You Can't Go Back

I thought I’d try and get back into the blogging game a bit. Trying to move around and not just post songs, but other content (photos, videos, etc.). I think if I keep things down to a “one post per month” pace, I can actually keep up with myself. For today’s offering , I have a tune based on a very simple piano melody that I’ve been playing around with for a long time. Sonically, it’s my attempt at getting in touch with my inner-Lyle Mays.

This song is about loss and regret, and about the realization that things done in the past can’t be changed. It’s contemplative, but not too naval-gazely (is that even a word?). I wanted to evoke both a sense of both repose, to think on these thinks on these things, but also a sense that life goes on, and moving forward is a requirement….especially since going back isn’t an option anyway.

Is that vague enough?

Additionally, this song is actually helping me drive forward personally, largely for some technical reasons (that sounds vague too). To start, I’ve finally gotten my Hammond and Leslie sub-station set up and ready for tracking, and this song features the first-fruits of that little enterprise. I’m really excited about this, as it’s been a dream of mine for many years to have something like that available to me, and now I have it in my living room! I hope to write a separate post on that project sometime in the future.

Also, this song is my first truly collaborative project involving outside technical assistance on my own original stuff. My good friend Chris Combs did a great job of mixing and mastering this song for me. He has an amazing ear and sensibility, and it was great for me to get constructive criticism from an informed professional. He could just hear things that I couldn’t, and I learned a lot by watching him work. Be sure to check him out at Broken Bird Productions and on YouTube.

My hope is to continue having this outside influence so I can keep moving forward with releasing more material in the future. I know it’s been said before, but it can be scary to give someone else the reigns over your own creation. My apprehension about this has kept me from really “going for it” and putting my own music out into the public square. I think it’s time I start squeezing more music out of the bottleneck.

I’m also experimenting with new media players in WordPress. At the moment, I’m a bit discouraged with Soundcloud, and I haven’t quite figured out which platform to use for this content, so I’ve been simply hosting it all on my own site. This player I’m using is called Wimpy, and it seems fairly easy to use. I’ve thought a bit about using Bandcamp (I have an account), but I wanted to see if I could try the self-hosted thing a bit more. Any feedback on this is appreciated!

At any rate, I hope you all like the song!