SnowGhost Music

I’m a recording junkie. Not a bad one. I don’t lie about being somewhere else, I never soundproofed my bedroom (at least not technically), and I don’t fall asleep with headphones on, though I do have a slight scar on my ear from using my old Grado headphones for hours on end. Not that being a junkie is bad, mind you. I’m just saying that I used to have a habit, and now I don’t really. A few years ago, maybe six, I would write and record a new song once a week. Fully-fleshed out songs. I would usually start with a guitar part and record it. I would then add layers of other guitars, keys, drums, or whatever else I could borrow from someone, always writing each part as I went. Lastly, I came up with some lyrics, found space for them somewhere in my cramped 8-track realm, and then got on with the next one. I was highly prolific. I was slightly aloof.

But ask me to play, much less remember half of the songs I wrote in my junkie days, and I will undoubtedly disappoint you. I eventually started dedicating more time to music performance than to music recording. The pay was much better, or at least there was actual pay, I was getting better at understanding my songs and my talents as a performer (such as incessant foot-tapping and avoiding all eye contact while singing), and I was bringing music to the people instead of keeping it to myself. And while as many as three people would actually be listening to me at any given time, none of them would know that what I really wanted to do was have them hear my recordings instead. There was depth and craftsmanship that I simply couldn’t recreate on my own on stage. I felt like I was a fat-free version of my sonic self, and while I may be acceptable with cereal, nobody wants to enjoy me with cookies.

I don’t feel that way anymore. I’m happy to do the best I can with what I have, musically speaking. I also don’t record that often anymore. Not as much free time, a lot of practicing songs I already know, too many jobs, hours on end simply ‘envisioning’ my next blog, whatever. You need to make time to do anything well, and for whatever reason, recording was slipping down from the ranks of my to-do list, along with watching and caring about sports and writing semi-frequently in my journal. Things change, sometimes for the best, though I really missed recording.

Especially when I started being inundated by albums from recording junkies, be they band or do it yourselfer. I was drawn to these works not just from the usual standpoint of, “Dude, this album makes my ears wet their ear panties,” but also because I could tell they were the work of fellow junkies. I could hear them sitting in their own studio doing things over and over, or making some accident sound brilliant, or simply finding the magic in a song as it fleshed itself out for the first time in recorded form. These were songs born on the fly, not the practice space or the stage. And while there is plenty to be said for the great songs that stand alone when performed, there is just something about a song that is pieced together one little fragment at a time that makes the headphone scar on my ear glow in the dark.

And so I got my to-do list out the other day, and lo and behold, home recording was near the top of the list, just below blog research, blog ‘envisioning,’ and brushing the front and back of my teeth. After literally dusting off my Boss BR-8, finding the necessary cords and setting up a mic, I put on the headphones. I turned things on and tuned everything else out. I had a slight idea of what song I would play. I had no lyrics or structure. I had no idea how it would turn out or what I wanted it to sound like. In other words, I knew exactly what I was doing. I was off the wagon and flipping it off as it rolled along without me. Before long, I would have a brand new song that I wouldn’t even be able to reproduce if you made me do it again, and then it would time for another. And another. And then it would probably be three in the morning. But that’s okay because this is a bender, and no good bender is over for at least 24 hours after it starts, so if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some windows to seal shut and paint black