A Few Words about First Album
When I decided to put together all the snippets of music I developed into an album I thought hard about what to expect from my current skill level and what my focus should be. I knew that my naiveté and noob like status should be taken into account. Thinking of how the Beatles first album was a great debut for establishing who they are as a band, with its short catchy pop songs and very standard stories for lyrics I thought that would be a good place to start.
My first album will be about everyday things that won’t get deep into politics, psychology or heavy emotional topics. I am a pretty happy guy and my life is good so I really can’t write about anger and hate or injustice. (Maybe I will learn anger and hate later and write about it then) So I decided the theme of the album should be
First World Problems
We all can relate to them. We all have pet peeves and things we commonly think are silly and stupid. Also a lot of relationship issues are over these kinds of things. I treasure trove of ideas to write songs about. It also helped that while I was trying to think of the concept of the album I got three SCAM calls in a row. Everyone can relate to Scam Callers, I thought, what a great idea. Once I had this concept I started a list of song ideas and would jot things down as I ran into more first world problem stuff. I ended up with a list of about 30 ideas in which to start from. As it goes with the creative process, the ideas you start with rarely end up as the finished product.
The Style/ The Sound
Once the theme was decided I wanted to come up with what would be the sound of the album. If you have too much variety it can end up confusing the listeners. Since I have to fan base to worry about I can do what ever I wanted but being a first album I did not want to go too far off the norm. I wanted to have something simple and clean without too much production. What I remember clearly listening to music growing up in a warm fuzzy tape recorded world of music what got my attention was some of the original synthesizer sounds back in the late 60s/70s. “Runaway” by Del Shannon, “Good Vibrations” by The Beach Boys. The synthesizer sound was very clear, even using tape production. I had not heard KraftWerk at that time, I wish I had. It took the New Wave scene to show me that Synths could have a groove and not be just a metronome. Eventually Synths got better and using sampling people experimented and made them into replicants of existing instruments forgetting their origins of analog sine/square/saw waves. I felt I wanted to try working with that original synth sound when writing.
As for the style of music I wanted to go for a bouncy pop feel, a little funky with the bass, and a nice dance drum beat. I also liked the surfer rock rhythm and thought it would work for electro-pop type of songs. I wanted to stick with POP songwriting with verse, chorus, and a middle 8. Also keep it simple, like radio friendly lengths. As much as I like Prog-rock at times, I don’t think it’s something simple. Once I started working on a few songs I new I needed to write a list of rules to follow:
Use minimal instrumentations focusing around keyboard, bass, drum, guitar, vocals.
Keep the instruments clear and simple. Synths should sound like analog synths. Don’t Sample. Don’t Over produce.
Don’t be too clever with chord structures, arrangements, or lyrics.
Avoid excessive repetition. If you are repeating something more than twice you need to change it up with something.
Bending rules may be okay, but don’t break them.
Getting Help
After writing the first song I found out I needed help. Not because I was doing something crazy, but that the first song needed a female vocalist. I have many talents but that one was way out of my wheelhouse. I had just moved to my new location so I did not have a huge musical base of contacts to ask around for help but as luck had it, an acquatance was related to a singer for a local band. I played her that track and she was interested, and it turned out great. This album was going to push me to reach out locally and get more involved with the music scene and I am grateful that it did. i’m also reaching out online to get some advice, who knows, it may lead to some collaborations.
But it is also important to know exactly what you need help with. I got some help with mixing and mastering thinking it would save me some time, but I felt uncomfortable when the sound was not matching what was in my head. I can see how musicians and songwriters can turn into control freaks in the studio. It also showed me that even if I WANTED to just write songs and share them, what I NEEDED to do is all the detail work to do the music justice including mixing, mastering and marketing. Which is why I am writing so many words about this album.
In short, I learned a lot, and writing lists was key to keeping me on track. But the work is not over once the album is done. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it.
Professor B.
