I told you last post that I would have a new song. I have written a solid chorus and bridge pair, but in the two weeks I have given myself, I have not gotten an opening that I like. In the mean time, I will post another old song.

I came up with I’ll Say Hi Tomorrow in 2006 when I tried to sit down and make up an entire album in one sitting. I wrote out a track list, posted below, and in about an hour made up the songs for each track. If I haven’t finished my new song next post, you might get to hear them all! After listening back to the songs, it was clear that this one had potential. After developing the song, I recorded it as my main project for Advanced Sound Design class. It has ukulele, bass guitar (heavily edited—it was the first time I’d picked up a bass), multiple vocal tracks, MIDI sounds with Reason patches (the bass solo), and a shaker which is my voice sampled through the entire song. The only thing I owned that I contributed on this track was my voice and the ukulele. The rest came from friends or the computer.

As all the songs so far, I would change elements of the song if I made it today. I’ll stop writing this note soon and hope you’d assume that the canvas never finishes being painted, it just gets cut off. Here’s the track list for I’ll Say Hi Tomorrow, the album.

  1. The Anthems of Flying
  2. Patches of Clover
  3. Ruby Water Eyes
  4. Live a Tale to Tell
  5. Emptied
  6. Filled
  7. I’ll Cry Tears
  8. When
  9. I’ll Say Hi Tomorrow


Does that tracklist not sound amazing?

posted: March 14th, 2011
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Songs from Across the Sea is the last song from the short album we made as our wedding favors. See the last post for more details on that superfly CD. I like this song, but it suffers the same production woes as The Lifting (you can’t get gold records when you’re producing yourself and you’ve never done it before). And, there’s the lyrics. They are weird. They try to tell the story of my heartache while Mary Ann lived in China, of our being separated, but bringing sea animals into the picture does not help things.

Mary Ann and I have developed an alternative version sans angel porpoise calling anyone’s name, but this multitrack is in stone. Not because it’s sonic grooves have been carved from historic Knoxville marble, but because I didn’t save the tracks. You’ll learn a lot in the studio without a tutor—a lot of bad habits.

I feel proud of the resonating stereo space in this song. It builds out using multiple acoustic guitars, multiple electric guitars, MIDI organ with a Reason sample, MIDI chimes with a different Reason sample, sweet Reason beats, three or four vocal tracks, and a butt-load of reverb.

In two weeks, Imma hit you up with a recent song.

posted: February 28th, 2011
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