If you recall, my goal for the month of August was to create, record and release a song into the world. I’ve not been able to do anything during the week. I have to try and focus on getting things done on the weekends. I knew this was going to happen. This past weekend I decided to focus my efforts on the song structure I had started last weekend. Unfortunately I didn’t do anything on Saturday towards this effort. On Sunday afternoon I found myself alone in the house so I sequestered myself away in my studio and got to work. After two weekends I’ve completed:
- Recorded scratch acoustic guitar so I could get some idea of the song structure. I use Presonus Studio One for this
- Using EZ Drummer (a drum loop program), I put together a decent drum beat
- Experimented with different song tempos and decided on a fairly fast Pop song tempo of 130 bpm
- Recorded scratch electric guitar tracks – two of them, just to get an idea on what each could be playing. Hopefully I’ll add some Thin Lizzy type harmony riffs to this song
- Recorded scratch bass – some basic stuff with minimal walking for now
With the basic music put down, I started searching through my lyrics book to find something that would match the poppy, bouncy feel of the song. I found some old lyrics, I think over 10 years old, in my book and tried them. They seemed to fit but they are really cheesy. I expanded on them, writing some additional verses to match the song structure. I then recorded some scratch vocals and then recorded some scratch backing/accompanying vocals. I think its ok. It’s a silly fun song.
I hesitate to share this with anyone because it is very, very rough. Not even family or friends are getting to hear this. Only you blog readers (cause my family and friends don’t know about this blog) are getting a hear this first. There are mistakes all over the song. I missed some notes or played wrong notes, I sang the wrong words or sang out of tune. I think one guitar is slightly out of tune. I mixed it really quick so there may even be some clipping. It’s messy. But it’s my mess.
So here it is, a link to the song on my Soundcloud account. Just press the orange play button. And thanks for listening. This is a Happy Song. I hope you will sing along.
Retirement Ain't Easy 