名作記

This past summer, I managed to record vocals for 10 songs, and I was actually pleased with the results. It took helping someone else to record a song to teach me how to do it for myself, and I’m much more comfortable knowing that most of the limitations of my voice — and there are many — can be "fixed" in production.
Thus inspired, I went through all Eponymous 4 songs requiring vocals and noted the highest and lowest notes of each. My most comfortable range is from low C to D near middle C. Every song was categorized in relation to that range. If the lowest note was a B, it was considered too low. If the highest note was an E-flat, it was considered too high. In reality, I can hit those notes but not as easily as anything within range.
Songs that hit the furthest acceptable ranges — low F for bass, G near middle C for tenor — were flagged to be transposed in such a way where the extreme note would be near the comfortable range. Songs with an extremely wide range — the folly of a writer who isn’t a singer — posed the most problems. Two songs in particular were more difficult rhythmically than melodically.
And after all that analysis, the Spreadsheet was born! It really should be called the Eponymous 4 Vocal Schedule, but I’m calling it the Spreadsheet.
I’ve used the Spreadsheet in the last few days to figure out which songs I’m going to tackle first. My first inclination, like all lazy people, was to do the easiest stuff first and save the harder stuff for later. Then I dove straight into the most complex song to record — "Hear the Wind Sing". I wanted to get a benchmark of just how much work would be required to do the more challenging stuff.
When I realized it wouldn’t be that bad, I decided to go against inclination and tackle all the difficult stuff first. If I get it out of the way now, they won’t be around for wild procrastination later.
See that section of green? Those are songs that have some vocals done (not necessarily final draft vocals). The goal is to make that green section as large as possible. Not pictured is a blue section, which signifies the songs that fall in the comfortable range. The yellow sections, of course, are the more difficult songs, with the darker shades being more difficult than others.
All this organization isn’t very rock ‘n’ roll, but I’ve been putting off recording vocals for a long, long time now. I needed a picture of the work I’m facing, and the Spreadsheet illustrates it nicely.

It seems right around this time of year, I initiate a shinkyoku moratorium, when I promise to write no new material till after a certain time.
Most shinkyoku moratorium are attempts to curb my overproductivity, but this time, I’m calling one to take care of something not related at all to music. I need to get my weight under control, so I’ve started to walk the treadmill every night. It’s sufficiently time-consuming to cause potential conflict with any future creative spurts.
So I’m not going to work on music from now till after the start of the year. At that point, I’ll see how much progress I’ve made on the health front to determine whether shinkyoku moratorium needs to continue.
I’m also making the decision not to participate in NaSoAlMo this year. If I were to participate, I would want to spend every spare moment writing and recording. Right now, the weight issue is more pressing. I’m also dodging a bullet with this decision — I was seriously going to write a string quartet album, but I haven’t really studied any scores yet to prepare.
During those hours I’m not working out — or researching about losing weight — I’ll be concentrating on works currently in progress. I have far too many vocals to record, and now I have the environment to finish them.
So we’ll see how this shinkyoku moratorium turns out.

It’s usually a weird feeling hearing the sound of your own voice played back to you, but it’s probably more disturbing to hear that same voice sing.
It is for me.
I’m not a singer, so I fall into the trap of comparing my untrained vox with people who can sing. Regardless, I’ve spent the last few weeks recording vocals for a number of songs. If it weren’t for extensive editing I couldn’t sit through hearing myself.
First off, I have a hard time staying in tune. I never seem to hit a note right on, and in some cases, I can be slightly more than a half-step off. I don’t stay steady on long notes, and the nasal timbre of my voice could be considered an acquired taste.

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I’ve been procrastinating on recording vocals because so far, it’s been nothing but an exercise in frustration. But it took recording someone else singing for me to reach a few epiphanies about how it’s done.
About a week ago, OmarG asked whether he could use my studio to record some parody tracks for a Latino Comedy Project show. I gave him some disclaimers about my ability to record vocals, but he was looking for cheap, and I was free. So we took a stab.
We had a 3-minute karaoke track that had to be cut down to fit some substitute lyrics. I didn’t know if it could be done, let alone whether I could do it. But with some creative splicing and cross-fading, it was done.
Then came the vocals.

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After using the solo violin sample in Reason’s Orkester pack, I revisited a string quartet I wrote before I started college. I rerecorded it last year using some of Reason’s other string samples, and I never really liked the results.
The Orkester samples aren’t exactly the Vienna Symphonic Library, but they’re not bad. They are far and away better than the Kawai K4 arco string patch which I used when I first wrote the work. I was even reckless and bought the Reason Strings Refill. The viola in the Refill doesn’t have the same quality as the solo violin and cello in Orkester, but at least now I had something close to a real string quartet.
So I made another mix of the quartet with the Orkester samples and really liked what I heard.

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I still have one more track I’d like to record, but I think I’ve got the bulk of the next Eponymous 4 album demoed. In June, I wrote 10 or so lyrics, which I added to the five or so I wrote over the past two years. I wrote music for 12 of those lyrics, 11 of which I’ve put on the new album. Early on, I got attached to the title 「健忘症」 (Kenboushou) because it means "amnesia" in Japanese. If Onitsuka Chihiro can title her album Insomnia …
I recorded one outtake, 「光がない」, which was a bit more in the style of Revulsion than any of the other new material. I may use it in a future project, or I may relegate it to a b-side or something. I’m saving three of the lyrics I wrote for another time. The music they call for doesn’t quite fit this album.
I didn’t set out to write in an alt-country kind of style, but when I wrote two songs in that mold, I figured it was sign. But I think it was the violin and cello that dictated how the writing turned out. I liked how they sounded, and I wanted to use those instruments as much as I could. This album is also the most guitar-driven of the Eponymous 4 works. There’s maybe an organ and piano on some tracks, but there’s an acoustic guitar on just about every track.
Given the country sound of the songs, I probably shouldn’t use the Japanese titles I used for the lyrics, but I like the incongruity.
Most of all, I’m just glad there’s a new Eponymous 4 album recorded, because I was kind of getting tired of all the previous albums.
By the way, this album is the first completely new material I’ve written. Nothing on this album was commandeered from an unfinished sketch or material from the archive. That’s kind of important to me because I don’t want to keep reworking things I wrote in the past.

I think I’m writing a country album. No, really.
On Thursday night, I recorded music for "What I Deserve". The reverb on the guitar makes it sound like New Order, but the distorted guitar in the chorus keeps it from diving too deeply in New Wave. But what does it really sound like?
The following night, I did the music for 「今」, and it felt like something familiar — not exactly Caitlin Cary, but that was my first instinct. As it turned out, I was channeling Camper Van Beethoven’s "Sweethearts", and 「今」 became a country song. Hearing it together with "What I Deserve" put the latter song in a new context.
And that violin sounds kind of nice. So now I want to use it when I can.

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Approximately six months ago, I made big noises about holding off on writing new material till I’ve completely finished everything I’ve done thus far.
Well, guess what …
I blew the New Year’s resolution when I came down with a pinched nerve at the start of the year, and as for that shinkyoku moratorium? Total history. In short, I have begun writing the next soon-to-be unfinished Eponymous 4 album.
Go me!

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I went to Café Caffeine tonight to see if I could eke out one more lyric. Unfortunately, there was a crowd at a nearby table making a lot of noise. I couldn’t concentrate, and it was about an hour before that party dispersed.
Even after everything had gone quiet, I came to the realization I just didn’t have anything. When the lyric I wrote last night began with the frank assessment, "I think I’m running out of steam", I kind of knew the streak was ending.
It didn’t help that last night, I started to pluck out some melodies for these songs.
So even though I feel far short of the intended 24-26 lyrics I wanted prepared, 16 is no number to sneeze at either. I’ve got a nice cushion with which to narrow down to 12. Or I could use all 16. Just as likely, I could end up scrapping half of them and require another session of marathon writing to make up for the deficit.
Regardless, I’ve got the seeds for 16 completely new songs. This work isn’t stuff that had a genesis elsewhere — no unfinished sketches, no reworked versions. It will be the work that reflects who I am as a writer at this point of time.
Scary, isn’t it?

For this one, I actually got the help of a rhyming dictionary. I prefer not to rhyme, which is good enough reason to do so.

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