2/12/09

Time To Make An Album

From flickr user HissRecordsWell, it's February again. And that means it's time to record an album. There are not one but two organizations pushing this awesome idea: FAWM (February Album Writing Month) and The RPM Challenge. The concept is simple: write (and optionally record) an entire album's worth (10 or 14, depending on which site you're reading) of songs entirely during the month of February. That's it. They don't have to be great songs, they don't even have to be good songs. They just have to be songs that you wrote.


I've read about this in year's past, but never had the guts to try and actually participate until now (I don't really trust my own songwriting instincts). Fortunately, I don't have to go it alone, and neither do you! The FAWM site in particular is very helpful in helping people find musical collaborators - and I've been using this feature to up my song count by collaborating with my former band-mate John (currently rocking the guitar for the Madison, WI band Race Bannon). Using nothing more than some simple recording tools (on my end), some fancier recording tools (on his end), and the magic of FTP, I've been able to contribute vocals to his songs and he's been able to contribute musical hotness to mine. We've only just started working together in this way, but so far I'm pleased with the results (John wrote the music and did all the mixing for this song, a friend of his wrote the words, and I recorded the vocals). I like the concept of long-distance musical collaboration. I haven't played with indabamusic yet, but it looks like something I'd love.


I might not write the greatest song ever written this month, but at least I'm writing something, and that's more songwriting than I've done since high school. What creative endeavors are you embarking on? Tell me in the comments. (For more on creative endeavors, check out the always inspiring Creative DC blog.)

4 comments:

kate said...

Hey Jordan - I finally had time to listen. You've got a great voice! Awesome job!

Molly Malone said...

catchy tune, there. it keeps popping into my head when i least expect it.
good job!

Newmanium Reveler said...

nice job, guys. would you be insulted if I said it reminds me a bit of some of mike gordon's upbeat solo tunes? these lyrics are much better, as are the vocals. the vibe, though...

John Das Binky said...

Interesting, Ed. A few people have mentioned the Jam Band vibe on this tune, and I can kind of hear it, but I was going for a poppier Talking Heads kind of vibe. (Which I should note, I don't really think I hit.)

In any event, given the copious amount of influences I INTENTIONALLY steal from when I'm writing, it's interesting to inadvertently hit someone else's vibe. I've never heard any of the solo stuff from any of the Phish guys.