"A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct."
-Frank Herbert from "Dune"
I should probably start this out by saying that I am not the most disciplined person you will ever meet, in fact I'm pretty far from it. I was once disciplined enough to start a band named Mr. Gavin's Meat Farm though, and it's about damn time that I become disciplined enough to do more with it. See, I can come up with plenty of ideas for albums, songs, creative ways to release albums, and Andy Kaufman inspired ways to promote the band, but rarely (read: never) do these things actually get done. The last thing that I released for Mr. Gavin's Meat Farm was in 2011, and while I'm very proud of what I wrote for that EP, I know the ideas that I have now are better... in my head at least.
The RPM album in a month challenge is something that I have been curious about doing for a while. In the past I have done 1 Day Albums, where (much as the title suggests) you write and record an album in a day. The results of those were sometimes great, othertimes cringe worthy, but always very interesting. In a way, I think the 1 Day Album will prove to be easier than the RPM challenge. The time constraint of a 24 hour period doesn't allow for really any editing or doubting of whatever you are writing, you are just striving to get the whole thing written, recorded and mixed within the alloted time. By comparison, a month is an eternity to doubt yourself, grow to hate your ideas, endlessly tinker with grooves and sounds, and generally lose yourself in the details.
That I suppose is why I haven't really completed any of these larger ideas that I have had within the past 4 years, I'll sit down to flesh them out and an hour later I'm lost messing with reverb levels on my highest tom before I've even written the chorus.
I'm going about writing these tunes in a way that I haven't really done before. I'm writing the lyrics out before I even start seriously thinking about the music that will be under them. I'm doing this for two reasons:
1. This is going to be a concept album loosely based on Shia LeBeuf's appearance at a film fest where he wore a bag on his head. I want the lyrics to have some sense of cohesion from song to song, and I feel like writing them out first and building the song around them is the way to go.
2. I'm having an easier time coming up with lyrical ideas, and a harder time with musical ones at the moment.
I must admit, even as I sit here writing this (it's 10:45PM on February, 5th 2015) I am worried that I won't finish this album, however I do feel confident that I am going to do everything that I can to finish it. It should be noted that I have a history of coming around to not liking what I'm writing, becoming convinced that I just don't have the inspiration at the moment to write anything, then poping over to Netflix to see what's new. I'm sure this is a common problem amongst songwriters (at least I hope it is...). With this RPM challenge I'm hoping to find ways to motivate myself to stick to my guns and power through those moments, I'll report back next week if I find anything that works.
Well, it's been lovely speaking to you. I'm going to do a bit more work on a few lyrics before I head to bed. For those of you also doing the RPM, I wish you the best of luck!