On Monday, I began work on my own recording of the new DT album; I’ve been quite self conscious about recording on my own for the first time in a while. When it comes to things like guitar pedals or technique or recording knowledge, I’m okay with not knowing a whole bunch - but since I will be doing a bulk of the recording either by myself or with Dave, this album is going to be a whole different experience for me. The last time I’ve used Reaper and my Focusrite, I got frustrated and quit. The only time I’ve used Audacity in the past 3 years gave me an existential crisis as the tedious process of getting your audio files through “audio.com” makes me realize how a great piece of software like Audacity has been gutted for capital greed. You could probably downgrade Audacity or there’s probably a very simple way to bypass the whole issue of New Audacity, but I may just be too dumb to notice. Anyways, once I got through my own goofy blunders with Reaper and my Focusrite, I was able then to record and it actually sounded good. I then used the built-in FX thing in Reaper to make my Goodwill Keyboard (HS-3250A with added 1/4” output jack) sound decent, which I was very proud of. I also added bass and some distorted guitar (specifically that Jazzmaster build I put together). After working on the song, I finished up the Dhammapada and went to bed.
On Tuesday, I saw Kyra - me and her went to Goodwill and Spirit Halloween. It was a nice date and I’m glad I got to see her for a little bit. After we got back from shopping, we hung out and relaxed for a little bit and then I went home and I finished up my viola project, I mean I still need to put the chin rest on the thing, but other than that it looks very nice. I've attached a picture of it below:
On Wednesday, nothing really of note happened. I did listen to some James Ferraro albums while reading the bible (this seems like the best thing to read while listening to James Ferraro) and it was very good. My favorite album of his is "Cruisin' The Nightbiker Strip 1977." I talked to my buddy Sam about some of the influences for the new album, specifically mentioning James Ferraro's influence in the ambient quality (although I think this is more of note in my footnotes series than this new album, but mentioning some of Frankie Cosmo's earlier albums. I find Frankie's first bandcamp albums to be amazing in the lofi and minimal quality of the album to be amazing in a way that is unique and utilized the cheap recording equipment of the time whilst also be very emotive. These songs often contain the bare minimum of items they need to have - guitar chords or even single notes, and soft sung (almost whisper) singing that really puts the lyrics front and certain - which is a style I've definitely looked up for this album. I also mentioned the influence from Dogme95 for the new album which I don't feel like detailing here.
On Thursday, me and Dave had band practice. Caleb is on vacation so me and Dave have been practices as a two piece with me on guitar and vocals and Dave on guitar and gong. It was good to see Dave again and we had a good time; Dave also expressed interest in recording soon which I was happy about, Dave's been busy so I haven't been bugging him too much but I am very excited to record with him and I'm excited for him help me with recording, especially with my newfound confidence in recording. Me and Dave parted ways and I went home, finished Numbers in the Bible, and went to bed.
On Friday, I worked until 2PM and then I went to get my oil changed. The first place I went into was a walk-in place and they were busy so I went to my normal Honda dealership and they needed an appointment so I went back to the first place (I wasn't really upset at them, because it was my fault for not making an appointment beforehand, but I was upset at myself) and they told me the wait was two hours, which was fine. The first place is an auto-repair shop within a nearly closed plaza, that used to smell of this perfume that I remember the scent of but not from where. I remember thinking that detail about not remebering where the scent came from was slightly depressing when I was an annoying 19 year old due to the perfume scent causing an unknown nostalgia, unable to be placed (a la Liminal Spaces, Vaporwave, any sort of Generation Z Co-Opting of pre-9/11 consumer culture). Anyways, the scent is no longer there and the plaza mall is fairly empty besides a post office and a dentist's office. There used to be a place called Notoriously Morbid which was not interesting to me that moved into a different building and had a bobba place in there and has now shut down. Anyways I worked on some sample work for the new album and within 2 hours my car was ready, which I was pleasantly surprised about. From here, I went to Kyra's and she cooked a Teriyaki Salmon and some greens and it was very good. Me and her than went to Goodwill and Books A Million. From here, me and her went home and we stayed for a little bit before going to bed.
Kyra woke up on Saturday morning at about 6:30 AM and we switched sides and I then went back to sleep. I woke up at about 8:30 AM and me and her left to Silverdale to pick up my amp and my guitar and then me and her got some Starbucks before heading to Bluefield. The trip was only an hour away from where we were to the venue, which was a roller rink - which I was very excited to play. Upon arriving, me and Kyra walked around and talked to our friends and took a gander at the different vendors set up. Me and Kyra set up at a little booth for the DT shirts near my buddies Hunter Chambers and Zach Elmore. They both make very good music - I also talked to my buddies Jared and Blake. I also said hi to my other buddies Shawn, Tyler, Matthew, Adrian, Ty, Summer, Will, Brigid, Seth, and Aaron - it was good to see them. Once me and Kyra got settled in, she worked on some art and I chit chatted with my buddies. I talked to my buddy Zach about a book I recently ordered of Martin Luther King Jr. speeches while also reccomending Lucinda Roy's book about Virginia Tech. After a while, my buddy Sam showed up and we all chit chatted until the music started at 12 PM.
There was a lot of different music at the festival and I am unable to list every performer, but there was so much great stuff - I especially enjoyed the scream rap performers and this band called DamNear that I thought was pretty good. At about 2/2:30PM, my buddy Hunter Chambers started to play while the wrestling event took place in the background, which was really neat. During Hunter's set, Dave arrived and we loaded our equipment in (amps and gongs and guitars). Zach Elmore played a set after Hunter which was also very good, Dave took some good pictures of the wrestler's too which was cool. At about 3:35 PM me and Dave took the stage. There was about 10-15 people watching us up front and probably a couple more sitting down. Me and Dave played for about 20 minutes and it went very good. There was a handful of people who sung along to my songs, which was sweet - people really enjoyed "Mike and Molly" and sung and clapped along to the tune which was cool. After our set there was two more bands however there sets were "cut" due to a breaker issue and the owner of the roller rink being unable to keep the rink open, so there was a venue switch.
Before going to the venue; me, Kyra, Dave, and Sam went to Macado's, which is a very good restaurant. We all ordered and it was a really nice time; I told Dave about how much I loved his album and my thoughts about the album's themes; I've linked the album here. Me and Sam talked about many different things but I really enjoyed hearing stories of him and his brother's old film projects. Eventually we received our food from Macado's and it was very good. Once we ate we headed towards the next venue.
Once we arrived at the next venue, we all went in to see Harrower, whom play very great 80's-styled thrash metal. They also have very good stage moves. Once they played, I said bye to Sam and Dave. Me and Kyra tried to stick around for Dreamkiller276, however we were both worn out from the day and she had a bad headache, so I turned on my car's AC for her whilst I said bye to everyone. It was really good to spend some time with all my princeton homies. Me and Kyra went to Silverdale to load up our stuff, and there was a fairly big show for my buddy Luke's upcoming album. Me and Kyra talked to Erik and other buddies DJ and Tyler for a little bit and Kyra and Tyler got ice cream which was wholesome. I then drove Kyra home and went home and played Minecraft for a little bit.
This morning church was cancelled so I went up to Maw Maw Tootie's house and I explained some music theory to her and she showed me what she could play on the piano which was really good. I've been watching that video I mentioned from the beginning of this blog - It's pretty good and I found Google.exe to be a really goofy creepypasta game. I then went home and took the nap I mentioned at the start of this blog. I am going to try and work on recording some vocals. Goodbye.