Different Directions

One of my favorite musical artists of all time is Aaron Marsh, former lead singer for the band Copeland. Evan Van Kirk, (friend and producer) has been talking with him on the phone for a while, making plans to record an album with him in the near future.

Pretty much from what Evan's told me, Aaron Marsh doesn't listen to any of his own stuff, because he gets angry with himself in retrospect, thinking about all of the things he could have done differently in his songs, all the different directions he could've taken, all the sounds he could've used and didn't. I never really understood what he meant. When I wrote a song, that would be the way I wanted it to sound. A different direction sort of seemed impossible. I guess that's because I've never spent enough time really considering my songs.

All this to say, today I finally understand what he means.
For one of my songs (the first one on the album, actually), I had originally had in mind to take it in the direction of a big band song, rocky, four-man-band style, etc. Then while recording vocals, I found myself not feeling the song at all. It didn't even feel like it was mine. So that was when I realized that I could make this song sound completely different. And then I realized that there's probably a million different ways for a song to sound. It's actually really overwhelming.

Anyway, at the moment I'm compleeeeeetely stoked on this new sound. It's experimental and beautiful. Instead of opening with a bang, it's sort of like this whole album fades into existence, like a dream.

I might hate the idea tomorrow. But we're gonna think positive.

There's a cat on my lap.