The Chaos Tree - Is dead, long live Rollasoc.

I was going to delete the original Rollasoc blog and start a new one for the "solo" project, but I didn't want to lose posts, like my musical journey ones, or the fact that four years later, I still haven't released "A Winter's Memory", (even though it is mixed and mastered), nor "Persephone", (though that isn't far from completion). 

But sometimes, you have to keep the embarressing history of a lack of progress.  

So why the delay?

Time and procrastination would be the honest answers. 

Working on two (well three, but one is a secret),  other musical projects, which have been releasing an EP or two each for the last four years, family expansion, (which is pure fun) and a major illness, has slowed me down and possibly a lack of direction. 

Since this is a vanity project for me, not allowing myself to work on it, until I completed tasks for other musical projects meant this set of songs has been a frustrating niggle at the back of my mind for a very long time now.

A couple of years ago, I decided to speed this thing up, it might be nice to collaborate with some people, so I changed the project name to The Chaos Tree, but I never got around to asking anyone, so I'm changing it back to Rollasoc.

 I already have the social media names for Rollasoc and although there is no other bands called The Chaos Tree, someone is using that name on Instagram and Youtube, so it kind of tarnished the name for me.

"A Winter's Memory" had occasionally, been remixed or re-mastered over the last four years.   It is currently sitting there waiting to go.   But I've had in my head an idea for a music video for it, but haven't had time to start it.  So it has been delayed.

I have started designing the characters for it.

So this is the first character, Marnie.

The above will be the cover for the single. 

With The Hair Thieves, we used to use a manniquin as a cover, then moved onto smoke art.

With Sineglider, the covers are now all fractal images.

So going forward, each Rollasoc cover will be computer generated person / scene.

I'm not sure if any others will have animated videos, I hope so.

I'm thinking of releasing A Winter's Tale in September 2020, video or not.   We shall see.

I will try and blog monthly from now on and make some musical progress.

Fawm - Week 4 and Round up

Fawm (http://fawm.org) is an annual event to write an album in a month.  The idea is to write 14 songs in 28 days and release an album.

Week 4's plan was to wrap up the songs I had been working on and not necessarily write any new ones.  I'd always said I would be happy with nine songs.  So in order to not stress too much,

I ended up with ten songs / lyrics at the end of the month.  So I am more than happy.

On the Sunday of week four, I did my last skirmish.  Another title I really wasn't interested in writing lyrics for.

The title was "Because of You".

V1
Many words are spoken in jest
Because of you, I've feelings repressed
Can't state no fact
Without a third world war
Can't critique, just silence
Like I never was born

Chorus
And banging my head
Against the bedroom wall
Feels less painful than
talking to you some more
Because of you, our happiness left
Because of you our lives in a mess

V2
Many a lip bite, blood tastes raw
Because of you, my battles not won
Can't air a grivence
Without a denial of facr
Can't shout, just silence
like I'm caught in a trap.

Chorus
And Banging my head
Against the bedroom wall
Feels less painful than
talking to you some more
Because of you, our happiness left
Because of you our lives in a mess

Bridge
And my conscious is clear
This is not about sides
I'm always wrong and
You're always right
Oblivious to my feelings
Oblivious to my plight
And you won't heed this warning
as I sing this tonight

Bonus bridge.
Obnoxious and rude
Trumps the meek and hallow
A bully's no better than
the sh*t that you prattle
It's not a sign of strength
But a sign of the fear
Pity for you
and the things that you do

Now I like some of the lines, but this is probably not a keeper.  So I didn't bother writing music for it.

However, in week three, we (The Hair Thieves) started writing a new track.    This week, I have put some guitar to it and some lyrics.

The song is called "Love is Overdrive" and it is probably the most pop song we have ever recorded.

The vocals, need a lot of work and the lyrics need tweaking, but it is getting there.  (and nope it don't rhyme).

Been torched by love
Burnt and scarred
Drawn to a flame
My hearts desire
Never learnt
Always back for more

Heart on my sleeve
Love lies scorned
Cos when I fall
I fall so fast
Never learnt
Runing back for more

Love's infectious
Love is overdrive
Love is infectious
Love is over drive

Played the long game
Battles fought
Lost more than won
My soul devoured
Never learnt
Heading back for more

Love's infectious
Love is overdrive
Love is infectious
Love is over drive

Bridge / breakdown

Love's infectious
Love is overdrive
Love is infectious
Love is over drive
Love's infectious
Love is overdrive
Love is infectious
Love is over drive



The final song I worked on, was the one I started in week one.

It has ended up with a working title of "Beside Me".

Rivers of blind emotions
Tearing strips to the core
Lead me down, don't fear the dark might see
wilt and whither, the damage taught.

When all things pass
and dies are cast
Will you still walk beside me
When dreams are sold
and battles fought
Will you still walk beside me

Drown me in dark seductions
Smother me in warmer shores
Lead me down, don't fear that god might find
Things of value are seldom bought.

When all things pass
and dies are cast
Will you still walk beside me
When dreams are sold
and battles fought
Will you still walk beside me

I think it needs another verse and bridge to be written.  A better chorus (musically sped up) .  The vocals are terrible on this.  It was essentially a couple of takes and I haven't worked out the melody totally yet, (nor practiced it).  So it is all over the place. 

As someone else pointed out, the rhyming scheme for this is across verses, so the line ones rhyme etc and the rhymes are not within the verse.

Like most things done in great haste, I can't remember if this is intentional or not.  (it probably isn't).

But it is a promising start.



Finally, if you have been following this blog, you may recall, that I wrote a one minute instrumental for an Exquisite Corpse challenge.

Since the month is over, I will present the demo of it here.   I'm still waiting for the final piece to go live.  I will blog that when it turns up.




So that is it for Fawm 2015.  Ten songs in varying states of completion.

I might post a blog next week, with all eight demos that have music. 

I have really enjoyed this month.  It has been very productive.  I can see me  finishing up the three Sineglider tunes.  Both the Hair Thieves songs and probably two of the others for my solo project, (unless E wants them as Hair Thieves songs).

I am looking forward to Fawm in 2016.  I am going to go for the 14 songs.  You heard it here first!

Fawm - Week 3 Summary

Fawm (http://fawm.org) is an annual event to write an album in a month.  The idea is to write 14 songs in 28 days and release an album.

Musically a mixed bag this week.

I decided I didn't want to put any effort into writing music for Sunday's skirmish, entitled "I found my happy place".  

I decided I would try and finish the song I started in week one.  The one in 5/4 time.  So I have spent some time re-working it, so now the verse music is the chorus and the chorus the verse.

As a demo I am happy with it.  I just need to write some lyrics for it.  I tried yesterday, but my muse wasn't having none of it.

During the week, I met up with Ian, the other half of The Hair Thieves.  He had started working on a synthy instrumental for Ep7.  Even though we already have a instrumental for the EP.

I had a listen.  There was a part of it, which was screaming out CHORUS to me.  So we re-arranged and recorded a few bits, until we had a proper song structure.

I have worked out a vocal melody.  Added some guitars since.  I just need to write some lyrics. Again, I tried yesterday, but my muse wasn't having none of it.

I have however started a new Sineglider instrumental.  Called Onionhead.



It still needs a bit of work, possibly a lead guitar, more synths, in the intro / breakdown.

But I'm quite pleased with it so far.  A bit more upbeat than my normal songs.   Plus I got to use the new bass guitar I bought during the week.

So current state of play.
6 songs Demo'd
1 set of lyrics I probably won't use.
2 songs with music needing some lyrics.
1 week to go, until FAWM finishes.

There is a skirmish, I believe tonight.  So I will have a go at that.

At the start of the month, I was never really planning to have fourteen songs at the end of it.  I believed I would get at least six and really would be happy if I could get nine songs done.

So with a week to go, I am very close to achieving that.

Then I can concentrate back on which of these new songs will make it on the solo album and crack on and get the first single out sometime before the summer.

I want to get the album released before March 2016.  So much more work to be done (as well as Hair Thieves EP7 / EP8 to complete and a Sineglider EP in 2015).

I'm excited.

Fawm - Week 2 Summary. (and a bit of week 3)

Fawm (http://fawm.org) is an annual event to write an album in a month.  The idea is to write 14 songs in 28 days and release an album.

Mixed week this week.  I was happy to have done three songs in the first week (after only managing six during Fawm 2014).

So week 2 should have started with an instrumental on Sunday morning as part of an exquisite corpse game (each participant writes a one minute tune.  The first person writes there and sends the last 10 seconds to the next person, who carries on the tune. etc.  When the last person finishes, it is all stitched back together into one long song).

However, the person in the list before me, didn't manage to do theres.


So on sunday, I finished the demo for "A Winter's Memory".



Starting to really like this.  There is more guitar parts recorded than ended up here. I will re-work this after February.


On the sunday there was another skirmish.  This time the title was "The Devil's Highway".

So I wrote a quick song about my love affair with the M6 motorway.  So glad I don't have to drive down that each day (like I did for 5 years).


Originally, I wasn't going to put this to music, buy some people on the forum said they wanted to hear it.  So here it is.  The demo was made using EZKeys to come up with something really quick.

I'm quite happy with how it turned out.  Not sure if I will re-record this for use later.  Maybe it will be a b-side or bonus track.

During the rest of the week, I struggled with starting a song from the drums upwards.  Spent far too many hours trying to import some .rex files into Cubase.  Cubase seems intent on importing files that are in 5/4 or 7/4 in 4/4 time, regardless as to what the song's time signature is.

After several nights of trying, I gave up and went back to using Ezdrummer.  

On Friday, I was told to start the Exquisite corpse song.  So in three hours, I wrote a one minute instrumental called "Lorana".   I have sent the last ten seconds off to a chap called Tim in Australia to carry it on.

Obviously, I can't yet spoil it for everyone, by posting the song.  I will post the song once the Exquisite corpse is finished.
So Saturday I was home alone.  I re-recorded the devil's highway vocals, since the original second verse didn't work for the melody I wrote for verse one.  Added the music to the bridge (which I thinks needs an instrumental adding before the final chorus.

I then had a go at the failed song.  So far I have some chorus music in 5/4 time, with a guitar riff.  I then proceeded to write a verse chord progression in 4/4 time, that seems far too happy.

So this needs re-working further and lyrics writing.

So the scores at the end of the week are five songs demoed.   One song on the go.


So this is the start of week 3,  I wrote some cliched lyrics for a skirmish entitled "I found my happy place".

Really insistant that I won't write music for this and will use the rest of the time to finish the other song in progress.

"I found my happy place".

In a world of fears and regrets
Wars and famine
Children distressed
All of the illness
and all the duress
I've found my happy place

In a world where we ain't equal
race and creed
hatred begats evil
All of the pain
And all of the suffering
I've found my happy place

Because
In you, I see a shining sun
In you, I see love for everyone
In you I see hope and a reason to be
In you I see courage and the will to be free

I've found my happy place

In a world of rich verses poor
Terror, disorder
Banks rotton core
In all of the sadness
And all this disease
I've found my happy place.

Because
In you, I see a shining sun
In you, I see love for everyone
In you I see hope and a reason to be
In you I see courage and the will to be free

I've found my happy place


So at the end of Sunday at the start of the third week.  I have five songs, one set of lyrics (not) needing music and a partial song musically.

So with two weeks left, I think I will improve on last years total of six songs written.  

So happy with how February is progressing so far.

Fawm - Day 1

Fawm (http://fawm.org) is an annual.  Write an album in a month.  The idea is to write 14 songs in 28 days and release an album.

It is a great way of kick starting a project, collaborating with people and generally being challanged to come up with songs under tight deadlines.

Now given, my primary concern is writing for The Hair Thieves, then for my solo "Rollasoc" album as well as my instrumental persona "Sineglider".  I'd be happy for one or two songs for each of my musical personalities.

I attempted this in 2013 and managed three parts of songs. I have just listened to two of the songs and think they might need resurecting, since I really like them.  (One will be a Sineglider tune in retrospect)

In 2014, I attempted it again.  This time I managed six songs. A few of which have been released into the world.




One made it on to the last Hair Thieves EP.

Original Demo
The final released version.



The others are in various states of completion / abandonment.

So I thought I would attempt Fawm again in 2015.  The aim this year, is for possibly nine new songs at the end of February.  One every three days.

So at the end of day.   How am I getting on.


Well,I started the day at 9am.  With everyone else in my house asleep, I felt it best to put the headphones on and write an instrumental.   This will be a Sineglider tune.   I wanted to use my Alchemy synth, since the company has recently stopped trading.  So it is synthy.  It started as an ambient tune, but got a bit noisy towards the end.

I'd arranged to meet with E from the Hair Thieves in the afternoon, with the intention of thrashing out an entire song.   We pretty much managed to write a song in four hours.  It will need a little work to finish the demo, later in the week.

Finally, I did the first skirmish tonight.  A Fawm skirmish, is,  given a topic, write and record a song in an hour.  The pigs (demo) above was from a Fawm skirmish.

Tonight's topic was "A winter's memory".  Which is a title I liked.   I managed to write two verses and a chorus in 31 minutes.  Which is pretty fast for me.   But I failed to finish the demo in time to post it at the end of the hour.

So at the end of day one.  I have three songs on the go.    So I need to get them demoed by Friday, if I am going for 14 songs this month, or just over a week, if I'm not.

So expect some demo links over the coming week.

End of Year Round Up.

Well, the good news is, I thought I started this blog in January 2014, so my lack of progress, was really a wasted year and quite depressing.   Then looking at the blog, I see I started it in June.   So that made me feel better.

I started with great intentions and dreams and got sidetracked by the day job, The Hair Thieves EP6 and EP7, the world cup, the Xbox and me temporarily killing my music PC whilst trying to upgrade it.

I'm glad to report the PC is now fine and back up and running, so no excuses for 2015.


I have been through some of my backlog of abandoned and rejected tunes and done rough mixes of everything so far.  I think I probably have ten songs (in various states of completion) I could work on, with about 25 minutes of music so far (the shortest idea is about a minute. The longest about 5.  Only one has complete music and lyrics).

So I am going to set some targets with dates. as per week one of the Ariel Hyatt book that is now somewhere on my Kindle at about page 8.  I haven't given this any thought, I'm just going to type five things and see how it goes, whilst trying to make them achievable.

So the immediate plan.
1) Finish and preview new song March 2015.  (This will probably be called Persephone).
2) Do Fawm 2015
I did Fawm 2014 and managed five new songs.

Fawm is an annual attempt to write 14 songs in 28 days.

Of the five songs I wrote in 2014, one made it onto the Hair Thieves EP6.  Another of which is about Bacon.  Another of which I stole for an instrumental project. Least said about that last two the better

Oh go on then.  Here is a song about bacon!



And here is the instrumental.



So we shall see what next February brings to the mix.

3) Launch website March 2015.
4) Start practicing guitar / singing with aim to start playing open mics in Spring 2015.
5) Release EP (or possibly album) September 2015.   (ideally an album. Must be finished by 6th March 2016....)

bonus task
6) Finish '80s musical journey blogpost Jan 2015
7) Finish '90s musical journey blogpost Feb 2015
8) Finish '00s musical journey blogpost March 2015
9) Finish this decades musical journey April 2015.


So that is a rough plan, that I now need to stick to!  (I will finish this and update my task management system appropriately)

At the top of the page is a video of me messing about with a synth.  It is by no way an indication of where I am going with this project.  I just stumbled across it on my phone today and have no recollection of actually recording it.

Hope you all had a wonderful 2014 and hope you get a better 2015.   I'm off to practice my guitar....  

Month One report.

One month into the solo album and things haven't gone totally to plan.

I'm blaming this on the World Cup, (which I didn't take into account for) and also me complicating the Hair Thieves latest release by adding another song and signing us up to record a cover song for a Mansun tribute album.

However, as I stated in the intial post, I have done some planning based on on Music Success In Nine Weeks by Ariel Hyatt.

I failed to do the 5 victories thing each day.  Mostly because I have a pretty good task system, so I can see the progress of things ticked off, each day!


So I have set myself a end target to release the album in March 2015, which will coincide with my birthday.

Before then, I need to set up a website (which won't be needed until I have something for people to listen to).  set up distribution, social media and start playing local open mic nights and find some support slots.  So much to think about, plan and do.

I have started work on the first song, however.  So far I have some music and some lyrics.  It has the working title of Persephone.   I rejected it from being a Hair Thieves tune on the basis that it is in DADGBD tuning.    So I will see what I can do with it in the next week or so.

I have also dragged out my old amp.  I bought this amp in 1990 (around the time I bought the B.C. Rich Warlock).  I used it to gig throughout the 1990's.   Eventually selling it, before buying it back again since I missed it.

I am contemplating recording some of the material with it, given in the past, I have used V-amps. PODs and Amplitude plugin for guitar sounds, so it might be nice to record a proper amp for once.

This does, obviously, subconciously assume that this is no longer the planned acoustic album I envisaged.  Plus with different tunings, this might make playing the songs live acoustically tricky.

So to Ariels, week two tasks (or months task in my case).   Branding.   I will write a separate blog entry on this and my problems with it.  And try and do part one of my '80s musical heritage!

Later

Rollasoc

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog.

For those that don't know me, I am a hobbyist musician, a photographer, a writer and a software engineer.

I am in a band called The Hair Thieves, who record an eclectic mix of EPs. This is mostly indie pop rock songs with a smattering of ambient soundtracks, rock, punk and jazz twinges.

Within this blog I aim to document the writing, recording and marketing of my first solo CD.

As of today.  May 17th 2014,  this exists only as a series of song parts, nothing has been finalised, I have no list of tunes nor completed lyrics to work on.

All I have is some ideas, that are either in weird tunings, weird timings (or both) or have been rejected as songs for The Hair Thieves.

So this might end up a album, or an EP or an EP and an album.   I don't know yet.

The Hair Thieves is still my primary focus, so working on the new EPs for that will take precedence over any solo material I write, so I am envisaging that a solo album may take a year or two to complete.

 So this blog aims to be informative on

• My writing progress
• Tools I use to write music
• The progress of demos
• The recording process
• Tools I use to record.
• Occasional dodgy cover versions
• How to market a band.  Starting from scratch.
• Online courses I have partaken in.
• Reviews of useful blogs for musicians.
• My take on posts from other musicians.

From the marketing point of view, I aim to base the steps on Music Success In Nine Weeks by Ariel Hyatt.

Obviously, since I am starting from scratch and have other priorities,  I aim to do this in nine months not nine weeks.

This will be supplemented by various books from Bob Baker like, Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook (in which my name is mentioned!) as well as other blogs and books.




So there it is a start, or at least a line in the sand.  To be honest it is a little bit scary!

I am to blog every couple of weeks.    Starting the week June 1st.   Wish me luck!