the ping pong effect

“God Only Knows” is my favorite Beach Boys song. It’s one of my favorite songs ever. “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” would probably be number two on my list of favorite Beach Boys songs. And “4th of July” would be number three.

You’ve probably never heard this song. It’s not currently on Spotify or any of the other streaming sites. It’s only been released on a box set that is no longer in print (although it is getting re-released on the new Feel Flows box set next month). It was written by Dennis Wilson, and recorded during the sessions for Surf’s Up, but obviously it didn’t make the cut. It should have. It’s amazing.

I started recording this last year, in the middle of the Presidential election, and it seemed somehow appropriate for the times. I wasn’t happy with the mix though, and I ran out of time to get it finished before the holiday. This year I went back to it, added one guitar track, and Voila! I’m no Carl Wilson, but it was fun to record this.

On New Years Day, as we were enjoying the southern traditions of black eyed peas, greens, and cornbread, my wife asked me what my resolutions for 2021 were. My response was to read more, and to get more recording done. That week I saw two things online that encouraged me to further define that goal, and to make it public.

The first was a video by Bill Vencil of Chords of Orion. His post was actually about setting goals for yourself, and making them public to hold yourself accountable. I liked that idea. I tend to work best under a deadline. By making a public commitment, I’ve got a defined goal to push toward. 

The second was an initiative by Emma Swift (who released one of my favorite albums of 2020). Through her patreon page, she has started a project she’s titled “52 Songs: An Adventure Into the Unknown.” The idea being that she is writing, recording and releasing one new song each week in 2021.She said that as someone who tends to work slowly and deliberately, creating at this pace is terrifying, but also exciting. I can definitely identify with that.

So what are my goals for 2021? I’d love to say something fantastic and grand, like my friend Carl who released 7 full length albums (and four EPs) last year. But I’m also a realist. I’m a husband and dad who works full time. But I also want it to be ambitious enough to keep my creative momentum going.

So here it is. I’m committing to recording and releasing at least one song each month this year.

I’ve always been someone who is better at writing songs than recording them. Last year I put new music into the world for the first time in over a decade. But as much writing and recording as I did, I only released five songs. This year I want to up the pace. By committing to at least a song a month, I can keep that momentum going. Some months it will be a one off song. Some months might see a whole EP. Some months might be a collaboration with a friend. Coming up with material wont be a problem. I’ve got a backlog of songs dating back to the late 90s that have never been recorded, and I’m still writing new stuff. I’ve got two or three projects in various stages of completion. I just need the motivation to complete them. And by planting my flag in the ground for all to see, I’m going to accomplish this.

Boots / Mountain is out today on Bandcamp. Listen to it here.

For Christmas 2018, my wife was on a mission. She wanted to get me a new instrument, but at the time a new guitar was out of our price range. So after a bunch of research, she ended up deciding on a Seagull M4/Merlin. It’s basically a dulcimer/guitar hybrid. To say it was a hit as a gift was an understatement.

At the time, I was in a bit of a creative rut. I hadn’t written a complete song in seven years. I’d started a few here and there, but I’d usually jot down a couple of lines and they’d never go anywhere. I hadn’t played in a band in almost four years. I’d finally bought a 12 string electric the year before (a lifelong wish list item), but even that didn’t shake me out of my artistic doldrums. It kinda seemed like the well had run dry.

And then came this sweet block of Canadian mahogany. I literally couldn’t put it down. I played it near constantly. I took it on vacation. It was simply so much fun. But more than that, it completely sparked my creativity. I wrote a new song on it almost immediately. Then another one. That got me playing guitar again. The words started flowing. I hadn’t been this creative since my mid-twenties. If felt great.

I threatened to write an entire album of Appalachian folk songs. I didn’t though. I wrote two before I started branching out to my more typical fare. But I finally got around to recording those two songs, and here they are. They are performed almost entirely on acoustic instruments (Covid-19 related quarantine protocols prevented me from recording grand piano on “Boots” as planned). I even got to break out my grandfather’s old accordion. Anyway, it seems appropriate that these two should be the first official PPE release, as this is where this new journey started.

“Boots” was inspired by my step-grandfather’s passing. It was a bit of a journey for him, and the lyrics were inspired by the “status” emails my step-mom would send out on how he was doing. He played guitar and banjo back in the day, so writing this song on dulcimer seemed appropriate.

“Mountain” is also informed by the shadow of death (geez, what a chipper single this turned out to be). It’s about people who insist on making a journey that there is a high likelihood that they wont ever return from.

April was my wife and my ten year anniversary. She decided that an awesome event deserved an awesome gift. So she bought me this guitar, and Takamine GN30CE. It’s very nice. In the background, you can also see my birthday present from January, a Squier Classic Vibe Bass VI. My wife is pretty damn cool.

Also in the background is newest synth, a Roland JX-8P. Last year I mentioned to a friend of mine who is a big synthesizer guy that I was wanting to get an analog synth. He told me he had one collecting dust in his gear closet that I could have. So back in December we met up for lunch while I was passing through Knoxville and he hooked me up with that sweet beast, along with a few microphones he was no longer using.

My friends are pretty damn cool too.

These new toys have been getting a lot of use lately. The strange times we are living in have inspired an incredible burst of creativity. I’ve written eight(ish) new songs in the past three months that are all somehow related to current events. At first I thought I was gonna release a four song “quarantunes” EP. It’s kinda turned into more of an album. Anyway, these songs should be seeing the light of day soon. I’m trying to get them finished before my furlough ends and I go back to work in mid-June. I’m also trying to finish my Masters in the same time period, so I’m a busy boy.

2020. What a strange time to be alive.

So while we are all social distancing to try to avoid catching the new plague, like many others I am working from home. At my wife’s suggestion, I’ve set up camp in my studio, because it’s the most isolated room in the house. It’s been OK so far. It’s fairly quiet, and she and our son have done a good job at leaving me alone during the day so I’m able to work. The issue is I’m surrounded by my gear. Guitars and drums and keyboards oh my! Being stuck in a room with all these fabulous toys for 8 hours a day and not getting to play with them is such a tease.

This was half of my very first recording set up. A Realistic 32-1200B Stereo Mixing Console. The other half was a long since discarded double cassette boom box. Back before I could afford my first 4-track cassette recorder (a Tascam Portastudio 424), this was how I recorded my songs.

I discovered (quite by accident) that if you left a microphone plugged in while you were dubbing a cassette, it would record both the source cassette and whatever the microphone was picking up. So I would use the mixer to set the input level to the line in on the boom box (generally it had to be quite low to mix with the source cassette), and by recording from cassette to cassette, I was able to overdub. I’d generally start by recording a drum track, with mics on the bass, snare, and an overhead. I’d then overdub the other instruments in reverse order of how I wanted the quality of the track to be, since with each overdub the original track would end up being another generation back. Most of the time I’d do four overdubs; bass, rhythm guitar, lead guitar and vocals. If I wanted to do a background vocal, I’d try to record it at the same time I did the rhythm guitar, since it saved me a generation of dubbing. It took a lot of trial and error to get the mix right, and the end result was noisy as hell, but it worked. For a kid who was dying to record, but didn’t have the money for a proper 4-track, it was a godsend.

I still have this mixer, in the original box to boot.