S3E05
A veiled moan about procrastination and introducing the shows new theme for 2020!Links:
Bullet Journal Video
Quarterly zine; my gift to you ✉️
Sounds Like It’s Synthwave
So Brexit is done which means the noisy Brexit anthem that I made for Season Two is also now retired. It’s just a statistical fact that most of you listening to this weird little podcast of mine joined sometime in 2019, so unless you did the deep dive when you first subscribed you may not have even heard season one’s chip tune theme song. I would totally encourage you to go back and listen to some of the episodes from 2018 tho. Not just because i’m hungry for downloads but because there are some real gems in there that I really enjoyed making. But they have like a fifth of the total listens that more recent episodes get.
It probably won’t surprise you to learn however, that I got quite a bit of stick from friends who had been listening since season one when i changed over to the Brexit Anthem for season 2.
Tbh I actually thought it was MORE representative of me and my personality than a catchy chiptune track, but apparently I’m wrong about that.
Anyway. I was really struggling with what to do for the new theme for season three. The need to write a new theme was looming as much as Brexit day itself was.
I could have just nicked something from the unfinished music pile I have here on my Hard Drive. But I recently made some background music for the bullet journal walkthrough video I posted on my youtube channel last month. It was cool to just make something and then push it out.
As I always work much better with a list of things to do that is in front of me or when I have a clear brief. So I asked on twitter what kind of new theme music I should make. The results came back: ZERO % votes for chiptune, More noise at 10%, A Jingle came in at 30% but the overall winner was 80’s synth wave storming home with 60% of the votes.
So, Synthwave it is then. I sat down for one hour last night with renoise. I must admit I didn’t make any of the instruments from scratch yesterday, but they have all been made by me at some point in the past. So without any more fanfare let’s see how far I got:
This is Episode 20-05 of 301 – Permanently Moved, a personal podcast 301 seconds in length. Written, recorded and edited in one hour by me @thejaymo
🎶 MUSIC 🎶
Well there you go. The new theme for 2020. I don’t think it sounds too bad after an hour of work. I also don’t think it sounds ‘amazing ’ either. There’s a laundry list of things that i still want to work on:
The little drum kick intro needs to be humanised. The last snare is actually way early on the beat which I already tweaked, but it all still sounds too robotic. I want that to be the main moment after I finish the normal episode introduction. So it really stands out after I’ve said my name.
I’m also unhappy with where the kick and snares sit in the mix, they’re way too loud at the moment.
I also want to change the arpeggiated pattern on that main pluck saw sound as it’s a bit boring for now.
I still need to add hats and some symbols on the drums. I need to also go back in and tweak the envelopes on the pads and perhaps most importantly of all – write a melody.
But for today that’s as far as i got inside an hour. I’m going to continue to work on it, so you should hear how the intro changes and evolves over the coming weeks until it’s done.
I really tend to only write or make sketches of things when I’m making music on my laptop. I spend so long working on something and then step away from it to do something else. I always intend to go back to but never do. So many discarded tunes projects.
I have a whole synth wave EP I was working on last summer but never finished. Even though I enjoyed working on it a lot. You might remember the track I posted at the end of one of the episodes last year.
I also have a 3 part Tim Hecker Ravedeath inspired SLASH RIPOFF thing. A triptych to Saint Patrick, St Anthony and St Christopher which I sunk a lot of hours into but then stepped away from as it was sounding a little too much like it was nearly finished and I started to question if it was any good or not.
Sometimes I think the only person that thinks having so many unfinished things on my laptop is acceptable is probably myself. Things just keep piling up and I just can only get like 10% of them over the wall and on to the net.
I’ve recently joined a genuine IRL band for the first time in a long long time and I’m really enjoying it. It’s because I’m working with others. Sketches HAVE to get turned into fully formed songs with a start middle and end. You have to iterate internally within the piece to mould it and shape it. Plus every time you play it though you get tighter as a group and play it better.
We’ve only had 2 practices so far but it’s been really interesting to me just how inspired I am by the whole thing. I have never really been a solo creator or musician. I’ve always been about collaboration and building boats for rising tides. It’s actually a little surprising to me how much of my identity is tied up in being a musician at heart. How good it feels to have weekly band practice in the diary. To go to it. Make music as a group, be pleased with what you did and where something was three hours before and where it is now.
But as I say here every six months or so.
Execute. ‘Finish what I start’ are two goals I have at the top of my goals list for 2020 in my notebook. I’m really struggling this year to fall into the regular rhythm and routine of working for myself and at home. I have things to do. And they arn’t getting done fast enough or at all.
I work in sprints. the pomodoro technique but for my entire life.
So i’m going to put out the theme song for this year as a track on youtube when its quote unquote ‘finished’. I hope you continue to listen and see how it evolves over the coming weeks.
Subscribing to SSRZ supports my online work and creative projects.
As a thank you, I send you my zine four times a year, just like it’s 1994.
No spam. No email. Cancel at any time.
Leave a Reply