Do What You Can, Start Where You Are
This was the first song I ever recorded and “produced” on my own, about 12 years ago.
I had taken on a project where I would be writing songs that interpreted classic texts from history as if they were written/performed by artists in modern genres 🏛 The texts were:
- The Apology of Socrates (Plato in the style of Bob Dylan)
- The Book of Ezekiel (Old Testament as heavy metal)
- The Aeneid (Virgil as a blues singer)
- The Gospel of Thomas (Gnostic Scriptures as psychedelia)
I know, I know, it doesn’t get much more rock and roll than that. 🤘
My love for Socrates is a story for another time, but needless to say, I was very excited to tackle this project and had full confidence I could make some really interesting music… as long as I could figure out one minor problem:
I had no idea how to record music on my own and had to perform all the songs solo.
I had never even seen (or heard of) a DAW but I was extremely fortunate to have a friend who let me borrow his MacBook for a few hours a day so I could learn about this “new” software he had called Garageband. 💻
I made countless mistakes (I recorded my guitar from a 10w Ibanez app through the laptop’s onboard mic, for one, because I didn’t own a microphone) but I can honestly say I’ve almost never been prouder of anything in my life than when I finished these 4 songs.
Not just that, but seeing how EASY it was to make music with Garageband lit a fire under me. I was CERTAIN that within a few years every human with a laptop would be writing and releasing awesome songs about their personal interests. 👨🎤👩🎤
*
That reality only sort of came true, but it was all the motivation I needed and I was hooked on a feeling of empowerment it gave me. My whole life I’d wanted to write songs and be a “recording artist” and now I had the final puzzle piece, I could create recordings!
Terribly at first I admit, but that’s the only way to start 😉
I spent the next 2 years writing and learning Garageband inside out before I took the plunge and invested in learning to record and engineer for real… and I’ve been striving to get better ever since!
⚡️Had I not had this experience, or if I had let some simple detail like having no idea what I was doing stop me, it’s unlikely I would have continued with music in any serious fashion and there are 80+ songs I’ve recorded since then that wouldn’t exist.⚡️
All I knew is I NEEDED to do this and I could figure it out.
I was hesitant to share this track because I know I can do so much better now - but it remains one of my favorite things I’ve written because of the story behind it.
👉 So no matter how strange you think your topic/idea is or how little you know about making it happen - GET STARTED NOW.
You will not LEARN and GROW from THINKING about stuff, you have to go DO and EXPERIENCE it.
Good vibrations all ✌️
(Also, this is the exact audio file as I exported it in 2009. Sadly I no longer have the session but have been thinking about recording an “Anniversary” version of this. What do you think?)