Almost a year ago, one of my closest friends in music, Monique, messaged me asking about the new studio I had put together, wanting to check it out. She gave me a voice note of a song called "Dream"; written in memory of her Mother. I was over the moon that she was asking me to produce a single for it. I wouldn't have told anyone last October, but once I got started, I was also lost, terrified, anxious, and worried about how long it was taking me to get this thing done. Once it was done we had a meeting so she could give me some feedback. She didn't feel it was quite done, and once I got some extra sounds in there, I'm really glad she challenged me in that way. I use the word "challenge" because I had no idea what to do to fill in lead guitar parts and was on the verge of an anxiety attack. This was clearly before I realized my methods of staying balanced and objective. So I sat in the studio and noodled with my most country sounding guitar. When I listen back, this song is a great example of stepping out of your comfort zone, challenging yourself, and just starting. Most of all, I just wanted to share this song on my blog.
I don't have some deep personal connection to this song. I've just been really loving 13 of Ed Sheeran's hits. I've also been wanting to try playing around with a vocoder, and this song originally uses one.
My personal reflection right now is that I'm trying to overcome some silly, insecure perfectionism that developed from years of people giving me advice that has turned me into an Instagram model but with my music. "I hit a flat note, can't post it", "You can tell I'm reading lyrics, nope". It's more important to make content and share it. I'm trying to remind myself that I'm not a major label artist, my studio isn't Jukasa or RCA, and that I've been called to make music. So here is "Afterglow", originally performed by Ed Sheeran, and a warm up session at ChevyCat Music before I start recording new original music of my own. https://linktr.ee/ImChrisStrei |
|