thespecimenblog.com

I’ve been working on a song for John Dahlback over the last few days…   I was pretty excited about it, esp the verses.  The chorus is good, but not sure if it fits the track 100%… I was happy with what I had and sent it off, but then had another idea for a chorus which actually works better with the track… so I had to go back and do another version.  His instrumental sounds really cool and has some really nice hooks, but I struggled with it, cos the track is in C# and my ideal is Bb.  Anyway, hopefully he’ll dig what I did and then I can probably put it up here.

We were forced out of our last space in Dec. It was one of those places where you wanted to hang out. it had a good vibe, kind of 70’s feel to it, with old posters and old recording paraphernalia. it was on Rivington St and every time we took a break and hung out on the front steps there were always cute girls passing by, a perfect place to people-watch.  The rehearsal space was a recording studio whose owner rented out nigths he wasn’t working on his projects, to bands like us. Recently he got a new partner who wanted to expand the recording use and so we were booted.  Oh well.   Just another one in a long succession of getting kicked out for various reasons, mostly landlords redesigning Manhattan commercial spaces for more lucrative businesses. For years we had an amazing spot on Centre St under a gallery where at one point the rent went DOWN and the space was increased… seems like a magical dream.    Anyway, after seeing a few really dingy spots we found a pretty good one in Brooklyn by the Gowanus Canal.  it’s a bit of a deserted area, so no girl-watching, but sometimes it’s good to get a break from distractions.

I wrote this song a few years ago. It fit really well with a backing track done by GoodandEvil and I loved the vibe of it, esp the keyboard hook. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to use it, as it was given for a Naty Botero song on her debut album and i just realized is called La Costa… interesting. I’ve been performing the song in a sort of amalgam of the recording and stuff we developed over time, though the bass line and a couple of gtr parts I might have to change in my version, though it might not make much difference or be recognizable when compared side to side. I was inspired to finish the track when I heard the band Empire of the Sun. They have a few excellent songs, (We Are the People, Walking on a Dream and Standing on the Shore are my favorites) and they kind of sound like what I was looking to do with Down the Coast, and a friend of mine told me that the singers even sound a bit like me which I can see how he thought that.  Anyway, it’s not done yet, i need to come up with some new hooks.

Here’s the first sentence of this blog. I wasn’t sure how to start so I’ll just start writing and see where it goes. Things will probably change from now till later in the existence of the blog cos I don’t exactly know what I’m doing, just hope not to offend anyone too much and have interesting insights into what drives me to try to make sweet sounds of music.