Time Delay

It has become apparent to me that there has been and will be a delay in the production of the third Diads album on my end.

One of the reasons for blogging about the progress of the album was to give outsiders a bit of an inside view of the process and what was going into the finished piece. And while a delay may not be welcome news, it's certainly reality and a part of what many projects go through. As you may have noticed over the past month, there hasn't been a new post updating all of you wonderful people. Mostly, I won't be writing a post for the sake of it. I'll be posting again when progress resumes, and I can get back into the mind frame to do so.

So, what's the hold up, buddy?

In short, life. March has been a busy month for me, and I've had practically no time to work on music. Besides my day job (and overtime), family stuff, an out-of-town trip, and other responsibilities, I have my hand in many different things, and I refuse to push all of that aside to work solely on music. I can't. Also, as can be read in a post at my blog, once summer arrives, working on music becomes more difficult, however, not impossible given the right circumstances. But, I will have time to work on music going forward, and during that time, I have another project I need to work on.

The other project.

Last fall, I was approached with the idea of writing music for a show. It will be a locally-based (Minneapolis, MN) fishing show with the aspirations of a 20 episode season being filmed this year. Pre-production for the show has already started. While that is the goal, the possibility of this year being a “trial” year has been considered, and if that becomes the case, the goal then would be to ultimately put together and release a video package to promote and create a buzz for the show. While I took the opportunity seriously last fall, I had no idea what kind of time frame the show creator was suggesting. After talking more about it with him this past January, it became obvious that I needed to get moving on the music, because the plan was to start filming in May.

I have tried to juggle two projects so far this year, and although it worked for a couple of months, I have realized it's not going to work for the next unknown amount of months. Initially, last fall and into January, I was under the assumption that the third Diads album was going to be a quick and dirty endeavor, and I had my sights set on June being a goal to shoot for. After discussions with my bandmate about the songs, reality having its say with how my time is spent, and the need to have music ready for the show, I decided I needed to stop working on the album and pick it back up when it was a better time to do so. Also, I have more music projects beyond the Diads album and the show lined up, and I don't want to dwell and overthink too much on any of them. Part of that means I need to be able to focus on one project and be able to just DO the work and be done.

While I would like to work on finishing the album, I see the show as an opportunity too good to pass up. I've thought about breaking into this part of the business but haven't put any effort into doing so. This opportunity found me, and I'm going to see where it goes. It's something I've never done. I will get paid. It may lead to future opportunities. As long as the show continues, I will continue to write music for it. However, after the initial batch, work can be done more casually; This is my educated assumption.

Another aspect of this opportunity that isn't lost on me is that I'm actually writing music. For some of my projects, including Diads, I'm adding a part or parts to a song written by someone else. While this can be fun and force me to think differently and adapt to their vision, I'm only able to get so much personal satisfaction out of the process and the finished product. With other projects, such as my solo project, Mess of it ALL, I have such a large backlog of songs that are almost finished or in the least started that writing something new from scratch feels counterproductive and just adds to the backlog. So, I have a vehicle in my audio services in which to write new music or revive scraps of ideas I've recorded over the years but most likely just record new ideas. Of course, the client needs to be happy with the material, but so do I or it's not worth it to me. The show has provided me with a new and different challenge that I'm excited to rise up to. It can only help me to get better and grow within the craft.

In conclusion, you'll hear more from me when I have more to say about the third Diads album. I plan to get back to it by the end of the year, but my crystal ball is too foggy to tell you when exactly that will be. In the meantime, please consider checking in with me at my Workshop from time to time. That is the place I give updates on all of the projects and ventures I'm working on, music or otherwise. It’s a new concept I’m trying, and based upon how it's going so far, it'll be updated at least every month or two. Also, I blog regularly here about anything and everything, sometimes briefly or in length.


Until next time,

Graham

A Little, Light Flu Mixing

As the title to this post suggests, there's a very good chance I currently have influenza. There's only been one confirmed case in my family, but a few of us seem to have had it at some point in the last week or so. It doesn't seem to be hitting me as hard as it has in the past, which is obviously great, and even though I'm still working overtime this week at my day job, recording vocals seems to be out.

It would seem like a good time to do some catch-up on the mixing side of this project. I have multiple vocal takes to sort through that I've recorded recently for a handful of songs, and I'll have to go through them and make decisions at some point anyway. I'm pretty much left with a few hours this week to do this. Today, actually. The rest of the week has been and will be filled with responsibilities and my day job.

Hopefully, I will find some time this week to listen to the songs that don't have lyrics and give them a mulling over. There are three songs to be exact. Even though I feel there is more singing to be done on the songs that have lyrics, I'm trying to keep the recording vocals aspect coming at a consistent pace. I PLAN to be back in better health next week to accomplish that. Let's hope so!

Graham

Back In Action

I've recently started recording vocals. As can be read in a post ("What's In The Booth?") at my personal blog, I was holding off on recording this winter until I had a sound-treated booth built. However, don't be fooled into thinking that I would have already been recording vocals had it been built earlier. Now that it's done, being able to work on the album, at this point, is only a matter of timing and the lyrical content available.

I had reached a point with mixing where doing any more work without having all of the pieces present wasn't going to be helpful. There comes a point where work being done may have to be reworked to accommodate and blend in new parts. I've been through the process enough times to know this. Plus, breaks are always good when it comes to working on music in any capacity. The problems usually come from taking breaks that are too long or not breaking at all. That doesn't mean not working on anything related, just the act of working one song or project to its death. This is my opinion, at least. Like I said, I've been through it enough times.

Last week, I recorded some vocals and tried out some ideas. I didn't get nearly as far as I would've liked, but a start is a start and without that there's nothing. I wasn't able to work for more than a few hours due to a plethora of responsibilities barking at me. Considering I needed the bulk of my free time to get a good start on another musical project, I left last week with a drive to get much more accomplished this week. Plenty of time is spoken for already. It's going to be tough. But, as far as music goes, I'll only be working on Diads.

For the foreseeable future, as far as this project is concerned, I will be focused on vocals and lyrics until they're done. I'll throw in some light mixing depending on where I'm at in the process or how my week is going. Also, I'll want to have something to show Tim to get his feedback on.

So far, I think it's going well. The swiftness of the process up until now may have given me some false presumptions about this next phase of the albums development that I'm currently in. Recording vocals and writing the missing lyrics will certainly take its fair share of time to work through. Regardless, I'm excited to be moving forward!

Graham

Lyrics Shmyrics

If one wishes to sing words to music, it helps to have those words thought out, written down, and available for recording. These words can be written on a piece of paper or on an electronic device, either is appropriate. As of this moment, I can confidently say that I'm behind on that...

I do have periods of time where I write lyrics more often than not. It doesn't always depend on actively working on a particular project, but it does help with the motivation. I've been writing more in general over the past year, which is a good thing, but it does force me to decide what I'm going to work on. Currently, I am writing for my personal blog, this blog for a "blogging the album" series, and also lyrics. Any other writing I may or may not be doing is strictly top-secret. However, you may be able to tickle it out of me.

Don't despair my friends! There are quite a bit of lyrics already written. Some of them are for specific songs and some are just existing in a vacuum. Much like I mentioned in the prior paragraph, sometimes it's just good to write thoughts down and move on without any motives. The future has a funny way of changing perceptions and giving use to what seemed useless.

With the third Diads album, it's a bit of a mixed bag. I know I will need to start recording vocals soon for the songs that will need them. My schedule demands it. I must progress. It wasn't until the past two weeks that it really hit me. I better get to work on lyrics for the songs that need them. NEED obviously being an opinion I hold.

So, I shall be directing a percentage of my focus on this until I've accomplished the objective.

That is all for now.

Graham

The Evolution Of Evolution

I never intended, and certainly won't stick to, writing a post for each song. The last post, "Gravity, A History," did talk about one song, Gravity. I'm sure I'll have more to say on that before the album's finished since it's not done yet. For now, I'll speak about another song. I'm pretty sure it'll be called Evolution or have that word in the title. Maybe, The Evolution of Evolution?

This song started as a bit of a jam session with Tim and me. We haven't had too many of these over the years, but they used to pop up occasionally. Our process has mostly been Tim writing music and then I would write lyrics and add vocals. There have been plenty of instances Tim has contributed to lyrics or a melody for the vocals, and I likewise have contributed to the music through playing bass guitar. The recording engineering aspect is done pretty equally between Tim and me, but I do most of the mix engineering myself.

For the particular jam session that produced this song, Tim had written a simple drum pattern and let it play in the background as we fiddled with our instruments. I had brought my electric guitar and was trying some things with that. Tim was on his bass doing the same. We liked what we were coming up with and felt good about it becoming a new song.

I don't remember exactly what else happened. We may have recorded that session, but I don't remember there being a file from it. We do everything with computers, so that file might have been erased. What I do remember is getting an email with a file from Tim that had drums and bass recorded on it that was a replica of what we had played during our jam session. By the time I had received the file, maybe a few days or a week later, I had either forgotten the parts I played or was inspired to do something different. I think it was the latter. It's been many years. Things get forgotten. I do know I was and am super excited about the guitar parts I wrote and recorded.

I had written and recorded some vocals many years ago to some of the parts in the song. I've been debating since whether or not to add vocals to one part in particular. I have written some lyrics over the past year that could potentially be used and / or modified. What it really comes down to at this point is playing the song and experimenting with vocal ideas. In the past, I wasn't feeling the musical vibe we had created in a vocal sense. That could be different now. Or, there could be no vocals. I'm not big on that idea as of now since my opinion is that it wouldn't seem right when the vocals do come in during the parts I know I want to have vocals.

I'll leave it at that. Some things you just have to hear.

Back to work!

Graham

Gravity, A History

We've had a song called Gravity in our back pocket for some time now. If I can correctly recall, I believe it was mostly written and recorded pre-soundtrack. Well, this song is number one on our list of songs to be on the new Diads release. There's no track list yet, but it could very well be the opening track.

We originally wanted to re-record the guitars on the track, because we didn't like the sound we got years ago. Due to some difficulties in re-recording, I decided I would try to make the mix work again, but this time, I would take a completely different approach. Instead of mixing the guitars to the rest of the instruments, I would mix the song around the guitars. By doing this, the guitars hopefully wouldn't sound out of place to us. You can only do so much "in the mix." Also, I've learned some new tricks and plug-ins since then, so I have more experience going into it this time.

I bought myself an electronic drum kit in January of 2012. It had been a long time coming. Tim suggested I play drums for the song as he wasn't happy with how his programmed drum track turned out. I liked the idea of writing and recording a drum track for it. I used the drums that Tim created as a starting point to influence the direction I went in. I recorded many takes and saved most of them to either use or at least listen to as a tool to remember or improve upon. This was all done in 2012. And now, in 2017, after listening through those tracks, I will be creating one master drum track out of a few of those. I am happy with what I wrote and performed for this song. I believe my drum track gives the song some pep and the drive it was lacking.

The vocals have been done for a long time as well. Maybe you don't understand this as a listener, but songs can take a long time to come out. Many reasons can be given, and it's not just us amateurs. It happens even with the big names. And although the vocals have been done, I've been back and forth on whether or not I want to re-record them. I'm leaning towards re-recording them at this point. I think I can get a better performance. But, if I can't, then I guess I'll have my answer. Maybe, it'll be a hybrid of both. One thing I know for sure is that I will be doing another round of vocal recordings. When exactly may be the better question.

What's left, then? Well, the bass. The often overlooked instrument in rock music, not that we do straight-up rock music much. Ironically, though, this song is about as "straight-up rock" as we get. While the bass does add nicely to this song, there's not much to comment on at this point. It, along with guitars, is recorded and done. All that's left is to enhance the bass and blend it into the mix.

This post gives some back story to the song, and for the most part, it touches upon the state of this song before I started working on it again. I have now begun working on it (again) with the goal of finishing it for the upcoming release.

Stay tuned for more on the progress of the third Diads release.

Graham

Let's Play A Little Game Of Catch-up

So, it's been awhile. I decided to put up a post here, obviously. I've been thinking about it. For how long? I don't know, but it's more than just a random act of writing. I guess the next part would be to play catch-up, but not throw in too many details.

Diads as a group has been mostly dormant since the release of Early Mourning and its soundtrack, but Tim and I have been busy no less. Our personal lives have been front and center, and since being Diads is not our only outlet for creativity, we have strayed from any focus on it whatsoever. We would love for you to visit our personal sites to see what we've been up to. The links for those are actually in the banner to this website, though, they are abbreviated. My personal web-hub for all things Graham is fittingly named grahamsedam.com, and Tim's center-of-the-net is TimKressFiction.com.

Why now? Why here?

While I do have a personal blog at the aforementioned site, I do want to try and be more "present" with my projects and their sites. That may come as a post on the Diads blog or may be a link to a related post on my personal blog. I can't hope for others to be engaged when I am not. This is what I plan to do, I can't speak for Tim.

And about music, you know, the purpose to the site...

I released an EP, The Depth of Layers, last year under my solo project, Mess of it ALL. It's a six song set that is lyrically (and even a bit musically) inspired by the classic novel, DUNE. I also finished mastering an album, Reflections, that is for a project I'm a part of called Colour the Moon. It seems natural to me that I should turn to Diads for the next release.

Back when Tim and I were almost completely focused on Diads, Tim had written a lot of music. What this means now is that there is material we want to finish and release that has been saved in cold storage. While Tim has basically done his part, I now have my role to play. These songs are in various states and some need more work than others. Dependent upon how much work is required, how much time is available to work, and the vibes we are getting with the material, the next release will be an EP or an LP. I can't read the future well enough to know. I'm thinking an EP is most likely.

As this post is already longer than I expected, I will leave it there for now. I will be posting on the progress (or lack thereof) of the next Diads project as it unravels. Each post in this series will be labeled "blogging the album" for ease.

Graham