Every time I start to think “Hmm, I think for my next album I’ll just make it free,” I get a check in the mail from CDBaby for music sales.  Almost like the Universe is trying to tell me something.  It is.  My new approach, which I will set in stone, is that I will always put out music that is free to listen to online.  And if people want to purchase it and show support, they will be able to buy it from either Bandcamp or iTunes.

My life is complicated.  I keep changing my musical goals.  Why?  Because music is one of two hobbies for me.  My life, if divided up into categories, would look like this:

• Work (Career) – Web programmer and developer.
• Home Life – Wonderful (and beautiful) wife, two great kids, and a not super well-behaved dog.
• Hobby 1 – Software Developer.  I own Cool Classroom Software.
• Hobby 2 – Songwriter/Recording Artist.

That’s not the order of importance – but it probably is the order of how my time is spent.  One of the things I am learning, with everything going on, is to stop setting spur of the moment goals.  I’ve gone through a bunch of “goals” lately and I keep changing them, which means my goals need to be more general.  Instead of “I’m going to record an album about dogs,” my goal should be “I’m going to write and record songs I like.”

It’s kind of interesting reading through my previous blog posts.  It has taught me that I need to be more focused and work on tasks, and stop making big long term goals on a whim.

And yes, it is pretty funny that I’m a web developer yet I’ve chosen the most basic WordPress theme in the universe for this site.  But it’s exactly what I want – simple and functional.  For something jazzier, go up and click on the Cool Classroom Software link.

This is Time Management 101.  This is basic GTD.  You can’t “Record an album about dogs.”  It’s too big a task.  But you can “record a guitar track for a song.”  Last night I recorded 5 guitar tracks for the song “Dog of Thunder” – two tracks on my Epi Les Paul, and two tracks on my yellow Strat, and then one clean track on my yellow Strat.  The first four tracks were recorded using my Line 6 Floor Pod Plus, with the Modern Distortion patch I edited.  It’s the same patch I used on the choruses of “Never Completely” and “A Guy Like That” on the choruses.  Bringing the heavy guitars in on the chorus is one of my favorite arrangement tricks.  It’s like you’re cruising along through the verse, and then the chorus comes in and it gets more dramatic.

I suspect the fun isn’t over.  Today I’ll record a clean Epi Les Paul track.  And with the two clean tracks I’ll run them through Amplitube 3 and see if I can come up with something I like better than the Pod sound.  I’m pretty sure I will.  If not, the Line 6 sound is the fallback.  Also on the agenda is to record a bass track.  Which means I have to write one first.  Um, also on the agenda is to write a bass track.

I just put my Tex-Mex pickups back into Riker.  And I’ve finally given in and named my number one Strat “Riker.”  If you don’t get the reference, well…

As I’m working on “The One Thing” (aka Album number four,) I’ve decided to just start blogging the process.  For a hobbyist, my CD’s have sold OK… I’ve sold out of all three CD’s at CDBaby.  Still need to get more made and send them to Seattle.  The last copy of Never Completely went to some fan in Japan.  That just blows my mind.  Thank you, Internet!  I’m not really making any money at this music thing, but I’m having a blast.

Anyway, I’m after some really specific guitar sounds in this new album, and Riker had to be redeployed with Tex-Mex pickups from near the Neutral Zone.  One of the reasons is that I want to recapture the guitar sound on Never Completely but maybe add a little bit more character to it.  The GFS Alnico V’s in Riker were crystal clean and highly detailed – great for doing clean picking and jazz chords, but too clean for rock.  It’s like running a 5k in dress shoes.  The Tex-Mex pickups are dirty and a little lacking in detail.  Some people absolutely hate them.  But for 80′s slightly distorted trashy strat sound, they’re perfect.

The GFS Alnico V’s went into my number two strat, which has no name other than “yellow strat.”

So, guitar sounds.  Aside from 80′s trashy strat, I also want to use some much heavier sounds, more buzz saw insane metal type sounds.  Honestly, I don’t care to hear the buzz saw distortion constantly, but I’m going to use it more like a string pad in the background to make things sound huge.  Evanescence mixed piano and buzz saw guitar, so why can’t I?

Riker will handle trashy 80′s strat and buzz saw.  He might also do a little distorted bluesy for me.  For the cleaner strat stuff I’ll use the yellow strat.  But I’m also going to use my Epiphone Les Paul.  I put GFS Alnico II pickups in it, and it sounds like it just fell out of 1979, so the LP will be handling some “hard rock” sounds.  I’d describe that as distorted but not buzz saw.  Rush 2112 has a great example of hard rock guitar.  It’s got more character than buzz saw, more tone.

My Yamaha and Larrivee acoustics will also be used, and somewhere in the mix will be my Telecaster.

Yeah yeah yeah, I know how it sounds.  A 47 year old dad is gonna make a rock album.  You can’t “rock” when you’re 47.  You’re supposed to be in the garage sorting your bolts.  No way can you “rock.”

Watch me.