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| To say the least, its been the busiest few weeks of my life. Im 120 pages behind in reading with music history, Red Robot is performing at my school's Halloween party this Friday so I've got a lot of rehearsals on top of that, I'm scoring a friend's animation, writing a string arrangement for my friend's band, trying to come up with some new ideas for either a string trio or string quintet by Tuesday, lots of assignments due this week, lots of violin practicing to do for Tuesday's lesson as well. Am I getting all of those goals aforementioned below in the previous entry taken care of? Sort of!
I promised myself I'd get busier and get more serious about my major, and thats definitely happening. As a consequence, I have less time to chat and it seems like even less time to focus on my band's recordings. I was planning to work on our CD throughout the year but, unfortunately, I barely have enough time to even get any of school stuff done as it is. The CD will have to wait til winter break, and Im hoping Ill get more than half of the recording process done during that time.
All in all, I feel very content in how much stuff I've got going on, however I really feel like I've lost any sense of time and structure during my day, and it feels like im losing part of myself in the process. I dont have time anymore to take a couple hours out of my day and really hone in on my songwriting and recording, and I dont have as much time to go online and chat with my friends. Maybe that seems like a trivial thing, going on AIM, but I really feel like its such an important factor in how close I stay with my friends who are away in different places. On the upside, Im at school so much more than I was last year, so Im meeting a lot more people and getting to know some acquaintances much much better. I guess everything has a balance to it in that respect.
Im really looking forward to November, not just because its a new month, but because most of the stuff on my plate right now will be gone, leaving room for new things and giving me a little more space in my day as well. Im not sure why all my teachers decided to have these huge assignments due at the end of October, but its definitely not convenient! One at a time, please! It seems fitting that the month will end with a Red Robot performance, its a very exciting time. Its the first time we're performing at CAL Arts, so Im looking forward to seeing how our new audience takes our music. I feel like a good response will really boost my confidence with performing more at school and getting our name around the campus as well. Thats the thing about school, you always start out as a freshman, the new guys, and gradually work your way up the ladder through the years. I feel like im definitely carving away at the stone here, who knows what the finished product will look like by the time I graduate. I really have no idea.
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I had a piece performed last Monday, and the feedback I got for it was really positive! I really didn't expect that, I had no idea what to expect or how people would respond to it. In any case, the performance went great and Im so appreciative of the guys who played for me. Professionalism is so important in a good performance:
When My Days Are Done
AND for my Sound/Silence class last Thursday we had to write a piece using one type of sound, so for whatever reason, I chose faucets. In any case, it turned out alright! I wouldn't generally make something that sounds this crazy but, this is CAL Arts, its kind of necessary sometimes haha. So here it is:
Lets hope this month ends with a bang and November starts off with a lot of excitement, Im looking forward to it! | | |
| Im leaving to Japan this Thursday until the 8th, so im writing an entry before then cause I know I won't have enough time to write all this once I get back.
Today was my first real studio session involving my band/songs. Actually, it was mostly Ryan who did all the work today considering we went in to record drums, but it was an amazing experience nonetheless. We spent 10 hours at the Jungle Room, a really great studio 20-30 minutes north of LA, and we recorded drums for 5 of our songs. The hope is that we'll have enough songs recorded in due time to make an album, however we'll see how that works out in the next few months. I love making overly-optimistic predictions so I'll refrain from doing so this time :D. It was an amazing feeling recording in a studio where my mom has recorded numerous times, and I have so much respect for her musicianship and talent, its an amazing thing that we got this privilege to record there. The drums sounded amazing and will sound amazing on the finished product, Im just excited that we're finally getting some material recorded for public consumption haha, its about time.
I have a couple goals for this school year:
Compose music and ENJOY it
Get a job
Get my band's CD done
Possibly find some new musicians for the band
Less internet, more work
Sleep earlier, WAY earlier
Learn how to cook some things besides pasta, popcorn, canned soup, and cereal..... yes, cereal counts
Hell, be healthier (see what I did there?)
So maybe thats more than a couple goals, but theres so much on my mind about this school year that I can barely keep track, I need to keep a to-do list of all of this. Im worried this year will be an even greater balancing act than it was last year, considering I've got the band, my composition major, critical studies classes, and a potential job to consider, but I suppose this all just involves cutting out some things that are just a waste of time. I LOVE chatting with my friends, but maybe Ill do it like, I dunno, a couple days a week rather than every single day.
Its been a fantastic summer, im looking forward to whats next. I expect my musicianship to take a much more serious attitude this year, a bigger outlook on a career and success, and I'm not afraid of this, Im really ready for whats next.
To me, this is where the new year starts, so happy new year everyone. | | |
| Summer break is coming to a close soon, I've never felt so inclined to do so much before I go back to school, but then again I don't think I've ever seen as many friends as I have this summer compared to the ones before it. Its been fantastic hanging out with my close buddies, getting to know some better, and meeting entirely new people too, its almost been a bit overwhelming.
I almost regret not getting a job (a lot of this is attributed to my mom putting me into a guilt trip), but I think this summer was extremely important for me to get back into my band stuff and start writing songs again, having a job might've taken away from that, especially if I was still hanging out with friends at the same time, then I would've had a really hard time getting around to the music stuff. I wrote my first song in months last week, it just took the right inspiration and the right feeling to do so. I'm very fond of it (its called "It Won't Be Long"), its one of my rare feel good songs :D, but musically it does things I've never done before. I'll have a separate post for that in the near future.
We're going to start recording a CD or an EP soon, Im very excited about that, I've been looking forward to the day when someone can ask me "Hey, where can I get your CD?" and I can reply "You can get it on iTunes!" or "You can buy a CD!" I can't tell you how many times someone has asked me that question and I've had to say "We're working on it," I come out of it feeling really guilty for not having something prepared yet, but then again, its all about timing and the right songs, I feel like we're ready to start putting stuff out there.
There are some things I haven't done this summer which I really regret not, seeing certain people, writing a few pieces of music, practicing more violin. A lot of that just got away from me, and I don't really have a good excuse for it, managing my time between all of this is definitely something I need to work on over the school year, its the perfect place to start off fresh. Overall, though, its been an amazing summer, and I still have a week to top it off as well as with my trip to Japan next week, so its not quite over, but the central portion of it is, at least for me. Im not quite looking forward to school yet, but once I get settled in Im sure i'll be excited about it, we'll see how it goes. | | |
| Red Robot had its first show in almost two years this past Sunday, and it was a fantastic experience altogether. Its amazing how many rehearsals and hours were used to prepare for just one 35 minute show, but I guess thats just another indication of how much the band is willing to sacrifice to be successful and play a good show. For me personally, its not so much about being a good performer but making sure that the people who come see us play have a great time, and thats the most important thing. There were some technical issues I had on stage (5 minute soundchecks aren't exactly ideal for preparing a full set), but most of the people and my friends who approached me afterwards said they had a great time, thats all that really matters to me. The more we play, the less these technical issues will happen. Heres some clips from the show!:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1128141398230&ref=mf
I had a very lazy Monday the following day, didn't do much and didn't really care, having the show off of my shoulders was an incredibly relaxing space in my mind, and surprisingly I really started to look forward to writing some new music again, this wasn't just a stress in the back of my head anymore. I started writing an idea that I'm very fond of, hopefully it'll turn into something nice. I just need to figure out the subject matter, which shouldn't be too hard, theres been enough emotional/ideological stuff going on this year, let alone this summer, to write plenty of things, I just need to get my mindset straight and really focus on the specifics. If Im too broad about what im thinking about then its much harder to pull off.
I kicked off August really well, Im hoping this month is going to be productive but also as fun as the past few months have been. Id like to write a few songs, write at least 2-3 pieces of instrumental music for school, record and re-cord some songs, see a bunch of friends, and save up money for The Beatles Remastered Box Set AND The Beatles Rock Band hahaha, those are a must :D. Im pretty sure I can do a little bit of all of that, we'll see how it goes! Happy August | | |
| Its been less than two weeks since my last entry, but I've been feeling incredible this week. Its been a mix of things, seeing a lot of close friends, seeing quite a few old friends of mine I haven't seen in years, rehearsing with the band for our show, and even The Beatles!
I've been prepping with Red Robot for our August 2nd show at The Whisky. We've played there once before so we know the ball game, and while we only get 30 minutes to play (or a little over), we want to make sure the experience is seamless and a lasting one. We're bringing in a friend of mine from CAL Arts, a composer/guitar player, to make our live band a 4 man band. This way, we can get all the important melodies and extra guitar parts we might've otherwise missed with just me playing guitar. I was worried that we wouldn't have enough time to get everything down, but two rehearsals in and im extremely confident this is going to be an awesome show. We're sounding great, and its great to have something to look forward to right now.
Besides that, I've been listening to The Beatles nonstop lately. I listened to "With A Little Help From My Friends" and got hooked again, it all feels so fresh again, and its so inspiring to listen to all of their albums and how they grew from a pop sensation to one of the biggest, most legendary rock bands. Not only that, their music is still fresh generations after. Now thats great music. I think theres this belief sometimes among bands that, in order for a band to be good, the songs need to have breakthrough ideas and really push the limits of music. I agree it can be an incredible thing, but good songs are good songs period. Ill never stop writing music that I feel for the sake of purely chasing new ideas. If its forced, I think most people can tell.
All this, and seeing friends has really brightened up my days. Its amazing when you can see a friend, years after you've last seen them, and still connect the same way. Thats genuine friendship. Even better, how about seeing friends you see all the time yet still have a great time every single time? Thats genuine too.
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Im relatively worry free at the moment, im relishing it. | | |
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