the hurry gain

Love Don’t Ask kit, hand drums, bass, rhythm guitar in the bag

thehurrygain — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 04:01:18 +0000

keys are on the way.

This groove’s got some pop to it.

Been playing guitar all day. It’s been a blast. Still thinking about the vocals for LDA. Will I have a chorus, or just rock it solo?

The chord progression for Fun de Mental is evolving. Some B section riffs came to me in the past couple weeks too.

Not much more to say, because music isn’t words.

(unusual) sources of inspiration

thehurrygain — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 01:13:34 +0000

I spent most of the day jamming on Love Don’t Ask. I tinkered with the bass line and settled on the overall song form (for now, at least). What’s kind of surprising when I heard everything together in draft state for the first time is a certain source of inspiration that was anything but conscious but not altogether bizarre. It’s B.B. King. Being a guitarist and having been drawn to blues– sometimes quite strongly– it’s not totally unusual that I’d hear King’s chops as I plugged away at my composition. Still, it’s a bit strange– or at least unexpected.

I believe I mentioned that unexpected sources of inspiration surfaced for ZLT too. Guitar-wise, I didn’t realize until I was well into the project just how I was hearing undertones of Mark Knopfler. Also, when I was laying down the drum patterns, in particular the snare, I was feeling the Clash.

I’m critical when I hear material I find derivative. I don’t think I’m in that territory. I think I’m subsuming to a respectable degree. My point here is not to match what I’m doing to what’s been done. I’m annoyed when people do that, because it’s as if they don’t know a way forward without those references. It’s intriguing to me has these past moments in the music life bubble up and seem to come out of nowhere– at a time when I’m asking for…that something.

And I played a few cycles of Fun d’ Mental (aka Song 2). That’s going to be a fun one too.

“Love Don’t Ask” b-b-beat d-d-d-done

thehurrygain — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:54:08 +0000

Let’s see here…just ruminating a bit on the groove I’ve been developing for “Love Don’t Ask” (aka Song 1).

I love the hi-hat pattern first off. It’s based on the paradiddle drum rudiment. I wanted it to skip, to lope if you will. I’ve always been about interesting grooves– especially new interesting grooves. New grooves as in maybe nobody has ever played this exact groove before. The hat pattern is not totally unique, but it’s distinct.

With the snare I wanted to keep one foot in rock and dangle the other in…maybe you could call it fusion. Maybe Latin or world…fusion. Basically, there are three snare hits (possibly more, maybe even fewer) per measure. The backbeat is accented, then comes the offbeat whack I’m feeling around for how to explain. Then comes a cadential-type hit that will turn the idea around. The cadential phrase on the fourth beat, I expect, will have the most variation.

The “A” section groove is made up of four patterns: 3 patterns with little variation built around the elements in the above paragraph, and 1 turnaround pattern.

The kick drum came about as a bit of an accident. Literally, I was programming beats and mistakenly placed the second kick piece a beat too late. But then I listened to it and started to like it better than the way I meant to do it. It spreads the measure out and creates a neat snap-back. Also, it’s pretty unique.

I was also messing around with the bassline last night, testing what I could pull off melodically while not deviating from the pocket too much. It’s definitely not going to be a ZLT line. “Love Don’t Ask” has its own thing going.

the EP-a-year project

thehurrygain — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:35:20 +0000

I’ve probably alluded at times to the point of this blog. It’s primarily a chronicle of my personal music endevours. About two years ago, I was gearing up for a second album. My first one had been recorded five years earlier, right after I finished college. I was stumbling around for a long, long time (well, five years to be precise) for the tonal qualities my next recording would have. Yes, I over-thought this. But, on the plus side, I listened and reflected.

Which brings me to my turning point. Inspired by an electronic musician who only releases EPs (forget who exactly), I decided to do the same. Instead of sculpting that seemingly perfect idea once every five years or so, I might as well release a shorter work every year.

This gives me two big benefits. One, it will boost my production chops. Two, I’m sitting on many years worth of material that I have to get down in order for it to see the light of day. Also, once a song is done, I can move on.

The goal is consistency. My recording rig improved by leaps and bounds between my first and second records. I’ve always felt that my real art was songwriting. I used to say, to the chagrin of my guitarist friends, that my choice of instrument wasn’t important. What’s important is writing melodies and rhythms. And I’m sitting on this kind of huge body of work that’s grown over only about the past 10 years or so. I can go in there and grab fragments and turn them into songs. And that’s exactly what I’m doing.

Zen Luck Tricks was supposed to be 12-14 tracks, but I simply ran out of time. Two songs that didn’t make that cut will highlight this summer’s EP. So you see ZLT would’ve probably taken 5 years to complete. But by breaking it up, I can change so easily. I don’t have to worry about the overall flavor. The flavor will change. Every year.

it begins with a beat

thehurrygain — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 21:57:59 +0000

So the big thing for me is rhythm. It’s arguably (in my mind) more important than melody and harmony, and at least as important. When I was learning guitar, I had to break myself of “grabs,” those stock moves you do with your hands that take over for thinking creatively. At the same time I started to break myself of rhythm grabs. Just using a beat wasn’t good enough. I wanted to reinvent the wheel every time.

That brings me to my current study of the drumming rudiments. I’m into the drum kit. I always joke that if I had to do it all over again, I’d be a drummer. It’s not far from the truth though! When I was doing the drum parts to ZLT, I pictured myself at the kit and physically what I would do to play the groove. There’s a connection between music and movement that ravers and other dancers surely get, but that passes over a lot of heads…

The drum rudiments are akin to scales. What’s very different to me is that they’re not about moving pitches; they’re about moving hands. I don’t even have an electronic pad yet– although it’s on my wishlist. But there’s something to be said for thinking in terms of the kit. And it’s easy to tap just about anywhere if you really want to play a double paradiddle-diddle.

In talking about the next project, I’m going to use Song 1 and Song 2 (no copyright infringements with Blur, I hope). Song 2 is the disco Latin jazz rock track. Song 2 is the psych-folk. Song 1 obviously needs a unique groove. It could end up with multiple sections too. In fact, my latest thought is that I’ll release two versions of Song 1: one the way I actually played it, and the other a remix of myself with a stronger dance feel. To make it “easier” to finish this project, Song 2 will do the same damn thing forever. But that’s just what I always hoped. It doesn’t that extra trickery. The tricks it needs are melodic ones.

Zen Luck Tricks mp3s

thehurrygain — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 20:18:22 +0000

Just in case those links are down, here are the songs hosted at 4 shared:

back again

thehurrygain — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 17:59:49 +0000

Hello. A rainy Sunday June afternoon in New York City. Watching “In the Line of Fire” after making waffles. And, natch, catching back up with music. Work and the new graduate program I started last fall pulled me away for most of the past seven months. Zen Luck Ticks is now mastered. I’ll post it shortly. I’m reading up on the Creative Commons licensing, which I plan to use for the first time, and I’ve begun on the next EP.

The next one’s tentatively called “Jinx.” It consists of two tracks. It was reinforced to me last summer that I should be realistic about how much time it takes to record. One was written in the spring of ’06 and slated to be on Zen Luck Tricks. I characterize it as a dreamy, happy folk tune. No vocals, just some instrumental twists and sound effects. I’m imagining a cinematic quality. The second song was written a couple of years ago. Let’s see how I’d describe it…I’d say it’s a rock, R&B-ish inspired groove. The chords, which I’ve very recently decided on (like, this morning), is Brazilian to well too. Overall, it’s a minor blues, really.

I’ll launch into my Brazilian fascination another time. I noticed with ZLT, and even more so now, that I retrun often to the basics. When I was in music school, I seemingly wanted to overturn the conventions every way I could. Looking back I guess that was healthy. There’s also much less singing on Jinx. The minor blues has a repeating chorus. I’m inspired here by some acid jazz and Santana. The second track is purely instrumental with influences from psychedelic folk and Chick Corea.

I’m happy to be locked back in.

finals are sitting on my computer– awaiting mastering software

thehurrygain — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 15:26:08 +0000

Seems like it’s been a while since I’ve published anything! I’ve been quite busy in other areas of life. I have finals for ZLT, and I’m waiting now on Bias Peak to arrive (turns out it was backordered).

I don’t anticipate a lot of work for mastering. This project has been mixed to death. I might add in some EQ though. I’ve noticed the speakers I use for monitoring are boomy when I compare ZLT to other recordings. So I probably don’t want to roll off too much of that low end. I might roll off a little though. Other than that it’s pretty much just a process of conforming volume levels to the Red Book. I outsourced my last mastering project for my first album Exotic Threads. I’ll have to post ET. Actually, I get inspired from time to time to remix the whole thing. But I want to move onto something new before going back.

That new thing is taking shape ever so slowly. I plan to pull in two very good musical friends of mine on two tracks that are being developed because each suits one of their personalities. The other track or two will be mine. But I likely won’t be alone on it either.

I’ll be posting here to explain what the whole thing means as it unfolds. And some day I’m going to have to explain what the hurry gain is too, and who the heck I am. But I figure it does little to drone on about myself and not have some music to put to the face. Priorities, you know?

singing makes me dizzy

thehurrygain — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 20:34:56 +0000

I’m getting the vocal parts down for Lines. I suspected a while back that I’d have to create backing vocals too. Yeah, I’m doing my own backing vocals– maybe that’s lame, maybe it’s not! It is pretty fun to record them, and it does require breath control and some, you know, technique. I plan to pull some singer friends of mine into the next project. But I gotta say I’m having more fun with the vox than I thought I would.

I also put a time limit of sorts on this project. By next Sunday…it’s finished! In other words, whatever is recorded then is what ZLT will be. I’m about a month and a half behind schedule. But more importantly I’m happy with what I have, and I’ve learned quite a bit, and I can salvage a lot of it and apply it to the next project.

I’m starting to look ahead, put together a set list. The first thing I’ll do is record a guitar track to send a buddy of mine who’s an accomplished singer/songwriter in Nashville. But first I gotta put the finale stamp onto Zen Luck Tricks…

lead guitar– finito!

thehurrygain — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 16:12:14 +0000

bellisimo! molto bouno!

And so forth…

All guitar is now done for Zen Luck Tricks. I’m moving on to record the final vocal takes, but before I do that, I’m going to spend time this week going over some of the original production ideas I had for the project last winter– before the songs took shape, and took over, frankly. These ideas mostly center on instrument sounds, ways of shaping the overall sonic experience (…huh…yeah, OK!) I call these “flourishes.” Yes, the EP could live without them. But why should it??

I’ve also been researching mastering options, and, being the DYI guy that I am, I’ve decided to do mastering myself. This could easily tack on another couple of weeks to the release of ZLT, but I’m thinking learning the skill is really what I’m after here. And if I were that worried about the release schedule…let’s just say I’d be very worried at the moment. But what’s more important than getting done is getting done with something that makes you happy. And, furthermore, to set yourself back on track for doing more and more of these projects in the future.

And on that point, I am a believer, once again.