A change of flavor this week: a melody popped into my mind that naturally morphed into a Japanese pop song. This week, we're talking about the day feeling too short. It's a short 'n simple song, again, but I'm pretty satisfied with how it turned out, especially the way the words bounce off each other.

2 - 時間論 (jikanron)

For this song, I wanted to use a single melody and keep expanding on it. It's not the most dynamic track I've made, but after giving it two afternoons, it's time to let go. I've fallen behind schedule a bit, so I'm gonna try to get one more track out over the weekend.

8 - A Peaceful Coma

One of my all-time favorite Bowie tracks. Going through my cloud storage, I realized my good friend Frank and I had recorded the preliminary guitars and vocals already in an off the cuff cover session. 

I really had fun layering and experimenting with the vocals to approximate all of the weirdness going on in the original song. It may not be the most polished cover out there, but I decided to post it here so some Bowie fans might get a kick out of it.

Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie Acoustic Cover)

This track started out as an up-beat acoustic number, but because I started writing late at night, I couldn't afford to go ham without risking eviction. After scaling back, a simple, intimate tune was what remained.

Rain Song is about those days where the weight of the world suddenly hangs heavy on your shoulders, and you cannot seem to rationalize your way out of it. 

Rain BGM: "Light Gentle Rain 60 Minutes | For Sleep And Relaxation" on Youtube by Daniel Nelson (https://goo.gl/LzW9Cv)

10 - Rain Song

In my pursuit of sweet backing vocals, I decided to make an alternative arrangement to my most recent track.

11 - Rain Song (Piano & Vocal Arrangement)

A moody track to commemorate the beginning of Spring. I had an idea for a chorus, but pressed for time I had to hammer out the verse on the fly. After recording a bunch of vocals, I didn't really touch the dials and decided to send it out into the world. Unmixed unmastered yo. Still, I'm happy with the result. This is definitely a track I could see myself returning to, fine-tuning it further for a release somewhere down the line.

12 - Spring Comes

We back. Traveling and family got in the way, in the best way possible. Although I did miss a few weeks, I still managed to mumble together some vocals for this track. Everything could be a bit more dynamic, but there's some nice stuff in here, methinks.

13 - Falling From Orbit

A song about going it alone, without regard for one's surroundings.
--
Laying out a relatively simple basis with an old Spanish guitar, I'm happy with the layered sound I got out of the song. The mysterious vibe I was going for with the vocals in the verses worked out as I'd intended once I switched to Japanese, allowing me to stretch vowels and words a bit more liberally than I would have, if I'd stuck to English. 

All in all, I'm pretty happy with the week's earnings.

14 - 独り歩き (A Solitary Journey)

Something quick I whipped up today, after noticing that I'm effectively five weeks behind schedule. (/・ω・)/　I found some cool sounds, so all's good.

15 - Break of Dawn

Bringing the band back together. Jelmer did a quick and dirty recording of the guitar, and back in Japan I sliced & diced & laid some vocals on top of it. Looking forward to building from this foundation.

16 - Lines in the Sand (first demo)

Another work in progress this week. I got lost in the instrumentals, and only got halfway with the lyrics. There's good stuff in here, but I wanna tweak it a bit more. The ending might be a bit too Donkey Kong Country.

17 - Free Citizens Instr. Demo

Halfway through 2018, I kinda hit a snag. I thought I had something, but it just kept slipping away. Starting a new job right around the same time meant that this one got put on the back-burner for a good long while. I couldn't figure out where to take the song, but also refused to move on. I kept thinking of new choruses on walks and airplane rides, but nothing materialized. Until it did, a few weeks ago. I'm good with it.  Let's hope I learned something!

The Summit is a song about a journey that seems too long and arduous to undertake, until it reveals it's worth somewhere down the line.

18 - The Summit

Starting from the first week of January 2018, I'm gonna try and put out a song every week. They'll mostly be simple, and rough around the edges. I tend to linger way too long on the same songs, relegating new melodies to the confines of my Evernote drafts. No longer, I say! Let's see if I keep it up.

ranmaru。

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