September album update

Hey folks. I just wanted to give you all an update on the album’s progress. The short answer is that it’s been going really well. To avoid repeating the mistakes I made with The Awakening, I’ve tried to avoid defining too many concrete goals for the record. I want its sound and feel to emerge rather than be handed down through edict. The few goals I have are fairly nebulous and difficult to express:

• Create songs with more interesting, musical vocal melodies than I typically do.
• Explore harmonically interesting chords and progressions that are perhaps a bit unusual in typical (indie) rock music.
• Avoid letting the composition and musicianship draw too much attention to itself; it should be good and maybe even advanced, but tasteful, erring on the side of understated.
• Most importantly, write an album of fundamentally good songs.

Beyond that, I’m pretty much open to anything. The musical style will be defined by the songs that are written—so far they’ve all been in the slightly melancholy, guitar (indie) rock style that I’ve been exploring for the last several years—, and the eventual lyrical topics will hopefully be diverse and interesting.

Given the fluid definition of the record, creating a potential track list is a lesson in futility. All told, there is probably enough material for fifteen to twenty songs right now, though the ones that work in a pop context and fit well together without sounding homogeneous number closer to seven or eight. Good song ideas are currently coming in at a rate of one or two per week, which I’m quite pleased with, so much so that I can’t imagine that pace can continue for too much longer. Still, I’ll happily oblige the muse if she chooses to visit more frequently.

Anyway, that’s the update. Progress is solid, there have been no nervous breakdowns, and I’m building up a strong set of potential tracks. There’s probably more I could discuss, but it’s all a bit silly given that most of you haven’t heard the songs, and I don’t plan on letting them be heard until much later, so let’s just skip that bit.

As a final note, I’m planning on posting some September music recommendations later this week. Be on the lookout!

Until next time…