with other muicians.

More news next week.

Rollasoc

End of the year!!!

Well the year was mostly going to plan.

Finish EP5 and maybe play a gig or two.

How hard could that be?

Turns out to be harder than we thought.

Well, the EP is almost there, it just needs mixing and we did play Bridgnorth music festival. So it isn't all doom and gloom.

Normally, we take December off each year. This year we have taken the last four months off.

We are meeting up tomorrow for a drink. I am now mobile again, so work will commence in January to finish the EP and start the next one.

I will also be blogging more frequently on musical matters.

Plus after two years of living in a very musical town, it is time to get out there and play some of the open mics on a regular basis.

So I am quietly optimistic that providing the world doesn't end on Friday that 2013 will be a good year!

Happy Christmas / winter break / whatever and have a happy new year!!!

Rollasoc

Free Music Marketing Book - Music Success in 9 Weeks

I came across the book "Music Success in 9 weeks" by Arial Hyatt about two years ago.

I read through it with the intention of blogging the nine week course, but  given

we don't have any real musical career aspirations, I have resisted blogging about this in the past.

You can now get the latest version of the book for free (or a donation if you like)

Music Success In Nine Weeks Free PDF

If you are a budding musician and want some tips on how to kick start your career, then this is a good place to start.

You can get a free except here

I have every intention to blog about the steps involved in this book, early in the new year, much like others have done with details about what we have done and whether they worked or not.

This is that although we have no intention for world domination, there is always room for more people hearing our music, more fans, more love and possibly a few more sales.

Life

Things have been a bit slow in Hair Thieves land since Bridgnorth Music Festival, mostly due to my lack of a car and thus not being able to get to our weekly meetings, (we live something like 19 miles apart).

This is depressing me somewhat.

So although some work has been progressing on EP5, not enough has happened to get the thing to release anytime soon.

So we will regroup soon and move onwards and upwards.