Video: I’m Not Dead Yet

11 Apr

Boom: here’s a couple quick goofy demos for new songs up on the YouTube, recorded in January and February and all but forgotten about until a few glasses of wine on a Sunday night in April. Let’s call these transitional tunes – the kind of songs I write between album projects to remind myself that I’m not dead yet. So quick-and-dirty that they usually never see the light of day. Kickstarter songs. The double novelty here is that 1) I’ve recorded the songs on my iPhone and 2) I’ve captured the recording session on the camcorder. That’s right: the iPhone is in the shots below because that’s the recording studio. The app is FourTrack by Sonoma Wire Works, and all sounds were captured live with the iPhone’s internal mic, working overtime to capture every little flaw in my performance. And so it goes.

Demo for ‘Cake’

This song is dedicated to the United States of Have Our Cake and Eat It Too. So I’m gettin’ my falsetto on. And yes, I am the worst drummer in the world. For god’s sake, my finger is the kick drum. PS: Did I mention that I am the worst drummer in the world? [See ‘Cake’ on YouTube]


Demo for ‘Parts’

Recording the demo of a song about recording the demo of a song. Warts and all. The beat here is canned: it came with the FourTrack app. I should note that the song didn’t sound quite so pop-bland-smooth in my head when I wrote it. But songs can smash to pieces. [See ‘Parts’ on YouTube]


Live excerpt of solo-acoustic ‘Parts’

You can hear how the song has mellowed in the month or two since recording the iPhone demo. A minor key chorus, even. From the show at Bread and Jam in March with Julia Brown. Songs can smash to pieces, indeed. [See solo-acoustic ‘Parts’ on YouTube]


More on the way, old and new

In the near future I’ll be pulling some footage from the archives and shooting video for some of the newer, post-transitional transition songs. And by “near future” I mean sometime between now and 2014. Thanks.

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