Happy New Year! Tomorrow I go into David Houston's studio to finish off a track I've been working on for what seems like eons. Three things left to do... First is a new lead vocal from me. I've been taking vocal lessons for the last couple of months (something I'd been swearing to start for the previous six months or so...oh well, better late than never) so I wanted to take another crack at it with my new mad phat skillz! Second is to put on a new background vocal. I had done some harmonies myself a few months back which sound okay, but this song in particular will benefit will have a few different voices on it. So my old friend Natalie Gordon will be coming in to lay those down. Last but not least is a violin part. Originally I had conceded to just using a string sample to do the string parts, which is never my favorite route to go, but seemed to be the most efficient way to go at the time. Predictably, they sounded fake so the next thing we tried was going totally in the fake direction and replacing it with a mellotron patch. That sounded a lot more bearable but the end, the song needed real strings and tomorrow it shall receive real strings! It will still need to get a final mix afterwards, but you will hear this soon, oh yes!
In the meantime...Mark Twain writes in Letters To The Earth: "Each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong and which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide it against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may. If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country-- hold up your head! You have nothing to be ashamed of." End quote. All good and fine. I think any free thinking citizen would think the same but what he writes next is very interesting: "Only when a republic's life is in danger should a man uphold his government when it is in the wrong. There is no other time." This is a curious notion and one I'm not sure how I feel about. Should a republic's life be defended even when it is gravely in the wrong? This could be seen as a matter of choosing to lose a battle in order to win a war, deciding that the republic in and of itself is more good as an entity than it is wrong on a particular issue. Twain however states this as a rule rather than something to be taken into account on a case by case basis. Would Twain have applied this to Nazi Germany or even the US in the time of Vietnam? Would Twain allow that not every republic's life is worth saving? The two deciding factors for me would be the heart of the republic itself, and secondly, what the alternative would be. Take the United States for example. I am very patriotic about the idea of the United States even if it was never actually intended to be a reality. An ideal can begin as a lie but if those who believe it outnumber those who concocted it then it has the potential to become the truth. On the other hand, the intentions of the United States actually carrying out these ideals may be far from pure and it might do us good for someone to come along and "civilize" us...just who the new "civilizers" were make a big difference as to what side I would be on! What do you think about that?
In other news I'll be playing my second ever show in Los Angeles on January 21st at Genghis Cohen. Joining me and also performing her own set will be my good friend Ricky Berger who I don't hesitate calling a musical genius. If you're reading this and you live in the LA area, please come out! I'm looking to move down there in the next few months so it'd be great to meet some new people!
Anyway, that's all for now folks!
Peace,
Adrian
In the meantime...Mark Twain writes in Letters To The Earth: "Each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong and which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide it against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may. If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country-- hold up your head! You have nothing to be ashamed of." End quote. All good and fine. I think any free thinking citizen would think the same but what he writes next is very interesting: "Only when a republic's life is in danger should a man uphold his government when it is in the wrong. There is no other time." This is a curious notion and one I'm not sure how I feel about. Should a republic's life be defended even when it is gravely in the wrong? This could be seen as a matter of choosing to lose a battle in order to win a war, deciding that the republic in and of itself is more good as an entity than it is wrong on a particular issue. Twain however states this as a rule rather than something to be taken into account on a case by case basis. Would Twain have applied this to Nazi Germany or even the US in the time of Vietnam? Would Twain allow that not every republic's life is worth saving? The two deciding factors for me would be the heart of the republic itself, and secondly, what the alternative would be. Take the United States for example. I am very patriotic about the idea of the United States even if it was never actually intended to be a reality. An ideal can begin as a lie but if those who believe it outnumber those who concocted it then it has the potential to become the truth. On the other hand, the intentions of the United States actually carrying out these ideals may be far from pure and it might do us good for someone to come along and "civilize" us...just who the new "civilizers" were make a big difference as to what side I would be on! What do you think about that?
In other news I'll be playing my second ever show in Los Angeles on January 21st at Genghis Cohen. Joining me and also performing her own set will be my good friend Ricky Berger who I don't hesitate calling a musical genius. If you're reading this and you live in the LA area, please come out! I'm looking to move down there in the next few months so it'd be great to meet some new people!
Anyway, that's all for now folks!
Peace,
Adrian