December 13, 2023
This week I had the pleasure
of re-discovering an old song idea
I had recorded on my phone
from a couple of years ago.
I’m always having song ideas
come to my brain so I usually record
them on my phone to
come back to later.
Fun fact, before smart phones
I used to record all my song ideas
on a cheap cassette tape player.
Then when I wanted to hear what
a harmony vocal or second guitar part
sounded like together with the main parts
I would hit record on a
second cassette tape player,
hit play on the first player,
then play/sing along to my first recording.
It was always horrible quality since
the second player was recording
whatever was coming straight from
the speakers of the other player
plus whatever I played/sang
out loud with it lol but this method
would help me write
all the parts of a song haha!
So I’m noticing a slight theme/overall vibe
on this new album with
a few of these songs and
I’m not mad about it lol.
It’s this sort of “swung” cowboy rock feel.
I’m not sure where the inspo
is coming from for it all
but maybe it has to do with
my upbringing as
an Arizona desert native lol!
I’m just rolling with it for now.
I say that now though I think because
most of my songs start
on acoustic guitar which naturally
gives that western-y vibe.
But as you’ll soon hear on
the song-in-progress page for this one,
songs usually progress to a different
electro-rock feel once recorded in the studio, but
I may challenge myself on this album
to try to keep more of that
original acoustic feel in
more of these songs for this album.
As you can see on the
I’m getting close to the total number of
songs that usually make up a full album.
When I get to this point I like to evaluate
all the songs I have so far
and start playing around with song order
to get a feel for if the overall arc of
the album feels complete.
My full albums usually tell a story
whether or not I recognize it
right away or not,
it’s usually always there.
So at this point I evaluate
what kind of story the inspiration has
led me to create,
consciously or subconsciously.
Then if there are any
missing pieces to the story
I look at writing a couple more songs
to fill in the gaps.
I seriously love this process!
And I’m so excited about
the direction this album has taken.
Do you see any overarching stories
or themes within all the songs so far?
If so, let me know!
/n8
“Fenwick & the Futures