So, where I said in my last post about hitting the $8000 in savings mark… Well, that was true, until the other day when I decided to buy some new music gear (actually I decided a few months ago, and waited to make sure I wanted to buy it). I spent more than I would have liked (now I’m back down to $7000…), but I love my new gear. And I figure I won’t need to buy any new music gear for a few years now. Except maybe a new pickup for my guitar…

(for the non-gear-heads reading: might want to skip the next 3 paragraphs)

New Guitar: The Little Martin LXM

It took me three days of trying out different travel-size guitars (the Baby Taylor was a contender, especially for the built-in pickup) before eventually settling on the Martin LXM. I loved the neck on the Taylor, but the beautiful tone and sturdiness of the Martin won me over.

New Audio Interface: Edirol UA25ex

My old interface, the Zoom H4n, wasn’t really meant for what I was using it for – direct recording (it was made to be used as a rugged field recorder).  Using it as an audio interface, I wrestled with frustrating latency and timing issues. It’s still great to put down rough song ideas though. I bought the Edirol on the recommendation of my class at Roland – although, thinking about it now, Roland owns Edirol so they might have been a bit biased. I’m really happy with it. It’s got a tough metal case, and if there’s any recording latency, I can’t notice it.

New Microphones: Shure M57 and Beta SM58

Compared to the built-in mics on my old Zoom H4N – well, there’s no comparing really. The Shure mics are just way better suited to my purposes: recording guitar (M57) and voice (SM58). I still need a pop filter. At one point in the song, when I say the word “pale”, the air from my mouth causes a pop in the recording. That’s what Pop Filters eliminate. Although I’m hesitant to spend the $70 that they cost here in Japan. I’ll probably end up making one myself.

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The Song: “Run Away”

This recording is the result of my first few hours playing around with my new recording setup. Overall, I’m about 70% happy with the recording.

The song itself is not bad. I wrote it about 2 years ago at my uncle’s cottage (about a year after I started writing songs). I think my songwriting has grown a lot since then, but I still like the song. I mainly chose it as my first test recording because it’s so easy to play.

The lyrics are very simple and the guitar is in standard tuning, which is rare for me. While some songs take me a week or more to write, this one came out in about 3 hours. The new audio interface and microphones made a huge difference in the recording sound from what I’m used to. That said, I’ve got a lot of learning to do with this new gear…

Some caveats before you listen

I’m not a singer. I love writing songs, and only record my voice because I haven’t found a singer yet.

—– If you’re a talented singer and live in Hamamatsu, definitely email me. —–

I’d love some feedback on the song: constructive or positive. Mostly positive though, as this is my first original song I’m releasing out into the world.   ;)

For some reason that I can’t put my finger on, it’s really difficult to click the ‘publish’ button on this post. Fear of failure? Fear of what people will say? I mean, have no crazy aspirations of becoming anything more than an amateur musician. I just love music and writing songs.

Regardless, as Seth Godin says, “You gotta ship your art.” Enjoy.

Run Away:

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Lyrics:

Baby did you take my gun

Baby did you take my gun

Did you go out and shoot someone

And run away

Oh, baby did you walk that line

Baby did you walk that line

Did you take somebody’s time

And run away, and run away

Baby did you understand

Baby did you understand

That I couldn’t be your man

And run away

Oh, Baby did you take my life

Baby did you take my life

Cause you couldn’t be my wife

And run away, and run away

Well she took my heart and soul

Now my body’s pale and cold

I’m just a story to be told

While she runs away, she runs away

While she runs away

Time for another shameless plug for my friends’ projects. I love to see people doing awesome things, especially friends and family.

Liam Mather

An upcoming singer-songwriter in Halifax and good friend of mine, Liam’s music is part alt-country, part singer-songwriter, and all heart. He just released his first album of live tracks, which I picked up the other day to no disappointment. If you feel guilty about all the free music you’ve downloaded in the past year, this would be a good time to repay that karma by paying for a copy of Liam’s album. You can do so here: http://liammather.com/music

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Slacklining

I just got back from the park where Kim and I were slacklining — imagine tightrope walking, but on a line that’s “slack” rather than rigid. Now, before my mom reads this and freaks out (Hi mom…), I should explain that you learn to do this with a line that’s only a foot or two off the ground. So if you fall (which you spend a lot of time doing when you’re learning), you don’t have far to go.

So how does one get into such a bizarre sport? It all started a year ago. I was in my little Bali house doing my lunch dishes and looked out my kitchen window to see this guy balancing on a rope.  (see picture below)

Sensing the opportunity to try something cool, I dropped my dishes and ran outside. The conversation went something like this:

Mike: “Dude. You’ve gotta let me try that.”

German dude: “Sure. Here. Just step with your feet like this and…”

(Mike carefully steps onto line, waves arms frantically, crashes to the ground)

Mike: “Awesome. I want one.”

German dude: “I can get you one.”

The German guy, Sebastian, turned out to be really cool, a fine example of the New Rich — not a millionaire, but definitely living like one.  He was working remotely for German clients doing specialized web design, billing his customers 60+ euros/hr and living like a king in Bali.

Sebastian kept his word and had his girlfriend bring me a slackline from Europe. I spent the next few weeks bruising my knees and learning how to stay upright on the line.

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The last big trip around Southeast Asia with Kim was AMAZING – the best time of my life. Beautiful beaches, an amazing travel partner, awesome adventures. My only complaint is that it lacked any sort of sustained focus. Just ride the motorcycle until tired, find a hotel, and search out something cool to do. Spend a week and then  move on. Repeat. Which was actually, really, really awesome. But sometimes it’s nice to learn something; to have a bigger goal than just unadulterated hedonism.
 

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To celebrate hitting the $10,000 savings mark last month (remember, I was in debt almost that amount this time last year) I made two new purchases. And *** are they fun.
 

Two super portable toys created with traveling musicians in mind. Having played with these toys for the last month, I’m having trouble remembering how I lived without them.
 

The Martin Backpacker
 

Weighs less than 2 and a half pounds. This thing is about as small as a guitar could get, without losing any of the overall functionality of an acoustic guitar.
 

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After a long hiatus, I’m getting back into music. Playing, writing, creating.

The other day, sitting down with the guitar and playing for a few hours, I realized that I NEED to play music. That music needs to be a bigger part in my life than what it’s been in the last few years. Another realization: I’m not content now just playing established songs — I want to create. I sat down for a few hours tonight writing and felt really great. I think what I’d forgotten in the last few yeras was that creating and playing music is at least a small part of my major definite purpose.

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After writing the last post about hitchhiking to Montreal to see TOOL, I got to thinking. How could I be so obsessed with a band and a genre of music so much eight years ago, and yet now when I listen to the same band I feel overwhelmed. Overwhelmed in a bad way. Like the music that represented my life and feelings so perfectly years ago, is now way too heavy and NEGATIVE for me.

I think we all intuitively realize on some level that music aligns you with whatever its VIBE is – whether it’s angst, lovestruck-ness, happy go lucky, sadness – but we rarely take a minute to consciously think about it. For instance, when someone just breaks up with you, you might listen or relate to songs about lost love, feeling down, broken hearts. Or it’s possible you would listen to heavy aggressive music because that’s how you feel. Or maybe you try to listen to happy music to cheer yourself up – to try to get out of that slump.

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