what is going on in your musical life

this can be a rolling thread, maybe. forgive me if one already exists, i didn't see it.

i started taking guitar lessons again! that is exciting

my long term black/doom metal band (argentinum astrum) recorded an album last fall and we're waiting on a label dude to get another label to go in on releasing it? i have no idea how or what that is about. i want it to come out soon because we haven't put anything out in a couple years and i want to tour and am antsy about it.

im learning ableton in order to start doing electronic stuff by myself. that's kind of on the backburner atm tho

one of my fave local bands atm asked me to replace their bassist/harmony singer and i am probably gonna do it. it is kind of superchunk-esque?

i started a band with 2 of my girlfriends and we just had our first practice. guitar, bass and drums. playing kind of 60s-esque poppy tunes so far, but i have no idea where we will end up. i think we are gonna be called "high school"?? please tell me if that is a ridiculous name.

i recorded this local band called Killer Whale who play very crazy surf-influenced punk/metal, i love them and i am excited to record bands and put out records and things tho god it is so expensive to do this

i've been playing in this band with a weirdo that plays only covers of local, small time musicians. i just joined it, but it's kind of a local institution, been around a while with a rotating cast of ppl around this one guy. i don't know. it's fun to play with him , and very fun to choose and learn the songs, but he has a weird value system w/r/t music, ie he doesn't want me to sing harmonies cause i sing "like an angel", which isn't really true. he also has no ambitions (how can you be ambitious with a covers band really tho) and is really skeptical of people who have them. its fun tho.

i dont really have time to do any of this stuff

this band with a weirdo that plays only covers of local, small time musicians

haha i love this

haha its exactly what it sounds like

the first person I contacted about guitar lessons is too busy to take me on as a student but promised to give me contact info for other ppl, which basically means I am back at square one re: finding a guitar teacher

I am currently in the process of tracking down sheet music for a recital of solo and ensemble spiritual arrangements I'm doing as part of a quartet made up of ppl from my church choir (inc. my wife as the soprano) for the Tuesday before Easter; we're also going to take parts of that recital to do as music for the Good Friday service later that week.

I'm also looking over the Dvorak Mass in D major, which I'm doing at an evening Good Friday service in Dorchester; my primary responsibility AFAIK is augmenting the bass section but I believe I'm also going to be doing the tiny solo parts as well. (The other ppl from that include my wife again plus other folks from the spiritual ensemble we sing in.)

Also have a concert with the church choir coming up where we're doing Stainer's Crucifixion; I am not the bass soloist for it (thank God).

i didnt realize you were a bass! it occurs to me that i have never actually heard you sing. i imagined you having a very high tenor voice. haw.

i started a band with 2 of my girlfriends

Me too! We are called Ta1nted Pussy and have played 2 shows so far. We were supposed to have a show next Saturday opening for this weird Dutch guy, but he got detained by the Dutch government and told he can't leave the country without a work permit, so that show was cancelled. I play bass. I have not played bass since I was a teenager. So now I get to have fun learning/re-learning an instrument, plus I get to have fun with pedals. We are all noise/new music ladies, thus lots of fun with pedals. I got a Dr. Sample 202 for christmas! More fun! I kept one of the built-in samples, which is a lady saying "Stand By" for when we have technical difficulties during our sets.

We are planning to tour at some point later this year. L.A., maybe the South?

next month we have a gig opening for Cock E.S.P.

Our singer said, "Why do we always end up on shows with other bands with dirty names?"

having trouble finding time/motivation/energy to do anything too focused or serious over the past couple of years. i was playing with my friend who's a full-time musician but he decided to just play shows solo instead of with a band because the economics/logistics are easier that way. i've been doing some sample-based stuff on reason recently, i like it because it takes me back to when i was learning guitar and didn't know what i was doing and would come up with cool stuff by accident. also occasionally jamming/recording with the drummer from my old band, doing shitty lofi four-track stuff.

i would really like to have a more regular band where someone else bore the heavy lifting of the songwriting and i could just come in and play guitar and play shows a few times a year. but i'm not really connected to any kind of music scene anymore so i don't know how to find that kind of situation.

Band practice tonight. Eagerly anticipating our two track demo bak from being mixed/mastered although worried it might sound bad as we only spent two days on it.
Working on writing and practising our next batch of songs after an initial 6. It's now a concern that we have a 'sound' and aesthetic developing, meaning that we have songs we wrote and quite like that for one reason or another don't work very well alongside the others. Anyone had this problem? It didn't really matter before because we were still forming an identity which eventually formed into 6 upbeat slightly unhinged post punk numbers, but now this next one is a big dramatic sweeping thing with a more serious tone and we're not sure what to do with it.
Also written a reggae song, which I'm please with but need a way to subvert because right now it's verging a little too close to sixth form peace and love bob Marley cliches and I want to put a twist on all that really.
Wrote a sort of fast kinda sung-rap song but my girlfriend said it sounded like flight of the conchords. Not that that's an insult, but I wanted it to aoud more like Haim or something.

i didnt realize you were a bass! it occurs to me that i have never actually heard you sing. i imagined you having a very high tenor voice. haw.

haha that would make my dad very, very happy (he's a failed tenor in a previous life, sang lead in a doo-wop group in college)

I am technically a "bass-baritone" which really means that because most of my singing experience comes from being in ensembles rather than private, focused vocal study, I have no idea how to use my head voice and sing practically everything in chest; I have a sneaking suspicion I would end up being a true baritone or even a low tenor after several years of focused, serious voice training based on how my low range actually sounds, but the flip side is that I can actually croak out low notes even if they're inaudible unless I've been binge-drinking the night before so I dunno. But yeah, I've always sung low.

(which is actually why, in my teens, I realized I was never going to be a pop or rock singer, and why I was so taken by the grunge explosion)

putting the last touches on my new record (doesn't feel new, been working on it for about 15 months now) to send to mastering next week, figuring out how to put it out.

then i want to take some time to switch up my process, shake things up a little. work on some new synth sounds without any goals, try to finally learn ableton, record a bunch of new percussion samples. i want to take some piano lessons too, since i do everything with midi + mouse. i can figure stuff out on piano very sloooowly, so i thought it would be fun to play through some tunes in real time and get some chords under my fingers.

honestly though i probably won't do most of these things and i'll go back to what feels easy & comfortable. :/

I just got our first track back from the studio. I love it and I also cringe a bit because I can hear bits where my voice goes a bit wrong or a beat doesn't quite land how it's meant, and I'm trying to work out if anyone in their right mind would really notice or care.

roxy high school is an amazing band name

this is a neat thread idea.

i've been playing with a couple guys for the last month or so but it's just working out that well. they seem like they really want to sound like real estate or something, which isn't terrible, but a bad real estate impersonation comes out sounding reaaaaally bad, and it's not much fun to play drums to, either!

i've been writing and recording some new tunes, which doesn't sound like much but it's actually been a big breakthrough for me after about a 10 year songwriting/music coma that i didn't realize was a coma.

i'm moving back to chicago in a few months and i'm determined to join up with a good band. i used to be good friends with the cave/bitchin bajas scene so i'm hoping i can be looped back into all that stuff and that someone needs a good drummer

and yeah, high school is good, although i have to say i liked it even more when i thought the name was high school??

haha

whoa z s do you want to be in a band with me?

this is going to be really awkward when you reject me

well, that was easy. sure, let's play!

it's gonna be more like september or so

i think we are gonna be called "high school"??
a
I started a band in college called junior high university. I recorded one song for it and we had two practices and then everyone split up in different directions. that was the last band I was ever in.

have not touched my recording computer since my son was born. I long for a classical acoustic guitar so i can play around the house but I have no money for that now. debating selling an amp or two. I think my creative well has run dry for the foreseeable future.

i'm really burnt out on school this semester & have been slacking off to spend more time doing music stuff. all three bands i'm in are pretty active rn which can be overwhelming at times but is really fun. most notably i went on tour in january and started a new band called l0ud s3x which i am just so, so stoked on. the other songwriter in the band is really prolific and i really want to keep our ratio of songs 1:1. it's been a really fun challenge trying to keep up, he also writes amazing songs so i've had to be really strict about scrapping my tunes if they're not up to par. we're playing our first show at the end of the month & i'm pretty nervous because not everyone shows up for practice consistently and i want it to be spectacular

sp3ctacular l0ud s3x

I am not going to go into any more detail than this but the biggest audition opportunity of my lap literally just fell into my lap; I fully expect it to go nowhere but still, you never know...

would watch n/a z s band

DJP on x factor, it's America has been waiting for
xp

l0ud high school s3x

the biggest audition opportunity of my lap

lol dan

oh no, I've said too much

I am in month 15 of releasing a home-made recording every month. A lot of times I put it off until the month is almost over and then go into crunch mode. But at this point, even though I approach each song as its own thing and wasn't trying to make an album or anything, I can listen to all the tracks straight through and it sounds really cohesive to me, which I think is really cool. I also feel like I get a little better/more efficient at production each time.

I haven't performed onstage in like a year though, which was a conscious decision and I don't miss all of the bullshit that made me sick of doing it, but I do miss being onstage. But I maybe just joined a band that I actually think is really good and is kind of successful locally, which is cool because I don't feel that way about hardly any local bands and also I've never really been in someone else's band. They have kind of a Modern Lovers/Beat Happening/Magnetic Fields/Morrissey vibe. It'll also be neat because I'll be playing synth and I'm not actually a keyboard player at all, I'm a guitarist and songwriter, but that's also why I'll be a good fit for this.

kicking off recording of a new album. finally a chance to properly use all this new synth gear

Hey all - could I get a little bit of constructive feedback on this please? We've had an initial "how's this?" from the studio engineer on one of our tracks. Overall, I think it's okay but it's very difficult to distance myself and listen to it with uninvolved ears.

I'd really like to hear your thoughts, particularly on the mixing/production (we can't really go back into the studio to do any overdubs or retakes so we're working with the raw material we have, for better or worse). Are there any glaring errors on this track or things I should mention before I get back to him? One thing I noticed is that he's been a bit heavy handed witht he gating and compression, particularly some of the vocal parts where the sibilants and plosives are almost non-existent.

I'm only gonna keep this track online for a short while, but if someone could give it a listen and let me know their thoughts, i'd be very much obliged: https://soundcloud.com/doglatin/honolulu-demo-050313

god this sounds like a super harsh thing but i dont mean it that way - do you want/intend the beginning to sound like a 80's nylons style acapella group thing? like exactly like one? because thats what i hear. also some pitchy weirdness in the "so afraid" "yesterday" multivoice responses. again, if these are intentional things, no prob.

Lol, I haven't hear the nylons but it is supposed to be a bit of a tongue in cheek doowop thing and if it comes across that way I guess that's intentional. The song is very much a comment on retro culture and so it's littered with 60s and 80s references. Cheers for checking it out jjjusten, I'll look into the autotune thing. Think the sound guy's gone a bit overboard with vocal manipulation, but then we're not at all trained singers so there's undoubtably gonna be a push/pull thing going on.

song sounds good to me, esp. for a demo. i like it.

Xpost If you're talkin about Housemartins/Flying Pickets, I def see what you mean and kind of don't mind. I (was made to) grow up with that shit, haha.

Cheers n/a

I am making a lil album of songs that are about a min long each, I have about 10 so far where the music is done but I have finished singing over one of them, I've come up w/ vocal melodies for about 3

I am seriously using the dumbest most unwieldy out of date programs to put the songs together because for whatever reason I like how it all sounds more than if I do it in ableton?

what are you using?

I (lol) am using cues in virtual dj to play my laptop like an mpc or w/e (I could slice to a drumkit in ableton and do the same thing I guess, but idk, when I use ableton I spend 3 extra hours on shit) and then editing shit further and recording vocals in audacity, its a forehead in my hands deal, but still

i love stuff like that.

well I hope it lives up to its rudimentary description, I'm starting to embrace it, at least this way I don't end up fucking around with corpus for a week with no results

Good sounding demo, dog latin. I'd get some friends in a room for the backing vocals. And as for your solo performance it's a little too measured, just make sure you're saying "gate" instead of "gay" and make it fast and effortless

I was just in Prague recording with a budget-priced orchestra, stuff for five different clients and some stuff for my own use. There were 30 "pieces" ranging from 45-second long bits of orchestral incidental music to 20-minute marathon workouts. A total of 2.5 hours of music and 24 hours to record the whole thing. I def. got paranoid and overworked but I didn't break. I drove that bus.

It went very well but I instinctively prioritized the work of my clients, taking the time to really get something beautiful out of that shaky orchestra. I left not enough time for my own material. Now I'm futzing.

cheers FGTI - I did the lead vox, the others did backing. I think the engineer's but too strong a release on my vox because yeah, "gaze" sounds like "gay" etc...

i'm listening to spotify

gotta get these tapes out soon (for this band i recorded) but have no idea what im doing! i need to buy a tape duplicator! i need to buy...tapes! i need to figure out how to get this shit onto a master tape! what am i doing with my life! HELP!

i told my mom i was in a new band called high school and she recommended that we call it COOL GIRLS instead. additionally, "i like just a girl's name, like maureen, or mabel, for a girl band"

lmao at cool girls altho tbh i would like it as a name for a coed or all dude band

oh i see i mentioned that a few posts ago, i love talking about my period and how much it sucks

Yesterday I had to make an LCD-style sleaze track for a film score and I made a basic-James drum beat and added some silly super distorted bass and started singing “sexy sexy sexy / you don’t know what is sexy” in a heavily gated chain so the vocals were stuttering and basically I can’t wait to get back to working on that stupidity again today

that sounds fucking rad

I took the job because they wanted dark wave and indie sleaze and I’ve never done a score like that before and I know I can, coach!

That sounds so fun.

Ha, that does sound like a blast.

Thanks dubmill, I appreciate that. Good luck with your release, that track sounds great and I'm sure you'll be able to find a home for your new project.

I'd like to be so egoless as to have making music be its own reward, but making an *album* is a lot of work, and unfortunately that's the medium I fell in love with. Putting it into the world and it having a bit of life after release is part of it for me (I feel lucky to have had the experience of releasing some music that still feels 'alive' out there, and of course a lot that's digitally dead sitting).

There's nothing wrong with self-releasing of course, I just haven't had much luck with it and likewise at this point just can't play the social media game (and working with labels has felt specifically like the way out of that trap). So I'm feeling stuck between not being able to move on until I put this album out, and not wanting to just shove it out in the cold.

Anyway I don't want to be a downer, congrats LL on your studio session!

Mostly the experience of sending music to labels makes me very glad that I'm not dating or applying for jobs, the rejection without explanation eventually gets wearying.

the rejection without explanation eventually gets wearying.

I used to find that upsetting years ago, because I'd build my hopes up and my confidence would fall apart after a few rejections. I think I'm a bit more resilient now, like I wouldn't really care if they didn't like it. Because maybe I hate the things they like anyway. Not necessarily, but that might have something to do with why they didn't like what I'd sent them. It's not like I think what I'm doing is perfect. I know it's nowhere near, but I also know it's up to a certain standard, and I've had enough people tell me they really like it for me to continue. It's the lack of having a proper plan of action, a strategy, which is making me, not exactly lose hope, but foresee that I might begin to lose hope if I don't figure something out.

But I reckon you'll get offers eventually. It's just going to take a bit longer than you first thought. It might be later this year, or it might be next year. It's not like it has a short shelf life. It's unusual and it's good. In the meantime, you can work on something else, but also continue to push this out to other people.

My studio has been down for a year as I had to take it apart because of having an issue with some termites in the house. My garage studio is packed with stuff so it was a beast getting everything off the sides of the building into the middle and I have have been working so many hours and dealing with other BS, I have not had energy or a free weekend to get it together.

I mostly jam and practice guitar on a Vox Trailblazer in my bedroom. I play a bit everyday and it kinda sucks not having a band, as I think my skills have improved a bunch as player. I'm getting pretty good using the thump pick and playing claw style mostly with my index and middle finger on my picking hand.

Practice and jam a bit every day, some days 10 minutes and some days a couple of hours. Got a pretty good amount of raw material in the notebook.

My guitar practice material is pretty much same as it has been for a while, working on triads and then adding in other notes playing through the chords of major and minor. I also do a bit of game working on learning the neck playing say a A note or A chord in across the neck. I've been also doing some ear training playing along with records, which was something I have almost always sucked at doing. There has been some improvement though. I was jamming along to all of Exile on Main St. today.

Doing this kind of work, you do really start to 'see' the symmetry of how the 12 note music form is put together.

i bought a porta 02 mk II 4-track at a yard sale for $40 this weekend. unfortunately it doesn't seem to play or record correctly but i've been enjoying running my guitar through it with all the levels maxed out as a fuzz circuit. it seems like it would be easy for someone with a minimum of knowledge to convert this into a proper fuzz pedal but i have almost zero mechanical/electronical skills.

Oooh NA I have an MF-P01 that I think works but is of no use to me. I am not using, would gladly send along to a good home.

Btw I got some good, specific feedback (not from a label but from a trusted collaborator) and I'm going back to re-record drums for 4-5 tracks on my album. At first I wasn't sure about it for a variety of reasons, but these are all tracks where I sampled myself and made loops, and I did wonder if the loops were too static (even though I do a lot of dubbing to give them some life). But now I'm excited to go back and do live drums, especially because it's rare to get to play drums on an otherwise completed track with all the parts there.

Oooh NA I have an MF-P01 that I think works but is of no use to me. I am not using, would gladly send along to a good home.

― zydecodependent (Ye Mad Puffin), Monday, June 9, 2025 4:09 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

yes please! if you want to email me to set up details, it's naamme at gmail

finally got my shit together enough to peddle a cassette of wack lofi ambient interludes https://dreamscan.bandcamp.com/album/reduced-pathways

Question: does anyone have recommendations for how to approach mixing my first studio recording? I have another few hours booked with the engineer and so far I’ve listened to the tracks a gazillion times and have a Google doc where I have notes. I want to work some studio magic but I don’t even know what to ask for. Thoughts? Anyone?

I know I want certain elements to be louder but aside from volume I am not sure what can be done, so I don’t know what to ask for.

a lot of it is levels of different elements and where you want things in the stereo field. you could also add effects - the mixer might have ideas about that if they're familiar with where you recorded, ie if it was a dead room they might suggest adding light reverb/delay to give it more of a sense of space.

i've only ever done my own mixing and it can be a bit of a headfuck if you've got lots of different elements and/or are trying to make up for recording deficiencies, but on the other hand if you've got a limited number of elements and they were recorded well, it can be fairly straightforward.

I think I’m in situation B but the deficiencies are my own — playing too softly here, flubbing coming out of a fill there.

As far as editing goes, it can be tough when you're very close to the material, but I'd caution against getting too micro. Maybe listen and distinguish between 'mistakes' that are nicely human vs the couple things that you're pretty sure you can't live with. Then you can try to grab an alternate version from another take or a different part of the song, or it can be an opportunity to do something creative (dub out/add fx to a fill that's a little clunky on its own, or cut that bar and create a fill with fx coming out of the previous one, or reverse it (the classic), etc).

Volume might be taken care of entirely once the engineer adds compression, which makes the dynamics more consistent.

If you're looking for mastering (maybe you've got it covered already), would highly recommend this guy. Reasonable rates, great work, and great to work with.

I think people sometimes distinguish between mixing that's just applying EQ, compression, and reverb to make everything clear and sounding its best vs more 'creative'/production type mixing with more fx, but I think the line is always blurred. There's not one way to do things, it almost always involves some weird problem solving, at least it does for me, lol.

Like, my own home recordings have lots of 'problems' that are really just opportunities to create a unique sound in the course of solving them. Recently I recorded a bunch of drums where I was playing very quietly with mallets on toms using mics that basically picked up zero high end, so I ended up bouncing out the whole drum mix, pitching it up an octave, and cranking the transients. It sounded terrible by itself, but blended with the rest of the drums it sounds very cool and fresh to me.

I think good engineers should be open and excited about experimenting, but I know that can be tough in a short time. They should also ideally be good communicators and able to interpret feedback that's not expressed in technical terms.

that's who we use too and i agree. good communicator.
xpost

Good intel — thanks folks!! I have had some of my previously held notions confirmed (esp re:experimentation) and I’m honestly really looking forward to this so I want to get the most out of it. I’m not a perfectionist and I enjoy the unsteady shifting sands of parts that move parallel and not always 100% in sync. I think between the two sets of takes we can do some really cool stuff. I’m excited!!

One of the tracks has a rain stick (??) on it! I found it in the closet. It sounds really cool imo.

I am SO GLAD i chose to let a professional handle mixing for me -- we got through all 5 tracks in 3 hours and had a little time to spare. it would have taken me 3 full eternities to learn how to do all that myself, much less actually do it. it was a fun three hours -- we toasted with my homemade kombucha at the end :)

i am on target for getting this done by my bday, which i find immensely gratifying. best gift i have ever given myself.

that is super cool LL!

awesomest news!

Great news. Getting a project completed is an amazing feeling.

Congrats, glad it went well!

The mixing thing is weird, I used to hate it and have come to enjoy it, and it's yet another lifelong skill to develop. It always takes sooo long (at least for that last 10% that makes all the difference), but for my own music it's become inseparable from the process of revising it, re-arranging, etc. I get that it's not for everyone though.

I contributed ideas and suggestions and then my engineer made them happen — so I feel like my ideas were correctly represented in the final mix. I just listened to them and it’s a huge improvement on the rough mixes.

Perfect!

My new ep is up on Bandcamp, and it'll be up on streaming shortly.

https://chrisirregardless.bandcamp.com/album/forty-applefish-blinks

today is release day for my debut studio recording! it's live on bandcamp and should be on other streaming services before too long. idk how that works tbh because this is my first time doing all that. anyway here it is! (please do not use my real name here) https://softfive.bandcamp.com/album/domesticata

Congrat LL! Will listen today.

Congratulations!

Wishlisted and will listen today.

omg!!!! hell yes!!!!!!!

Got a call to sub with my favorite band of all time (next weekend in Chicago). You know that thing where you practice to the records and fantasize about having to step in? Yeah, wow man.

I'm ready but judging by how my body feels rn, the only thing I'm worried about is nerves, a true test of muscle memory and staying relaxed and present.

deets please
i do know this fantasy well, need more deets to fully enjoy this news!!

https://martyrslive.com/rebirth-brass-band-2-sets

!!! amazing!! in addition to being relaxed and present, don't forget to have a good time/fun. that sounds like a v good time!! excited for u!

Yes I will try my best to not get all internal and to enjoy this experience that I've thought about for 25 years (I have to remind myself sometimes that it's way more fun to play with people who are having fun, lol).

things have been going really well this year, I'm in a new band Field Hospitals, very classic American 80s indie jangle stuff. I sent out the album for review to a bunch of blogs and one guy actually had a label called Subjangle Records and he put it out on limited edition CD. Sold surprisingly well (120+ bandcamp sales), seems more due to him having a very strong cult following for his label than us.

it's a six song EP called "Ethel Green"

https://fieldhospitals.bandcamp.com/album/ethel-green-3

here's a video we did for the first single

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPNwozzGsZk

also just released a new standalone digital single

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTqTe-ymyI8

Anyway we finally got our CD copies (label is from South Africa so it took forever) and have our CD release show tomorrow night.

Definitely excited but also worried no one is going to show up. Gets harder for people to come out the older you get, but definitely have gotten some nice reviews and notices online.

Nice! Will listen at lunch.

it's funny we got compared to the Connells a couple times a band I wasn't really familiar with but I can see it

wow that is cool! the songs sound great!

I get a little Go-Betweens (Grant) vibe but can definitely see that south/rustbelt/midwest 80s jangle coming through, it was a great listen.

Thanks for posting <3

Have rly liked all the Field Hospitals M@tt has shown me, hard endorse. Also am drunk

thanks all :) really appreciate it. we are all huge go-betweens/NZ/flying nun fans as well.

LJ have fun :)