I’m Working on an Album
That has to be the post title because I’m still trying to convince myself that this is something I’m actually doing. I can’t even muster the courage to say it loudly, so this is only going out to (the awesome) folks who subscribe via RSS.
I fired up GarageBand a little under two years ago. I didn’t have some sort of goal in mind, but wanted to take a crack at recording music. I’d flirted with it in the past, but that was decades ago, and I merely chalked that up to teenage curiosity. I’ve always played and consumed music and poking at recording was just seeing how the sausage was made.
Funny enough, that’s how I wound up in web development career: I was initially a designer who was all too interested in how my work went from static Photoshop mockups to interactive websites. Curiosity is curious like that.
I shared that little recording experiment when it was done. You can totally hear it and laugh at what a middle-aged dude sounds like fumbling in the dark. But I love that I did it and it did indeed accomplish what it needed to do: scratch a long-running itch I’d been ignoring most of my life.
That first experiment led to another recording experiment. And another. And more upon more. Somewhere at some point between now and November 2023, I hit a flow state and found myself spending the majority of my free time recording songs. Everything I recorded was mostly covered material by other artists, where each track was a different challenge. For example, that first recording was a task in figuring out how to get sounds in my machine in the first place. Then it became about whether I could capture the “essence” of another artist’s work. Then it became about adapting to different genres. Then it became about honing my performance. Then it became about mixing and mastering. I even re-recorded (and re-shared) that first track to show myself how far I’d grown in short time, even though I struggle with the vulnerability of learning something new in the open.
And now it’s about learning what goes into the making of a full album!
To be clear, this ain’t about “making it” in music as much as it is about making music. I’m just as interested in the business of music — how music is engineered, published, distributed, and whatnot — as I am in the creative process. I figure the best way to learn about it is to get my hands dirty in it, and thankfully I have an endless well of passion and patience to see it through.
I’ll share more… well, when I have more to share. I have a lot of homework to do:
- Mastering audio
- Checking how things sound on as many devices as possible
Obtaining cover song licensingFinding a distributor- Register for publishing
Designing an album cover
Ah, nice. I was able to knock a couple of those out before finding the courage to publish this post. I landed on Too Lost for distribution (there could be an entire post on that) and have a pretty simple album cover I’m happy with.
But more importantly: I have completed a total of 12 tracks! That’s plenty of material for a full-length album of cover songs and to challenge myself with making something that sounds consistent as a whole.
I’m aiming for an October 1 release date. I’m not holding myself to a tight or rigid schedule, but I need some sort of deadline to help drive things forward. I have no idea how long it takes for anything. I mean, god knows how long it takes to get licensing for 12 different cover songs? I’m starting with a month and feeling it out.
After all, this has been nearly two years in the making, even if I didn’t know this is the direction it would ultimately take. There’s no rush, even though I’m super duper eager to see my name in places like Apple Music and Spotify.
Pretty cool, right? Here’s to trying new things and being open to new possibilities. 🤘
