A friend reminded me of this demo tune called “Drifting Away.” He said his wife was listening to his itunes library and she actually got up to see who it was. Of course, that could have been because she was wondering who the hell wasted three minutes of my life with this? — though I’m assured otherwise. I don’t remember why I never made this into a finished track* (would have been better off with a click instead of those drums) but I think this must have been around the time I got the Lindert guitar and set it up for slide, which begat Sneaking Feeling, in which many of these lyrics found a new home. I have a half a mind to resurrect this somehow. (oops linked fixed now)

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Here’s the current status of the most recent tune, tentatively titled “That Would Explain Everything” because the lyrics were vaguely inspired by this video of Keifer Sutherland leaping into a Christmas tree. (Updated and cleaned up some Wednesday evening.)

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Coming up with tunes is always such an adventure. With this one I started with the idea of something slow and melodically bluesy and totally missed that mark as soon as I started with a major seventh.  Instead it turned out sort of Nora Jones or Paul Simon from the Still Crazy years with a sprinkle of Grateful Dead. The guitar noodling will get pruned once lyrics materialize. No idea what they will be, but I think “that would explain everything” might have to be in there. If you have ideas send ‘em on.  Here’s the tune in its current state.

I mentioned earlier that when I upgraded to Leopard my audio-in port stopped working with mics and headsets. Weirdly, it works with a line out from my Sansa mp3 player. However, this malfunction with headsets actually cost the U.S. economy the price of a headset because I bought three and returned them all once I learned from a visit to the genius bar at the Apple Store that the problem is a Mac problem, and that I’m SOL.

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I worked a little more on the most recent sketch, adding a pre-chorus and a chorus. This one is a little odd in that the hook is really the guitar part in the verse, and if it gets words, thaose parts will shift a beat later to make room for the lyrics, which will crowd out the pizz thing. And that’s probably a good idea because I played this sketch for the Son Unit, and he said it sounded like something he’d hear in the frozen food aisle. I blame the pizz plucks for that — along with the relentless happy of the verses. Then again, he also said it sounded like Knopfler to him, which I don’t hear no way no how. Anyway, it’s kind of clunky right now, but this is the basic structure. What it might be about remains TBD.

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I was trying to dig a little deeper into my sequencing software (because really, about all I know is tracking and basic mixing,) and once I learned how to make the drums actually fit the tempo without hiccups, I went ahead with a basic 1-4-5 sketch –  like so many songs. As I kept going, I realized I’d made a little Frankenstein between the Who’s “Teenage Wasteland” and the BeaTles’ cover of Buddy Holly’s “Words of Love.” The guitar patch sounds very Harrison-esque to me. Anyway, it has an innocent good-times, no worries kind of feel to me, and that’s reason enough to try to make something more from it. Here it is.

I’ve mentioned in the past how much I like the Focusrite Saffire interface, but now it’s not happy in my little studio setup, and if anyone has a clue as to why, I’m all ears.

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