I’m sitting, listening to the Honest Mistakes’ new album which I’m currently in the process of mixing. I’m mostly really pleased, though I’m taking notes on things that I’ve got to go back and toy with, things that I’ve got to go back and correct for, things that I thought were good ideas that weren’t. That’s just ONE thing I’ve been doing with my time recently.
It’s been a long time since I’ve written in the Journal. Two big reasons : one we haven’t been touring, but the big one is that every time I’ve sat down to write ANYTHING I’ve felt like I need to write SONGS instead.
Which is great. Thank FAWM! Yeah – February Album Writing Month. A very cool event that has blossomed into quite a community. I think I was one of about 3,000 songwriter types of very varied genres all attempting to write and record an entire album over the course of February. I’ve come away with 14 songs (that’s the objective) about 10 of which can probably find their way into the ilyAIMY lexicon at some point. Not to put TOO fine a point on it, but as someone who hasn’t written but a half dozen songs in the last couple of YEARS, getting 10 pretty awesome tunes out of the past four weeks is mind-blowing.
At the moment they’re only on FAWM’s website and my soundcloud – they’ll probably migrate away from there as soon as I feel like prodding them, and they’ll slowly get re-recorded.
A Quick Summary :
Spring – this was written in drop B specifically because HARM is looking like it’s in danger of finding its way back into our setlists and it’d be great not to be tuning down just for the one song. Definitely a reflection on how frustrated I am with the world today, the stupidity, my disgust at the politics around me. Maybe not really saying we need an “Arab Spring” style revolution here in the U.S., but there are times when I definitely fantasize about it. Mosno added percussion and really MADE this song into something a little different from usual rob fare with his “rob would NEVER have thought of that” rhythm on my old banjo resonator.
Georgetown – At the beginning of the month Kristen had a gig down in Georgetown and there was a bunch of conflicting STUFF inside my skull. There’s my innate dislike for the area, a place so stuck up that they blocked getting public transit in the area for decades so they didn’t have to invite “low-lifes” into their neighbourhood. A place frankly too cool for reasonably priced meals. In addition Georgetown is one of the hospitals that horribly failed my Dad with his cancer treatments, most notoriously giving him the wrong diet sheet, resulting in a surgical delay of several weeks that may well have cost him his Life. On top of THAT Snowzilla 2016 was in the process of melting swiftly into the Potomac and the entire river region was swathed in wraith-like tendrils of mist. Again, collaborating with Mosno completely changed this.
Ode to a Heat Vent – I’ve been trying to write this song for a while. Positive memories of childhood definitely swirl around certain places and sounds in my parents’ house – whether it was that moment of FREEZING stepping out of the bath during which I wanted to squeeze myself up against the heat register in the bathroom, feeling the rug under my toes, or remembering leaning against the dishwasher, reading a book… I have a bad habit of talking about the negative more than the positive and though the song comes away melancholy, it’s a source of rich, positive memories for me. Kristen’s really enamoured with this song and bugged me till she could add a cello part (really nailing it, absolutely beautiful). Now she’s bugging me till we can perform it, and that’s a whole other ball of rob mind wax…
Credit – Short and simple? I wanted to see if I could write a rap song! We’d just finished watching Tropic Thunder and the rhythm of the closing Flo Rida tune stayed stuck in my head. Of course, being me, I had to write something dramatically different, inspired by the updated BRIGHT NEON SIGNS of the local churches.
Looking Back – A song sort of combining a couple of relationship missteps into one narrative. For a long time I was very proud of the way I was kind of on good terms with most all of my exes. And then more recently I’ve re-met some of them on more qual terms and… well… maybe it wasn’t all as benign as I’d remembered.
Terms – this is one that definitely has a couple of lyrics not quite in place yet. With electric guitar from Jon Patton of Midway Fair, it’s one of the few collaborations (is it the ONLY one?) that didn’t involve someone else that Lived in this house. I had no idea it was in 6 till Jon pointed it out. Everyone’s got it rough. I guess it’s okay to point it out. You don’t really get to say “you think YOUR problems are bad” simply because no-one really grasps anyone else’s difficulties. If more people understood (and could truly feel) empathy, it’d be a very, very different world.
Hrm. That might be all I’m up to writing right now. Cause I’ve been writing a lot. But I’ve ALWAYS got catching up to do. Meow.
