Instrumentals

So, sometimes I write songs, plan them out and have them more or less composed before I start recording. Other times I just sit down in front of a microphone and start making noise. Then I grab another instrument and lay down another track, until I've got something I like listening to.

I don't remember the exact circumstances of any of these three instrumental pieces, but I'd wager a guess that they were recorded in winter, late at night or early in the morning, on a night when I couldn't or didn't want to sleep. Hash oil might have had something to do with it too.

Catnip by fingerpickingood

Insomniac rant by fingerpickingood

Peristalsis by fingerpickingood

Summer, Winter, Boom and Bust

So, over the past four years or so, since I first got a macbook, I've produced about 50 tracks with amateur equipment and software. A large percentage of these are terrible, and I don't intend to share these with you. However, some of them, I've decided I like. Here's a couple of those.

Alberta Leave the Lights On by fingerpickingood

This first track I wrote while working late in the day by myself on Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton. Summer of 2010. I was worried that the sun would set before I finished the pail of caulking I had just mixed. At the time the news was full of foreclosures and oil spills down down south, America way, and I couldn't help but think, "Damned if Alberta ain't a fine place to be."

Calgary Blues by fingerpickingood

This next track is fairly recent. My luck's been pretty good since moving to Calgary, but that ain't true for everyone. So sometimes you gotta write a hard-luck song. The odd sounding solo instrument you hear is the sound of me whistling run through a bitcrusher.