Track-by-Track: Days to Begin

I promised to blog about each track individually, and here's the first. I figured I'd write about each track in chronological order, rather than album order.

The first song recorded was "Days to Begin," and I scanned in my notebook where I wrote the lyrics:

The idea for the music side of the track came from my good friend Pete Hemberger. He had sent me an email about how we should try to record songs that were "simple and clean" and used "C, F, and G."

I took his advice quite literally. Those are the only 3 chords in the song.

For the lyrics, I wanted to play around with the idea of setting out on the task of recording a song. (You could see this as a lyrical homage to "25 or 6 to 4," that is, a song about writing a song.) I had set a goal of writing one song every day this summer. That goal quickly fell through, but at the time of these lyrics, I had that idea in my head.

I'm a big fan of puns and the "dazed" vs. "days" in the lyrics vs. title I thought was very apt. I was extremely dazed by the idea of writing a song a day, and it took me literally days to begin the process of writing songs.

I quickly did realize that I had "overfill[ed] [my] cup" in song writing, but, like the song says, I kept "going on."

On the recording side of things, the song was a strange process. I initially recorded the guitar and vocals at the same time, with the acoustic being recorded with the built-in pick-up and the vocals through a separate mic. The vocals sound whispered because 1) I think it fits the feel of the song, and 2) I recorded this one really late at night while Emma was sleeping.

I went back recently and re-recorded the guitar track. I wasn't as pleased with the initial one when I went back and listened to it closely. Of course, Garageband (have I mentioned that it's the greatest piece of software ever created?) made this easy to do.

The outro guitar melody was just the acoustic recorded through the pick-up with a slight phaser effect on it. Nothin' fancy.

So now that you know way more than you ever wanted to about the song, check it out at the link below (I've posted all the tunes on YouTube to facilitate a better listening experience):

Days to Begin

The Album is Done

After a long summer of recording, I've got a 9 song album finished.

Whew!

I will blog about each song individually soon enough, but for now, you can listen to the songs on the player to your right.

Also, enjoy the album art here.

Kubb-erific!

Production has finished on the Kubb set started oh so long ago at Emma's birthday party. As you can see from the picture above, it turned out pretty sweet! Clearly a Grain Belt Kubb set is a unique thing. I believe I may have the only one in existence.

I am lucky enough to have connections (i.e. "King Jimmy") into the Schell brewery, so I was able to procure actual neck labels from Premium and Nordeast bottles. No drinking and peeling for me here!

Production started the day before Emma's 30th birthday. We wanted to be able to play for the party, so production stopped at the green/red and white paint. Recently, production restarted as various accent stripe colors were explored. I tried various yellows, but settled on the metallic gold. I think it matches the labels quite nicely.

Stripes were painted, then labels adhered. A couple coats of clear coat finished them off.

The king, of course, got a moustache in honor the "The King of Grain Belt", Jim Hautman. His guidance, advice, and materials were greatly appreciated throughout production.

Now all that's left is to play! It's a shame these things are gonna get the hell beat out of them!

I have more pics of the production here. Check 'em out!

A Boon to Rivers Everywhere!

Just yesterday I recorded a new tune. I was sitting by the computer playing guitar (as I can be found many many hours of the day) and I started strumming a particular chord... Something clicked and I jotted down some lyrics about the recent flooding in my hometown of Webster City, Iowa.

A couple of overdubs later and voila! A new tune!

This one I did through YouTube, even though it's just the audio. I put a picture of the flooding over the whole song. I'm liking YouTube as it's easier to upload, does so in higher quality, and is easier to link to.

Enjoy the new tune, Boone River Blues, here!

Shared-Walking Implement Blues: (Co-Cane Blues)

I have a new video! On Friday morning I woke up around 8, had a cup of coffee, and then said to myself, "I need to record something today." I've also been wanting to try out the video capabilities of my new iPhone 4. So I combined those two endeavors into one larger endeavor.

I chose Old Crow Medicine Show's version of "Cocaine Habit Blues" as the song to record. I'm not sure how it came about. I must have been listening to it recently.

I rigged up a phone-holder-dealie using a Gorillapod Tripod (which, by the way, is a worthwhile investment for anyone who has a camera) and a mic stand. Check out the pics of my camera rig here. I was fairly impressed with myself for figuring it out.

So I recorded video of the guitar, banjo, drum, and solo tracks. Then I went back and did a take lip syncing to the vocals (much to the dismay of Emma, she does not like my lip syncing, and I apologize to her) - Then I put all the video into Final Cut Pro, matched it up with the audio that I mixed together in Garageband, and chopped it all together.

I think it turned out pretty good. Not too shabby for a couple hours of work on a Friday morning!

Enjoy the video here! It's on Youtube (so I could share it in HD). I'm in the big time now. Leave a comment on the Youtube page!

Disclaimer: I, in no way, shape or form, advocate the taking, selling, distributing, whiffing, taking a whiff, smelling, or advocating of cocaine... Unless it's the 1880s and you want a soft drink.

New Git-Box and Recording!

I have a new guitar!

Check out pics of it here!

It's a 2003 Gibson Hummingbird. It's awesome. It's clearly way too nice of a guitar for little old me, but I'll keep it for the rest of my life. It's got a pickup built in, and sweet vintage looks. I got it at Willie's American Guitars, with a great big amount of help from Pete (Hemberger). We checked out a lot of different guitars, some newer, some really old. We left, we came back. We told the guy, "Get the jokester selling the thing on the horn," and "I'll walk right now," and gave Stephan a hat trick.

I even recorded a new song with it! I did a cover of Shawn Smith's "Wrapped in My Memory," which may be the awesomest song about missing a friend that exists. The original was all piano, but I figured out the chords and did an acoustic guitar version with it.

I used the built in pickup for the guitar sound, I think it sounds really good for just only the internal pickup! It has very minimal EQ or effects on it.

Also a shout-out to Emma for helping produce the vocal tracks. She is an awesome set of second ears!

Check out the song on the player to your right!

Wild Weekend!

Check it out!

I was driving home, and "Wild Weekend" by NRBQ was on the stereo, and I said to myself, "That sounds like a fairly simple chord progression, I bet I could figure it out."

So I got home, pulled out the ol' acoustic, fired up the Information Superhighway, found the lyrics, listened to the song, figured out the chords, and then hit the record button on my iSight camera!

So enjoy the Video One Take here!

One Take Coming Back!

Today I felt like reviving an old standby!

I used my iPhone to record a One Take version of My Morning Jacket's "I'm Amazed"...

I also happened to capture the video of it in iMovie with the new iMac's built-in iSight camera, so I figured I'd sync the two up and make a video out of it!

FWIW, that's a Summit Maibock that makes an appearance early in the video, and notice how much more smoothly I play that opening lick afterwards... :P

Enjoy the video here!