New blog for the new project

Well, it's been a while since I've been here. Honestly, I've been maintaining a blog on Myspace as well, and it got to be a little overwhelming trying to maintain two, so I've let this one slide.

But, I'm about to embark upon a new project that I'm thinking I may want to document, and my few (but loyal) Myspace blog readers might find it a bit boring. So, I'll do it here.

The new project involves some old demos and some new recording.

A few years back, when AllEyesOn had ended and Pawnshop Diamonds had yet to begin, I was in a period where I was considering what I wanted to do next musically. One thing I was considering was a project that would have been catchy guitar rock, a la Oasis or the Marvelous 3. To that end, I ended up writing some tunes, and recording some demos on my computer. This was also around the time that I had just gotten my recording software and was learning how to use it.

Fast forward a few years. Obviously I've got Pawnshop Diamonds going on right now, and obviously it's a different sounding animal than what I had on those demos. But I was listening to the demos the other day, and have decided once again that I want to do something with them.

I made a similar decision about a year ago, and had played a few times with Eric, with the intention of eventually recording them. Nothing really came of it at the time, for whatever reason. To be honest, I think I just ended up getting busy with other stuff and losing interest.

But the interest is back now. I think the tunes could potentially be pretty good if finished. Listening through them the other day, there are 6 that I'd like to get finished, 5 that sound like the aforementioned catchy guitar rock and 1 that sounds like old Kiss meets Thin Lizzy. At least to me.

So, what I've decided to do is this: I am going to try and get them finished and recorded in a form of e-collaboration. I read and post on a local music bulliten board, and I've put the call out to any members of that board that want to help me with this. And I've gotten some positive response back.

The plan: To get various people to contribute on the various instruments I will need. Drums, bass, possibly keys, and vocals. With the ease and compatibility of home recording on PC, it could make for an intersting and unique project for me. It's not a band, it's a group of musicians contributing, possibly (actually make that probably) not even playing at the same time, same room, or even same city.

Like most recordings, it would begin with drums. But once the drummer gets his tracks recorded, I can email the WAV files to whoever is playing bass to throw down his part. They can email the WAV files back to me for guitars. I can then email to whoever for vocals or keys. Etc. until the tracks are all recorded, at which point I will mix them all together.

In theory, it sounds like it could be simple, but I'm sure there are any number of aggravations and pitfalls that I will discover along the way. But what the hell, right? It's a good excuse to try something new, to "play" with some new people, and most importantly to get these songs done.

The project has already begun. I've posted the demos on the board, gotten some interest back, and have contacted a few people. The guy who expressed interest in doing the drums said he might need a few weeks for his schedule to clear, but that's fine by me. That will give me time to get prepped, not to mention find enough microphones to record a drum set. He had indicated that he would like to do the recording in his rehearsal space, and my impression is that he does not have recording gear, so I would need to bring my laptop and set up the gear myself. Problem is, I have a grand total of 3 microphones and one is not really good for recording drums. I'm hoping my buddy Fil still has some of his recording mics and that he will let me borrow them. Possibly a bribe of scotch will help grease those wheels. Anyway, I'm going to email this drummer the tracks over the weekend for him to mess around with. And then we shall see.