Friday, 4/6/01

I've never tried going two nights in a row without sleep. This might be my chance. Last night, in preparation for a busy next day, I went to bed early at around 4 or so. Six hours later, I was very very bored but not in the least bit asleep. Sigh. Today, the band went into the studio to cut a disc. (Perhaps a month or so ago, a more cynical me would have phrased that: Today, the "band" went into the "studio" to "cut" a "disc". I'm beyond such immaturity now.) I was worried about not being able to perform properly on zero hours of sleep, but I did well enough. Going to a professional recording studio was an interesting experience, but not as interesting as fitting a five-piece drum kit, a full-size keyboard, three guitars, five amps, a bass cabinet that is almost as tall as I am, and various accessories into two cars. I'm starting to develop a strong dislike for rock music. It's so... boring. Verse: guitar strums some overused chord progression, vocals whine tunelessly about this and that. Chorus: distorted guitar powers out some simpler overused chord progression, vocals form a one-line melody, repeated four times. That last bit is called the "hook", which is a oblique way of saying "the five seconds of the song that are actually musically interesting, and which desperate listeners will sit through two minutes of monotonous droning in order to get to". "Hook" is clearly a useful abbreviation for that mouthful. Of course there are variations on that. But the genre demands and enforces simplicity in structure and execution, and the end result is that most songs end up being, musically, extremely repetitive and simply not very interesting to me. What do I prefer? Well, stuff like this, for one. No strum strum whine whine there. At every moment, there is something interesting going on. That actually is the sort of music I'd like to write. If you can, listen to this one and instead of hearing piano, mentally recast it into a similar genre as that song above. Hopefully, someday I'll be able to physically recast it as such, but that will require tools. And motivation. I'm getting there... Apologies for any incoherency in this entry. Lack of sleep, etc. But I'm still not tired, which is why I might see if I can go another night. I'm halfway there already. Sigh.