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Rain

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Rain last won the day on December 8 2023

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  1. I'll get an idea for a few notes and words, just a bit of something and then keep repeating that part over and and try to add to it. The outline of the words is discernible in the notes, so to speak. It's all in there, I just work on revealing it. I feel that you recognize what works and what doesn't, the song tells you. Fortunately, I am not under contract to write music or lyrics, so I can afford to do things that way, and to let the songs come to me. Which doesn't mean you don't polish your skills in the meantime. Some songs are like mere exercises. But unless it is one of those exercises, I never sit down and think about what I want to say. If there's anything meaningful that I need to say, it's been marinating in my old brain for long enough, it should come out a little more "organically". It's almost like pulling on a thread. Otherwise things tend to sound a little too self-conscious. I studied literature so that part of me always needs to try to impress people with its fancy words and references to literary works, and to try and sound clever. That never works. Well, it works, but it's cringeworthy. That being said, I've written songs strictly based on title ideas, but the title was connected to a mood, it already was, eh, more than words. Anyway, by the time I get out of the shower, which is where I get most of my ideas, I usually have a good verse ready to dictate on the phone. šŸ˜ I wonder how many gallons of hot water it would take me to write a whole album worth of lyrics... I'm sure there's an equation for that.
  2. I can do barre chords no problem but most of the time I use my thumb for the root note because it's more comfortable and more convenient in many cases. My classical guitar teacher used to hit my thumb with a ruler all the time because it wouldn't stay behind the neck of the guitar. She had small hands, and sometimes I almost envied her - took her her whole index to hold a barre. Me, there's a lot of finger left and a lot of my hand just hanging out there doing nothing except putting my wrist in an uncomfortable position. And you got to use what you got. I have big hands, and big thumbs, so I try to make that work for me.
  3. When I was 16, my best friend and I made a pilgrimage of sorts and visited JonquiĆØre, the small city from where our heroes from the band Voivod came. 14 hours by bus. The first thing that hit us when we got off the bus was the smell. The city was home to a few plants, including a very large aluminum plant. Those plants and the pollution they caused provided inspiration for much of the bands post-apocalyptic imagery. But we'd never imagined the smell. After a day or two, we were stunned - and amused to no end - to realize that our farts smelled like that plant (teenagers, you know). I guess it was like a naturalization process or something. We were becoming locals. šŸ˜ Maybe the fact that we ate nothing but Big Macs and drank lots of Heineken and Jack Daniels didn't help. That smell is the second thing that comes to mind now when I see or hear that city name, after Voivod of course. Sidenote - my younger brother and his band opened for Voivod a few times in the last few years and he got to hang out with them. I was very proud of him. I also got to hang out with the singer in a bar in the late 2000's. I didn't tell him that his hometown smelled like McDonalds farts.
  4. Thank you for the kind words, man! Not so far. This is one of those songs which I'd originally planned of having my now ex-wife sing. I'll either have to reach out to another friend who's always willing to help or to sing it myself (meh).
  5. I'm still waiting too. I'm in the right place at the wrong time. Who am I kidding? I wouldn't survive half an hour even if I were to revisit my own childhood and my old golden years. I've gotten used to the comfort and the convenience of modern life a little too well. Although people still smoked in Casino the last time I went (2015 or 16?), so there's that...
  6. Neither have I, but a friend in Canada hand builds pedals and he sent me a bunch of them, including the "Clowntaur": Love it. He also sent me a fuzz, which I never thought I'd enjoy this much, a great Tube Screamer clone, and this Rewolver which is a fantastic booster. Put that in front of the green channel on my otherwise generic Marshall DSL and the amp just comes to life. I always felt the green as an "almost" and the red one was "too much or not quite". The Rewolver just gave me me a "that's it!" golden channel. I am not much of a pedal guy, but I'm glad I have these for different types of dirt.
  7. The words of Leonard Cohen always come to mind - You donā€™t really care for music do you? I found that out when I started putting my music online on MySpace in the early-mid 2000ā€™s. Pictures always got a lot of hits, but the songs not so much. I soon realized that priorities in order were: fame, then looks, and only then music. Sometimes, months after they added you and sent a bunch of messages and commented on all your pics, youā€™d finally get a message about a song, like: wow, your stuff's actually good. I remember one girl who started by telling me what my new song inspired her - it was all cute, very romantic images, but the next few messages quickly shifted from romantic to lurid and downright explicit. Which I canā€™t complain about, can I? I did eventually meet her and she remained a supporter ever after - and to this day - sending gifts and all. But music was secondary. As with a lot of people. There needs to be something else that will incite people to actually make the effort and listen.
  8. Something I wrote in the 90ā€™s on an acoustic. Like everything I wrote back then, it was clearly inspired by the Beatles- I think maybe Glass Onion (the original version revolved around that Bm - G7 bit pattern). A few years ago, I started working on it again and it changed quite a bit. I shot a quick video while I was recording a basic bass line idea. I may have posted it on the old forum. Then a couple of weeks later I died. But just as I was about to choose between entering Stovokor or meeting all my musical heroes in hell, a bunch of over-zealous doctors pulled me back down. I tell you, Hippocrates and his stupid oath better watch their stupid ghost ***** next time I croak. Anyway, tonight I found myself working on that song again so I thought Iā€™d update the audio part of the video - minus the live bass track obviously. There were little things that bugged me every time that clip popped in my feed. I must say it feels a little strange. Almost as if I was working on my own posthumous release. A one point, I even thought I was a hologram and I started worrying that I was about to go on tour. I don't have any holographic clothes to pack... Anyway, I realized that Iā€™m like the poor manā€™s Ringo and Paul, working off of a poor manā€™s Lennon demos. Iā€™m pillaging my own tomb, and Yoko doesnā€™t even seem to care.
  9. Holy Tony Iommi, brother! Sorry I'm only getting to this - saw it earlier this week but wanted to wait til I could listen on the monitors. You F'in' nailed it - and then some. Wouldn't change a single thing. (And sorry to hear about the marital issues - been there myself. Hang in there and keep pumping out them Sabbath covers).
  10. I am still getting used to the whole "chilling in your garage" thing down here. I guess our rednecks don't have lawns in front of the house so they use their garage...
  11. Reminds me of that Star Trek Enterprise episode where someone explained where the base material used in replicators came from...
  12. Rain

    Jump

    Might as well...
  13. I've always loved the sound of those old organ "drums" and managed to incorporate samples from them in a few songs. Nostalgia, I guess.
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