What do I use?

How do I create a piece of music? Well, that's an impossibly hard question, but I can tell you what equipment I use.

First things first, my Taylor 214CE. Big, bright, loud. The heartbeat of most of my music.

Next up: the computer. Pretty standard MacBook with Garageband '09, which I find that I like more and more as I use it. For example, I made this in Garageband, auto-tuning and all. Feel free to play it in the clubs.

DJ Bonesaw - Wagon Wheel (remix) by seamonsters

Finally, the link between the first and second of the two instruments - a Blue Snowball. What? It's a microphone! Ha! Blue makes a range of very useful microphones; one of the most useful is called the Snowball. By now you've probably seen their microphones in use as they are extremely popular with the YouTube crowd. Why's that, old man? Well, it's because they excel at picking up sounds from various different sources and blending them together successfully. It's what I use to make videos, too. Like this:



You can see the edge of it down there in the bottom left.

Bringing you up to speed

Many of you know that while I was in Bloomington, I tried to write music as often as possible. The basic idea is that the more you do it, the better you get at it, at least in theory. And it really helped to have other musicians close at hand. But that phase of life is over, so now that I've left town I'm relying on the Internet to generate the creative inspiration and musical interaction that I believe is necessary for the health of my psyche. That's where you come in.

And chance plays a role, which is sort of where Jake and Meredith come into the story. I've jammed with Jake for a long time, but we've never really written anything together, and I met Meredith (a vet student like Jake) here through him. The two of them have proved very inspiring.

When I wrote a new song a couple weeks ago, I didn't exactly write it for them (in the sense that it wasn't arranged for three people), but they certainly got to hear it first. And as it turns out, they each had something invaluable to add. I really love Jake's harmonica introduction to this song, and his bass playing adds a whole new layer to the original version. Meredith has an angelic voice, and her harmonies are so natural and interesting that they almost constitute a separate song that I like better than my own.

Once we had all written some parts I decided (maybe 5 minutes later) to record them for posterity. And for kicks I sent the new track off to Jason to see what he thought. To my surprise, he threw the track right back not 15 minutes later with an awesome hook that completes the tune. That's exactly how I hope my life continues to work in the future.

This song is probably the one that I'm most proud of to date in that it represents a concerted effort at succinct confessional songwriting. Don't let the lyrics get you down, but let them affect you if you like. And don't worry, I'm not breaking up with anybody. IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU.

Seamonsters - Front Porch by seamonsters

Seamonsters is what I've chosen to call this little arrangement. Enjoy.

Happy Black Friday

Thanksgiving went really great this year. Good people, good times had by all. With the hustle and bustle behind, my father can finally turn his full attention to finding deals on the Internet, and the rest of us have set to work on leftovers.

My attention must now turn to finding an apartment and moving into it.

But for today, I'll give you a little ditty that Jason and I recorded back in Bloomington. It's that catchy MGMT cover. I miss having Jason around. His harmonies were, at times, transcendent, and he was a very good friend to boot. It's not too often you find both.

Jason and Ben - Kids (MGMT) by seamonsters

Welcome

I haven't done this in a while, but I've decided to start writing missives to the Internet again.

I suppose I may as well give my reader some background, as this is the first post:

It's Thanksgiving break, and it's almost birthday time. I just took a job in Kankakee, IL where I'll put my law degree to some use. Not too much use, I hope. This all means that I'll be moving out of Champaign and into an apartment on my own again. I'm considering purchasing some tasteful, grown-up furniture.

The subject of this blog will be varied, but it will focus to a large extent on music, I think, since music is usually what I myself am focused on. For anyone unaware, I was in a band during law school called Banquets and Bars. We were a taciturn group, and the band too often reflected my reticence in presenting my music. We never played for very many people, though we spent many weeks polishing our songs. The Internet, I've always found, is an excellent way to remedy the fear of confrontation. So I turn to it now, and may its cold, impersonal hands reach out to wherever you might be, bringing with it the tiny sound of my voice through your laptop speakers, tinny and never quite loud enough.

Welcome.

Banquets and Bars - La Resistance by seamonsters