Brief Break

Greetings everyone,

I can't say how much I appreciate all of your support over the last 10 months of blog posts. It took a lot for me to put this out in the world, and I'm so glad I did. I've learned so much and have received a generous outpouring of kind words from friends and family.

These posts and the conversations that have bubbled up from them have given me a refined look at the craft of songwriting. I feel I'm reaching new heights and that I wouldn't be here without the reflections on the past and present songs.

Last week, I was fortunate to perform as a solo artist not once, but twice! It was quite exhilarating and I'd love to continue doing it. After years and years of playing with bands, changing it all and boiling it all down to just me and my songs was eye-opening. I think I will always love playing in a band, but this was just plain good for my soul and spirit. To receive positive responses to just the songs was a welcome change for me. It's something I'll continue to reflect on over the next few months and weeks.

With that, I have to take a brief break from this blog. The reason is two-fold:

1) The busiest time of the year is coming in a few days at work, and I've been doing a lot extra things to train a new employee. This is my first peak season in my new position and I need to be sure I'm resting, etc when I can.

2) I've run out of space on SoundCloud!!!! To be truthful, this is main reason I've stopped, but peak doesn't help things. But here's the deal, you only get so much space on SoundCloud on the free version and I have maxed it out. I suppose that's a good thing, but I'm not quite sure how to proceed. I may ending putting all these songs on either/or YouTube or Bandcamp to free up space, but we'll see.

Hopefully I'll get my proverbial poop in a group in January and get this going again! Thank you all for your continued support. It truly means the world to me.

Out Here

Out Here
Written 2014
Recorded 2015

This song did not come to be without putting a good fight. "Out Here" is one of many songs written in the wee morning hours. Long ago, I tried writing in the evening hours, but somewhere along the way I realized that I was much more productive when I woke up. I'm not sure why, as a general rule I am definitely not a morning person. Granted, that's more around those pesky people.

Nevertheless, I remember this morning particularly well. I started off noodling around on my guitar, and quickly found the verse progression. But that's where progress stopped. I was completely stuck, so I went over to our keyboard and tried plunking a few things out there. Then I had an idea for a vocal line. The problem was it felt way too simple, yet lyrics started coming. The words, "Out here," came out and I wrote them down in my notebook. Again, progress stopped. I couldn't get beyond that line. Noodled around some more and started coming up with the opening riff you hear now. Then I got the idea for "Breathe in where you've been." So I wrote it down and tried playing the progression and seeing if more words followed naturally. They did not. Up to this point, the tempo was much, much slower. So when I started finding the chords and melody for the chorus, that's when I made the move to quicken the pace. From there, it all kind of came together. I decided that a simple verse was fine as long as I added some harmony and the chorus was the glue to hold everything together.

• For being a glaring feature at first glance, I really enjoy the simplicity of the verse. This is not only in melody, but in message too.
• I was a little on the fence about the call and response style of the chorus, but I'm glad I stuck with it. It just made sense at the time and I needed to trust my gut. I think it felt a little cheesy to me when I looked at in on paper.
• The flow and structure of this song works really well. It's a very positive song as well, and that always helps. 
• Because this song was written at essentially two different tempos, it really took me a long time to start the song with the right one. The 'ole metronome (my mortal enemy in high school) saved my butt there.
• This recording is of Whiskey Doubles on our Nightcap EP. It's probably one of my favorite tunes from that batch.

A Journey

A Journey
Written and Recorded 2010

This is probably one of my simplest, but meaningful pieces that I created while in Baraboo. When I sat down to write this song and started having ideas, I knew I wanted it to be laced with as much emotion I could without bringing in my agenda. As you all know by now, those were some difficult times for me. But when I wrote this song, my original intent was to present it to family as a gift. I never did follow through with that, but I do enjoy the end product.

• Synth pads are one of my favorite tools for this kind of writing. If you find/create the right one, it can have as much weight as the human voice. They can be as delicate or strong as you want them to be.
• I go through the main progression quite a few times before moving on in melodic material. I thought it was so simple and beautiful that I wanted to explore it in a few different textures/ranges. Doing that keeps the song moving forward enough for me where I don't get bored.
• The building that happens on the 2nd progression is really nice for me. Once you get that extra low octave in there, it cues the listener that there is something strong going on. 
• My favorite part is the drop-off after the build. Both parts are beautiful, and one can't be fully experienced without the other. The intensity and the softness are both necessary for the full effect.
• This song is a soothing reminder of the beauty that can come out of painful experiences. As I've frequently come to say in recent years, "It's all about the journey."

Take the Reins

Take the Reins (MMT)
Written and Recorded 2011
Take the Reins (Last version OTN)
Arranged and Recorded 2013

This song underwent some huge changes in its time. For this blog's purposes, I'm only highlighting the beginning and the end to demonstrate the two extremes. At the end of the day, I'm glad I stuck with this song as long as I did.

The lyrics of this song are about an experience I had as a child at my aunt and uncle's old farm. I was probably about 6 years old and we had gone out to their farm to spend New Year's Eve. As you might expect, they had a pretty sweet John Deere 4 Wheeler. My cousins had tied a string of plastic sleds behind the 4 Wheeler and were headed out to have some serious fun on the frozen and snow covered fields...at night. Does this sound dangerous? Yes. Does it also sound amazing? Absolutely. So I went along, hopped up on sugar and the kind of excitement you only get when you know you're doing something fun and dangerous.

When it finally came to my turn, I went stomach-down, face-first on the last sled in the chain. It was crazy. I remember going very fast in almost complete darkness. The white snow helped as the moon was shining that night, but let's be honest, I was still a little afraid of the dark. Next thing I new, we took a really sharp turn and I fell off the sled, I just couldn't hold on. I laid in the snow like Ralphie's brother in "A Christmas Story" when he gets pushed down but can't get up in his ridiculous red snowsuit. I remember just laying there, hearing everyone laugh as they continued on, just looking up at the sky in the cold. I remember thinking, "Will they find me? Will I die out here?." But I also was very calm, no real panic came over me. Looking back, I have no idea how long I was actually out there before they circled back for me. It was probably a minute or so, but that memory is so clearly burned in my mind.

I don't know why the 23/24 year-old version of myself felt the need to write a song with these images, but it happened.

• The first version is one I recorded in Baraboo for what was going to be the Miss Misery Trio. Bass was the primary instrument and everything else was based around it. For a while, it was just bass, keyboard, and a lead vocal line. But as I mentioned in the "Sifting Sands" post, the harmonies of Fleet Foxes really inspired me to add more in. Guitar was one of the last things added for a difference in texture.
• I really play a lot with dynamics with the MMT version. It was easy going from clean guitar/bass and then adding in the overdrive here and there. That was probably the biggest strength of this demo.
• The background vocals are quite sloppy, mixing ooos and ahhhs on different parts at the same time. But I like the effect of waiting to the last line of the song to all sing the lyrics together. 
• This song went through a couple of changes during Of the North's time together, especially in the beginning. We really struggled to find a way to make it work and fit in the set. It was shelved for a while, but one summer night I decided to give it another shot. I developed a new chord progression for the verses and gave it an entirely new feeling.
• In all honesty, this is one of my favorite recordings I made (with the help of Kent and Kristen) during Of the North. It encapsulates the best parts of the band and what my vision ended up being. 
• Fun fact: I misspelled the title of this song as "Take the Reigns" until 2014 when we tried adapting it for Whiskey Doubles. Ellie was kind of enough to let me know and I gave myself a good face-palm. I was so sure! Oh well.
• One of the reasons that this song has been laid to rest and no longer used with Whiskey Doubles is the vocal range. I started to have some big issues trying to sing the chorus of the song. When I rearranged it, I changed the key so that the vocals could be more impactful and pressing. But my voice would start giving out and activating my gag reflex (sorry, I know it's gross), I would have to stop singing mid-song and try to regain my composure. It wasn't good. 
• As a song, it no longer reflects my current songwriting style. It comes close, but I actually see it as a bridge to a new, and simpler style. By changing the main rhythmic part of the verse to a chord progression rather than a riff, it helped move away from the rock and roll and into the folk world a bit more.

Tickle of My Breath

Tickle of My Breath
Written and Recorded 2012

This song has been around long enough for me to admit that I have absolutely no idea how I wrote it. Lightning never strikes twice and this song proves it for me. Nothing before or since has come close to the energy in this tune.

• Despite it's high energy and cheerful sound, the lyrics of this song can be one of two things. 1) Questioning authority/faith or 2) Spooky houses. I'm not going to lie to you, the first verse was originally written about being in a haunted house, feeling the cold presence of a ghost. Over time, I've sung this song with different intentions for different performances. 
• I really feel like I got luck with verse 3 being able to work in an echo/round style. It sounds a lot better on the Whiskey Doubles recording of this with Kristen singing it rather than me, but it's a cool effect that breaks up the usual song structures.
• Though one of the older songs in the current catalog for Whiskey Doubles, this song has been a great addition to almost every setlist for the last 3 years. It not only changes up the energy, but also the texture. One guitar and then percussion for everyone else. It can be a stark contrast to something as full as guitar/clarinet/flute/cello.
• Fun fact: this song has most often been described as "cute." Not a word I typically would use for any of my music, but still, people seem to enjoy it.

Sifting Sands

Sifting Sands (MMT)
Written and Recorded 2011
Sifting Sands Revised
Arranged and Recorded 2012

 This one takes was written at the tail end of our time in Baraboo when I was getting ready to start up the Miss Misery Trio. The first version is a mishmash of influences. It still has massive focus on the bass part but is starting to incorporate Fleet Foxes-esque harmonies. This one helped us realize that this style was not going to work out. One thing I've really latched onto over the years is how important it is to realize what doesn't work and acknowledge the strengths and weaknesses therein.

• This song's lyrics are based off a book called "Soon I Will Be Invincible." I can't remember a lot of the details, but it's basically a novel about superheroes and villains. One of the perspectives it is told from is supervillain. I thought it'd be interesting to write from the perspective of the bad guy. Feels unnatural to me, which is probably a good thing.
• The vocal harmonies are too much on version 1. They overpower the overall simplicity of the song. They work much better when I changed it to lyrics instead of "ooos". It's definitely more in line with the more bluegrass style of version 2.
• It took a long time to figure out how to adapt this song from versions 1 to 2. Because the chords are so simple, it almost left me with too much room to explore. Sometimes I feel my options are limited because of chord progressions or melodies. Restrictions tend to spurn creativity for me, so no restrictions made this one difficult.
• The structure and key on these are identical, but the stylistic change is so important. A word I think of when I hear version 1 is "sleepy." It's very lethargic, but there is power that comes in at the end when I hit the overdrive on the bass. That dynamic change comes way too late.
• Changing to a bluegrass style for this song was band-aid. I was able to add quite a bit more contrast in different sections, but I was never convinced that this song was that good. Definitely not a terrible song, but it misses the mark in many ways.
• The second version has some issues coming out of the solo. I miscounted and didn't bother to fix it. I believe it caused some problems when rehearsing and subsequently performing this song a few times. In the last year, I've made a real effort to make my demos as accurate as possible.

Eagle Trees

Eagle Trees
Written and Recorded 2003

I shall always love the rock band Clutch, this much I know. Did I used to really, really, really love Clutch? I believe this song serves as proof of that. One of the first dozen songs I ever wrote, this demonstrates more imitation, not only in terms of the style but lyrics as well. For those unfamiliar with the work of Clutch, much of their music is riff-based and you can rest assured it rocks pretty hard. The vocals are gruff and powerful, but usually still melodic. It'd be hard to say that the melodies of Clutch are memorable, it's more about the delivery of the lines and the guitar work. They also usually have some pretty groovin' beats. This song was never performed...in any context.

• The lyrics of this song are part Clutch/part Magic cards. Starting to play Magic at a young age, the illustrations helped form my imagination. When writing lyrics for this song, I remember visualizing a Green card with a monstrous looking tree that also had wings, talons, and a beak. Then, being the cause-hungry teen I was, decided to make it about deforestation as well. Deforestation of fictional trees. 
• How do these lyrics fit in to the Clutch influence? Aggressive is another word to describe their music, and the Eagle Trees story brought that out a bit in me. They also can have some tongue-in-cheek lyrics, too. You may hear a line in this song that starts "Those lions and tigers and bears, oh my." So there's that.
• I'm not sure where the idea for two different tempo/feels came from, but the chorus riff and the vocal line is the same, and pretty weak. I clearly worked a lot hard on the intro/interlude and the verses.
• For the longest time I thought creating melodies over riffs was the hardest thing ever. I couldn't understand how a guy like Chris Cornell could come up with such memorable melodies over single note guitar lines. It wasn't until college music theory and Youtube where I started making the connection. Youtube helped me find "stripped down" versions of songs where Cornell would strum an acoustic guitar and sing the song. It was definitely a revelation seeing that there are chord progressions outlined with those riffs and they sometimes even spell out the chord. 
• Guitar solo...A for effort, D for playing notes in the scale. In 2003 Nathan's defense, he didn't understand what scales were or why they are important. Oh well.