Recording Project Resolution 2019

So, if you've been reading this blog, you can tell I have a few guitars. My big problem at this point in my life is using them, more specifically finding places to use them. My cover band is primarily acoustic. We've done electric gigs, and I do try sneak in my tele or strat from time to time, even at a practice, but 90% of the time it's my acoustic that gets the business for the cover band.

My original band, The Goodbye Theory has been a bit dormant. We did actually do a gig in 2018, and we have plans for doing our next Ep soon! Hopefully We will have some gigs as well! I love playing and working on new original material, but it's difficult getting gigs that work for us. But when we do get together I usually bring an extra guitar, just to experiment. But I still have a lot of guitars that I love that don't get that much use.

This past year, I got a Focusrite 2i2 interface, and loaded up the computer with Studio one. I've got a good selection of plugins, as well as a decent cab emulator pedal. Even my inexpensive Boss ME70 works great plugged into a DI. When I did my first "real" recordings in the mid 1990's, The technology available was nowhere near this. The cost to do my original recordings back then was also expensive, and needed tons of space to work. Now in the kitchen/dining area of our one room condo I have everything I need to do some recording on my own. So with all this technology at my fingertips, I've committed myself to put it to use. 

So I've decided to record a series of songs featuring my individual guitars. My overall guitar parameter/mandate/rule for these recordings is just that one guitar gets used on that song. No layering a Tele with a Strat, I'll have a Tele song and a Strat song. If I want to do layers of the same guitar, that's ok. Certain guitars do certain things well, and I'd like to give each guitar in my collection a showcase as to what I really love about that particular instrument. That doesn't mean a Tele song will be a twanging country fest, or my strat will showcase a blusey element. It'll be how I use those instruments in musical context. 

Now I will have Bass, and Drums on them, possibly even some keyboards. I don't know if these songs will have vocals or be instrumental, I haven't hashed that aspect out yet. I would like to be consistent with the overall output, possibly one a month. Ideally I could also use this as a way of collaborating with musicians that I haven't worked with in a while, or never worked with before.

The challenge will be to be productive consistently. I work a 40 hour a week day job, work part time writing for a magazine, play in an original band as well as a cover band. So you can see time management is going to be an issue. I'm already at a defecit for January, as I'm going on vacation for a week, as well as going to NAMM. I'm still going to try and have one idea done by January 31st. 

I also have no problem in also expanding on these recordings, If one (or even parts of one) song ended up on a future Goodbye Theory EP, I'd be happy. If they don't, that's cool too. Being a big fan of 1970's & 1980's prog rock, and the fact that so many musicians migrated to other bands, it's not odd to hear a part or idea in one song, in a different song by a different band later on. The British prog bands like UK, Yes, Asia, GTR, Genesis, ELP, among others have similar parts sprinkled across them, due to that member cross pollination.

I have no problem with re-cycling either. There's alot of parts and material of songs and bits that have ended up in some of my previous bands materials. In some cases, i'd like to re visit this material, with fresh ears, as well as the drive to complete them as to how I originally envisioned them, but may have gotten changed through the band composition process. Some bits might be from recordings I did on my own years ago, but as I've aged, I'd like to see if I can take something old, and put a new polish on it.

I've also been dabbling with doing some video stuff, and some of this may end up on Youtube as well. 

As we're entering the colder winter months, I'm hoping to spend this hibernation season being productive in a sense. And if all goes well, I'll be able to share some new media with you too. It's a pretty tall order, basically making a full album over the next 12 months, but I like a challenge. 

2018-2019

So 2018 was pretty interesting overall musically on my end of things. It started off with a jump to Anaheim at the NAMM show. Tons of cool gear to check out, and of course I came home with a YUGE case of GAS. I have to say though cooler heads prevailed and while I did get some new gear in 2018, I kept myself under budget.

My resolutions for 2018 were to Play more, which I did!

My original band, The Goodbye Theory, wasn't as dormant, we actually did a gig this year, ST Patty's day at the Hard Rock Cafe in Boston! The gig went really well, and it was fun to play live. I'm hoping we have more good gigs like that for 2019!

On the cover band side of things, we started off slow, but really got alot of gigs in the Summer and Fall. The venue we played at said in October "we're booked for parties for November and December, but if we have openings we'll call you", usually that's not a good sign. However we ended up with 4 gigs at the same place after that! The gig money came in handy as well!

Guitar setups, and getting any mods needed for my instruments, were also on the menu for 2018, and while I did get alot of those sorted, I still have a long way to go overall. It's mostly tweaking and some refinements. I did get my mustang properly sorted though. It took a bit of work, with some amazing trouble shooting and work from Adam of AF Precision setups, but It's now a really fun and reliable guitar to play!

Recording. I did do a bit of it at home, it's been a learning process for sure, and I got alot of help from my friend Rob. I know I haven't shared anything with you, but I have some stuff coming for 2019!

Less gear obsession. I did acquire some new amps, my Blues Jr & Boss Katana. Both at good prices, and made deals that the previous owners were happy with. Pedals, I did win a Groff Imperial, as well as acquired EHX's ocean's eleven reverb. I downsized my pedalboard to a Pedaltrain classic JR, and went with a gig bag. Once I got that dialed in, I was more than happy.

I did get a new guitar, my PRS SE 277 Baritone. It's made some appearances at goodbye theory practices, and It may have a place in the band. But I know I'm going to use it alot on its own!

My final resolution was to be more interactive, through instagram, facebook and this blog. After all the facebook stuff that's come out, such as security, and negativity, I'm kind of making small steps to use it as needed, like when I have a gig, or an article I did for the magazine goes live. I do love instagram though. Twitter is ok too. I did drop the ball a bit on this blog in the fall. I'll blame that on the fact I got a promotion of sorts, and a bit more responsibility.

So,I don't think I really delivered on that. I kind of hoped that this blog would become a bit more of a dialog between my readers and myself. I admit that might be tough, as more people tend to gravitate towards youtube videos for music stuff. But even then, looking at the comments people leave on youtube, perhaps Its better this way. I'll admit when I was at NAMM last year I was standing next to Mary Spender, and I was about to say "hey!" then I realized that while I do follow her youtube and instagram feeds, its not a dialog. I have done some youtube videos, and this year perhaps I'll dive into that some more.

Overall it's been a great year, and I'm hoping and working on making 2019 a great year in itself!