Hi! I hope you like this new feature. This is where I'll keep you posted on how things are going with my writing and recording.
Recently, I've been doing a lot of work on a project called The Best Of Doppelgänger's Greatest Hits Live! The rule behind this project is that each song has to have a title that's been used before in two different songs. So far, I've recorded "Ocean" (Lou Reed, Sebadoh) and written lyrics for "Whatever" (Hüsker Dü, Certain Distant Suns, Rake's Progress, Slugs, Whipped Cream), "Miss You" (Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Pere Ubu), "Disappointed" (Bob Mould, Public Image Ltd.), and "Lullaby" (The Cure, James). I've also done one called "Autumn Leaves," which doesn't strictly apply to this conceit, since there's only been the one jazz standard by that title. However, I figured that it's been recorded 8 gazillion times or so, so it's close enough -- plus, my "Autumn Leaves" turned out too well to abandon simply because it doesn't fit.
On Monday, I wrote "Stupid Girl" (Rolling Stones, Garbage). I tried to record it last night, but I hit it too hard, realizing after a completed first draft that the whole attitude of the recording was too sneery and that the song would benefit from a lighter, more subtle approach. So, hopefully, I'll get to that soon.
Otherwise, I'm just looking forward to taking part in the Edge Festival on Friday.
Well. That's a deep subject. So, anyway, I've been up to much.
First of all, my Edge Festival performance went very well – thanks for asking.
During 1997, I've slowly built up recordings until I finally had enough good ones for a full-length project. That project is called New Bird, because of some of the album titles involved. I mixed it down last week, recording "Make Me A Baby" yet again because of my lack of satisfaction with the 4 previous completed versions. This one, finally, is a keeper.
The other 12 songs on New Bird had gone through a trial mix before, so I knew what I needed to fix up. "Miss You" was just too slow, so I sped it up a whole step. The guitars on "Stupid Girl" were out of proper stereo placement (annoying in a bad way), so I reorganized them. I found the midrange sweep knob on my 4-track's EQ, so I did rather irritating (in a good way?) things with it during "Ocean." And on and on.
For a long time, I had plotted to make the whole album a Doppelgänger project (see 6th August). I accumulated a monstrous list of potential title ideas, which really helped me keep busy. However, as I look back, I see that all the ones from the list that ended up getting used in New Bird were ones that came from the top of my head rather than through the digging I'd done to find pre-cycled titles. Oh, well. My current vision for Doppelgänger is that I will continue to write those songs now and then when I get stuck, eventually recording a big big batch of them at a concert for limited release. The title, of course, will be Doppelgänger Comes Alive At Budokan And Other Delights.
Eventually, I got the bright idea that it might be better to focus on making a really good album than on making everything in it a Doppelgänger. Go figure. Anyway, the result is New Bird, I love it, and I hope everyone else in the world will too.
Oh, and that lyric in "New Song" is "serving in delight," not "serving Indie Lite." Just so ya know.
Merry Christmas!
In recent weeks, much has happened toward getting New Bird fleshed out. And, after receiving some very helpful criticism and doing lots o' thinking, I've come to realize that I need to redo these songs in a better studio facility. And, after a few weeks' worth of searching and visiting around, I've settled on Riding A Raid Studio, run by Mr. Eric Diez. I went over there last night, testing the waters with a version of "Out Of The Picture." I didn't nail the parts, so we'll be starting over from scratch (and this time we'll use a click track, won't we Dolph???). We did achieve a surprisingly good sound with my gear -- even my little "Shack Moog" behaved! So, for the next few weeks, I'll be heading over there periodically to deposit soundage upon Eric's pristine little digital setup. Hopefully, the result will be a Dolph recording that sounds like A REAL ALBUM and serves the songs in the best way possible. Stay tooned!
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