Image: Some words that might show up on the "Ballad of the Dead Rabbit" and an image i have in my head.
Good morning.. it’s 2:00am and I’m sitting by a fire by Petchzkin lake just outside remrod.
It’s quiet and the sun is just lighting the horizon.. just some lake noise you might expect. Bokonian loons, lake whizzers and such. Ezra is out wandering. I have a moment to talk:
Music Update: the finale… the rabbit is rather grand in its early strokes. This is fun. Building the totem of music that is "the ballad of the dead rabbit" once and for all.
I might have mentioned this before but A wonderful flood of new ideas, both in the form of words and music, have found their way to me as fuel for this rather epic tale about true life and death. Life and death of spirit of course. Oh it all burns in the end… but that doesn’t mean it’s gone for now. It’s just a fire.. and what lies underneath is what’s most important. I’ve had several fires that have swept past me.. literally and figuratively speaking. My task this month is to sum it all up into this track. I’ve let go of any notions of order or rules for structure and will allow this track to breath and be free as an end.. to explore some of my operatic roots and my love for the sounds of the symphony. It truly is a song for a tolling bell, if there ever was one. Considering I’m scoring and writing and tracking everything, my time gets divided into creative tracking sessions and then producer like sessions where I’m literally just going through raw tracks and sculpting the song as a whole. It’s a tricky balancing act. Each has their own disciplines and both are needed to complete something like this. I find that time between the two duties is needed to separate myself from the respective roles. Because of this, tracks take time.. they need it.. I suppose some artists work one way and some another. This process seems to work for me. It was a big vocal week for the rabbit track, lots of tracking and free-styling.. i think I found the chorus trick, rather magically and by accident, I was also able to link the new front of the song to the later chorusus. For most people, they could care less of such things, ha.... but for me, a musical puzzle nerd.. it’s one of the most important things of a track. That little thin line that runs through it all.. the art of not breaking it.. and the quality of that chorus, that moment, when the most important words of the art are magnified but still connected… does it fit… each time it comes back. Syllables, words, patterns, feelings… music in all forms is a pretty powerful brush to wield. I’m wielding a fateful brush these weeks before the snow falls again on my little cabin in the blue wood.
Other things: Although it’s very hot in BOK, I smell autumn. I don’t try to rush things, but I am on a little clock with the final track as my yearly pilgrimages approach. I’ve already begun packing small things and preparing for my travels. It sure would be nice to have this record wrapped up and with me along the way.
Artwork News: I’m still commissioning pieces of artwork for hadder, there are several that I haven’t shared yet as I plan on using them for merch along the way. There are a lot of gears turning behind the scenes, you have no idea. Perhaps a few surprises as well. I’m especially happy with the latest “lord Jules” rendition of john hadder on his hill watching the fires consume the hillside he once called home. It’s an amazing piece of art imitating life. Something that wasn’t and then suddenly was because I just willed it to be. Currently Master of Illusion is being crafted. I’ve always imagined that cold table and that room that poor Jonathan was in, under that spell. Perhaps we will get to see a little image of that moment soon. Hmmmmm
Off topic: There’s a lesson in all that.. one for the ages.. so many things are but a wish and work away from become a true reality. Lord time certainly stands in the way of us.. it wields it’s own weapons against us.. it has many allies.. and many a tool to disrupt the vibration of honest creation. Why, I don’t know. I face many of his tricks.. and you must too. It’s not easy.. not for me and it won’t be for you I’m guessing. Just imagine.... take a break... and then imagine more. Soon, as I’ve noticed, a picture takes shape in between the struggles of it all. Outside of that unnerving silence and dark. Just after hopelessness, the sun shines again. Depression is a heavy cloud that passes… When I think back to the days in my studio on that hill.. I hardly recognize that man in his tall mirror.. huddled from the winds outside… starting from day one… my vocal patterns along the pacific each morning.. the evermore dream.. the master of illusion day… the season of tor.. and that first time I cut the shape of that first diamond at 200 north. It's amazing I’ve made it this far. I could certainly bow out now and smile at what’s been imagined and created so far. No, I don’t fully understand the why. However, my curse is a lifelong curse, and I’ve yet to write the full novel or travel the world as I’ve seen it in my dreams, many a time. So I listen tentatively.. Imagine. Break. Imagine. It’s not really magic, it just seems like it. I’m not the most power lad, but I am a scrapper who refuses to quit.. and that can be a problem for even the strongest of adversaries.
Rehearsals: A daily thought now, imagining the new “old” tower. Soon. Lord Etch, Kritz, the mystery man and? My old friend? Who? Imagine. Break. Imagine. Scattered puzzle pieces for now.
It should be a fun winter. Shouldn’t it? Yes is the answer.
Imagine. Break. Imagine.
Be well my friends… don’t expect a cloudless world and you’ll be fine when the sun does shine. I promise. It gets hot out there so bring some water and a pen for quietly drafting the world of “your” dreams.
Ps Use bigger paper, just saying.
-j
Video Info: Some music from Ballad of the Dead Rabbit played along to some actual footage of the fire that swept over the den.