Stranger Strange

I was listening to some of the tracks from Albino Elephant the other day and I decided I wasn't at all happy with a couple of aspects of a song called "Stranger Strange". The version I have was recorded live and in a hurry since it was originally a New Years Day present for my friend Courtney. There was a tempo stutter in the beginning which undermined the entire song. Since I had always really liked the potential for the song, and it's a fairly simple number I decided I should take a stab at re-recording it for Albino Elephant.
Monday night after Angela fell asleep on the couch I did a guide drum track in cubase and sped the tempo way up. I dumped the drum track to the 16 track and moved the machine and a microphone into the pink bedroom. I scratched out a rough guitar track and vocal and even experimented with the mandolin some.
It felt nice to be working on something that I was completely in control of. I really like the idea of working on my computer in cubase, but more often then not it's an exercise in complete frustration. I love technology and computer based recording has come a long way and it will only go further, but I need my shit to work. To be working on a song and have my flow come to a screeching halt because my computer takes a dive is heart breaking.
I have ideas on how to improve my set up, but as always they cost money. For now I have decided I'm just going to keep things simple and forget about the world and expectations. I'm happy when I'm recording music. I don't need any one's approval and I don't need to reinvent the wheel. I don't have to be working on an astounding song that would blow up any one's skirt in a night club. I just need to communicate with myself in that way, and for now it's happening in a pink bedroom, in the late evening, with a few instruments and a microphone.

Stranger Strange by S no S

The version above is the first version of this song. I recorded it in the days before New years day 2001. It was essentially a song taking poetic liberty with adventures which I had with my friend Courtney. As I started re-recording I found I didn't really like all the lyrics that much and I started to rewrite them as I went along. Stranger Strange has now become a song about the cross roads. In the coming days I hope to have the new version done enough to post here.

ps. this is my 700th blog post here.