Photo: John Vanderslice. Used without permission.
I have a big man-crush on John Vanderslice. He’s great. Like, really great. Oh man, I’m gushing.
Anyway, I’ve always wanted to blatantly rip off his style. It’s true. I have no problem with that. But I’ve never been able to do it. Until now.
Not really. I just finished a song that sounds like the music I’ve wanted to make for a long time, but couldn’t. It doesn’t sound much like John Vanderslice. It actually sounds exactly the way I was feeling when I wrote it, which is a majestically artful and tender thing to say. I’ll give that a minute to soak in.
Okay, enough of the BS. I finished recording a song that I think is pretty cool and sounds the way I wanted it to sound. It’s different than what I’ve done before, so it might be total crap for all I know. Garage Band doesn’t include high-quality software instruments, and I’m not a great composer. That said, I’m happy with how it turned out. I’m also happy just to have finished it, because I almost gave up about a dozen times. It was a lot of work, especially compared to the last song, and I did it all without really knowing if the end result was going to be garbage or not. It felt good to work through my limitations, though.
Anyway, I’m in the final phase of the process, where you listen to the song millions of times on all kinds of different speakers and stereos, trying to make sure everything sounds just right before it Goes Public. I’ll post the song in the next day or two after I feel reasonably sure it’s ready. In the meantime, just be thankful that I pared this post down from 600 words to 300.