Day 24: Getting down to busy-ness

Productivity drive: vocals for Everyone Likes Coffee Except Me, July, Reverie; a first draft of Doodlebug; first verse and chorus lyrics for Fail; and electric guitar for Impulse Control. I'm hoping to get all my left over piano stuff recorded on Thursday so need to have all that prepared by the end of tomorrow. It's exciting...

A friend and I had a bright little thought the other day about what I might do with these songs when they're finished. My original idea was to be obstinately retro by releasing the thing strictly on cassette only, in part for the sheer perversity of it but also because I like the idea that whoever wants to hear these songs will have gone to some effort to do so. However, my friend Catherine and I have now had a better idea, one that involves concealing CDs all around the city, which is going to be a fun project in itself, and will probably be reported on this blog. I might still put it out on cassette though. I'd love to do a proper vinyl release of course but that's just too expensive.

I also managed to go swimming today, which left me feeling elated but exhausted and slightly sick as I haven't exercised my upper body since about 1998.

Day 19: Life, oh life, oh liiife

So today has been another day where there hasn't really been a lot of musical progress due to my partaking in the human being thing i.e. living. I went for lunch with a friend, came home, napped, recorded guitar for the Coffee song, ate, and went out east to drink. Ended up at a new night called Nails which had attracted the strangest crowd I've seen in a while... Ran into a guy who I haven't seen since I lived in Manchester, turns out this Nails business is his night (I think, confused conversation). Small world. Anyway, the next few days are going to be quite busy socially, which is nice of course, as it will un-hermit me for a while, but is going to compromise my progress. I think I'm going to allow myself a few days' grace due to the problem with my back last week, and also just having a break here and there. Whatever, the main thing is to get the songs done in as near the time as I can make it... Oh, I also finished the lyrics for Impulse Control...

Day 12: "Pain be gone, I will have no more of thee!"

Back is recovering slowly, I'm trying not to push it too much but have managed to get some stuff done today, including recording the basic parts for Shoelaces. If I'm feeling really ambitious I'm going to try and get my friend Craig in to play flute and oboe on it... I'm now sat quietly recording ideas on the ukulele, and have come up with two sets of lyrics, some that might end up being a song called Impulse Control, and others that might end up being a song called Reverie. All of my ideas today have been very camp and 50s sounding. I don't know why this is but I keep imagining things set to a bossa nova rhythm with a sweeping string section, and the word taffeta has been in my head for absolutely no reason I can fathom. Odd. In fact, I think I'd love to have written songs in the 50s for Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and the like. Why is it expected that all singers should (co-)write their own stuff now? Like being a great singer isn't enough anymore. Singing is really fucking hard.

Anyway, I'm also working on stuff to record piano for on Saturday. It was gorgeous and sunny today, and I was in that pleasant state of mind that occurs when one is recovering from an illness. Which was nice.