fawm. {or, a black hole}

For some reason, perhaps simply my nature, i have decided to immerse myself in this task called the "february album writing month," {fawm}. late monday night, christian sent me an email about the project, which immediately ran shivers through the spine. ironically, i had just hung up the phone with him, as i was in the midst of attempting to FINALLY use my new recording equipment for the first time. suffice it to say, without christian's help, none of this would be happening. the tascam would sit in the same place it has sat for some time now, covered by that thin, ancient looking, indian cloth. a shiva.

anyway, the project was inspired by nanowrimo which is essentially the same thing with writing. one writes a novel in a month. so, the idea here is that one writes {and records} a record in a month. beautiful no? i love the degree to which one must move quickly, and stay raw. the honesty. i would love to re-track the vocals and one of the guitar parts i did yesterday, but frankly, do not have the time.

needless to say, i've had mixed feelings about it, for several reasons. the first, being the fact that i have many other things to work on right now, and a diversion, feels like, well, a diversion. secondly, while i did complete the writing and recording of a song yesterday, including cardboard box drumming, paintbrush brushing on wood, and thumb tapping, i have, as of yet, been incapable of figuring out how to mix the fucker, and convert it to an mp3, so that i can upload it to the website. this really only serves to complicate matters, as i need to be writing and recording this morning, rather than trying to untie these technical knots. the other problem {if we can call it that} is the fact that i am supposed to write and record fourteen songs this month. fine. one song completed every other day right? not in my case. my parents arrive for a visit on the 17th, and the day they leave, keri and i drive to manhattan. so essentially, i have seventeen days to write and record fourteen songs.

all that said, i find the project too compelling to ignore. and of course, i have some experience with this. though we added things to "i am not in spain," all of the initial songwriting and recording was done from a thursday to a sunday night, as i sat in a cold house by myself. a process {or black hole perhaps} that i found immeasurably interesting.

hopefully {fingers crossed} i will succeed in getting my song posted to the site today. i figure if nothing else, this project will force me to learn some tricks with the new machine. as i have no monitor speakers, and no money for monitor speakers, i suggest that if you listen to the mixes, you do so on headphones, for that's all i got. lastly, obvoiusly, i invite you all to follow the process. the progress, or lack thereof. and if any of you feel so compelled, registration is open until february sixth.

to the races, as they say.

Posted by jeff pitcher at February 2, 2005 11:02 AM

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