(Originally published on Medium)
RECORD RECORD 3
04/24/24: Our Lady of the Headphones
While listening to playback of some song or component of a song I’ve just worked on, I’m often struck with one of several feelings:
- That was brilliant! THERE IT IS!
- Oh, this is so profoundly awful, why do I bother?
- Ehh. Next.
I should note that I’m usually listening on headphones, as the other occupant of the house doesn’t need to be subjected to every ten-second audio burst that I’m examining endlessly.
The “brilliant” reaction is, of course, rare, and it’s almost always fully deflated by listening next on studio monitors. Something about the aural immersion of good headphones makes things sound wonderful to me, probably from my juvenile days of listening to Close To The Edge that way.
The “profoundly awful” bit is way more common, and it doesn’t matter how I listen. Sometimes my best efforts sound so naive and misguided, I gaze at the unfamiliar wooden thing with the metal strings in my hands and think “Now what the heck is this dang deal?”
“Next” is the most common one and in a way, the most deadly. The last thing I want is to make something so ordinary and flat-footed that there’s no real gain in listening to it.
My goal is always to make music that is engaging chiefly because it’s new and/or different. Certainly, I want it to be good to listen to on every possible level that I can manage, not just different. If I only needed to be different, I could save time by screaming into a mike for as long as I can until my larynx ruptures. Then I could say “See? No compromises here!”
I think that has been done, probably a lot, so I’ve abandoned that approach.
I was at one point dreaming of doing a whole album of material using my iPhone only, thinking that this would be unique and fun.
It’s not unique since a number of artists have done it and not just recently but even 10–12 years ago. It wouldn’t be fun, as I discovered after reading some of the serpentine techniques those people had to use.
I find I’m back having to rely on wits and questionable talent to get myself some original sounds. (As a side note regarding originality, I’m keenly aware of the tiresome comparisons that are certain to follow me into the next life, and maybe I’ll write about them at some point but not right now.)
I BOUGHT THE ALBUM, BUT I CAN’T HOLD IT IN MY HANDS? NO, GRANDPA, BUT IT’S OK. HAVE SOME SOUP.
Maybe, I muse, maybe I’ll release it on some unique format! There’s an aha moment!
It’s safe to say that I’m two thirds done with recording this stuff, though the venerable Mark may disagree. Now I must get serious about formats. How to best serve up this delicious meal?
Digital is a given. My intention is to offer it on my website as well as one of the sites that specialize in such business like Bandcamp, et al. I guess I’ll pick whichever one is less demonized by its users at the time.
I don’t intend to push it to Spotify, Apple Music and the others right away, simply because it will get lost too quickly. I want whoever is interested to have some ownership for a while and then eventually I’ll put it on streaming.
The last studio album I did which was released was called In Thrall and that was for recorded for Geffen in 1992 in LA. It had terrific production by Tony Berg, great and famous people playing on it and it got a healthy push in the market of the time. It got some decent airplay and a 4-star review in Rolling Stone. (It was pointed out to me back then that singers from established bands making their first solo albums couldn’t expect 5 stars, so I should stop whining and take the win.)
In Thrall didn’t sell well, so it ultimately drifted out of sight. I worked on the second unreleased album (the working title was Delirium, or How I Spent My Thirties) as described in my first journal entry, and then I exited showbiz.
Here’s the point: once the industry finally embraced streaming, In Thrall wasn’t included. All the Guadalcanal material is present (God bless Elektra Records/Warner Music), but not my solo album.
That same year Geffen did a sampler of its “alternative” roster and asked everyone to contribute a new or unreleased version of a song.
I had a demo of a song from In Thrall called “Allegory” which had been recorded, oddly enough, at Reflection Studios in Charlotte, NC, with my pals Don Dixon, Mark Williams and percussionist supreme Jim Brock. This I submitted for the sampler.
That sampler, DGC Rarities, has been on streaming forever so the demo of “Allegory” is the one song from that period of my music that is readily available. “Allegory” is also the one song that has been covered on albums by others.
There is a Scottish group called Rura that has a beautiful version of it, and another Scottish artist named Kris Drever has a great cover of it also. I guess his is somewhat popular in that part of the world, as I’ve seen it covered by other Scots in YouTube videos where Mr. Drever is casually credited as the writer. Cheeky Scots!
(By the way, if one looks for the song on YouTube, some of the results show a sweaty, slightly chubby guy with my name playing it live. Disregard those. He’s been… eliminated.)
WIRE YOU ASKING?
Right, digital it is, then what? Pressing plants REALLY want to sell CD runs to independent artists. Who buys CDs now, I ask? Oh, son, they’re still a huge market, they answer. Hmm, I say.
Vinyl? Yes, please! If only for my own vanity and the pleasure of once more having my efforts enshrined in a colorful 12 inch square cover with a pristine piece of plastic lying all shiny within.
Yeah, I’ll do a short collector’s run of vinyl lps. Sign up to be notified of this here.
I have always wanted to release music on obsolete formats, like 78rpm. Tom Waits did one, but he also sold players along with it. Could I? As if.
My brilliant friend Peter Holsapple released one on 8-track, which is pretty solidly cool.
WIRE. I’m thinking I’ll offer my album on wire. Magnetic wire recording predates tape by about thirty years. I occasionally collect antique recording gear and once owned a Silvertone home console wire recorder.
It looked like this.
You can still find wire machines for sale on auction sites and in junk stores, so the discerning music collector may want to start looking.
I can visualize the album: a big bespoke cardboard box with eight reels of shiny wire, each in its own little colorful sleeve, containing one song per reel.
So I choose wire. It was either that or cylinder, and cylinders are fragile. But wire? That’s extruded metal, bub. It’s here to stay.
