LOL … i can hear Lindsay playing “Day 94” through my floor. For those just catching on, Lindsay is one of my roommates – she lives directly below me. She will be heading up the guest commentary on the right side of the log. It’s funny, because it’s the first song i’ve ever recorded in my room with full quality digitally mixed sound, so it actually sounds like i’m in her room singing live. It was definitely a bit disorienting at first.
Dear god, we’re almost at hour #2, aren’t we?
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Day 94 was a hard song to write, and it continues to be a hard song to sing. I wrote it as random scribbles on the back of a concert playbill i had in my pocket while i was waiting in a doctor’s office. Random enough? The inspiration was as much anything that song refers to as it was the fact that i was due to have my tonsils removed by said doctor within two weeks; i felt as though i hadn’t made good use of my voice for a while and wanted to work on something new before i has things taken out of my throat by surgical force.
Having written the first draft of the lyrics on it, the playbill then found its way to my floor – where it stayed for two weeks until i read them to Elise one night. I don’t remember the entire chain of events, but a few hours later i came out with the revised and arranged song that kicked off today’s event. It’s still rather young and rough around the edges (and has oh-so-many lyrics to squeeze in), but i definitely like it already.
For me Blogathon is a study in controlling chaos.
Last year when i agreed to make twenty-five recordings to post over a twenty-four hour span the task seemed impossibly daunting, and it got even more daunting when i got locked out of my school’s recording studio with only six songs recorded. But, it was never really the songs i was worried about, evidenced by the fact that in the end i exceeded my original estimate by twenty-nine. I don’t remember what i ate, or how i got to sleep the day before, or how i kept all 54 of the songs organized on my hard drive. What i do remember is that finishing was never a question: i had the songs, i had the drive, i had a cause, i had friends to keep me awake, and i had a final song to debut.
Though i could hardly claim to be surprised by the chaotic nature of the events surrounding my entry into the ‘thon this year, i could have hardly predicted that it would wind up like this. There is no ace-in-the-hole final song, no trio of intrepid bloggers to rely on for humor in the dead of the night. There is a cause that i’ve had to defend to multiple friends and acquaintances, and a general air of weariness. And then there are the songs.
I finished half of my recording by Tuesday and took a day’s break to rest my voice. Then i took a break to shop for a microphone. Then i took a break to wait to pick up my new 4-track mixer. Then i quickly broke from my break when i returned my mixer due to it being a piece of crap. And then i broke again today to set up my new 8-track mixer, which is here to stay. The results are a heaping pile of the easy songs, recorded in every possibly iteration : into one microphone, with stereo boost, with amplification, through the mixer, through the mixer with less treble. But, that heaping pile sifts down to something like twelve songs when it comes right down to what i’m willing to present to the god-knows-how-many people may or may not wander through here today. With leaves me thirteen left to record, some of which are scheduled to be posted in a matter of hours.
Chaos. I don’t have anything to eat, i’m tired, and i only have half of my songs recorded. However, i am blogging for a charity i honestly believe in and have been affected by, i have over half a dozen guests stopping by to lend their talents to my cause, and i have a will to get this done. After all, no one said it would be easy. It should be noted, though, that everyone says it will be fun.
Rock on.
Blogathon: 1/24 – Day 94
1/24 - Day 94
written by peter m. and elise w.
I haven’t read Ken in at least a year, but the four posts on his page right now are of both LOL and thought-provoking quality, and you should read them while i go to bed.