A brief moment of retarded distraction. Here's a cover song I found on a cassette tape.

Yesterday I learned a few Elliott Smith songs on guitar, including "Last Call", which is one I've long wanted to cover. Elliott Smith is a guitarist and songwriter that I've long (and knowingly) underestimated. For some reason, I am constantly surprised by the quality of his work. You'd think I'd get the hint by now. In any case, I became very jealous of the mode mixing in "Last Call". The verses are in D, but with a borrowed G major, which is shifted to G minor right before the chorus, and the progression that follows is I guess G minor melodic? Regardless, it all sounds very smooth and very effective. The unconventional chords don't feel awkward, but instead give some emotional depth to the music.

I would like to give him a run for his money as best I am able, so I'm revisiting something I started the other day. This is in what I would consider to be A minor, but the first chord is instead A major. the progression for the verse is as follows: A F D E A F Bb E. Point of pride there, constructing a minor sounding riff out of all major chords. After that, I made a chorus out of the chords F G Am C Bb E A C#m F E A. In addition to that slightly fucked up Bb chord, the real weirdo in this progression is obviously the C#m. I like it. As usual though, and this never ceases to amaze or frustrate me, it's much easier to get into these weird notes than it is to get back out of them. As such, I'm not entirely happy with the F that immediately follows it. Maybe it's just a confidence issue? Maybe the right vocal melody will tie it together? We'll see.

There is no vocal melody on this demo, but the verse will be the same melody (roughly) as the earlier demo. CLICK IT.

SONG FOUR POSTED, MOTHERFUCKER

It's called "Visible Scars" and I wrote it while I should have been taking a nap.

HERE IS THE SONG.

Lyrics haven't been coming this last week, but I've been trying to come up with some potentially useful guitar parts. Here's something with a lot of mode mixing. A minor I suppose. Here's a demo.

I think this is subconsciously ripped off from a Commander Venus song. SHHH. Eminor / Gmajor riffing. I think there's a song in this.

Audio demo.

Song four is in progress. In the past, I might consider a song like this to be done. It meets the two minute mark, and it covers a lot of territory, but it doesn't feel finished yet. So far I am incredibly happy with this song. It's exactly along the lines of what I'm trying to tap into with my new songs, and I think I'm really getting to a point where I can just hit the switch and make these lyrics happen. I think if I slave over this song, I can turn it into something that is, at least by my own standards, fucking spectacular. Ironically, after all my bitching about the limitations of working in F major, I went and put this song in the relative minor key (all the same problematic notes).

Here is a demo.

Here are the lyrics so far:

there's eleven years that passed
since I found out about punk rock
another sixteen came before
they didn't add up to a hell of a lot
sometimes I slip up and I let myself believe
that something has a plan for what they thought that I should be
and if that be the case
why'd they make it be so fucking difficult
why not just drop me
virtually anywhere else
as if he thought somehow these trials would make me strong
and if he is infallable than how'd I prove him wrong
cause i've found what doesn't kill me
can only fuck me up beyond compare
and slow me down
and knock all of the wind out of my sails
and leave me floating with no specific goal
trust in every direction pointing me away from home
I never did no drugs
because no one ever offered them
and I've never even been drunk
and I think I have a good reason
I bet it feels the same as when I reach the end of the day
when the volume's cranked on everything and it makes me want to say

I hate your songs
cause they're so damn beautiful
and perfection on that level should not be attainable
I hate your songs
cause I can't figure it out
there's no secret ingredient you just open your mouth

WOO!

An idea in A minor. Pretty standard, except I use a minor 7 chord. Minor 7 chords are not, in and of themselves, nonstandard, but I'm usually too lazy to use them. At the end of this demo, there's a little parallel shift. That was obviously done on the fly. Who knows if I'd end up keeping something like that.

THIRD SONG POSTED

I've been doing bad at keeping this thing up. I think in part because I have virtually no readership. That makes sense, mind you, as this blog is RIDICULOUSLY self indulgent. Still, this blog has been helpful to my process, and I should work harder at keeping it current. The more lax I am on updating, the more lax I am at making good music. Case in point, I offer my most recent FAWM song. This one is called "Covered Bridges, Lighthouses and Landscapes" and it is posted here on the FAWM site.

In short, I hate this song. There are a few reasons.

1. Dynamically, it's flat. Now, a lot of this is in the way I chose to play the song, but some of it is built in. Some of me thinks that's not necessarily a bad thing. I increasingly regret my decision to put the song in the key of F. While I can sing a comfortable highish mid range in F, it doesn't allow me much else. The low octave of F that I can sing is strained, and my options for going higher are essentially out the window. So the song starts out in the same place it stays, vocally. This completely undercuts the bridge, for example, which basically sounds exactly like the chorus, but with different chords.

2. The lyrics are garbage. I should be above this sort of hokey crap by now. This whole, "one big metaphor" thing has not worked for me in the past, and it's probably not going to work for me in the future. I always feel transparent when I do things like this. That is not to say I can't take this metaphor and use it somewhere, but it should not be the entire lyrical content. I think in my last song, "Skull Mansion", I made good use of the line about snowflakes, which was a good multi-layered line. So I should be able to use this whole "puzzle" bullshit somewhere, but I need to balance it out with something.

UNRELATED

I need to figure out what this change is and rip it off. It's like a minor to major shift, and it might be a simple parallel change or it might be something else, but it sounds pretty awesome. I'll have to sit down with a guitar and work it out at some point.

SECOND SONG POSTED

"Skull Mansion" is now "finished", or at least, as close as the motherfucking thing is going to get for now. It could use some changes and fixes, but for now, I think my efforts would be best focused elsewhere. So for now, let's call this a wrap and take it off of my plate.

So now what are we working on?

- I've still got that thing in F major. It currently exists with a set of lyrics nearly completed, and though they aren't horrible, they don't really speak to me anymore. I plan to abandon the concept, but perhaps keep the musical piece.

- I'm behind schedule to come up with another new piece of music. It's the end of day 8, and I've only been working on 3 songs, I should be up to 5 by now, at least. Probably I should work on something before I go to bed. At least throw some chords together and sketch out a melody. I've done three things so far in major keys. I'm glad. I needed the practice. It might be a good time to try something minor though.

What was formerly referred to as "Delicate D Major Song" is now called "Skull Mansion", and features a completely new set of words. They are not yet finished.

Here is a demo.

And here are the words:

You will be
inside with your old TV
the world you see
restricted to 4:3
We used to see
an opportunity
in every flake's slow decent to the ground

the children will be quick to tell you there's no two alike
but all that I see is one damnable ocean of white

when you succeed
are you ever happy
or does it burn like another defeat
does it make you see
the impossibility
of fulfillment in the general sense

what good is a mansion if you still just live in your head
what's a perfect life if you spend it wishing you were dead

Also, my recent FAWM submission, "Snowflakes", has gotten zero comments after almost 24 hours posted! I'm so disappointed, given that I'm very happy with how that song came out. I was hoping at the very least it would piss somebody off.

FIRST SONG FINISHED!

This is actually a completely new song. I wrote this start to finish in like an hour. I'm so happy with it. http://fawm.org/songs/1390/

It's Wednesday morning. I just got home from work. Yesterday was a bit of a creative bust for me, and I did not really touch my guitar at all. At work last night, however, I did come up with a possible lyrical theme for the D major piece. It fits with the overall theme I've been developing for this project, but goes into some more specific territory. Before I go any further, here's what I've come up with. No demo at this time.

The faded sign
Adhered to your storm door lies
"This home is
protected by Pinkerton"
I don't think
that it's mere coincidence
You'd receive
some sense of security
from the very same thugs who are kicking the shit out of me
they come into my room late at night and they break me from sleep
and ask why it is that you're so far away from me.

That's what I've got so far. Anybody who shares my musical background should of course understand what the references are there. I'll explain some of it. This record is concerning itself primarily with a girl I knew 8 years ago. Tonight, seemingly out of nowhere, I remembered a small detail about her mom's house, which is that it had a sign on the door advertising, and I forget the exact wording, that a Pinkerton brand security system was in place. This sign was a lie. In addition to the famous strike breaking thugs of Rockefeller association, Pinkerton was or is also the name of a security company. I do not know if there are any connections between those two entities. Said security company sued Weezer when they released their 1996 classic record of the same name.

At the time when much of the events in the story unfold, I was more into Weezer and that specific album than can possibly be explained. I had the enthusiasm for that record that can only be held by a young fan who's never been burned by such extreme devotion. And this fervor was fueled in part by a number of uncanny similarities between Pinkerton lyrics and my relationship with said girl. I sound like a loser if I try to explain them.

In this song, if I continue on this theme, I may also "borrow" the following lines:

"what could you possibly see in little ol' three chord me"
"every time I pin down what I think I want it slips away"

Yet another development on the F Major idea. Despite earlier indications that I'd transpose this, it's still in F. At this point, it's likely to stay there. It's a bit of a strain on my low voice, but I can handle it. I decided to take the lyrics in a different direction, while still maintaining a few of the original lines.

"she ceased to exist quite some time ago
now she's just a word inside your head
repeated like a riddle with no answer
persisting like a joke that noone gets"
she is not a human being anymore
I may not admit it but I know you're right
she's just some self inflicted form of punishment
she is just my favorite rusty knife

And I've taken to thinking
my hands would melt if ever her I touched
and I've long since stopped dividing
the lines between my hatred and my love

and here I am with this gaping chest wound
a bloody trail of carnage in my wake
would you patch me up if I asked you to?
with your roll of 3M brand duct tape?
you are here and you are right in front of me
I'm the one one-thousand miles away
you could fix it all if I just let you
If I stopped killing myself I'd kill the pain

Some lyrics for the noodly D major thing I've been writing. Along with a demo.

Obviously (I hope) I would not be repeating the lyrics the way I did in this demo. That was just to illustrate how I hope to shape the dynamics of this song.

I don't know
if unconditional
can hold up to
the burden of me
when you pull me in
say you'll see me again
there's limits to
what I can believe

I know I'm a stupid kid but I'm not that naive

When it rains it pours. Here is a further development on the idea I just posted, this time featuring some lyrics. Ideally I would like to have a lot more lyrics than this, but this is a start.

You ceased to exist quite some time ago
and now you're just a name inside my head
repeated like a riddle with no answer
persisting like a joke that I don't get
I wonder if you ever think of me
when Aroostook County makes national news
for an ice storm or other such catastrophe
does a part of me still live inside of you

I have been wanting to write some lyrics similar to these for a while, but I've never quite been successful. I'm hoping I can flush out these a little more. Despite my earlier gushing over the key of F major, i may need to bump this up to G for vocal reasons.

I am now in my second waking day of FAWM. As of the last time I checked, both my chief rivals had written two songs each. All four songs are wonderful. I'm especially excited about Nate Oldham's writing, for as you probably know, I'm the bass player in his band. I'm excited to play these new songs live.

As for myself, I have still not completed a song. My first idea, the delicate 3/4 thing in D major, is developing well. I've been toying around with some other parts to add to it, and I've been happy with the results. Lyrics, however, are simply not coming for it. I'm not entirely sure what can be done about that. For me, lyrics often contribute to the way a song is structured, so I do not want to keep developing that song until I can start to put down some words. For now, it will go on the backburner while I try out some other things.

Here is a relatively simple thing I just came up with in F major. F major (as opposed to F lydian) is a fairly neglected key for me, but I'm usually excited about the sort of things I play in it. This obviously is a far cry from anything complete, but I think this progression and melody could lend itself well to a verse or chorus in something.

Here is yet another revision. at this point, the full progression is (relative to the capo on two) C G Am F-G Dm G Am F-G. If you listen to the recording, you'll quickly hear that though I wrote it, I don't necessarily know how to play it just yet. Hopefully after a few more runs through, I'll gain some kind of competency at it. For now, I consider that chord progression and ajoining melody to be, as they say, in the can.

The question, therefor, is what to do from that? My initial plan was to have the lyrics in the verses follow that same progression and melody, but at this point, with all it's revisions, I'm starting to think it would function better as a stand alone interlude. I still think that the vocal melodies should be similar to this, but I think I should treat it as it's own unique part. Start it from the same notes and let it take on it's own life.

An expanded version of the riff in question. I may double it yet again. Not sure what chords I'd add, but it seems a little tacky to have it repeat again at that point.

Listening back, the first two chord progression feels like half a riff. Maybe even a quarter of a riff? In other words, I need to expand the melody before I repeat it. I think.

So far, this is my first (good) musical idea this month. There was another earlier one, but it evolved into this. Here is a demo of the guitar part so far. (If there is any trouble with that link, please let me know. I'm new to this particular web-space). Assume for now that the vocals are going to follow closely to the built in lead. A benefit of this melody in this key is that it works well in either of my voices comfortable ranges. I can sing it low, or I can bump it up an octave, and if I push it into a higher harmony, I can break my voice with it.

Words are still not there yet, but I have some ideas. The place-keeper lines that I was throwing in while riffing on this showed some potential. The theme may be a keeper. Basically, I have been trying to write about feeling trapped. By "trapped", I mean the feeling of wanting to fake one's own death and skip the state. I assume that's a normal urge.

WELCOME

Hello!

To those of you reading this, I'm absolutely positive you know who I am, but I feel nonetheless that an introduction should be in order.

My name is Jason Unterreiner. This is my music blog, where I will write about my experiences as a musician. This will, I expect, primarily concern itself with songwriting, though it will no doubt also step into other territories. We will see what those are when we get there.

This blog's creation coincides with the start of this year's FAWM. FAWM, for those of you not in the know, stands for "February Album Writing Month." It is a challenge put on yearly at fawm.org where participants strive to write at least 14 songs in the span of February. a song every two days. This is my profile. At the moment, there is nothing posted. It will stay that way until I write something I'm adequately satisfied with.

The typical point of FAWM, as it is often stressed, is to relax one's standards, and just get the creative juices flowing, for better or worse. I think this is a great idea, but nonetheless, this year, I am forsaking it. Every year in the past, I have followed the same path in fawm. I've come out of the gate writing as much as possible, at first to lukewarm success. Then a few songs in, I hit my stride and write some songs that come out really really good. Then I sort of fizzle out and get really bothered by the low quality of the stuff I'm writing. I don't want to do that again, and therefor, I'm intentionally slowing myself down in some respects. I plan to work at a similar clip, but I don't want to prematurely mark a song as finished until I think it deserves that status. So instead of posting songs on fawm.org as soon as possible, I will be posting various drafts here first, only bumping them over to my FAWM profile when I'm happy with them. I do not expect to reach the goal of 14, but I will try.

Some objectives:

- To write songs that properly exploit my vocal abilities.
- To bridge the gap between my distinct songwriting modes (lyrics intensive vsl. structure intensive).
- To work the dynamic potential of a single acoustic guitar as much as possible.
- To kick as much ass as possible.

That is all for now. Expect more later.