Any Musicians Here?

elstoof that looks great, almost indistinguishable from a shop bought. I'm sure you'll fix whatever.

Got a refurbished mac on the way as my last refurbished mac (I don't buy new because I'm tight, and refurbished jobbers do me for a good 5 odd years) is coughing up it's final breaths I think. Have been scared to put it on the last few weeks. Treated myself to a new desk and chair as well. Hopefully be back up and running in a week or so once everything has been transferred over. We've got an 18 track album that we're just tidying up and then it can be released. What's nice is our spotify and amazon streams are steadily increasing and our FB is constantly accrueing likes so will try and do a big push for this one. Never know. Might even have someone saying they like it (actually some random was gushing about us on instagram the other day - it turns out feedback from even one stranger is enough to motivate me).

With our massive fan base of nearly 20 people.

You clearly have far, for more patience (not to mention skill) than I do.

It's going to be mint (yes, I know, it's blue).

Ha, that’s the exact scene I was thinking of when I did it. There was a little run of tinted clearcoat so I tried sanding it back gently, ended up sanding it all off in the surrounding area. Tried to blend in a bit more clearcoat, didn’t work, sanded a bit more, sprayed a bit more. Then had this really dark tinted leopard print effect horn which looked ridiculous, just had to go again from the beginning. Spraying the colour itself isn’t too hard, it’s the tinted clearcoat that has to be bang on first time, can’t patch it, can’t knock it back

I’m the kind of person who rushes through it and gets increasingly angry with my mistakes for the first few attempts before finally slowing down a bit

It’s fun, some of its a ballache but you can avoid a lot of that by just bolting together pre-prepared bodies, wiring harnesses etc. there’s a lot of tools required which is the main reason I keep building tbh, get some more use out of my expensive nut files and fret crowning gear. This Strat will be me last bolt on for a while after 2 Teles and a Precision, I prefer Gibson scale length so gearing up for a scratch build next

That all sounds awesome man! Brilliant. Are things pretty stable just now then?

Yeah good thanks. I've been out of action due to my Mac dying a couple of months back but it has now been replaced, with everything transferred over and it's all working okay (although getting all the various VST's working properly was a bit of a ballache, and I had to repurchase some to get the versions that worked with the new OS but hey ho). Just cracking on with this album. We're thinking it'll be around 18 tracks or so but I've only two left to do and then a few to re-record and touch up the vox on. Doesn't help that I went in without a warm up last week and have been without a voice for 6 days.

Meantime we're starting to do silly found footage-esque horror vids to start promoting it and we're gradually building FB and instagram followers, with the plays on soundcloud etc steadily increasing so, yeah it's okay. Early days and it's tiny figures but it's better than sitting on our arses doing fuck all! Got some airplay coming up on a new radio station launching up here as well so hopefully that'll help a bit.

Still got a weather eye open for live musicians but my hopes have diminished to the extent where I don't think the live stuff will happen. In all honesty I'm not sure I care now. I'm just happy to be able to still make music. It keeps the demons at bay. If no one hears it and fuck all happens, so what. I just need to keep doing it.

I'm glad - genuinely smiling - to read both of you enjoying your playing and creating. It's very cool.

I'm learning standard and pentatonic scales and all the very basic lead stuff I could never be bothered to put the effort into when I was 13. I really wish I had, now.

Having the Les Paul and the amp has really reinvigorated my love of playing. It's very satisfying.

In fact, there's one song that's really bugging all of us. It might not make it to the list if we can't nail it.

I dunno what it is about it. The drums are definitely OK. Drummers vocals I think are OK. My bass whilst minimalistic, I think works (it's like a Tina Weymouth minimal type of line). Then the guitar player I think is OK. Occasionally the guitar player will try and put some really random patches through (looking for this elusive key to make the song work), and the synth player is trying to find something to fit alongside my bass when I'm not playing.

But it's just *not quite right*. It's doing my head in.

We compared it to cross-eyed and painless by talking heads as it's vaguely in the same camp and we noticed that that song has David Byrnes singing taking presence and everything else is basically a funky beat that doesn't change. But they also have backing singing which we've not tried yet.

Can someone tell me please, what is missing?

It's rough as fuck recorded directly in the studio but you should get the idea. Forget the daft spaceship noises. Or maybe don't! I don't know anymore as I've listened to it too many times and it's driving me up the wall!

drive.google.com/file/d/14Qlt3z7ElAuVH5r1sHLoWWnQUnDS4wD8/view?usp=drivesdk

I’ll have a listen and opine in a bit

quadfather

Ok, so. My really inexpert opinion as a player, but self important expert opinion as a listener...

First, I can see why you think of Crosseyed and Painless. It's got that staccato, abstract thing going on that Byrne did so well and I think it does a pretty good job of it. Like a modern take on the style. The pacing and instrumentation is good.

Second, not sure adding more too it is the answer. There's already plenty going on and you don't want to choke it. It's got a bit of a flow and you could end up taking from that with even more instrumentation.

You said it's straight from the studio. I'd be interested to hear it mixed/mastered. The only real thing is that rawness for me. Personal opinion: The (snare?) drum is just a little bit prominent and it overpowers some of the other bits, but with a little light touch production... 👌🏻

More groove and less everything else. I agree with db in that it's going to be more effective the more stripped back it is. It's cool though, I like it.

Why don't you just shout in the gaps? An unintelligable yelp of pain mixed with supermarket sundries. See how that works?