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.