Image: Some artwork in consideration for the "City of Fire" album track cover on the Diamonds Hadder "Beyond the Breakers" record.
Good morning, Friday sure does come quick. I can’t believe it’s march. Here in BOK the winter is not leaving without a fight. A little update on things.
Music: Let me start here as I’m in the final throws and fixes of my last track for the record. 3 vocal sessions this week have left me with some mixes for the road. I like this phase of recording. When I’m tracking, I generally do alternate variations of vocal melodies. Hardly do I ever just sing something and get it right the first time. That can happen, but usually there’s a lot of work that goes into the vocal melodies inside of a song. In the end I generally have lots of mixes of each track with completely different ideas that no one ever hears. These mixes live with me while I travel and in time I make decisions on which direction I want the track to take, based on a lot of things. When you get close to the end of a song, it’s nice. The mix and vocal patterns start to sound like one single thread conveying a message. It’s a bit messy at times and not always a nice process, especially on the days you spend hours tracking and really get nothing concrete. But, sure as the tides rise and fall, there are those other days when you almost want to cry because you tapped into something. The source I suppose you can call it… when your honesty and hard work just finally give you a little something special in a connected way to the music. I wish it was easy, but it’s not. My rabbit rack is moving along nicely, and I have a few mixes I’m listening to. It’s been nice to have some laser focus on it now that other hadder tasks are behind me. I know this track has been lingering a while, you really have no idea. The depth of it goes far beyond what you think. It’s a track that is quite personal and I’m hoping it comes with some closure for me. It marks a very dark tree ring of time, so to say, in my own heart and soul. In a world of very small victories, finishing this last track will be a very good day for me. I have no concern about the time it takes to create, sometimes it’s a week for a song and sometimes it’s years. Anyway, enough about that. I’m listening to mixes and any day now, the record will get capped and closed out here in 23. Last push.
Art: My good friend lord Jules has completed the 2nd piece of artwork for the field note narration called “The Child”. I’m very excited about that. That’s 2 completed and 14 to go. It’s going to be pretty cool to see all 16 in a row when they are all completed. I’ll share “The Child” new artwork later in the month. I also did a few more covers for the record this week. “City of Fire” and rivers end are in the works. I’ve always envisioned the “Rivers End” track as a foggy stream winding into a waterfall. There’s a tree on the riverbank and of course “the Witch, on the only mountain, rising up from it all”. I believe I have the cover for that now, I’ll post soon. That witch is pretty cool looking. “City of Fire” artwork has been a little difficult. I’ve done a few to date. I keep gravitating to this art I did that looks like some old record you would find in an old record store as you flip though then “Miscellaneous D” section of LP’s. We’ll see what pans out in the end. On the narrations front, now that the audio is completed, I’m looking for a video animator to bring the narrations to life. This is a tall task and I’m guess it will just be a running theme in the background of the record. Had a few inquiries about it, but nothing solid yet. It could take a while as the video animation process can be a bit costly and time consuming. Fun background stuff.
Finally: I was hoping spring would be here already, but instead I’m trapped in a 10 year blizzard. I did try to find a road out of town for the snow but everything was washed out and so I cuddled with my little rabbit track instead. Probably best. I was thinking about the trials and tribulations of life this week while the rains fell hard. Reflecting on the highs and the lows of my own life and my own ability to rise from the dead. I didn’t find any magic answers, but one thing is perfectly clear… you just stay the course. Thick or thin, balls to bones. Everything else washes out in the end. Good luck.
-j
Video: I've always been a strange collector of things. Video things seem to come in handy for telling stories. Human stories. I feel I've only just begun this Hadder tale and I'm glad I have most of the journey documented along the way so far. To me, hadder is a lot more than just a band in LA. It's therapy for a troubling time of my life. I hope to use a lot of the footage I've gathered over the years for a video or two... for now, here is a little montage of some video during the making of Diamonds Hadder. This main vocal is taken from a recent mix of "The ballad of the Dead Rabbit", which may or may not make it to the final release. My drug of choice this week. "Stay the course Mr Hadder, stay the course."
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