Slight Change of Plans

So...sometimes it's ok to change plans.

My original idea was to complete 14-15 songs and choose the best 10-12 for the final album. At this point I have 10 songs that are near completion. All of these songs are good enough to make the album. So do I continue to try to finish more tunes so I can have the best of the best?...OR...do I accept the songs that are closest to being finished as the final songs? Because of time constraints I am going with the latter option. With a little more recording and some final mixing and mastering this album will finally be finished. Don't get too excited, that's still probably months away...but that's better than years away. The songs that get left behind will serve as a starting point for the next album.

So the tracklist as it stands now is as follows:

1. Take Our Chances
2. This Moment
3. By And By
4. Castles In the Sand
5. Drifting Away
6. The Enemy Is Me
7. Wherever You Go
8. Dear Friend
9. Take Our Chances (Again)
10. Deep In the Heart

I'd say those first five songs are a lock...the rest could still change as the songs are finished and as I listen to them in order a few hundred times. There may even be a short instrumental or two added just for good measure, seeing as how all of my previous albums have those. We'll see if that works out or not. But rest assured that this baby is nearer to completion that it's ever been before.

I Can Feel It...

...There is definately an album emerging here. It's identity and form becomes more and more clear each day. Deep In the Heart, the designated closing track of the album, is near completion and sounding just dandy to these ears. A few more tweeks and maybe a last minute addition and it'll be all ready to take it's place among the ever growing list of near completed songs.

Stay tuned...

What's In A Name?

"Comfort Me" has a new name..."Deep In the Heart" is now the title of this peice of music that's been kicking around my hard drive for years now.  I'm very excited that this song is starting to take a shape that is worthy of the great potential I've seen in it since it's birth.  

All that is left to do is record the final vocals, add a few more backing vocals, maybe another guitar, and then spend weeks mixing it all until it sounds as near to perfect as I can get it.

"Comfort Me"/"Deep In the Heart" has always been slated to be the closer of the album and now I think it will fill that role quite nicely.  Is it overly-sentimantal, schmaltzy, overblown and bombastic?  Maybe.  Is it quite possibly the best thing I've ever done?  Perhaps.  Ask me again in 5 years.

Excitement Returns!

The reality that school is almost over, I mean like as in forever, is filling me with desires to accomplish things in my life that have been put off for far too long.  You know,things like finishing this album that is already two years later than I had planned as it is.  

Knowing that I'm graduating gives me and feeling of freedom that is unlike anything I've felt in a long time.  Not only will I have more time and less distractions, it feels like a huge cloud that has loomed over my head for years is vanishing.  A huge burden is being lifted from my back.  My main long term goal for the past (large number that I'd rather not specify) years is nearly accomplished.

So, back to the album...

I've taken an important step and gone through all the song I have at this stage, whether completed, semi-completed, or barely started...and I've come up with a working tracklist.  Doing this has made this project feel more real and given me some new enthusiasm to get it completed.

Here is the tracklist I've come up with.  Remember that many of these are incomplete or need major work...

1. Take Our Chances
2. Castles In the Sand
3. This Moment
4. Wherever You Go
5. The Enemy Is Me
6. Dear Friend
7. By And By
8. Take Our Chances (Again)
9. Drifting Away
10. So Far Gone
11. [Instrumental] (needs a name)
12. Comfort Me

There are a number of songs that got left off of this list either because the quality is not yet what it should be or they are just not far enough along in the completion process.  There is plenty of this "B" material that hopefully will come together quickly for the next album.  I've got a lot of time to make up for.  Here's a few of these songs...

• The Edge Of the Known Universe
• Somewhere In Between
• Never And Forever
• Anything At All
• Save My Soul
• There's a Certain Darkness That's Gone

So there you go...

Stay tuned if you're still out there and care.  There should be a lot more updates in the coming weeks.  Are you excited?  Well I am and that's really all that matters.

My Oh My, How the Time Does Fly

Well here I am again. Three months seems to be how long it takes me to get to this blog. It has been a crazy few months around the Gillice home, so I'll use that as my excuse for not updating. Between the final stages of pregnancy, a birth and recovery gone wrong, and a small man child that needs attention every waking hour, I have managed to actually get some work done on the album.

Most of what I have accomplished in recent weeks is the finishing and fixing up of lyrics. Most recently (last weekend) I have focused my efforts on getting one song completely finished. That song, "The Enemy Is Me" has been lying around for well over a year. I got the lyrics to a place where I can live with them and so I decided to just finish it off. I now have it to a near final mix. A few more day/weeks of listening and changing and it should be done.

Also, I have 2 very different versions of a song called "Take Our Chances" that I am thinking might both make the album. One will be sort of a reprise of the other but in a very different style. Whichever version I decide to put second in the track order will be called "Take Our Chances Again" since the word "again" is the actual lyric and to differentiate the two songs and because you are hearing it "again" for the second time on the album.

There is a new song that has been developed in recent months called "Never And Forever". The music is fairly cool but I'm unsure about the melody and lyrics. Right now I just want to finish songs that are near completion before working on newer stuff. I've got to finish someday, right?

3 Months? Where Have I Been?

OK so yeah. I actually went on a recording spree a few weeks back (months?) and got quite a bit done. I kind of go in spurts like that. Sometimes I feel like I have so many songs and ideas in various stages of completion that it is daunting to try to decide where to even begin. I get the most done when I just choose one song to work on and just go to town.

The last song I have been working on (quite a few weeks ago now) is a song called "Take Our Chances". I made some substantial changes to it and mellowed it out a lot. It has some nice slide guitar in it now and a more county/folk vibe than it used to. It was originally a full on Rock song. I still have the old version saved so eventually I'll post both and people can decide which one they like better. I think this new version fit better with the direction I would like to go with this next album.

Am I really still recording an album? Sometimes I forget.

A Few Lyrical Excerpts

Comfort Me

And what have we become?
In a world of failing schemes and broken dreams
We make ourselves a home

And time keeps moving on
With so much left undone
We run to try and catch the setting sun

But we fall by the way
As our tired, useless legs betray
The masters that they once obeyed

And who could even say
If we're worthy of our days
And the untold prices we have paid

But this is who we are
And this is how we'll always be
I was alone
You came to comfort me...


The Enemy Is Me
(formerly "Stability Crisis")

Now that I have been let in
And I have made things right again
I feel like I am neither here nor there

I'm sure that it must be a sin
To dream about what might have been
Or is the greater sin to pretend that I don't care?

...

Happiness is something
That used to come and go

And heartache is a long lost friend
That I don't hardly know...anymore

But I'm coming to accept the fact
That everything's OK

And it's hard to sit and write this song
When I don't have much to say...anyway


Wherever You Go

Save my soul
I would forget myself
If I could take control

But more and more
I can't forgive myself
My back's against this wall
And I don't know...

If I can take this anymore