New Sounds from New Songs

I've decided that even though a song is not "finished" I can still let you listen to parts of it. I've isolated several pieces of "Never And Forever" and uploaded them for your curiosity and pleasure.

NAF Pre-Verse Sounds by James Gillice

NAF Outro Guitar by James Gillice

NAF Slide Solo by James Gillice

IMO...

My opinion on my latest project...

Work is progressing at a steady rate on LP4 (a.k.a. "Never And Forever"). There are 2 aspects of this album that have me really excited.

1. The songs. I really feel like this is a strong collection of songs. Each one offers something special. They are very emotionally personal but touch on many universal themes that I think people will relate to.
2. The album itself. This collection of songs works well together. There are similar themes, moods, and styles throughout. Whereas on "Making It Right Again" (LP2) and "Never And Forever" (LP3) you had a wide variety of song types and moods and feelings, "Never And Forever" picks a single mood and works within slight variations on it. Also the production styles of each song are similar, creating a unified and coherent work. There is also a continuous narrative that progresses a storyline throughout. While it falls shy of the "concept album" title and all the baggage that goes with that, there is a story that is being told here. It starts a little dark and tragic and slowly works through the tragedy and all that is entailed in that and finds some hope and resolution by the end of it. This is supposed to be an uplifting album, but you will have to listen to it all the way through to get that from it.

So those are my thoughts and feelings at this point. The most frustrating aspect (as always) is getting the mixes sounding just right. No matter how good a song may be, if the mix is bad then it will drive me crazy.

Here is the supposed tracklist again. Only 8 tracks. Short and sweet. The first 4 track are pretty much set in stone. The back half could change a bit depending on how "This Time" and "Save My Soul" turn out when finished. Thematically, "This Time" might be a better closer, while musically "Time Takes Time" is better. I think when all is said and done the answers will be obvious. But for now...

1. Never And Forever
2. So Far Gone
3. Come And Gone
4. You Can't Go Home
5. Save My Soul
6. Anything At All
7. This Time
8. Time Takes Time

"Never And Forever"...

...is the working title for my next musical project. It's coming along much faster than I could have hoped. A little bit darker, a little more mellow, a little more moody and emotionally engaging, and easily some of the best music I've ever created. This 7 or 8 track album is going to be very consistent in mood and texture. Hopefully it will play out like a nice little journey of sorts for the listener. It will be a great little album to sit down and listen to as one entire piece of work. I can't wait to release it to the world. It is definitely a step in a slightly new direction. That direction being mainly up, top bigger and better things.

Here are the tracks that are slated for inclusion along with a brief description:

Never And Forever - Fast with a driving beat and a fantastic chord progression. No real chorus. Doesn't really need one.

So Far Gone - New sounds and textures. Slightly reminiscent of "This Moment". A little darker maybe, and yet it has a bubbly light quality to it as well. This would be the single.

Come And Gone - Quite epic in both sound and sadness. Built around a steady and beautiful guitar figure that builds upon itself. Crescendos quite nicely into the bridge before stripping it back down to the lone guitar before one short final burst at the end.

You Can't Go Home - A simple acoustic folksy number? At first it might seem so. By the end it gets quite dramatic and beautiful.

Save My Soul - This is the song that is the LEAST complete right now. Hard to know how this will sound when it is finished. A fantastic song structurally and lyrically. I can't imagine it NOT being excellent when finished.

Anything At All - A dark descending guitar introduces the verses and is repeated in the chorus. There is also a pre-chorus that picks up the pace and lightens things up a bit before going back into the guitar again. An intensely building outro changes the second half of the song completely. A string section spirals upwards continually and is joined by guitars that build to a glorious climax.

Time Takes Time - A perfectly mellow closer that ends the album on an uplifting note. A song of hope for the future. "I'll be just fine, but time takes time"

And there you have it..."Never And Forever"...coming soon to a computer near you.

Watch this space.

Happy Accidents

Songwriting = 25% Inspiration, 25% Hard Work...and 50% Luck.

Sometimes when you are writing songs things just go ridiculously well.

There is an old song called "Anything At All" that's been kicking around for years as a semi recorded instrumental version. It had this sad descending guitar thing happening in the verses that I really liked but I could never get the chorus to come together in a satisfying way. The lyrics of the chorus were pretty much finished, but musically it just wasn't working...

So there it sat on my hard drive for years and years while I moved on with other, less difficult songs....

Fast Forward to January 2011...

I'm sitting in my bedroom listening to a few new musical ideas that I had quickly recorded to my phone in recent months (I record like that when I am in a hurry, so as not to forget things...I lose more good ideas by simply forgetting them than I care to think about). As I'm listening I notice that one of my new ideas has a descending melody that is similar to the guitar line from this older song, but it is laid over a completely different (and more upbeat) chord sequence. So of course when I realize this I start getting excited. It turns out that this new piece fits together perfectly with the old song and creates an exciting new chorus that changes the entire mood of the song. And the old lyrics fit in perfectly as well. Add in a nice verse to chorus tempo change and we've got ourselves an exciting new direction for this song.

And if that's not exciting enough, I also came up with an extended outro the comes in after the second chorus. It started out as an idea for a bridge, but it was so good that I just wanted it to keep building and building to an epic finale. And it does sound quite epic. It's almost like an entirely different song tacked on at the end...but it works. And the total song length is still under 5 minutes, which is good.

Anyway, the stars have aligned and a great song has been born. Now let's hope I can find the magic in the studio to create the sounds I hear in my head.

And for those keeping score at home...

1 month into 2011 and already 3 songs completely written and mostly recorded.

The Return to Songwriting

The past few years have been so focused on recording and mixing music that I have had less time to actually write it. Of course there were songs here and there that would pop up, but I never felt like I could or should take the time to finish them until I had released the ones I was already working on.

That's all changed now. I can finally focus on creating songs...not embellishing, not tweaking, not recording...just writing the very basic elements of songs. I think I must have a lot of pent up music that is just waiting to be released. Over the weekend I had the house to myself and was able to spend a lot of uninterrupted time just writing and recording. In just a day and a half I was able to able to lay down all the main components of a song ("Come And Gone") that until now had only existed on paper. I am very happy with the results. It's a great song. The recording sounds pretty awesome. There are still things I would like to add and clean up, but it is pretty much a complete song. It just needs to be finished and mixed.

When I had gotten to a good stopping point on that song, I had to figure out what to work on next. With so many pieces of music in my head and lyrical ideas floating around, there are a million places where I could jump in and start working. So I went back and listened to a series of short low quality audio clips of song ideas that I had recorded into my phone and random times over the past year or so. One particular clip stuck out to me as a simple yet poignant little chord progression with a nice melody. So I pulled out the acoustic and started strumming. The idea for the theme of the song came very quickly and the lyrics followed. Soon I had a completed song. It is a very simple song and did not take long at all to record. It's called "You Can't Go Home" and I am loving it. It sounds great as it is, but will benefit from a better mix as well as a few embellishments such as a slide guitar solo and some backing harmonies.

All in all I am very excited about these songs and I can't wait for people to hear them. It is hard to be patient and wait until they are finished.

But it just feels so good to be writing songs again. And what makes it better is that I think I might be writing the best songs I've ever written.

Best Albums of 2010

When I'm not working on my own music, I like to take as much time as I can to discover and enjoy other new music. 2010 was a very good year for doing just that. Here is a list of the top ten albums that meant something to me this year for various reasons.

So let's get to it. Here are my top ten favorite albums of 2010.

10. I Heart California by Admiral Radley

Members of Grandaddy (a favorite band of mine) and Earlimart (who I know by name only) combine forces on this album with wildly mixed results. Not many albums can mix together so many songs that I love with a few that I really don’t care for at all. Despite this inconsistency, the best of these really are great songs. This is certainly not an album I can listen to in it’s entirety but half of it is very, very good.

Standout Tracks:
#2 - "Ghosts of Syllables"
#4 - "Lonesome Co."

#5 - "The Thread

#9 - "GNDN"
#11 - "I Left U Cuz I Luft U"

9. Transference by Spoon

A below standard album from an above standard band. Still, there are enough highlights here to give this one a mention.

Standout Tracks:
#3 - "The Mystery Zone"
#5 - "Written in Reverse"
#8 - "Goodnight Laura"

#10 - "Got Nuffin"

8. Halcyon Digest by Deerhunter

Not as consistent as 2008’s Microcastle, but where this album is good, it is REALLY good. More poppy and accessible than they’ve been in the past. Easily the worst album cover of the year though.

Standout Tracks:

#3 - "Revival"
#5 - "Memory Boy"
#6 - "Desire Lines"

#8 - "Helicopter"

7. Age of Adz by Sufjan Stevens

Wow. What can you even say about this album? It is hard to even form words to describe this. It is something that needs to be experienced. With this album Sufjan is more a composer than a songwriter. There is so much going on at any given moment in these songs. So complex and busy and yet incredibly infectious and often quite moving. If there is any flaw to be found it is that this exercise in overload sometimes can almost be a bit too much. All in all an amazing listening experience from an obvious genius.

Standout Tracks:

#1 - "Futile Devices"
#4 - "I Walked"
#5 - "Now That I’m Older"
#8 - "Vesuvius"

6. The Devil to Pay by Brett Shady

The debut album from Brett Shady may not break any new sonic ground, but it doesn’t have to nor was it meant to. Half of it’s charm is the feeling that you’ve heard these songs before somehow...perhaps as a child on the radio during a late night road trip...perhaps in a distant dream of some alternate version of the 1950’s...who knows exactly, but you know you’ve heard them before. The rest of this albums charms can be found in equal parts of simple yet smart and affecting ‘everyman’ lyrics, beautiful sparse country-tinged arrangements, and incredible sing-along pop moments. Not a poor track to be found here, but there are certainly highlights that hopefully are a sign of things to come.

Standout Tracks:
#1 - "Somebody Else"
#2 - "Jerome, AZ"
#6 - "Red House Plea"
#10 - "Angels, Ghosts And Demons"

5. The Suburbs by Arcade Fire

I’ll say this right off the bat...The Suburbs is the weakest album Arcade Fire has released to date. With that said, that still leaves plenty of room for this to be an excellent album, which it is. Of course it’s still early to really be able to say...ask me again in 10 years for a more definitive answer. To be fair, this has only grown on me since I first heard it and I imagine it will continue to do so in years to come. The Suburbs definitely has its highlights and moments of brilliance and yet sometimes it seems like it just barely misses the target or plods along in a boisterous yet unaffecting way. At 16 tracks, it feels at least 2 tracks too long. Don’t get me wrong, this is excellent music...they just set the bar so high with previous releases that it’s hard to see things for what they are until the dust has more time to settle.

Standout Tracks:

#1 - “The Suburbs”
#2 - “Ready To Start”
#9 - “Suburban War”
#15 - "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)"

4. Mines by Menomena

I don’t hear this band talked about much and I haven’t seen them mentioned on many end of year lists. I can only scratch my head and wonder if I’m hearing something different than everyone else. To my ears this is one of the most refreshing and brilliant bands to come out in a long while. They are yet to put out a full masterpiece, but they are at the top of the list of bands that I expect great things from. Mines showcases Menomena with their most mature and solid set of songs to date. The songwriting here reaches emotional highs that they had yet to reach previously. They are not all perfect but there is so much here to love. Each track has so much going on while at the same time feeling sparse. The production is brilliant with the drums up front and the piano and sax not far behind and which both, along with jagged guitar stabs, weave in and out of the music in the most creative and often surprising ways. This band sounds like nothing I’ve heard before.

Standout Tracks:
#2 - “TAOS”
#3 - “Killemall”
#8 - “Oh Pretty Boy, You’re Such A Big Boy”
#9 - “Five Little Rooms”
#11 - “Intil”

3. Broken Bells by Broken Bells
Although this album is completely interesting and engaging throughout with not a weak track to be found, I can’t help but be slightly disappointed every time I listen to it. You see, half of this album is a complete masterpiece...the other half is merely great. When I listen I find myself wondering what could have been. Perhaps this super duo of Danger Mouse and James Mercer will eventually create this perfect gem of an album that is hinted at here. Until that time we must be content with mere greatness (with a heavy dose of brilliance).

Standout Tracks:
#1 - “The High Road”
#2 - “Vaporize”
#3 - “Your Head Is On Fire”
#4 - “The Ghost Inside”
#7 - “Citizen”

2. High Violet by The National

In 2007 The National released Boxer...a fine enough album with barely a weak song and several songs that I really enjoyed. And yet there was enough there that I wasn’t completely sold on that I have not returned to that album much over the past 3 years.

By comparison, High Violet never left any such doubts in my mind. From the first listen there was no question it was brilliant, it was just a matter of figuring out exactly HOW brilliant. Listening to this now at the end of the year I am realizing that it only keeps getting better the more time passes.

Standout Tracks:
#2 - “Sorrow”
#3 - “Anyone’s Ghost”
#5 - “Afraid of Everyone”
#10 - “England”

1. Teen Dream by Beach House
The title of this album gives it away, the key word being “dream”. “Teen” or otherwise, this album feels like a complete dream. There is not a single song that is not completely gorgeous...and yet if it has any fault, it’s that they are all so good that on initial listens, nothing really stands out. You keep waiting for it to falter and it never does. There are many songs that came out this year that I would consider better than anything on here, but there is no album that is as solid as this.

My first listen to Teen Dream was on a solitary road trip through the northwest corner of Nevada and into Oregon. It was a route I had never been on and it was amazingly desolate. At one point I think I drove over a hundred miles and only passed a handful of cars going the other direction. The cloud formations that day were otherworldly and that combined with the thrill that comes from seeing a new place for the first time provided the perfect atmosphere for this album. It truly felt like I had wandered into a dream. A Teen Dream apparently.

Standout Tracks:

#1 - “Zebra”
#4 - “Walk In the Park”
#5 - “Used to Be”
#7 - “Better Times”
#8 - “Ten Mile Stereo”

I'm Ready For What's Next

As I have been working on completing "Here Nor There" over the course of the last 5 years, I have also been writing many other new songs as well. I have many that I feel very good about. "Come And Gone" is one such song. It is nearly complete lyrically. I've had various verses and chorus' written for some time now. I've finally sat down and finalized the complete song structure and begun the recording process. Here is the very early results that give a glimpse of the vision I have for this song. The prominent guitar line that you hear has been in my head for over a year now. I'm pretty much obsessed with the way it floats over the top of the chord sequence. I'm hoping that I'm onto something great here.

Have a listen

Come And Gone (Early Sample Clip - 01) by james Gillice