Welcome to what is at this time my temporary home - blogger.com hosting my open thoughts and comments here for the time being while I decide if I re-invest in my own domain again and what to do about publishing my material past, present and future. Rest assured I'll keep those interested apprised of my decisions and notify you of changes as they occur...
Speaking of keeping you apprised, it's been a long 3.5 years since I last released anything. And here's some news that I would like to pass along - at least in terms of initiating creative efforts again:
For the last 6-8 months since I really got my studio put back together, I've been trying to really identify the closing theme or title that would inspire the words to close this thing out - so much to date has been mighty introspective and dark that it needed to really be uplifting and reflect my own much more positive outlook and situation. I had also been trying to find the kickstarter for the creative efforts since I've been very family focused now since just after the release of "a fine line between..." - the birth/addition of two more boys to the Svilpa clan and the required focus to make sure they're kept healthy and vital as well as loved has meant pretty much all music efforts were put on a complete stop. It turned out to be fine since the writing and recording process for fine line really emptied my creative bucket of ideas, leaving me to wait on new things to seep into there either thru osmosis or influence.
Not to say I did absolutely nothing for 3.5 years - in the time since AFLB, I did play around with some music but very casually - stemming out and recording cover versions of Rush's Xanadu, The Tea Party's "The Halcyon Days", Marillion's "Alone Again (in the lap of luxury)", and Genesis' "Man of our Times" were begun and are in stages of completion, along with a list of covers that include songs by Kevin Gilbert, Dream Theater, Peter Gabriel, David Bowie, Max Webster and others - these would both give me some opportunity to stretch out creatively and come up with interesting variations in arrangement/instrumentation, but also spur getting my guitar and keyboard chops back in order, in addition to really picking up my drum chops overall. As I went through the list and started to think about the guitars and keyboards I'd need, the drums I'd like and such - I did a lot of horse trading of equipment and software to get to the state I'm in right now, which is having 95% of what I wanted ready and waiting to be used in the writing/recording process.
While my studio is in a pretty spartan location, it's a very honest representation of how I always felt my projects and bands really were - we were essentially glorified, classically enhanced and intellectualized garage bands playing above our skill sets. This is reflected in where my workspace is located. I'll be doing some stuff to make it more acceptable as a recording space, but the garage is truly where most of what I've ever done has come from, and so this is where we are.
Which now brings me back to the word "Utopia" and its' significance:
- so much of the time between 2002 and 2011 was extremely stressful for myself and my family. In fact, it could be said that it grew increasingly stressful throughout that time with the peak being 2006 thru 2009 (the time of writing and recording "a fine line") - the material written/recorded for AFLB was actually a byproduct of the real life stress, and even though the story was fictional it truly was the container / receptacle for all the personal and professional frustrations and reactions I was experiencing. One reviewer in particular, on hearing the CD, railed against it as a needlessly dark and depressing work - garnering one of the few negative reviews the CD received, but I can understand the reaction against it. While it was my best work to date, it represents a lot of dark times and sadness that people dont necessarily want to immerse themselves into recreationally.
There is so much opportunity to take the word "Utopia" and twist it around to represent the opposite - many would expect that I'd be eager to complete the trilogy by further digging the grave and burying everything in darkness and violence. But I'm very eager to do the opposite and bring it out of the murk - the night is always darkest and coldest just before dawn, and I believe that this is the opportunity to bring sunlight back into the thematic cycle. Thus, after crossing over Donner Pass in the deepest part of winter we get to the warm fertility of the central valley just a few miles downhill - being wise and willing to spend the last of the strength pushing on through rewards those with a warm and willing place to live in. "Utopia" is a good description of where I'm heading to - family life has been very agreeable to me, my professional life is satisfying and rewarding, and things continue to look up with only minor setbacks which dont break positive momentum. Those around us are also experiencing great and happy surprises in their lives, either through new additions to their own families and renewed perspective on the meaning of life, or simply accepting and making the best of what has come their way.
"Utopia" could be the name of the follow up CD (very likely), but it's also the theme for a few side projects including the covers project and also another pet project involving fables, nursery rhymes and children's songs rewritten and put to music. This project actually already had some lyrics roughed in on a Facebook post that were humorous in a twisted and almost macabre fashion which had some participation from the community - it is something I'd like to take further :) I'm also looking to write a full long play instrumental piece that potentially incorporates and wraps up many musical ideas from the three CDs released to date and does stylistic mash ups of the ideas and themes into a pseudo-orchestral thing - this is truly one of the things I would like to do to almost close out my musical efforts before "retirement".
So expect to hear and see more about "Utopia" coming up - I cant promise timeframes or end dates, but I plan to put stuff out there when it's ready so be prepared.
Cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment