#ep-a-month

marc encabo growing (mar ep 2017) [005/xxx] compiled 03/31/17

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XHIxTa5QI4 Bandcamp: https://marcencabo.bandcamp.com/album/growing

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growing up is finding your inner child again.

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[liner notes]

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i definitely hit a trump-sized wall on this 3rd month, lol. aside from this project, i felt like march was a pretty productive and fruitful month for me, musically, emotionally, physically, spiritually… all that good stuff. creatively, i felt that i was trying way too hard to be artificially artistic and that made for many nights of failed writing and composing sessions and a lack of good sleep (double whammy). this month was definitely a learning moment in how to center yourself as a composer and how important it is to have a grasp of your own abilities and the influences around you in order to find yourself in the creative zone more often than not. i’m sure my musician performer friends know what this is like when we are performing- we kind of have a switch that goes off or a place that we go to in order for us to find ourselves in our best place to express ourselves in the more organic and excellent way possible. that’s the goal anyway haha. it’s also hard to find a reserve of energy for our own music when we are pouring ourselves out into other creative projects as well, and i think that’s a factor that i have to come to terms with and find a way to break through the tough moments of creative drought and produce.

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“growing” is a collection of rough ideas and extremely raw song sketches. i tried way too hard to be artsy with this but decided that this was the most organic way to present this music. i’m slowly getting to know this new guitar that i’ve recently gotten, so a majority of the textures and palettes of these particular tracks are expressed through that instrument. i’ve included a couple of voice memos that i’ve had saved on my phone that i feel like would have never left if i hadn’t forced myself to include them. i feel that they show a different perspective on how i like to sketch out ideas musically. the main tracks themselves might be a little bare but i hope you can enjoy the simplicity and rawness of the tunes. i would have loved to keep them for a little longer and try to paint more with them, but for me the exercise of this ep-a-month project is to have to release these songs into the world when they are calling to be… definitely a lesson in livelihood as well. as always, thank you for listening :)

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[pup]

this was the first track i recorded for this project. i’ve always loved that c6/9 chord shape on guitar and have written a bunch of different grooves based around it. this one was just an improv take that stuck lol. i kind of envisioned a snarky puppy-esque groove and melody on this demo (hence the name haha) when i hit record. this track and “oh susanna” are an exploration for me to get comfortable on this particular instrument and as a guitar player. it’s been an adjustment after being a “bass player” throughout college and being a piano player growing up in church, but i’ve grown to really embrace the intricacies and the roles that come with the instrument.

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[th (diddle 1)]

this voice memo is one from a couple months ago that i caught of gracie playing piano in the living room at the house. i was sitting outside on the porch couch and thought the distant piano was a delicate backdrop to the rush of cars during the early evening.

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[usually]

my go-to loop chords and vibes lol. i’m probably gonna use this track for something else, but i decided to leave it bare for this project. nice and simple.

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[too bright to sleep (diddle 2)]

this voice memo was a tune i was working on late last year for the first EP project that didn’t quite make the cut. i don’t quite remember the direction i wanted the song to go in but i liked the vibe it created especially with the voice memo-y quality on it, lol.

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[oh susanna]

i’ve always wanted to flip this one! this isn’t quite the version that i’ve been trying to arrange for a full group, but i wanted to groove a little bit on the guitar. this is one the folk songs i’ve heard growing up that i’ve always had the melody stuck in my head.

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[oyasumi]

this tune was one that i brought in for a reading session that lawrence put together this month in my bedroom lol. we didn’t get to record this one during the session, but i figured i could record a demo take for this record especially since i wrote this one on the guitar. i originally wrote this particular version of the song in 6/8 but i felt that the stripped down nature of the recordings on this EP didn’t translate into the playing, so i smoothed it out into a more 4/4 groove to feel the time better.

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[desu]