Mason Jars - A Song Outside the Comfort Zone + Kickstarter Update

A quick note about where the Kickstarter campaign is at we're at - with known contributors, just over the $2000 mark.  It's pretty (*&@#@# cool if you ask me.  It's easy, it's quick and it's what you want to do!  Please click the link and consider pledging what you can.  Just a few more days of these asks, so thanks for hanging in there.

http://kck.st/13yC74Y

For today's song spotlight - "Mason Jars".  I debated whether to include this song, both on the album, and here as one of my little features on my blog/FB.  I think it's important but the subject matter is uncomfortable.  Still, that's what art is about - challenging our comfort zones and pushing us to find new ways to see the things that make us who we are.

The lyrics have been featured as a poem in the Gap Toothed Madness - a local Sacramento anthology - with very little changed.  It's a fitting song for a Sunday, because it deals with how the people who introduced me to God via the Pentecostal faith, poisoned my heart by molesting my young body.

I created a simple sound to contrast the subject matter much the way this contrast has felt inside over the years.  It's very short, and I think it's very sweet in its dark innocence.  I think it brings up a difficult but important subject and, while I went back and forth about whether I wanted to put this out there, I decided that it was more important to be true to the story I'm telling and my project than to be comfortable.  I've often found amazing things just outside my comfort zone.  I'll post a link to the sound and ask you to take a listen, find the power below the song and imagine what it - along with the rest of this project - could sound like given the proper treatment.

Songwriting Lessons From the Avett Brothers: Part 2

Ola.  Late last year I posted a piece about how the Avett Brothers were influencing my approach to song structures.  I promised more when the songs were completed and, from a songwriting point of view, they are.  I feel they are two of my strongest to date, and what I called at that time "Saddle Up" has turned into a very fun song to play, though I imagine it coming from a woman, now, which, alas...I am not.

So, three points to touch on.  First, I need you to think about checking out my Kickstarter project - video below.  It won't take long, and a few bucks might make the difference between getting me into the studio or not.  

Now, of these two songs, one will actually be included in this album.  This one my kids sort of helped write.  Check out that story in the original post, but what resulted is a fairly short, simple song I feel packs a nice punch, both in the stick-to-your-heart melody department and the stick-to-your-brain lyric department (both of these departments are located in the back near the restrooms, if you were wondering).  In part one I mentioned the Avett-inspired approach makes it more difficult to build the bridge.  In this case, I wrote a chord progression that is requesting a solo.  I may just forgo the bridge entirely.  Anything I've written has detracted from the simple power of the verses.  Here's a preliminary recording. 

As you can hear, the lyrics changed in minor ways, but the basic flow and structure has stayed he same.

The next song I mentioned was, "Go F*** Your White Horse", formerly called "Saddle Up".  The title is a joke and comes from the front side of the pre-chorus (or part B if you view the song as having 3 parts, A, B and C) "Go find your white horse".  I used the same approach to the lyrics and overall song structure, and this time I even used a rhythm very similar to a popular Avett Bro's tune.  The chord progression is backwards and in a different key, but it's there.  Points to anybody who guesses which song.  No, I'm not risking breaking new ground musically here; I'm just looking to put together a solid song that lets the lyrics shine.

I call the "B" section a pre-chorus because, while a bridge does usually bridge a verse (or a solo) to a chorus, it represents more of a deviation from the pattern established by the verses and choruses.  In "White Horse", that portion of the song is very much part of the pattern (A,B,C/A,B,C).

A: Verse 1

Can the fight end when we lay down our heads

Or when we wake up will we wake up the dead

Do you find strength in the wars that we wage

Or do they like me just fill you with rage

B: Pre-Chorus

Go find your white horse yeah

Go find it today

Go find your white horse and  

We'll ride out of this place

C: Chorus

Maybe in the saddle we can find a way

To save this thing instead of saving face

But I've had all of these matters I can take for one day

Saddle up, it's make or break

A: Verse 2

Does the night end when we raise up our heads

Does a light end when we bury the dead

Do you find strength in the walls of this cage

Or do they like me just fill you with rage

B: Pre-chorus

Go find your white horse yeah

Go find it today

Go find your white horse and

We'll ride out of this place

C: Chorus

Maybe in the saddle you will find your grace

Match the fall of that horse's gait

But I've had all of these battles I can take

Saddle up, let's take a break

That's it, folks.  Thanks for your eyeballs.  And for your backing - watch my video below, click the link, get involved!

StipeSongs.com - Website Launch

Just a quick note to mention that I'm launching a new website to act as the web entry point for my album project.  The songs themselves are coming along nicely, and I'm excited to put together a Kickstater campaign to finance some studio time for vocals and some clean acoustic takes.  The new web address is:

www.stipesongs.com

Feel free to take a look and please, please - let me know if you see any type-o's or other issues.  Your help is invaluable when it comes to my not looking like a fool.

Thank you!

DJ

Ender's Game Movie - Battle School Team Logos

This just fell into eyes. I have mixed feelings about the movie, because I just doubt it will ever live up to the book in my head, but I'm excited. I need to read the Bean series before then - the movie is supposed to encompass both stories.

These are the team logos for the Battle School:




After seeing the Hobbit with my son recently, I think I can view this movie as a retelling of the books rather than the book made into a movie. Peter Jackson showed me it's possible to tell a different version of a story and remain true to the soul of the original.

Any movie retellings that just didn't work? Did work? Haven't happened but couldn't work as a movie?

Thanks for your eyeballs.

- DJ

The Wheel of Time - "The Asha'man"

Today, the 14th (15th counting the prequel) installment in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time fantasy series went on bookshelves across the world.  I began reading this series as a teenager when, as I've heard so many people say, a friend handed me a ragged copy to read.  I find it hard to count the number of people I've connected with over this series in the years since, both alive and dead.  I don't know the Jordans, or Brandon Sanderson (the author who completed the series after Jordan died from a blood disease in 2007) but in some way I count them as family, along with the expansive collection of vivid characters they created.  I've read many great books since picking up this series, but there's something about a piece that traverses so many years that climbs inside your life and sets up shop. 

I'm no gleeman, but in the wee hours preceding this monumental occasion 23 years in the making, I was inspired to do this rewrite of Jimmy Webb's great song, The Highwayman.  This song is a quartet of verses, each telling the tale of a different life of a working class man (a highwayman, a sailor, a dam builder and a starship pilot), and hints at a return to the original highwayman - always coming back.  This is the premise of the Wheel of Time, as the author James Oliver Rigney, Jr. explored the trappings (both figurative and literal) of a cyclical existence.  In my version of the song, you'll glimpse the life of an Asha'man (a male magician), a Sea Folk Swordmaster, an Ogier builder and the Dragon Reborn - the only hope for the world when the final battle comes (for me it started today as I downloaded the audio book at 12:10AM).

It just makes me sad that Robert Jordan wasn't here to see it - the completion of this series, that is.  As Brandon Sanderson so expertly wrote, "You go quietly, but leave us trembling."

(reference linked lyrics below)

I was an Asha'man, Tarmon Gai'don on the mind
Pain in the Aes Sedai
Many a Trolloc fell when I destroyed their Fade

Many a Seanchan died upon my Saidin blade
Fought Dumai's Wells long before they say I died

Yet I am still alive.

I was a Swordmaster; I was born upon the tide
My Sailmistress I'd abide.
We sailed our vessel through the Bay of Tanchico
I went aloft when our Windfinder sent a blow
And when the yards broke off they say that I got killed
But I am living still.

I was a builder from the Stedding of Shangtai
Sung wood Andoran pride

I left Caemlyn from what was an Ogier groveThrough the Ways where the Black Wind always blowsThey say I'm lost to the madness of that sound
But I am still around, 'cuz the Wheel spins me back around and around and around and 
around and around and around and around

I'll fight the Dark One out there beyond the Blight
And when I reach the other side
I'll join my brothers in the Wolf Dream if I can
Perhaps I may become an Asha'man again
Light, I could even have Lews Therin in my brain
But I will remain

And I'll be back again, and again and again and again and again

The Wheel spins me back again and again and again

A Memory of Light

Advantage: Self

Someone once told me, I shouldn't assume the advice of others is more valuable or prescient than my own instincts. Man, how come I never think of things like that?


Thanks for your eyeballs.

- DJ

Doctorow on Character

Hello,

I just read this article from Cory Doctorow on how fictional characters come to life. It does a great job of illustrating a theory I have that good fiction can't happen until there are at least two great ideas to rub together, but on a micro scale and applies specifically to character development. I like the analogy he uses of finger puppets as new characters. It made me think.

A good read for writers, but also for readers who have had a visceral reaction to their favorite characters when placed in difficult spots, and are curious where that came from:

http://www.locusmag.com/Perspectives/2013/01/cory-doctorow-where-characters-come-from/


Thanks for your eyeballs.

- DJ