I have this fantasy that Album #3 is a blank slate, with no material left over from previous sessions or unfinished projects. <\/p>\n
In reality, I have lyrics and musical fragments that I\u2019ve been working off-and-on over the last few years. I usually get my ideas while out cycling, and it is no trouble to pull over, whip out the iPhone and record the fragment into the Voice Memo app. Later, back in the studio, I transcribe the lyric into my notebook. Sometimes I\u2019ll open my Scrapbook project and add another piano track with the melody.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s cool. On the plus side, these new songs will hopefully start out being actually sing-able in my comfortable range, as opposed to many projects in the past where the music came first and the melody second and was almost always not pitched comfortably for my voice. So that\u2019s a good thing.<\/p>\n
Outside of these lyric and melody fragments \u2013 some of which have expanded into pretty complete stand-alone song ideas \u2013 I still have a comprehensive library of musical ideas that date back to those Grey Lynn flat jam sessions in the 90\u2019s, converted to mp3 from C60 tape cassette. <\/p>\n
I still feel that this situation qualifies as a \u201cblank slate\u201d, as far as Album #3 is concerned. Every track is going to start with a new empty project, and not an existing one, worked on in years past and put on the back-burner due to lack of time, interest, energy, ideas, whatever.<\/p>\n
Even \u201cThe God Program\u201d from our current release was conceived back in 2003 and much of it laid down in 2007. (And consequently re-recorded, but that\u2019s par for the course.)<\/p>\n
So, I\u2019m looking forward to never again having to sit back and listen to a newly recorded section of music, and say \u201cdammit it just doesn\u2019t have the magic of that older demo\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u2026Yeah. That was nice while it lasted. <\/p>\n
Back in 2002 I didn\u2019t have any plans to resurrect \u201cThe Prodigal Sounds\u201d as a music-releasing entity, and instead explored some other new music ideas with the tentative goal of putting it out under another band name. I had three longish instrumental thematically-related pieces recorded in \u201cpretty complete demo\u201d form, but only titles for the other three or four pieces.<\/p>\n