Part IX: Windows To The Soul
Chapter Fifty-Nine
During the time the band was floundering, I had begun working on some songs on my own. I was going to record them whether anyone else liked them or not. One piece of equipment I had at my disposal that I hadn’t had before was my Grandfather’s keyboard. Kelly and I were living with my grandparents while waiting for our house to be built. Granddaddy had a Casio keyboard with drums on it, which I used on every song during that period. They weren’t the best, but at least I could almost completely control everything about the song. The first two songs I used the keyed drums on were “Skinny Machine” and “Faded.” I then made a recording of “Windows To The Soul.”
In May of 2002, Spider-Man made a welcome return to my life after a nearly twenty year absence. Inspired by the theme music from the original cartoon, I set out to pay homage to my favorite superhero by recording a modern, funky sounding rendition of that song with heavy harmonizing guitars, which I simply called “Spider-Man 2002.”
Another interesting song was one I eventually called “Over And Over,” because it just goes on and on. It’s an instrumental with an elevator jazz kind of feel. I wrote it back in 1995 and had never done anything with it. It serves as more of an interlude than anything. The other cool thing about this song is that it was the first song I had ever put piano on. I had fooled around with keyboard ‘strings’ in the past, but never piano. “Out,” which was the song I wrote before we left Charlottesville got the same treatment. I’m especially proud of these two songs because I am not a pianist. I’m a plunker when it comes to keys, but I pulled it off okay.
There was also “1996,” which is about marrying my wife and losing my mother, events which both happened that year.
Chapter Sixty
One of the by-products of my friendship with Brian was becoming a fan of the band Disturbed. They were the coolest thing I had heard in awhile at that point. They were the inspiration for a new song I wrote, which I had initially titled “Swallow.” I eventually found some lyrics I had written the previous year about a scenario where the earth stops turning. All the living things on one side burn up from the heat, while the opposite happens on the other side, and everyone must adapt to the new environment. It’s called “Last Revolution (Forced Evolution).”
I also undertook a project I had been wanting to do for years: To complete a song called “You Choose Alone,” that Robert and I had started writing after M.O.E. split up. It was a daunting task simply because of the complexity of the song. Musically, it was finished. It just needed drums. After working on a drum track for about a week, I finally found something I was happy with and put it down on tape.
Chapter Sixty-One
In December of 2002, Kelly and I finally moved into our new house. I wanted a basement so I’d have a place for a studio. After we got settled in, I set out to finish this group of songs, which I had decided by then would be an album titled “Windows To The Soul.” I spent a few days adding vocals to all of the songs. I ended up re-recording the music for “Faded” and “Skinny Machine” as well. While Thinskull was just starting, Robert had bought a Zoom guitar effects pedal. I decided to buy one exactly like it so we could match sounds. It was the first new piece of effects equipment I had bought in over ten years. I had recorded these two songs before I got the pedal, and they sounded shitty compared to the ones I did afterward, which is the reason I redid them.
One last touch to the album was to re-record the vocals on “Slow.” Brian’s original vocals were a little off-key and my harmony vocals didn’t work because of that. Once I finished that, I set about the task of mixing the album. I really should call it a demo, because that’s basically what it is, but who cares, right? It’s an album to me anyway. After the mixing was done, I burned my very first CD. “Windows To The Soul” was complete.
Epilogue
Over the last fourteen years, I have written or co-written at least a hundred songs or so, some better than others and some which I have completely forgotten due to a variant of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder caused by realizing what I was writing sucked. I like to think I’m over that now. When I started playing, everything I wrote became a song. Now, I’m a little more conscious of whether the riff is good enough or not to be given song designation. That’s the main reason I don’t turn ‘em out like I used to. One thing is for sure, I’m never going to stop. I’ve made only two lifelong commitments ever, one being my wife and the other being music, and as they say in all wedding vows, “’Til death do us part.”
To be continued…
