Thoughts on Goals

What is the difference between the current me, the five years ago me, and the ten years ago me?
I believe, besides age and hair style, the answer is Goals.
At age fifteen, I had no goals what-so-ever. I just knew that I hated school and loved music and skateboarding.
At age 20 I didn't have a specific goal, just a general discontent with practically everything. My fast food job sucked and I was bored all the time. I needed a change and that came with a new job as a maintenance worker and I started playing music with a friend pretty consistently. Things were new and that was pretty much all I wanted was some change. At age 23 I was bored again. I had a better paying and more responsible job position and I was actually in a band. Neither met my interests and neither were the path I wanted. The band was something I wanted, but the pace and the goals were as different as could be. I had to find something new and make a change.
The time came to move on and I did. More searching ensued.
Now I'm 25 and have a couple of fairly specific goals. The first one should be easily obtainable and accomplished soon. That goal is to get my Associates Degree in college.
The second goal borders on dream, and that is to somehow join or tour with The Revival Tour. To record or tour or have anything to do with Chuck Ragan and the Revival Tour. This goal doesn't have a deadline nor will it be easily obtained, but what goal is!!!???
Goals should be something to work towards, should be something lofty and just over the horizon. But that is my goal, The Revival Tour.

A month after

Well, it's been just about a month after the RPM Challenge wrapped up. What a crazy experience! The last week of February found me the busiest I think I've ever been. My head was spinning at 10Pm Feb 28th as I put the last touches on Faces before choosing the track listing and burning it to hard copy.

I honestly don't remember a time where I'd been so happy that I did fist pumps, this was that time. To hold the finished product of a months worth of time, energy, emotion, sweat, tears, words and music... the joy was pouring out of me.

I sent the CD to RPM HQ March 1st and went to work creating a few videos for some of the songs.

Only A Name

Refuse

Johnny Law

Where Do You Go?

One Big Disaster



I also edited the album down to about 7 minutes, highlighting parts of the songs, and created a collage of Faces and the documentation of the recording process.

Collage

I was happy and surprised tonight to see my collage video on the RPM main page mixed in with some other RPMers' videos. That collage was also presented to my History of Rock and Roll class a few weeks ago. My presentation was on the process of recording an album within the confines of the shortest month of the year... I got an A in the class! haha

A nice way I could summarize Faces would be something I wrote to a friend of mine, I said:

The album may have been rushed, thrown together, grossly unedited, often out of tune and out of time, but I'm so stoked about it! haha.

That's about it, for now.

Half way through

Today is officially Feb. 15. so I'm on the down slope of the month! Pressure is on but I'm still having too much fun. There are now 6 Machete Beard demos posted and one Mad Pierrot on each ones RPM site. I think there is one more song for each project not posted. Of course, these posting are without lyrics and vocals, so the songs are not even done. But with just under two weeks left I am confident that my lyrics for Mad Pierrot will come around, and fingers crossed for Machete Beard.

I've been kept super busy these past two weeks. But these final two will be even busier I'm sure, considering the amount of music still left to create and the abundance of lyrics still needed! I couldn't be happier.

New Video

I just uploaded a new video on my YouTube page MadPierrotMusic

It's a quick compilation of the first 10 days of progress for Mad Pierrot and (mostly) Machete Beard. Check it out!

I'm off to make some music...

FEB 10

I've created and uploaded 4 new songs for Machete Beard. Two were done on Sunday and two were done today! You can listen to these Demos Here. Of course, with these new songs posted, my collaborator and I have decided to tone it down a little bit (!). My TV on the Radio fix had shifted to sounding like Tool, and Devo turned into Minor Threat!



But now that I've got a couple songs for the other half of Machete Beard to ponder and write to, these next few days will be dedicated to Mad Pierrot. Which comes as a relief since I haven't recorded a single thing for that project! I do have the story pretty much down and I've been writing lyrics in my notebook. Tomorrow I will be in school All Day, so no time for creating music, and with only 18 days remaining, I'm starting to really feel the pressure!

Having said that, I can't remember a time where I've been more creative and having as much fun as I am now!



I should have a new video edited and ready pretty soon as well!

...of to bed.

Feb. 7

This tangled mess picture sums up how I'm feeling seven days into RPM.

My focus has now shifted from a decent balance between my two projects Mad Pierrot and Machete Beard, to almost entirely Machete Beard. I had a talk with my collaborator yesterday, the one who will be doing all of the lyrics. I presented him with a few different song ideas (folky, poppy, beat driven, spastic) so I could get a feel for what kind of music he's comfortable writing to. The verdict after our discussion is still kind of vague, but I've got some definite directions that I'm headed.

TV on the Radio

Blood Brothers

These Arms Are Snakes

Cursive

Maybe even some Devo

At least these are some of the thoughts I took from yesterday's talk. I've got two rough cuts done today that I'm increasingly happy about. They're still very rough around the edges but the idea is there.



This RPM Challenge certainly is just that, a challenge. But I've never been more excited and invigorated! I stay up too late making beats trying not to wake up the roommates, and my days are filled with loud guitars and constant playback over my monitors. I'm sure I'm driving everyone crazy (myself?) but it's absolutely worth it.

So these next few days will be all Machete Beard so I can send the music off to be engulfed and returned anew. Then the straightaway for Mad Pierrot!

I wish I had some songs to post but I'm still trying to figure out how to get them into MP3 format instead of WAV or AIF, the only two options I've found with Ableton Live. Also, the size of these songs is 4 times that of any other songs on my iTunes, so I've still got some work to do, but I do have a quick video posted. Although the music on it intended for Machete Beard is now scrapped in favor of something more forward moving. Oh Well.

Until Next Time!

New Video

I've uploaded a new video Here. It's just a quick little snippet of my Day 01 activities, check it out!

Oh inspiration...

I thought I'd share some things that have been inspiring me during this first week of the RPM Challenge.

I already posted some words that have been circling my head, so here's some videos I've been watching for the past few days...

For Mad Pierrot


Blind Willie Johnson

Robert Johnson

The Builders and The Butchers


For Machete Beard

Local Natives

Blak Roc

Conor Oberst

to name just a few




...and then just general every day inspiration always comes from NPR and All Songs Considered. Certain Tiny Desk Concerts like This One and This Other One have been on a steady rotation this week, and especially This Project Song (which is fitting considering that challenge and this one).

And of course Words to Live By spoken by as much of a hero as I can imagine.

My excitement continues to grow throughout this first week. I've been stretching my abilities as a songwriter, storyteller and musician. I'll post some video and sounds very soon...



Time for sleep now, dreams of songs and nightmares of latency issues await.

Feb. 4

Today is Day Four of the RPM Music Challenge. I've had two full days of school to contend with, so I really only have had two days to work on songs. I have no music to post just yet, but demo's are taking form. I've come up with some key words that keep circling around in my head:

Trainyard, railway

Fire

Water

Drought

God

Devil

Heaven

Hell

Town

Vagabond

Perhaps they are a bit standard on the surface, but I'm developing what I consider to be a unique story from these words and inspirations. I've come up with what might be about 10 minutes worth of original music if it sticks. The most difficult part is going to be not only balancing, but separating the TWO projects I'm working on for this month's RPM. The other project is called Machete Beard and I am teaming up for that one so I only have the music side of it to focus on. I've got three rough starts for that one, so we'll see where they lead.

I'm really excited for the coming weeks and I am feeling very confident for both Mad Pierrot and Machete Beard. I've been documenting this journey daily with pictures and videos which I will hopefully edit together this weekend between homework and recording/writing to have something cool to post on the YouTube page.