Studio Diary: April 27/2019

The perfect day to be in the studio (it's snowing outside)! Spent a large portion of the day working on "DFY?"! Made a bit of progress, song is nowhere near completion. Switched over to "TC", listened to track, recorded vocals! Track has been sent off for guitars!! Finally, worked on "A", added parts here and there... may completely change what I added... next session will listen to again, and see if everything fits!!

Overall feeling of this session: Very productive today! Feeling good about "DFY?" and "TC", and general direction where things are going! The album is getting closer to completion! Soon will be switching over to "20 Years of Twitch" mode, and will be working on that stuff! Lot's to do in the next little while, but I love it!

Studio Diary: April 24/2019

Today was productive! Worked exclusively on "DFY?". Messed around with a weird "data" sound. Added a static type sample to enhance percussion parts... glitched it a little bit, sounds awesome! Messed around with pad(ish) type sounds... will listen to it once again next session to see if it fits properly, may tweak here and there. Finally, used a ring mod synth sound and seems to fit in intro and outro parts... next session will tweak if needed. Overall feeling from this session; very productive, things are coming out quite naturally... this song is coming along! Not quite in a finished state yet... but feeling very confident about where the song is going!!

(Pictured above: inspiration for the evening 😉)

Studio Diary: April 23/2019

Back in the studio after the Easter Holiday. Had to go back and tweak levels in "STF", think it is ready for guitars now!! Worked on "DB" for majority of session... tweaked things here and there, didn't like a certain arppegiation, so took it out, left another minor background arp... did vocals... got vocals in 4 takes. Track is now in a rough finished state... sent off to have guitars added!! For the last little bit of this session, listened to "DFY?", now I'm getting to the harder (difficult) tracks that I've been having problems finishing... next session will sit down and take a good listen, to see if I "hear" anything that belongs in the tracks!! Overall feeling of session: Today was good! It's good to be back at it after the holiday's/trip to Edmonton! Was very productive! Just want to put it out there, I feel a lot of gratitude for the people I have around me in my life right now! Not sure where I would be without you guys!!

Trip and Recent Musical Findings: April 20/2019

Went on a little trip to Edmonton this Easter weekend. We went to a used music store called Revolver. Pretty cool place! I've never been there before, but my friend decided to take me there to check it out and all that stuff! As you can see in the photos, the place is huge! All kinds of used CDs, Vinyl, DVDs, posters, t-shirts, all kinds of cool stuff!

I picked up some older pieces of music that I had originally gotten rid of when I was younger... wanted them in my collection again, and the price for these items was great!! White Zombie's "La Sexorcisto" and the "Supersexy, Swingin' Sounds" Remix album. I'll probably be picking up "AstroCreep: 2000" some time in the near future here as well... I really don't know why I got rid of these in my collection... granted I'm more of a Rob Zombie fan now... but I like having these pieces in my collection and it's great to listen to them again after all these years!!

Also picked up some stuff that isn't in my collection, that is new to me!

Picked up Ministry's "House of The Mole"; giving a listen to it right now (April 22/2019), it's very good, very metal... it was a random purchase, wasn't too sure what to expect, but it's not bad!! I would say there are some definitely recognizable parts in the songs... not sure if they were using the same samples as some older material, but... definitely familiar.

Also picked up :Wumpscut: "Evoke"... not as hard edged electro-industrial that I thought it was gonna be, but still good... I'm glad I picked this up!! Overall, the visit to this store was good! It's definitely a gem in the Edmonton music scene (they have a goth/industrial section as well!! 😉), the staff seem cool too! I'm glad there are still stores out there that still carry physical media/product... I like having physical... I like looking at the artwork, and reading the liner notes and shit! When people come to my place, there is also the added piece that they see my collection, and there is a conversation associated with each piece! That's the one thing I miss with digital/streaming... it's basically there to consume, and nobody cares about digital/streaming, but physical... it gives people a chance to have a conversation if they ask about the pieces.

The Trip? This trip was good! I finally got to reconnect with my friend after not seeing him after 2.5 years (we still talk, but just haven't seen each other), and whenever we get together after not having seen each other for such long periods of time it's like we've never been apart... and we pick up where we left off!! Hope to head out there again... maybe in the fall, we'll see...

Studio Diary: April 17/2019

It's been a few days since the last studio session... it's weird, when I have such long periods of time between sessions, I wonder if I can still get into the mentality of album creation... then as I get into the session, that worry goes away and I start to feel productive! Today was indeed productive, exclusively worked on "DB"... song is taking it's time to getting done. Feel I'm around 70% completed for the arrangement of this song, I've flipped around a bit with this song... I thought it was sitting close to completion... then after a long time of putting this song aside, and then coming back to it... I feel it's not even near being done... still have a lot of work to do! Added a weird fucked up partial arp to it... then added another more atmospheric sounding arp to it for other parts... not sure if it fits properly, but I got it in, cause I didn't want to lose the idea while it was in my head! Overall feeling of today's session: Good to be back at it, but there's an overwhelming sense of dread in me right now, cause of the current political situation here in Alberta... but we'll see what happens... maybe it won't be as bad as I think it will be...

Heathen Earth: The Live Sound of T.G.

Picked up "Heathen Earth: The Live Sound of T.G." at Sloth Records here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It was a random find... I've started to listen to the first wave industrial bands, in particular Throbbing Gristle. I figured I should probably educate myself on the band that started it all, being that I love this genre and can't seem to satiate my appetite for more information about the bands involved in the industrial subculture. So, I made my first purchase of T.G. last month (it was a digital copy of "20 Jazz Funk Greats"), and this month I picked up a physical copy of "Heathen Earth..."! I'm not gonna review this, but I will say it's good to finally hear where industrial music started and what it originally sounded like... veeeeeeeeeeeeery different than modern industrial! Today's industrial is very club driven, most of it is made for the dance floor... nothing wrong with that, as with everything... industrial evolved and branched off into all kinds of different sub-genres... I'm glad things have evolved and changed! Otherwise, the genre would be very stale and boring! Course it's not all dance floor driven... there's industrial metal, there's industrial rock, coldwave, progressive industrial, all kinds of stuff! Anyway, I'm glad I found this, the purchase was totally worth it! The one thing that attracts me to the physical format is the booklets and artwork, after I got this home and opened it up, I took a look at the booklet and to my surprise there's some kind of story that John Savage wrote way back in 1981 (I do believe)! Very interesting, and exciting!! I like it when I get something physical and there's extra stuff in there that totally enhances the experience of purchasing and owning this album! I do feel there is value to owning physical copies in this day and age of digital and streaming. If I can't have a physical copy, I really enjoy it when the band/artist includes a PDF booklet with their digital release! I like looking at that stuff, the artwork, the stories... all that kind of stuff!!

Anyway, exciting purchase! Glad I picked this up!! What music purchases are you excited about. whether it's physical, or digital?

Studio Diary: April 14/2019

Spent the majority of the day in the studio! Worked exclusively on "STF"! Sooo, many ideas!! Recorded some choral parts. Also, added some weird atmospheric sounds. Added a background melody, and fucked around with a weird distorted key part! Recorded vocals... track has been sent off to have guitar added... definitely going to be tweaking things after guitars come back... get a proper mix... maybe redo some vocal parts! Track is almost done... just want to hear what Elijah comes up with, and we'll see where to take track after that!!