FAWM. Day 9.

You wouldn't even believe me if I tell you about the day I had.

I made a conscious decision to keep music-making at the fringes and concentrate on some daily tasks that I've been putting off for days. Made a list of fifteen things and achieved 12 or 13 of them. Lots of crazy running around in unfamiliar parts of Brooklyn.

Oh, and at some point, I ended up at Hooters.

(Celebrating a friend's birthday...with chicken wings!)

Crazy.

Them Crooked Vultures rocked the world last night. They are worthy of worship.

I hope to be snowed in tomorrow, so that I can write and write. Two for my producer. Two for FAWM.

(Four songs...is that realistic?)

(Dunno.)

j.

FAWM. Day 8. The First Song.

I've recorded it.

However, there are about 20 tracks, and I have to put stuff in place.

Not right now, though.

Right now I'm going to Roseland to have my face rocked off by Them Crooked Vultures!

Rawk.

j.

FAWM. Day 7.

There was a game or something tonight?

I also wrote what will be my first FAWM song. Spent a bloody hour trying to find the (mostly) right drum loop. Time to turn on the Cubase and get crackin'.

I also worked up a skeleton for a demo for my producer. Took another bloody hour to figure out that the guitar is capoed at the fourth fret and the low string is dropped yet another half step. Usually I'm really good at documenting these things. Not that day, apparently.

Here we go.
j.

FAWM. Day 6.

Missed yesterday. Hate that.

But, I did get four songs in something of a state for my producer. Got a great reaction from each of them. The thing I was sure, sure, sure was a cheesy-wanna-be-Tegan-and-Sara song he though was the one of the most straight-ahead rock songs I've ever written.

Hm.

Four is probably a reasonable amount of songs for a week's work.

I'm all set up for another four next week.

Wanna try to get a few FAWM songs done this weekend as well. But it's second priority, really.

j.

FAWM. Day 4.

Worked on songs for producer today.

Deadline tomorrow.

I won't have six songs, am shooting for four. It's proving devilish hard to be satisfied with lyrics. Even dummy lyrics. These are the dummiest of dummy lyrics. It's *so* unsatifying. Is this going to work?

Have a bunch of songs mapped out for FAWM though. Will get started FAWMing on Saturday.

j.

FAWM. Day 3.

Oh god. I am way down in it.

Way.

Down.

I've basically been in the same position all day, on an inverted piano stool, using a dresser as a desk. I've got a guitar to one side of me, loop CDs playing from the computer, About 18 word files full of lyrics open at once. My cat is desperately trying to find a (nonexistent) comfortable position on my lap, trying to get in on this action.

As soon as I'm done typing this sentence, I will have to grab her and place her elsewhere.

I am schizophrenic loon today, mentally hopping from song to song to song to song to song. I mapped out a potential FAWM menu, which will include a few repurposed lyrics. The time for trying new things, for listening through loops, is over, I think. Now I have to execute.

In the midst of it all, I'm trying to get 6 songs together for my producer on Friday. In my left-brainedness I created a list for that, too. And I am going down it, in order. Part of my mind wants to jump around, complete the close-to-done songs first.

If I do that, I will jump around forever, and ever. No. Go down the list in order.

Two verses and two choruses is enough. Go back and finish later. Just do a map, a rough sketch.

Erm. That was me, to myself.

I haven't really been able to listen much to people's songs. I'm feeling a bit removed from the community this year, I think. Although I did spend some of last night blathering on Charlie's radio show when he had technical difficulties. I don't have Charlie's cool radio show guy demeanor. I'm sure it sounded wrong.

Anyhow.

I'm shaping up song #3 for my producer. I barely have anything for it. I'm trying to come up with some words that won't make me wretch, and it's really difficult. I'm just filling lines at the moment. Sometimes, though, that causes me to hit on something good. So I'm just trying to trust in process right now.

Trust the process. John Taylor (from Duran Duran) has a good song about that. Called Trust the Process.

Hm.
j.

FAWM. Day 2.

Yesterday was a bit nuts.

I sat down to write and *all* *this* *stuff* came out.

Loop CDs are amazing. A few years ago I spent a pretty penny on a few. And they have stood me in very good stead. Yesterday I just picked a few samples at random, and came up with a few workable FAWM ideas! Woot!

Having too many ideas can be as bad for me as not having any, though.

It's early: 8:30am. I am giving priority today to the work I'm doing with my producer. Going to solidify a couple of song structures, and see if I can fill in a few lyric holes.

There's no singing anyway. I still sound froggy and ill. But it might just be time to create guitar tracks.

Hm.

Guitar,
Jul

FAWM. Day 1.

I am sick.

I'm coughing up a rainbow assortment of mucus. My head is swimming in sinus.

I'm not sure what's going to happen for FAWM this year. I am writing for a new record, and that FAWMy, try-anything energy might oppose the very deliberate approach I'm taking for the record. But we'll see. There's so much songstuff floating around, I might be able to pull something out.

I'm back in Brooklyn (after a month spent in Florida) and bouncing around like a jumping bean. I've started a series of weekly meetings with my producer, and I've promised a sizable amount of output each week. The songs don't even have to be complete, just sketched out. This is a very different way of working for me, I tend to let things sit. For months. Or years. Until I feel like they're done.

Because everything is on the table right now, sound, direction, etc., I feel like it's more important to cycle through the ideas in a tangible way, and then pick what is the most compelling. This forces me to get it all down, and to lose my worries about allowing someone to hear something nascent or premature.

For now though, I will toast the arrival of February with a cup of peach flavored green tea.

j.