Remote song collab idea

Wonder what would happen if I found a decent drummer anywhere in the world with the ability to make a decent recording and asked him to make some recordings of himself playing what could be a full song in any genre. He'd send me his drumming as an MP3, and then I'd make up the rest. Would doubtless be totally different than what he was thinking. But in the end, we might have a quality recording, and neither of us had to leave home or even talk to each other much. My kind of project.

I know how to find good drummers right here in the area (bandmix.com), not that that would even be necessary, but I guess if we wanted to do an open-mic, that could be cool.

Comics reading update

Finally finished the entire run of Marvel's G.I. Joe comics. It's been interesting. Next I return to my reading of X-Man Havok's entire comics life, starting with the beginning of his leadership of X-Factor with issue #71 of their book. That was one of my favorite comics of the '90s, and I read that one and several others back then. I don't remember a lot. I'll only be reading the pages with Havok on them, so I might cruise through them. Once I get through the '90s I'll probably take another break and read some Tank Girl.

Song thoughts

New discoveries sure to have an influence on my near-future songs:

God's Revolver
Molly Gene One Whoaman Band

The plan hasn't changed a lot. Western acoustic math punk. Math rock meets desert rock meets cowpunk meets death country, all on acoustic guitar. Maybe I'll stomp on a tambourine. Lyrics will be poetic and western and religious, like Wovenhand. I might even get my friend Matt to play bass.

I wish I could say that daily practice is making me a good guitarist, but it's hard to tell sometimes. At least I'm maintaining my skill level. Guess that's how it is for a busy thirty-somethin' that didn't pick up a guitar until age thirty.

Thinkin' about takin' my guitar into Roops Brothers, the only open mic in walkin' distance, and when they ask for my name tell 'em somethin' stupid like Preacher Hank. My opening song will have to say somethin' about comin' from Oklahoma. Wish I had a cowboy hat and boots.

I've been focused on advancing my skills, but the plan for a while now has been to start writing and composing in July. So that's next week. I've been feelin' ready. Time to print some tab paper.

Even the Writer Doesn't Know, Pt. 2

From an interview with Larry Hama, on writing for the Wolverine series:

I just took it page-by-page and issue-by-issue. I never really planned out any arcs until later when all the X-writers had to coordinate on big through-stories. Even then, I had no idea how any given issue was going to end. I really don’t know any other way to write the stories. The editors let me get away with it back then because when I started out on the books nobody cared about them. Then, when they really got popular, it was too late to fire me.

Judging by its effectiveness, could this actually be a viable method of writing a story? I've decided to find out for myself. For the first time in my life, I can truly call myself a writer because I'm writing a paragraph every weekday from now until forever for a Web serial called Bold Traveler. 

If that sounds like a soap opera title, it's supposed to. I decided late last week to just go for it, inspired by Hama's style and multitude of characters in G.I. Joe. I'm also very inspired by the dramatic situations, dialogue, and host of characters in Mad Men and by dramatic newspaper comic strips (drama strips, really) like Mary Worth. I'm writing it piece-by-piece in bed at night, making it up as I go along, and publishing each micro-episode at noon, an appropriate time for a textual soap opera.

To make it as interesting for men as it hopefully will be for women, I've based the story on a travel magazine that specializes in adventure traveling and dangerous places around the world. There are so many possibilities here. And I've already created fourteen character profiles, with room for dozens more should the need arise someday.

Best of all, I have an instant audience on Facebook. The idea was to make the episodes short enough that readers could get through them as quickly as they can read a comic strip. I've published three episodes now, introducing four characters already, and though I've received no feedback, I can safely assume a few of my 426 Facebook friends have read at least one of them. And this is the kind of thing I can keep up whether I get any feedback or not.

And if I ever do have time to get back to work on my novel, it may happen someday. I still like the premise and the ideas and characters I've come up with so far.

Even the Writer Doesn't Know

Larry Hama, from the letters page of G.I. Joe #100...

"...I really have no idea how each story is going to resolve until I sit down to write it...The strongest characters seem to have a life of their own and usually surprise me. I was totally surprised when the Baroness shot Scarlett. It just seemed like something she would do in that state of mind in that time and place, after the fact...Whether she will survive or fully recover is a totally dependent factor beyond my control. If I could fully predict what the character was going to do, I wouldn't be surprised, and I like being surprised."

This sounds like such an interesting way to write. Most people on the internet who teach about writing say this is the wrong way to write. If the writer doesn't know what's going to happen, the story is going to fall apart. But maybe it's different for a serial, like a comic book, when no ending is in sight and you have all the time in the world to wrap up any loose ends, even after you've started new storylines. 

I think that's why I've returned to comics as an adult. There's no form of literature that can provide the kind of excitement you get with each new issue of a comic. And when even the writer doesn't know what the characters will do next, it's that much more exciting.

Bought a CD

First CD I've bought in years...it was the only way I could get these songs! That's how much I love this band.

My friend Matt's coming over tonight with his bass. He's been in bands, and he's a big Foo Fighters fan. So I learned a couple of tunes from their first album, the only one I tolerate very well. Hopefully we'll get creative and start thinking about some new songs.

Inspiring Performance

This is the kind of stuff I want to start composing soon. This would be awesome even without the drums. And I want to sing lyrics about Bible stuff along with it. I'll be working on guitar skills daily until July, and then I hope to write one song a month from July to December. Then I'll just start playing them all over the place.

Cheval de Frise - "Noblesse de l' échec" (Pt. 2) (live)

These guys are French. I want my songs to have a more western/Latin feel, like being lost in the Chihuahuan desert with only Jesus beside me.

Desert Math Rock

I keep going back-and-forth on whether to include fake drumming on future recordings. Right now I'm leaning away from it.

I Googled "desert math rock" and got nothing. I'm surprised. I think that's what I want to do now, but with acoustic guitar accompanied by electric licks and bass lines, which will be played on my guitar and tuned down an octave with software. Very much inspired by Last of the Juanitas but without drums, and with the acoustic up front. I'm kind of obsessed with that band now.

Live performances would be just me and my acoustic, but instead of the typical singer/songwriter, they're gonna hear something as close to post-hardcore math rock as you can get with just that instrument, full of time-signature changes and lots of stops and starts. And I think the lyrics will be obviously about God. That's easier to get away with in a secular setting when your music is crazy, and then I can play it for Christians, too. Delaware, OH, has never heard the kind of stuff I'm dreaming up. And neither have I.

More Thoughts On My Future Songs

Thinking about a softer theme once I finally get back to writing lyrics. Instead of arguing with Darbyites, maybe I'll just write songs about the introduction of the kingdom in the first century, with a focus on the destruction of Jerusalem. Dark, dark days leading to a glorious future that has yet to be fully realized. The hope of resurrection. The kind of stuff only a postmillennialist would write songs about.

But if I change the words to my most recent song, I think I need to keep the line "They'll go after anyone / but the one who holds the lamp to light the way." I like that one.

Also thinking about open-mic nights. There's one within walking distance on Thursdays. I can play my one and only mathy composition pretty well on acoustic guitar, and it has an awesome math country/cowpunk vibe that I've never heard anywhere, especially when I sing along. Singing and playing that song at the same time is going to take a lot of practice. But if I could come up with two more songs like it that I could play live as a set and do it well, it would be pretty awesome.

Then I'd have to decide how to record it...do I go with layered, distorted electric guitars, bass, and sampled drums, or do I strip it all down and just play it on my acoustic? Maybe I'd try both, shop it around and find out which sounds better and has more impact. I think either way would be a good expression of myself and my art. I could always have an electric version and an acoustic version of an album--now that would be sort of unique!

Be a sampler

Decision time for percussion: Be more than a beats programmer; be a sampler. I haven't seen anyone combining sampled, sped-up beats with mathcore. Might as well be a Jesus freak that does it first.

Beats Or No Beats?

I wrote some lyrics for this new song and recorded them last week. They need work, but it's nice to finally have something.

Now that I've been living with this piece of music for a couple of months, I'm seriously considering removing the electronic percussion altogether. Tara said it sounds like really cool video-game music, but then I found out she thinks most punk/metal sounds like video-game music if you take out the vocals. And she's kind of right. But it got me thinking, would my music sound more genuine without the electronic thumps and cymbals?

I could add some tambourine, played with a drumstick, but I tried that last week. It was really hard to keep up with my very technical composition and its constantly changing time signatures. I could keep trying, though. Or I could just do without percussion, since only the programmed kind is in my wheelhouse. I could also add some cool reverb and other effects to my guitar and vocals, just for fun.

Something to dwell on. I'd welcome any feedback. I know it would help a lot to actually get to hear the music, but I'm not ready to share it with the world yet. I'll make it available privately to anyone who asks. The style is fast math/noise rock with a western vibe.

Broken Promises

I was close to becoming a country-music listener anyway, but Miss Lana Rebel and the Broken Promises have brought me over the edge. This stuff is amazing. Miss Lana was a co-founder of Last of the Juanitas, so it was only a matter of time before I finally gave them a chance. I'm hearing their album Mistakes We Can Live With on MOG.

Cool Toddler Rock-'n'-Roll

I had a pretty good idea yesterday in the shower, for a psychobilly album for toddlers, or "cool toddler rock-'n'-roll." I even got two song ideas in that same shower: "Graham Cracker Daddy" and "Last Train to Napville." Google didn't turn up anyone else with this idea, and I think it's a lucrative one. Unfortunately I'm not willing to put in the work or salesmanship it would take to make it lucrative, and I don't believe in copyright, so I doubt anyone would want to go into business with me.

But if I ever get the urge to work on these songs, maybe they'll get produced someday. I thought I might start today, but I heard enough Chariot and XBXRX in the car last night, going to and from Chipotle, that by the time I got to the basement this morning I just wanted to work more on my current noisecore project. I'm through working on projects I'm not continuously excited about.

The music for my first song is just about done, and I even wrote some lyrics this morning. I went with the idea in my last post, so it's basically my 19th-century Christian talking with an American Darbyite (or maybe Darby himself, since his ideas didn't spread to America until the 20th century) in the wilderness about how he sees the scriptures and the world around him. It's a start. I still don't have a title for this song despite having worked on it for two months already, but lyrics will help with that.

Lyrical Inspiration

Artistic inspiration for album lyrics: Wovenhand. The themes will be as in my earlier post, but they'll be wrapped in imagery of the Old West and "old time religion," ironic since the theme is against the new theology of the 1800s. As though the main character is a wanderer in the Old West who knows these new ideas (which are today's old ideas) aren't right. Alternative country lyrics put to an electromath noisecore sound. If possible.

A Cowboy Feel

This morning I added brand new lead guitar and bass parts to my evolving track. I came up with them as I went. I like them; I think they give the track a whole different personality, and of course the bass gives it more depth. I used slides and bends to give the track a cowboy feel, so probably no one will mistake this music for metal. It's definitely borne of the noise-rock genre. I still need a bass part for the middle and final sections, so that's tomorrow.

Rhythm Guitar Part Finished

I finally got a good recording of the rhythm guitar part of my new song this morning. Two of them, in fact--one for each ear with headphones. It sounds really good, and it's one of the most interesting things I've recorded. But strangely, I didn't get the usual sense of satisfaction when I played it back. Maybe it was too early in the morning (6:45), or maybe I was too hungry or lacking caffeine. It's pretty weird to play such aggressive music so early in the morning before breakfast, but that's really the only time I have to get it done.

Next steps are to add a lead guitar part (I have no idea what that will be, but I'd like it to sound like a western-style guitar somehow) and a bass part, and maybe some kind of organ part. Then I'll finally write some lyrics! Maybe when all that's done I'll feel more excited about it. Or maybe I just need to sleep on it.

Ideas for Writing Methods and a New Story

Crazy idea last night: I wonder if anyone has ever tried to write a good short story, then expanded each sentence into a paragraph? Assuming a twenty-page story, you'd end up with a whole novel. Expanding each paragraph into a chapter would give you a whole series of novels! But would they be any good? It would certainly be an interesting project. It's sort of similar to the "snowflake method" of writing a novel.

This idea was inspired by a story idea I had last night that got me excited. Well, not so much a story idea, but a character, a setting, and a few scenes. That doesn't really make a story, and probably the reason I haven't written many stories is because they don't come to me naturally. I love coming up with settings, but the stories are usually forced.

My proposed character is a Christian man, a pacifist, during the Texas Revolution in the 1830s. His grandfather was loyal to the Crown during the American Revolution, and this man just wants to be left alone with his family. But he's forced to take up arms against authorities and bandits alike. It's similar to a story I began to write a couple of years ago about a Syrian missionary in 1st-century Tibet, except this new character has a family and he's not as outgoing. There would be plenty of violence and maybe even elements of mild horror. It could even be developed as a series of stand-alone stories, like for a pulp series or comic book.

I've already thought about developing a script for a webcomic based on this idea, as my 1st-century story was meant to be. If an actual plot comes into my head, maybe I'll put my novel on hold and write a comic script or a short story.

Last week I really wanted to find a western-styled band that sang about the violent, scary stuff I see in spaghetti westerns. I found everything I was looking for in the band Ghoultown, even costumes (though I suspect they dress this way more often than not), and I got all their albums. Can't believe I never heard of them before. I've listened to about half their songs now, from their earliest album up to 2004, including this one:

Ghoultown - "Carry the Coffin" (live)

A Concept For an Album

Album concept:

Radical revivalist postmillennial viewpoints with a "Kingdom-focused" mentality. A conversation and debate with old Baptist pastors about how different our worship and living can be when we realize that Jesus has already established His Kingdom.

Some points:

• Jesus radically altered the world after His ascension, in 70 A.D., something Baptists never hear about. The works of the devil were crushed.
• When He said the kingdom was almost here, He meant it. We're living in it now, but since most of us don't realize it, the mustard tree is growing incredibly slowly.
• Political action won't further God's kingdom; it will only create more problems and make Christ less attractive. Our job is to continue to lift Him up. Show the world what sin is and who Jesus is so they will repent; don't try to make it stop sinning.
• Premillennial dispensationalism is a theology of despair because it assumes a sudden destruction of the world at any time, which gives us nothing to work toward on this earth. 
• Heaven is not our goal. When we make it our goal, our lives are worthless. The church that focuses on heaven will be the totally ineffective church. Scripture does not indicate that our goal is a place called heaven where we will live in a mansion and rest for eternity; this is certainly a misunderstanding of the text. 
• When we preach that in heaven we will be present with God and worship Him freely all the time, we imply that those things are not already true. Better to not mention heaven at all in our sermons and to teach the people that those things are already true! Stop "only imagin[ing]" being surrounded by His glory, and teach the church that everything they've heard about heaven is already true here today!
• Christ already accomplished the cleansing He prophesied, and He established His Kingdom in 70 A.D. We are living in a New Earth, and we should live a Kingdom life, thinking Kingdom thoughts. We should live like there's no more pain, no more tears, and no more dying, and our lives should smell like the Good News of Christ.
• Eternal life begins the moment a person is saved by Christ. We must begin living it now so that it will carry on after we leave this earth. Eternal life means our influence continues here on Earth after we die.
• The church will spread like wildfire when it fully realizes what Christ has already done for us, that we are His Bride now, and that Christianity will someday be the norm all over the world.
• Every person God ever wanted to save will be saved. Otherwise we couldn't call Him God.
• The Chinese church looks different from the typical Baptist church in America because they are truly grateful and really understand what Christ has done. They know His Kingdom is alive now, and they are much better ambassadors. Expect the Kingdom to spread from there much faster than from America.
• The rock that smashed the kingdoms of the world to bits is becoming a mountain, and our prayer should be that the mountain will soon cover the whole earth. Ignore all other kingdoms; they have been crushed. God will soon rid us of all authority but Himself. May His will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.

Song Idea

Song title: "My Whole World Changed When I Came Along"

Concepts:

God was working toward redemption of this messed-up world, and He finally sent Jesus. Then there was 2000 years of craziness, and then I came along. That's when my whole world changed.

I had to be born into sin to be saved from it.

Nothing about this world should be the same now that I'm here and have been saved by Christ.