I realized as soon as I left Fast Times that I was going to have to deliver. I left to focus on other musical projects that were being put aside while I worked on the cover band. Mostly it was a time sink and a mental block. But now that I’m away…it’s publish or perish. I gave up a good thing and while I am happy about my choice, I owe it to myself to actually write those songs and record that other material.
Next week I should have a new Palette-Swap Ninja song to announce. We’re trying to get it done this weekend so it will be in plenty of time for Thanksgiving. I have an arrangement with GamesRadar that they get to debut the song first, and there may be a contest involved. So hopefully that will happen.
For the original stuff, I’m finding I have to do some editing. I have kept a big purple folder full of song ideas for several years now. I went through and audited it a few weeks back. It was hilarious and embarassing and inspiring all at once. Some of the ideas still have merit. Some of them do not. Some of the stuff I’m keeping because it’s horrible, and I need to remind myself not to do that any more. I have about 10 to 15 feasible song concepts that I plan to mess around with. One or two are already written and just need to be recorded (or re-recorded) so they feel “done” to me. Anything I’m proud of I will share.
The other thing is I’m finding I am not up to speed on Pro Tools. I used to use Vegas on PC but in the last few months I’ve adopted Kat’s old MacBook Pro, gotten an mbox mini, and switched over to PT LE 7.3.1. How hard can it be? My audio degree is basically irrelevant in the digital age, but I used Vegas for two or three years, maybe more — same thing, right? No. There’s all kinds of functions and features and stuff that I’m either not using right or not using at all. I am seeking out some training videos to crash my course.
So, you won’t always see the progress. But progress is being made.