Worked until past 9pm, mostly on Teenage Dream, which sounds good. I found it hard to switch off, and stomach pain and nervous energy kept me awake until about 6am, so a day of a semi-wakeful state. Hard to remain motivated in such circumstances, but made a rational list of jobs and worked though them irrespective of my temperament. The difference between a professional and an amateur is that a professional must work whether he or she feels like it or not.
Recorded guitar solos for Always in the Morning and Teenage Dream. It seems a lot of these songs have guitar solos, perhaps the joy of using this relatively new instrument, but of course I work on what is new to learn playing, learn live recording, and other things. Perhaps I need more piano or synth solos for musical variety.
I added a lot more to Teenage Dreams. The ending is somewhat morose, I broke it up into something slow and strange and today added a bluesy solo. I'm unsure about the general musicality because it is somewhat discordant. I used the factor to break into a pleasant recapitulation of the chorus, which I faded by low-pass filter to silence, an indication of memory. I've changed some words too... from:
...is she one of those dreams
I will hold
for the next forty years
to
...is she one of those dreams
I will hold
in the cold
when I'm cold
Which is more timeless. The song appears to be complete apart from vocals. The production is somewhat like Tony Visconti's work on Breaking Glass, there's an energetic new-wave power to it. The guitars ache to add more feeling to the synths; this is so difficult. Everything I play is really expressive, and so little ends up being captured or recorded. I must keep trying.
I also added the new, slower, vocals to Passive Aggressive, these work well now, but I'm unsure of the music in the verses. Originally I had just bass, but this was a little thin. New electric pianos add weight, but the odd melody of major and minor, with its jaunty rhythm like the old Odd Couple theme, is oddly ugly sounding... or is it simply new and interesting? One of my rules is if I find myself remembering it or humming it, it must be good, but can't we also remember and hum ugly sounds?
Tonight I've started production on a new song called Be My Jesus. Today's tiredness is making me doubt the whole project, but it remains, certainly, better than my previous music. Even if only as training, this is worth doing. I'm improving in production, singing and guitar playing with each passing week and each new project. It's been a transformative two years for my music skills.
My brother is staying overnight before he goes to London, so we'll both be there next Tuesday. I don't know if we will meet up.
Onwards I roll my eternal rock. I must work until this is complete. Each song seems to take 4 days or so. 40-days and 40-nights. A biblical album.
