Recent Music: "Real Doll Delivery (Demo)" and "Gale of the Wyvern"

And now for something that has nothing to do with GTP (gasp!).

Real Doll Delivery (Demo)



I actually wrote this song back in 2007 in a body of songs called Casualties of the Times, and its kind of a mind job for me to think that it's five years old. In part because I've slowed down a lot as a lyricist and in my mind it's a fairly recent song, but even more so because of how old that makes the many songs I wrote before it. As I said on the YouTube description, I originally structured it more in the style of "Sister" era Sonic Youth. When I started dabbling in recording vocals with Garageband, I applied it to the very basic bass loop structure and found the vocals more angsty. I think Xiu Xiu was stuck in my head on that day. It was sometime last December before Anna got me a mic for Christmas and I used the built-in mic of my aging iMac for the recording. It has been sitting on my hard drive ever since due to a lack of enthusiasm towards the result and mixing problems. I think I'm finally satisfied with the mix (there isn't much one can do about poor singing skills, but at least you can hear the guitar loops).

The video is of a wasp I found stuck between the screen and the glass of my kitchen window. I added some textures and stuff, but that's the gist of it.

Gale of the Wyvern



I might have started the earliest incarnation of this piece as far back as recording Real Doll Delivery. I've been picking at it on and off for a while, but of late it's served as a pallet cleanser at the end of the day - a little project unrelated to theater, film, or family commitments, that I can poke at for 20 or 40 minutes before going to sleep. It started out very much a guitar piece, and for some reason reminded me of that (also angst-ridden) moment in The Crow where Brandon Lee smashes his guitar. Obviously it sounds nothing like it, but I just got this image of someone having this kind of epic guitar-off to the point of becoming comical as I worked on it. I could never decide where the track was going though. Over time the second half was added and the idea of some sort of pursuit started building. The idea of running from a dragon kept swimming around in my head, and then for god only knows what reason I added high bass dance beats to the mix... and it felt right. There's a lot of almost chaos throughout the track as the two styles clash, but I like it and it feels good to be done with it.

The video footage is mostly comprised of some recent material from yesterday. I was parking my car across from the train tracks down by the amphitheater downtown, on my way to GTP auditions for She Stoops to Conquer, when a train happened to be coming into the station. Since I had my camera with me, I took a moment to film the wheels. I'll probably use the footage again in other things. What really excited me about it though was the sound I recorded from the train going down the tracks. Between editing The Doctor and my own projects I'm pretty sure that is going to come in real handy.

That's all for now.

Later.