Bob Jr: News

We have not gone too far away. Check back within the next few weeks as the site gets updated and overhauled a bit. Currently Bob and Christy are heading out as an Acoustic Duo. Dates and information will be posted soon. We look forward to seeing you at a show soon.

...... we rest.

So, congratulations to fellow RPMers who completed the task . This is day 29 and now we can rest. We managed to deliver our CD in person at the wire without much issue. Although, it did begin to snow. The good news about the pending snow storm is it will allow March 2 to be called "the day we get back to life"

I still feel February was lost, but on the other side of it we have 9 new songs and a demo CD that's not too bad. If the snow day happens we may even get the songs uploaded to the web tomorrow.

So here we are on day 27 (almost 28). Things are put together and mixed. Even have files transferred and giving a last listen in the morning. There's always some caution to be taken when having the help from the captain while doing mix down.

All in all we're in good shape. Even the cover art is just about complete so Christy won't have to draw it while the cd is burning. Now we just need to get some cds and we'll be all set to burn and print tomorrow and of course deliver to the wire on Sunday. There's something very satisfying about handing it in personally rather than mailing it.

It is pretty interesting that we're actually at a comfortable spot to complete this thing this year. Especially when a few weeks ago it was going to be a thrown challenge. So here's to the last 25 hours of February, enjoy and good luck. We'll see everyone at the finish.

Vocal tracks are done. (unless we decide to change some things during mix down) This afternoon lead tracks will be done and the mix down process commences. I hate to say this, but we're actually ahead of where we were last year and I have no idea how it happened as it was a slow start and life is still getting in the way.

Anyway, I figured I'd post the lyrics to one of the tunes because it sums up the whole project:

Heavenly Hell by Bob Walker, Jr

To wallow in the madness
An empty mind and a deadline
It’s the destiny for me
So all of the world can hear

I shut off all of my senses
To connect with my true sight
Try to listen to the silence
So the music will come to life

Welcome to my heavenly hell
I’m really tired but I’m doing well
I’m really not crazy, It’s a challenge to me
Now I’m burnin’ in my heavenly hell

Only twenty-eight days
And it comes to an end
I’ll drown in this manmade ocean
I’m way over my head

I’ll probably die penniless
But I’m doing the right thing
What’s bad for my body
Is good for my head

So, I'll start by mentioning some of the cool aspects of this challenge. As I was getting some equipment together the other night I ran into a fellow musician. We chatted a bit about music, he showed me his studio, asked what we were up to and how we were going about it all. It's interesting how different musicians are all approaching what, how and why they are doing this challenge in order to get to the end result. It also blows my mind sometimes knowing that there are musicians all around at this moment working on what is ultimately the same project.

Anyway, our project is holding steady so far. Christy came through with a song on the 23rd (nothing like the last possible moment) which was also our last chance to get drum and bass tracks down. We are now at 9 songs and will make the challenge provided we stay on schedule. Last night rhythm overdubs and my vocals were recorded. Things went well, just a few fixes need to be made then onto Christy's vocals. We're hoping to mix down tomorrow into Friday as the whole life schedule will throw things into a tizzy over the weekend.

I connected with an old friend recently. She asked what I was up to and I told her about the challenge. Turns out she's a graphic design artist and is now working on our cover design for this project. Again, a cool thing about this challenge. So now our cover is being designed in Ireland while we deal with life and recording here in NH.

3 days 11 hours and 40 minutes to start letting go of things around us and concentrate on the music. Better get my errands run so this can happen......

Ok, so here it is, the story of recording session #1.

I get a call from George (drummer) last night on his way home from a gig. His truck broke down. A bit of a set back but after some looking up of numbers he finally got towed and I was able to get him home. Problem is the drums are in the truck that broke down, but again, a small problem and that was solved.

I got home, finished setting up the computer with some software I never used before yet it seemed to go fairly well and I set up the sessions for all of the songs we have so far, then packed everything to take to George's in the morning. Feeling pretty good and looking forward to 7 days of blissful music making, I sit down and write song number 8 for the CD. Then figured I should try and settle the mind and get some sleep.

Got things together this morning, headed to George's and began transforming his basement into our temporary recording studio. Got everything set up and only forgot a few things that Christy was able to grab and bring over. Booted everything up and had absolutely no sound coming out. So three hours into this session we had nothing to show for it. The technology gods win round 1.

Learning from last year, plan B was at hand and we were up and running. We got the first tune down in a few takes and went to the next. Did that in a few takes then went to the next. This is how it all should work. We ate some lunch, had a martini and got the next 2 songs down even quicker then decided that was enough for today as our 3 hour session was now 8 hours long.

The moral of the story: The technology gods will fight, be prepared, have a martini and all will go well.

Those are the words written to lure us all in. Sure, in theory it's simple but so is everything else. In reality, it's quite the challenge.

It's been a strange week. Life is taking it's toll on me personally. Getting it out in music is fun but then I am in this place of "hmmmm..... I like that now I want to add this or tweak that...." but there is just no way to do that in 8 more days. Hitting the panic button, I just stayed up last night and wrote song number 7. I think we'll make the 35 minutes with those. The other tunes rolling around in my head will need to be out by Sunday as that is officially recording session #1.

Time to let go of perfectionism, dive into creativity and getting the job done. Oh yeah, I better go make a sacrifice to the technology gods too so we can make it to the end...

So, here we are halfway through the RPM Challenge and of course, what a challenge it is proving to be yet again. I recall last year complaining about the snow and now I find myself wondering where the storms of December are now as I could really use that time to catch up on things.

This all seems to be a slow process this time around. There is quie a bit going on that keeps getting in the way. Even to the point where the towel was almost thrown in last week. All of this and we weren't to the halfway mark. So the real jobs and life in general continue to throw their hurdles in the way. I have yet to deal with technology as I'm a bit scared this time around. We've been spending way too much time out of our creative process this year, overall and especially in this challenge.

Today was set aside to sit down and write. That's correct, a whole Sunday dedicated to sitting down surrounded by instruments, some paper and a pencil with a good eraser. Click on the portable recorder so I can have a record of the process and listen later. The result was finding a bit of direction in the songs written so far plus adding three more. We are now at six songs. Christy has one she is working on but hasn't shared yet (just think back to a revisit of last year's "chick singer's lament") So we possibly have seven songs now but one never knows. Tomorrow we spend President's day with the band putting it all together.

This is the time to cut out the excuses. Who cares about the weather, the economy, real jobs, cars in need of repair, and groceries that need to be bought? (there's not much time for eating anyway) Who cares that there is a meeting to attend or a cold is creeping up on you?

Just get over it and get back to RPM!

Where is the time going? Not too long ago I was thinking we had plenty of time to get things together. A schedule was made, a recording plan done, even backup plans for technology crashing, yet the month seems like its over already. Maybe we need some of the snow days we had last year to be trapped in our rooms and forced to write.

What's the excuse? I really hate excuses, but now I hate having to write useless paperwork, mounds and mounds of paperwork and there is nothing in it that can be used in a song. (trust me, I looked hard in hopes it would ease the pain)

I hear there is this place out there called "the real world". When did this start to exist, and why is it forcing itself upon me when I have more important things to do, like write and record and album in 28 days? I'd write about it but I already did a long time ago and that would be cheating to use that idea. I guess it's time to just say stop for a moment and get on with it.

So, here we are, day 10 and 3 songs waiting for the finishing touches. Really not too bad but not anywhere near where I'm comfortable in seeing the end. Maybe it's a good sign to be freaking out about the deadline now. 18 days is really quite a bit of time when you think about it.

So it's time to let go of the "real world" and do something that is mch more healthy, like stay up late and write music.

Cheers!

So, here we go well into the adventure we all fondly call RPM. We had our first RPM based rehearsal and it looks like we'll have some material to work with.

All in all we have 1 complete song put together that needs to be refined and completed, 1 that is halfway written, a few songs lyrically done and a few random musical ideas.

Our challenge was finding the groove and trying to figure out if the person who wrote the song has the groove or if it is supposed to come out of the people around you trying to pull the idea out of your head for you. Really it's all about getting into the groove as a group and as songwriting collaborators.

So here we go, looking for that groove. Tomorrow is another session which means I should probably get some work done.

Keeping in comparison to last years challenge, we have had less snow:-)

Going back and reading the issues we had last year make this year look easy sort of.

The funny part is I have some of the same issues about the day job and then there are some other life issues that are just taking up way too much of my time.

Christy is pretty tied up with the day job as well but I think this year's challenge will cure her of that.

So, for the good news. George and I sat down and confirmed a calendar for when thins will take place. We realized that February will go by pretty quick but it somehow seems we have more time than last year. Maybe it's just an illusion.

I guess as long as we don't have to battle the snow this year and we make sure we make our sacrifices to the technology gods, all should go well, but then, where is the fun in that.

So I start with words I gave at the end of last year:

Go ahead life, get in the way, I'm just going to write a song about you!

Seems like forever since we've been active. Well, Bob Jr & the Martini Gardeners are officially signed up for RPM Challenge '09. Back to the insanity of it all. Look for some new tunes in March.

The songs from the RPM Challenge are up on the Music page for your enjoyment.

Come hear what the blogs were all about.

The moment you've been waiting for is near (and somewhat here).

The site update is in the works, be sure to check out upcoming shows, photos and sounds. That's right, the RPM Songs are being loaded. If you can't wait to hear them from here go to our myspace page and get a taste of the new sounds. www.myspace.com/martinigardeners

I'm not sure where to begin with the end of this project. It sure was a challenge right to the very end. We finally got a system that works to record. We had to let go of the typical musician perfectionism to get the recording done and settle for our demo quality. This was not a bad deal though as our main goal was the songs and to create.

This definitely put me in a space I like to be creatively. I do have a bit of a let down as the pressure is now off to achieve the goal. Now I just hope we can keep creating and ride the momentum.

Our last moments of the challenger really sum up the whole project for us. Mixdown from 8pm until 10am with a short nap. Out to dig out from yet another snowstorm. Drive through said snowstorm to the post office in case we don't make it to Portsmouth in time. Made it to the post office 1 minute before closing, got locked in the post office. Our satisfaction would not be realized until we handied the CD over in person. So.... through the snow storm once again for the journey to the main office. People were still there and we handed over the copy of the CD.

So we made it. All of the late nights/early mornings. Driving under crazy conditions, keeping up with the day jobs and we have....... some songs on a couple of CDs we don't have copies of because we turned them into the RPM challenge. Guess i need to go make some copies.

Thanks for the challenge Dave.

So, the technology gods were pretty upset with me the past few days. You can tell from the last entry that things weren't going well. I have a useless paper weight sitting in my studio from Sonica Computers. It's a specially built computer for audio recording that has not worked since it arrived. Sent back 3 times, replaced once, still useless. Went to the home computer, that died. (still need to figure that one out) Went to set up a laptop, but it had no firewire port to hook up the firewire interface..........

Ended up rigging a Tascam Portastudio to do the job. We were able to lay down the grooves of the tunes in a 4 hour session (and we drove through a storm and ate dinner too) Turned out pretty well but now the daunting task of overdubs and bouncing tracks and realizing why we use the expensive, useless computer sitting on the floor of the studio.

Then, when all was bleak, Mom and Dad Chick singer pulled through with a working (that's right, 100% functional) computer. So we lost half a day moving files into the recording software but manged to easily do some of the rhythm guitar overdubs and get the rest of the sessions set up.

What a crazy 2 days we have ahead of us. Thanks Mom and Dad, you're the best:-)

This can also be titled "Technology Really Sucks"

Anyway, the songs are written. We even got the full band together for the first time to put together the final touches and set up the recording sessions for the final week. What a crazy schedule it is going to be. It's difficult trying to fit the pieces together and still keep life going.



So now for the really hard parts. The technology gods seem to be angry with me lately. I have recording software, even a computer that is supposed to be designed for the said recording software, yet none of it works. So, instead of being creative, I get to work on upgrades, updates and trying to figure out how in the hell to record all of this.

To top it all off guess what is coming this week......... you got it, another snow storm. I guess potentially we can get snowed in and forced to record while we hope to keep power on, but then again, that would require the technology gods to work with us instead of against us. Ugh, guess that's why it's called a challenge. The next 4 days will be interesting to say the least.

And on the 5th day we sleep (unless of course there is more snow to shovel)

This is probably something we shouldn't have to contemplate with only 11 days to go but I guess life still has to happen.

So , here it is day 17 and a session had to be cancelled. We had a great session 2 days ago, tightened up what we've been working on and finished another song. Our focus this challenge is getting the songs written we'll spend the last week sleepless recording a half-ass quality demo that we hope to go in and re-record at some point in the future.

We've had to deal with family issues, kid issues, "real job" issues, and, if you haven't noticed, the weather has really sucked here in NH. I wish snow days could be better spent rather than clearing snow. So, with stuck cars, stuck families, stuck "real jobs" and stuck kids we still somehow manage to get things done. Maybe all of the life issues give material to write about. (although we've stayed away from writing about snow, "real jobs" and kids so far)

So go ahead life, get in the way, I'll just write about you for the rest of the world to know.

So, I haven't had time to keep updated on this blog as I have had to spend any spare time dealing with snow.

Anyway, we had a good session on Tuesday. We're beginning to feel the effects of keeping up with this schedule but are aso acknowledging the work that is being done and the rewards it is giving us. Then again, we had to deal with the snow (will it ever stop?) I had a great plan to take the snow day and finish the ideas that are in my head and have them ready for Friday's session but shoveling ice and water took the priority.

We have the songs we have been working on pretty tight at this point but I guess we need more of them. It seems we are coming down the stretch and need to sprint in to get things done. Now is the time to get out of the way of creativity, let life issues run their course and just keep working. I think I will take a long nap on March 1 around 2pm.

As you can tell from the last blog, this is turning out to be a fun process. maybe it's the late nights/early mornings, maybe life is catching up to us (someone forget to mention that the rest of the world keeps happening) but I think the challenge is forcing progress at a much higher rate.

We had a late session going last night/this morning. Again the hard part is I had to finish a gig before our work could be done. So yesterday was truely a musician day. Show at 10am, take care of day to day business, show at 7pm, back to the home studio for some serious song work. We were able to reinforce 2 of the songs we worked on Tuesday and changed groove and feel for the third. The main tune we worked on last night was a great accomplishment as it was the first full collaboration becoming a reality.

The schedule isn't too bad though since you never know where inspiration is going to hit. As I was in warmups for my evening show I came up with a pretty soild idea for another song. Now I need some seclusion to get some lyrics together and polish things up. The addition of this idea puts us to 7 songs in the works. We still have 20 days to go:-)

Those of you who have read the first blog entry will understand this one a little bit more. Those of you who have to work with with stressed out singers who haven't been able to sing for a few weeks will also relate well to this. Those of you who know me and my thoughts on various musicians as well as the members of my band will just crack up.

Once I get things shifted from my portable recorder I will put the sound clip to this up here as well as you really need to hear this. Maybe this can be used as a track to the final CD of the project.

The background of the story is this; since this is a recording based project we ran a recorder during practice last night. It's generally a good way to hear how things are going and not lose ideas. The following rant took place before practicing one of our old songs:

"Are you recording this? We've never really gone through this.Why are you doing this? Ahhhhhhhh. you're soooo mean........... I hate you.... We've never even gone through this before.... maybe once like six weeks ago...."

On the plus side, we solidified 3 songs and 3 more are in the works.

So, there is a practical way to begin then there is the aristic approach. I like the second although a good mix might be the best approach for this project.

Contemplating 10 songs in 29 days is turning out to be the challenge. Then I remind myself that this is about jump starting the creative process and carrying it through for the rest of the year. I can accept the fact that some of the songs I write and record will turn out to be ones that are useable and I will like and the rest will be............ well, let's just say they will be the rest.

Going for the artistic approach I decided to spend the first day of February connecting with my muse. It has to be about inspiration. We can worry about the small details of schedules and hurdles we need to get over or we can dive in an immerse ourselves into the passion of inspiration and creativity. To the non-artist it may seem like a complete waste of time but out of the time playing with my muse 2 songs have begun and the lasting effects continue the process.

So sure, make the schedule, work the details but remember it is playing music and your muse may want some of that attention too.

So far we have 1 complete song written 2 that need refined and 3 that have begun. Not a bad start in 4 days.

Ok, so keeping up with the blog and day to day life will be part of the challenge. Here are our other issues:

Two weeks before the challenge begins, Christy goes in for surgery to have wisdom teeth removed. Normally not too big of a deal but hers were into the jaw bone which resulted in going under. As the tooth got pulled they were into her sinus cavity and did some damage to the soft tissue. So, no singing for her. Currently she is on a week to week standby on when.if she can sing. The next doctor appointent is Tuesday which also happens to be our practice day.

Everyone has issues with the day job. Mine ended up being a switch of semesters which means I had to write 3 new classes and grade finals from the previous semester. So again, just a glitch for the day job, I hate when work cuts into playtime.

Day job continued.......
So the major part of one of my day jobs gets to be as a performer. Yes, I make my living in music:-) So I took on a show that opened Feb 1, same time as the challenge begins. It runs for 2 weeks. Sort of cuts back on the amount of time we have now.

Then of course there is the whole life and family issues that get thrown in the mix and yes we do have quite the challenge ahead of us.

Due to the scheduling of the RPM Challenge and other life events, the Guitar Class scheduled to begin Feb 5 has been postponed until March 18th. There is now more time to sign up for the course.

Bob Jr will be playing in the pit band for "Fame the Musical" on Feb 1-10. Come support the Bell Center in their production. Visit the calendar page for moreinformation and links to the Bell Center.