I have a pretty big stack of demos and unfinished bits (mostly without vocals) sitting around waiting to be finished. A lot of them will probably make it onto the new album. But I've been waiting for the magic track that kick-starts everything. The one that gives me the motivation and framing to tie everything together and make the next disc.
Saturday night, that song happened. Only I didn't know it at the time. I mean, I put in a couple of hours laying down rhythm guitar and a drum beat, but when I came back to it the next day everything sounded cluttered and basic. Nothing like what I'd heard the night before. Still, I figured I'd play with it. Why waste a half-way decent track?
I ended up spending most of Sunday working on that track. I added verse vocals, more guitar, and a solo. I tightened the mix, exported it, and then tightened some more. Come Monday morning, I'd already listened to that song a few dozen times on repeat. I worked on it before work. I returned to it after work. Now, it's time to give it a little rest.
The song is called Ascertain This. It's definitely going to be on the new album.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
Revised version of Crystal Clear
Earlier, I recorded a song for a contest, called "Crystal Clear." Well, I did some playing with it after the contest was over, and decided to upload the revised version to Bandcamp. If you're looking for something to listen to, check it out. This track will probably end up on the new album in one form or another.
New album title
Well, I think I've finally settled on a title for the new album:
The Man Forgotten
I'm shooting for 15 tracks on this one. I want it to be huge.
The Man Forgotten
I'm shooting for 15 tracks on this one. I want it to be huge.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Back after a little break
I've been wrapped up in freelance work (graphic design) lately, so I haven't had as much time to focus on my music or writing about my music. But I'm coming up for air a little, and I figured now was as good a time as any to chime in.
Today, I grabbed a new domain: www.ianmarquismusic.com. I've got my Bandcamp page pointing there now (though you can still go to ianmarquis.bandcamp.com and see the same site - it's a mirror), and as you may have noticed, this blog is now residing at blog.ianmarquismusic.com. It makes it easier for people to find me, and also gives me a little more control over my web presence. I like both of those things.
In other news, I've got a ton of demo songs in the hopper, and a lot of them are sounding very good. A little dance, a little industrial, and a whole lot of rock.
Stay tuned - I'll keep you posted.
Today, I grabbed a new domain: www.ianmarquismusic.com. I've got my Bandcamp page pointing there now (though you can still go to ianmarquis.bandcamp.com and see the same site - it's a mirror), and as you may have noticed, this blog is now residing at blog.ianmarquismusic.com. It makes it easier for people to find me, and also gives me a little more control over my web presence. I like both of those things.
In other news, I've got a ton of demo songs in the hopper, and a lot of them are sounding very good. A little dance, a little industrial, and a whole lot of rock.
Stay tuned - I'll keep you posted.
Friday, February 4, 2011
The State of the Album
I've been doing a lot of work on tracks for the new album lately. No secure title for the disc yet, but I'm toying around with calling it "The Bastard" to go along with the naming convention of the first two.
Here's what I've got so far:
Shatter - This is a heavy, straight-ahead rock song with huge guitars. The arrangement is basically done, save for the bridge.
Killing Time - A 70s rock style song, with drums that depart from my usual 80s "big sound." The arrangement is close to finished, and I'm starting to work on vocal ideas. I need to add a few more elements to the mix.
She Plays - A lower-key rock song with throbbing feedback and synths in the background. I've got a verse and chorus, but no bridge or outro.
Take 30 - An off-kilter song from my recording sessions for The Solomon Project. It needs some work, but I'm liking it so far.
Sick Like Me - The verse and chorus instrumentals are done on this track, which I recorded before I started doing The Shivers. It's very dense.
Waiting For The Rain - An instrumental bit I arranged a few years back. I really like it, despite its simplicity, and I think it might sneak onto the disc as a bonus track.
Only In Your Dreams - This instrumental was recorded for The Solomon Project, but I never really finished it. I'm thinking of writing some new changes and fixing it up.
Halo Black - This one started with lyrics, and I have a rough arrangement, but nothing final yet.
Friends Like These - I wrote the riff for this song in an afternoon. I like it, but I'm not sure it will ever see the light of day. But maybe...it's a really cool riff. More melodic than my usual.
Serial - I have been meaning to finish this song since it was part of the original lineup for The Solomon Project. It sounds like a kick in the face, and I think it's time to record a bridge and outro and write some new lyrics.
...and beyond that, there are a dozen or more demos lying around that might suddenly explode into finished tracks. Plus the songs I haven't written yet.
Here's what I've got so far:
Shatter - This is a heavy, straight-ahead rock song with huge guitars. The arrangement is basically done, save for the bridge.
Killing Time - A 70s rock style song, with drums that depart from my usual 80s "big sound." The arrangement is close to finished, and I'm starting to work on vocal ideas. I need to add a few more elements to the mix.
She Plays - A lower-key rock song with throbbing feedback and synths in the background. I've got a verse and chorus, but no bridge or outro.
Take 30 - An off-kilter song from my recording sessions for The Solomon Project. It needs some work, but I'm liking it so far.
Sick Like Me - The verse and chorus instrumentals are done on this track, which I recorded before I started doing The Shivers. It's very dense.
Waiting For The Rain - An instrumental bit I arranged a few years back. I really like it, despite its simplicity, and I think it might sneak onto the disc as a bonus track.
Only In Your Dreams - This instrumental was recorded for The Solomon Project, but I never really finished it. I'm thinking of writing some new changes and fixing it up.
Halo Black - This one started with lyrics, and I have a rough arrangement, but nothing final yet.
Friends Like These - I wrote the riff for this song in an afternoon. I like it, but I'm not sure it will ever see the light of day. But maybe...it's a really cool riff. More melodic than my usual.
Serial - I have been meaning to finish this song since it was part of the original lineup for The Solomon Project. It sounds like a kick in the face, and I think it's time to record a bridge and outro and write some new lyrics.
...and beyond that, there are a dozen or more demos lying around that might suddenly explode into finished tracks. Plus the songs I haven't written yet.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
I guess I do things a little differently
I was talking with a fellow musician last summer when he said something that gave me pause. I'd never really thought about it before, and I guess I'd just assumed I created music in the usual way - nothing really out of the ordinary.
"What's the first thing you do when you get ready to mix-down?" He asked.
My answer? "I don't mix-down." He seemed confused, and went into a description of how he prepares a recording session for his final mix: stripping everything down to the bare bones and building it back up again. This guy went to school for audio engineering, so I know his method is sound. It's mine that's "incorrect."
But anyway, I don't mix-down. I build up.
When I get a song idea - usually a guitar riff - I open my DAW and lay out a click track. Usually it's just a kick and hat beat, 4/4, at whatever tempo feels right to me. I record a couple of rhythm guitar tracks, clean them up, and import them. Immediately, I start working on production ideas. Before I've ever written the chorus, or the vocals, I'm playing with textures and effects. I build the song up until it's as big as I can get it. Then, I add other elements. Maybe I need to pull back on the guitars once I add the vocals. Maybe the drums need some pumping up once I add a proper bass line. But I always build up - never strip down.
And I cannibalize. A lot. I'll slice bits and pieces from my guitar lines and use them in other parts of the song as texture. I'll grab snippets of feedback and noise, flip them around, and use them as transitions. Sometimes, I'll cobble together a whole new riff from previously distant lines. I did that in Girl's Got Altitude: the verse you hear is a combination of the original verse riff and the muted "flicks" from the chorus guitars. Then, on the second pass of the verse, I let the original riff play out as recorded. Sometimes I like to edit parts together in a way I can't really play. I did that in Break, to fill in some empty spaces between riffs. You'll probably never catch it, though - it's subtle.
I guess my point is that I do things differently. Mostly because I was never taught the correct way. I treat audio files the same way I do design (my day job): objects to be sliced, arranged, and cobbled together into a perfect whole.
And sometimes, I don't even know what that will be until I'm hitting "export."
"What's the first thing you do when you get ready to mix-down?" He asked.
My answer? "I don't mix-down." He seemed confused, and went into a description of how he prepares a recording session for his final mix: stripping everything down to the bare bones and building it back up again. This guy went to school for audio engineering, so I know his method is sound. It's mine that's "incorrect."
But anyway, I don't mix-down. I build up.
When I get a song idea - usually a guitar riff - I open my DAW and lay out a click track. Usually it's just a kick and hat beat, 4/4, at whatever tempo feels right to me. I record a couple of rhythm guitar tracks, clean them up, and import them. Immediately, I start working on production ideas. Before I've ever written the chorus, or the vocals, I'm playing with textures and effects. I build the song up until it's as big as I can get it. Then, I add other elements. Maybe I need to pull back on the guitars once I add the vocals. Maybe the drums need some pumping up once I add a proper bass line. But I always build up - never strip down.
And I cannibalize. A lot. I'll slice bits and pieces from my guitar lines and use them in other parts of the song as texture. I'll grab snippets of feedback and noise, flip them around, and use them as transitions. Sometimes, I'll cobble together a whole new riff from previously distant lines. I did that in Girl's Got Altitude: the verse you hear is a combination of the original verse riff and the muted "flicks" from the chorus guitars. Then, on the second pass of the verse, I let the original riff play out as recorded. Sometimes I like to edit parts together in a way I can't really play. I did that in Break, to fill in some empty spaces between riffs. You'll probably never catch it, though - it's subtle.
I guess my point is that I do things differently. Mostly because I was never taught the correct way. I treat audio files the same way I do design (my day job): objects to be sliced, arranged, and cobbled together into a perfect whole.
And sometimes, I don't even know what that will be until I'm hitting "export."
Saturday, January 15, 2011
On progression, production, and old demos
Before I recorded The Solomon Project, I used to churn out instrumental rock songs. Starting in either 2004 or 2005 (I can't really remember, to be honest), I began using FL Studio to arrange bits of guitar I recorded. Prior to that, I was writing predominantly piano pieces (also in FL - at the time it was Fruity Loops). I don't even really play piano, but I enjoy arranging it.
Anyway, I had finally gotten good enough at guitar to think about recording my ideas. A visit with my cousin in Washington DC where we jammed on acoustic guitar for hours in my aunt's basement left me feeling inspired, and I started writing guitar songs. After a few, I decided they belonged in an album. I recorded 10 songs in all, and called the set "Behind Closed Doors. The songs were sludgy and heavy (I played all the parts in Drop C, on flat-wound strings, so the guitar was thick with little top end). I was pretty stoked about the results, and showed my friends when went back to college in the fall.
But before a few weeks had passed, something happened: I recorded a better song. It was bluesy, clean, crisp - everything the first album was not. I knew it belonged on a different album. That song was House of Cards. The instrumental version I wrote back in 2005 bears little sonic resemblance to the version on The Shivers, but the parts were all there. It was the best song I'd ever written. I needed to do more.
And I did. My next demo album, "Waiting for Daylight," was shorter than the first one (because I ran out of ideas and wanted it done), but the production was far better than Behind Closed Doors. One of the songs, Insincerity, wound up on my EP "Just a Chill" nearly five years later with only minor production tweaks - all the audio and arrangement is from my original recording session.
Back in college that fall, I immediately began recording more songs. I was starting to develop a more progressive sound, with longer songs and more complicated arrangements. My next demo album was called "Shiver" (which is where I got the inspiration for my latest album title). The longest song on that album was an epic track called "Bleed Dry." When I wrote it, I was never happy with the production. It was just too muddy, and ruined what I thought was an amazing song. Four years later, I remixed all the original audio files, added new drum parts, and included it as the final song on The Solomon Project. I'm still very proud of that song.
Without even pausing, I got to work on the next album. This one, called "Father of Faces," was going to be my most complicated to date. I knew that before I even started writing it. My production skills had improved a lot since the first album, and my arrangements were growing in depth - some songs had as many as 8 layered guitar parts. Of course, sometimes that backfired and left me with an incoherent mess. Those songs I never finished. They rotted on my hard drive. Some day I'll dig out my old backup CDs and listen to those tracks again. But the songs I did finish were some of my best. One of them, an off-kilter, dissonant track called "Red Line," I recently gutted and re-arranged as "Redline" on The Shivers. The new track has a radically different arrangement, thicker guitar parts (but the originals are still there), and a techno-type outro in place of the original (which used the same drums and guitar as the rest of the song).
In 2006 I graduated from college. My parents gave me a new amp, and I moved into an apartment with some friends. This allowed me to begin recording using a mic'ed amp (in the past, I had been using an RP200A effects pedal plugged directly into my computer). After a few false starts (mostly figuring out EQ for the amp), I started recording "Heather's Last Breath." I originally wanted it to be a concept album about the life and death of a girl, but that never actually happened. Instead, I recorded a dozen tracks that I was happy with and called it a day. I haven't revisited any of those songs for a while, but they're really solid - so I know I will eventually.
By my next album, "Season Red Eye," I was starting to get burned out. My songs were getting more and more complicated, but I was losing my inspiration. I needed to do something different, but I wasn't sure what that would be. Still, I pressed on. I started trying electronic sounds, mixing up my usual rock and piano mix with pounding dance tracks. Two of the resulting songs, "Press" and "Holiday," eventually found their way onto Just a Chill as "Pressure Plate" and "Holiday 1999" respectively. I moved, and in the shuffle stopped recording for several months. I was pretty discouraged, and unsure of how to restart my creativity.
In 2007, I had a brief stint in a three-piece band called Cappadocia (with two friends from my job). We recorded three songs, and then life happened. We drifted apart. But that experience left me with new ideas. I gained a greater appreciation for dissonance and odd chord combinations, and was continually recording song ideas. Eventually, I started working on my next demo album. Called "Bastard Buffet," it was easily the best thing I'd done to date. The songs flowed readily, and some of the arrangements came together in only an evening or two. The first three tracks on The Solomon Project, "Break," "Candy," and "Girls," all came from Bastard Buffet. So did "(Shhh) Don't Tell." Girls was the first vocal song I ever recorded. The version you hear on the album is very close to my original demo (all the audio tracks are from the demo, in fact). The other three changed relatively little, other than the addition of vocals and the shuffling of a few parts to improve the arrangements.
In 2008, I move to Trenton for a new job. Thing in my life became rough, and I turned to music as a release. The result was The Solomon Project. The rest of the story is still being written.
Anyway, I had finally gotten good enough at guitar to think about recording my ideas. A visit with my cousin in Washington DC where we jammed on acoustic guitar for hours in my aunt's basement left me feeling inspired, and I started writing guitar songs. After a few, I decided they belonged in an album. I recorded 10 songs in all, and called the set "Behind Closed Doors. The songs were sludgy and heavy (I played all the parts in Drop C, on flat-wound strings, so the guitar was thick with little top end). I was pretty stoked about the results, and showed my friends when went back to college in the fall.
But before a few weeks had passed, something happened: I recorded a better song. It was bluesy, clean, crisp - everything the first album was not. I knew it belonged on a different album. That song was House of Cards. The instrumental version I wrote back in 2005 bears little sonic resemblance to the version on The Shivers, but the parts were all there. It was the best song I'd ever written. I needed to do more.
And I did. My next demo album, "Waiting for Daylight," was shorter than the first one (because I ran out of ideas and wanted it done), but the production was far better than Behind Closed Doors. One of the songs, Insincerity, wound up on my EP "Just a Chill" nearly five years later with only minor production tweaks - all the audio and arrangement is from my original recording session.
Back in college that fall, I immediately began recording more songs. I was starting to develop a more progressive sound, with longer songs and more complicated arrangements. My next demo album was called "Shiver" (which is where I got the inspiration for my latest album title). The longest song on that album was an epic track called "Bleed Dry." When I wrote it, I was never happy with the production. It was just too muddy, and ruined what I thought was an amazing song. Four years later, I remixed all the original audio files, added new drum parts, and included it as the final song on The Solomon Project. I'm still very proud of that song.
Without even pausing, I got to work on the next album. This one, called "Father of Faces," was going to be my most complicated to date. I knew that before I even started writing it. My production skills had improved a lot since the first album, and my arrangements were growing in depth - some songs had as many as 8 layered guitar parts. Of course, sometimes that backfired and left me with an incoherent mess. Those songs I never finished. They rotted on my hard drive. Some day I'll dig out my old backup CDs and listen to those tracks again. But the songs I did finish were some of my best. One of them, an off-kilter, dissonant track called "Red Line," I recently gutted and re-arranged as "Redline" on The Shivers. The new track has a radically different arrangement, thicker guitar parts (but the originals are still there), and a techno-type outro in place of the original (which used the same drums and guitar as the rest of the song).
In 2006 I graduated from college. My parents gave me a new amp, and I moved into an apartment with some friends. This allowed me to begin recording using a mic'ed amp (in the past, I had been using an RP200A effects pedal plugged directly into my computer). After a few false starts (mostly figuring out EQ for the amp), I started recording "Heather's Last Breath." I originally wanted it to be a concept album about the life and death of a girl, but that never actually happened. Instead, I recorded a dozen tracks that I was happy with and called it a day. I haven't revisited any of those songs for a while, but they're really solid - so I know I will eventually.
By my next album, "Season Red Eye," I was starting to get burned out. My songs were getting more and more complicated, but I was losing my inspiration. I needed to do something different, but I wasn't sure what that would be. Still, I pressed on. I started trying electronic sounds, mixing up my usual rock and piano mix with pounding dance tracks. Two of the resulting songs, "Press" and "Holiday," eventually found their way onto Just a Chill as "Pressure Plate" and "Holiday 1999" respectively. I moved, and in the shuffle stopped recording for several months. I was pretty discouraged, and unsure of how to restart my creativity.
In 2007, I had a brief stint in a three-piece band called Cappadocia (with two friends from my job). We recorded three songs, and then life happened. We drifted apart. But that experience left me with new ideas. I gained a greater appreciation for dissonance and odd chord combinations, and was continually recording song ideas. Eventually, I started working on my next demo album. Called "Bastard Buffet," it was easily the best thing I'd done to date. The songs flowed readily, and some of the arrangements came together in only an evening or two. The first three tracks on The Solomon Project, "Break," "Candy," and "Girls," all came from Bastard Buffet. So did "(Shhh) Don't Tell." Girls was the first vocal song I ever recorded. The version you hear on the album is very close to my original demo (all the audio tracks are from the demo, in fact). The other three changed relatively little, other than the addition of vocals and the shuffling of a few parts to improve the arrangements.
In 2008, I move to Trenton for a new job. Thing in my life became rough, and I turned to music as a release. The result was The Solomon Project. The rest of the story is still being written.
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