The most annoying thing about hearing a song on a speaker system somewhere is when the song has very unoriginal lyrics, and google searching brings up a million results for non-relevant songs. I heard an excellent song while waiting in at Chipotle tonight, but I’ll probably never find it now.
Tonight marks the first entry in a new year of daily journal writings. I don’t know if I really have a goal behind this. Like I said, when I was writing daily before, it made a huge difference in my creative life.
Ever since Andy and I finished the record, we’ve been listening to it quite frequently. It’s getting to the point where we are listening to it because we like it, not because we’re searching for errors or obsessing over vocal blemishes that should have been corrected (that no one ever hears or care about anyway). We’ve gotten some great reviews, and most likely some negative ones that we’ll never hear about since most of our listeners are our friends. It’s good - Chris would say “it’s your art, who am I to criticize it?” True. We are happy with how it sounds, so it’s nice to hear if people liked/disliked it, but it won’t change our opinion of it, or make us feel ego-bloated or sad.
Of course, ever since the release we’ve been drawing up ideas for record #2. We developed a sort of bond during recording, that you develop with anyone that you’re working on art with, I think. Midnight Echos had that sort of bond, too. We’re able to discuss ideas freely, without worrying or judging. I think that’s the way to go. It’s easier to chisel something out of a slab than it is to create something beautiful with a few grains of shiny sand.
We worked on a new piece today - so refreshing to write again. I find that I’m not able to do it alone. I think that has to do with a combination of getting bored with my solo ideas too quickly. A lot of the songs on Love is Waiting came from pushing through harder and harder until something emerged. I even remember shelving a few ideas that seemed too incoherent at the time, only to come back later and finish off something wonderful.
Andy had talked about the idea of lost artifacts, and we discussed the relationship between memory and artifacts. I told him about my idea of a museum for my life that gets built as I live, that I maintain and keep watch over. No description cards - just artifacts from my life. A teddy bear, a paper clip, a radial nerve splint, microphone, etc. He had come up with a chord progression by randomly pulling cards out of a hat and creating a random chord structure, and I immediately started playing chords over his and we came up with an excellent piano/guitar combo. House of Dirt is a tentative title - just based on what we’ve written, lyrically, so far.
My idea is to gather anyone we possibly can for the next record to contribute some kind of “piece.” One of the first creative experiences we had together was with our friend David, whose one note in an ambient piece made the whole thing worthwhile. I think we could find that moment with every single friend we know. They’ve all got something to share. We ended up playing a small set for Andy’s grandparents tonight, and debuted the new song (sort of). Forgot the chorus - this is the problem with writing and performing a song on the same day.
We watched the football game at Andy’s - I’m getting better at following things. The reactions I get to not knowing how football works are funny: Andy’s dad saying “You’ve been in this country for how many years?!” Almost as if it’s a requirement. Even more interesting is that my dad likes football, but never bothered to try to get me interested in it.
New headphones are excellent - Sennheiser 280 Pro. Crystal clear sound, although a bit uncomfortable. I suppose that will go away with wear and tear, but if only I could get the same experience with earbuds. Lately have been finding my hidden talent in Wii Bowling - PJ taught me to move to the left because I tend to swing to the right. I won every time. Funny how a mediocre player can be turned into an expert with a simple tip.
Teavana tea tastes different from the store - probably has to do with the size of the cup (small samplers as opposed to a tea mug). Snow Geisha worked out better than Lavender Dreams. My parents laugh at these type of teas - they call all tea “chai” even if it’s Lipton. Chai Tea = just chai, or just tea.
Realized today that this will be the first New Year’s in 7 years without Chris. And it’s work related. We’re getting so fucking old.