February 1st, 2010
So, the GYZ have been working on a new CD lately—for over a year now, in fact. This will be the next CD in the series after GYZ:DIS. Progress has been steady, though these things always go slower than I want them to. One thing that I constantly harrangue my wife with is the long-standing complaint that I never have enough time and space to work on music—that I can't turn creativity on like a tap, it needs time alone before and after I'm creative so that I feel like I'm not crowded into making compromises. I feel very badly for my poor wife who mostly just absorbs this. She reads my rants: I'm sorry.
And I'm wrong.
What I'm discovering is that left untouched for long enough, the creativity comes bubbling up and spurting as though it were a water geyser. It's gratifying to learn that even now the creative juices can't be held back for long. And so with that in mind, I've been working on this new set of songs.
As it stands, there are five songs I have "finished" and am sure I want on the CD. There are a further three that are good candidates, maybe with more work, or if my ambiguous feelings about them clear up. In any case, it's clear the work is well under way.
I've been trying to bring other people into the GYZ fold to help me along in the process, because the last thing I want to make is another basement tape like I did with GYZ:DIS ... not there was anything actually wrong with DIS, just that I want to be able have a more diverse and dynamic effort. One thing with the last CD was that it did not really show much of a range.
So my cousin Ed did drums on many of the tracks. The guy's a professional percussionist. You can tell by the quality of his work. Then there's a couple of high school friends: Mike, who has so far co-written one song, helped in the arrangement of another, and added a guitar part to a third. I'm hoping his availability improves so that he can continue to add his style of playing. Rob is a songwriter of some note, and he is lending three excellent songs to the project. That alone should improve the project. He has already started some guitar work. Finally, my brother-in-law Rene has been available to do a couple of bass lines, as well as offer some production advice. Rene is a consummate professional, and lends a very high level of professionalism to the project. As is the case with Ed, working with Rene is so much easier and quicker with high quality results. It challenges me to be better, too.
Which leads me to a question about my own singing abilities. Nobody has ever said, "your singing sucks, Porter" and some people have quietly observed that it is "good". So that's something, isn't it? Except nobody has ever said, "wow your singing is great!" and that is definitely a problem for me. If I were just adding a few background parts here and there, and singing the occasional B-Side, I'd be fine. But I question whether or not my voice is good (and versatile) enough to carry a whole CD. I went back and listened to GYZ:DIS in a evaluative mood over my voice. I agree it's good, as in good solid B material, I think. But I wonder if I can step it up a notch for the successor to GYZ:DIS. With the skill and professionalism of the above-mentioned musicians, this has become an area of focus for me.
It's a challenge, but in a good way: Anything I can do to improve myself is a good thing.
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