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Folks, believe it or not, I still exist. I've been busy with working more and taking steps to moving out of my co-op house (I move out on May 1st into an adorable efficiency apt ALL MY OWN in a nice neighborhood in old west side, Ann Arbor, and I can't fucking wait.).
So I haven't been working too much on new songs. So I decided instead to upload some of the oldest-god-damn-songs I've ever written. Please be gentle; I know it's not what you're used to. But that's because I wrote these songs long before I had any recording equipment. And I wrote these songs out--note by note--in real, score format. That's right, these songs were orchestrated to be played on real instruments by people much more talented than me.
What do I mean by that? Well, these songs are exported as midi files and play electronically through my piano. This makes me less of a musician and more of a composer/technician. But they are possible to play by real, proficient musicians. It's sheet music, like any other classical piece.
But these songs where back when I had more balls, musically speaking. I tried to push the limits all the time back then as far as melodic lines went. So I have to warn you, it's dissonant and unpleasant. And that was my aim. The key signatures fluctuate wildly, and the time signatures would be a nightmare to play for real (ex. 11-8 for two measures, 4-4 for three measures, 13-8 for one measure, 5-4 for one measure and back to 4-4...) It's music for musicians and music theory majors.
Whimsy 3 is a piece written on three staves (One treble, two bass) and could be perfomed on two pianos if the parts were extracted. It's from sometime in the Spring of 2002. I know because it's from a composition war that I had with a friend of mine in 7th hour my senior year of highschool. He and I would each compose for a few days during class, then have our other musically-inclined friends come into the midi lab and judge who's was better. I lost a fair amount of the time, but I won with this one. They said it was "Aaron Copeland-esque". I can sort of see that. :)
Tide Changing Directions Is a piece for five staves, and is meant to be performed on two pianos and a violin solo part. The midi equivalent of a violin sound was atrocious, so I opted for a vibraphone. Apparently I finished it on April 20th, 2004, because that's the sub-title. I'm glad I dated it so exactly, because I remember thinking after the Tsunami on Dec. 26th, 2004 how unfortunate that title was. This piece has the time measure debacle that I meantioned above in it, and starts out with just moody, free-flowing chords, and finishes it strict, rigid rhythms. And it would be a real bitch to play well live and make sound good. But again, it's possible.
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Backseat slumbers at the nearest reststop is a violin loop project about a road trip I took exactly a year ago now. It's something I'll never forget. The beginning of this song is a little long, but once it kicks in, I think it's pretty good. And the ending makes me smile everytime.
Photons is my cute little attempt at an old-fashioned-sounding ditty. I'm really pleased with the simplicity of it. If you listen closely, you can hear my cat mew at the very end after I laugh. :)
Rabies is entirely based on one of my favorite Chuck Palahniuk books, "Rant". One of my darker sounding electronic pieces with help from some female vocalists (although just speaking, not singing which is what I'm always striving for: female singers.).
--Damien Goodchild.
:)
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After trying in vain for about six years to join an actual band as an electric violinist, I decided it was beyond time to just start doing my own recording as a solo artist. It makes performing live a little difficult, but still possible, and I have, in fact, played for four or five shows now to varying degrees of success. Furthermore, I'm satisfied with my recordings. I think each song comes closer and closer to how I want it to sound, and closer and closer to something I could imagine other people actually listening to.
All of the violin/viola, piano, percussion, singing, midi instruments, harp, ukulele and whatever else you hear on the tracks is all me. The recording, balancing, cleaning, editing, finishing and rendering is all me too, which explains why it sounds like shit.The program I use is Ableton "Live", by the way. And...it's a demo version with restraints on the number of tracks I can use (four audio, four midi. Seriously, that's all I have to work with) as well as how many effects (reverb, compression, filter, chorus, etc.) I can use.
If you think the recordings sound cheap, I'm with ya. And it doesn't bother me. I have a huge soft spot for crappy recordings. And this is pretty cheap. I just have the program I use on my PC, with a soundcard to run my instruments through, monitor speakers and microphone. Plus my Mp3 converter was a free downloaded piece of shit that sucks.
The main instrument you'll hear in my music is my electric viola/vioin. It's an amazing device and has totally changed the music I make and how I play. The low "C" of the viola and yet also the high "E" of the violin makes all the difference (as does the sound quality, ease of tuning, and volume control). Because of this, I've been doing more songs on my loop station and octave pedal lately than electronically through midi. The loop station makes it possible to play live and alone, by looping whatever I've just played. You'll notice that in a number of my songs. But it would all be for naught if not for the octave pedal, which gives me the range of a cello.
While I still do feel that my voice and the words I'm singing need a lot of work, I'm slowly but surely starting to see improvements. It's partially due to better equipment now than I had six or twelve months ago, but also, I just see it getting better everytime I record.
I'm finally beginning to accept that my music isn't as boring as I had thought it might be, and that it is, in fact, stuff that people would actually listen to and enjoy. The quality of my songs has increased tenfold, I feel, in just the past oh, four months. If my music were defined in two words, I hope that people would call it "capriciously melancholy".Free MySpace Layouts and Free MySpace Stuff
