SongwritingI suppose it's my roots in poetry that lead me to fancy myself a songwriter. That and a few notebooks of lyrics and their associated chords lying about the house. I need to assemble them and start recording them before they leave me for good. I do keep a tape recorder by the bed, which has allowed to retain a few chord progressions as well as a few strange dreams from which to weave words. I've begun posting some of my old and most of my new songs to a blog I'm calling circle of fists. Go there for more depth, then return to see other ongoing projects. GuitarMy first true introduction to music was through the guitar. Dm is not the saddest chord! For me it's all about Am-Dm-E7 progressions in 3/4, with a sea shanty pacing. That's about as sad as it gets. I've recently started a myspace page for my guitar-based work, which I'm releasing under the moniker howlingmime. DrumsOn one of my cross-country trips, I couldn't get the James Brown and MMW drumbeats out of my head. I came to the conclusion that I needed drums or I'd go insane. I still play them on a regular basis to both relieve stress and to explore rhythms and beats. I still can't get the beats of JB and MMW out of my head... Electronic MusicBjörk puts it best when she says that it's not that music developed on a computer is necessarily soul-less; it embodies the soul of the operator; the computer is merely a tool. I have yet to work enough with electronic music to claim much proficiency. Mostly I've used my computer to record voice and music from the guitar. I'm looking forward to posting some of my earlier work once I can resuscitate my Windows box. It decided to burn out in early February. In April and May, 2008, I played with midi sequences, and this is what I came up with as a first project: "Hush: 2112", basically an e-z listening version of the classic Rush tune. Lemme know what you think of this draft. More to come on this and related midi-based projects. Ah, nostalgia! I've recently started a myspace page for my electronic work, which I'm releasing under the moniker djhowlingmime. Recording ProjectsOver 2002 and 2003, I undertook a few recording projects, where I read Harlan Ellison stories and played music from various recording artists. I'm happy with the results. The first attempt is entitled Transmissions from Omalo. Part two of the series, which came out near-perfect in my less-than-humble opinion, is entitled, Transmissions from Quonset (107MB download, 16 mp3s). I am currently piecing together the third installment of the Transmissions series. The blog will announce any new developments on this project, slated for June 2006. Update: It's now Nov 2007 and I've finally made some time to get back to audio work... Transmissions from AM is 1/2 done. Here is a sneak peek! Update: Now it's May 2008 (time it does fly away!), but I've completed all but the recording of the voice in the project. This summer, I'll be replacing my recording setup, since I gave my entire setup to my brother for his 30th birthday back in March. He writes some great songs, so now he can record them and have them to work on and/or to share with others (like me!). He's already sent me a few he's recorded since then. This makes me happy. Summer 2005, I took a minute to record a small drum piece while I had a few drums in the living room. It was inspired by gamelan, though of course it doesn't conform to any of the official gamelan standards, so it's not that. It's here for you to enjoy. The background drone is a sample from a Scandinavian folk album, if you can believe it. Music rocks! I hope to record the aforementioned guitar-based songs over Summer 2006 to have a demo ready to share with family, friends, and you! Update: This music is now slated for summer 2008. Simply too much else to do! Originally completed in 2006, but slated for releast later in 2008 as part of Transmissions from Lem, Lem-Tichy-23 is a reading of a Stanislaw Lem excerpt put to some funky, spacey music. I hope you enjoy it! |
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Study in Glass |
