It has been a few months since my last entry here. There is an update on the MUSIC page but as you can see there, there are some big issues facing this project, which have caused it to slow down to a deathly pace.
In a nutshell the first stumbling block was me being stuck with all the producing and playing duties. Don't get me wrong, I do love recording, but I wanted an outside influence on this project, to take it somewhere I could never consider artistically. Now I am faced with my own style colouring the arrangements and production... for good or bad.
I started work on 'Focussing the Light', deliberately moving away from the original piano ballad of the demo. I wrote an upbeat, almost funky drum pattern and bass part, with jazz piano parts to give dynamics to what had started life as a slow lumbering song. It had stops and starts to make the listener keep guessing what was coming next. At this stage in the production it was played to friends who immediately questioned the validity of my arrangement/production choices. And so I questioned them as well... this is a natural development in the recording of a song. However, I then stopped this version altogether. It is a strange thing when someone doesn't really like what you are doing; you can keep going regardless, as you believe your vision is right, or you have huge doubts over your decisions. During production, I doubt everything I do, I question every small detail and it is agonising... which is why I wanted someone else to do this!
Anyway, from this moment I tried to think of other ways of capturing the songs and agreed to record 5 tracks with only guitar and voice. When I played live, this is how I performed, and all my songs had a band arrangement (when I recorded them for my album) and a stripped down arrangement for live shows.
I took the songs I thought were more suited to being played on guitar and have now produced full acoustic versions of them. I will upload them shortly, but for now, the project has been stalled with these as the final versions. Maybe in 2020 I will look back at the full band versions again. But for now I feel I can do little more than this.
The five finished acoustic versions of the songs are: Focussing the Light, Flares From the Sun, Learning to Lie, A Child's Tale and Jimmy & Jolie.
I am really pleased with these versions, but am sure someone along the way will say they are not good enough, or I should have done something different. I either need to block them out or actually have faith in my work.
Watch this space for the acoustic versions...
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