By Sea / By Land: The Hathaway Sessions

Annnnnddddd it's done! Finally. It took longer than I had originally planned but Kyle was pretty awesome at coming up with ideas, layers, instruments, etc... that I just couldn't turn any of it down. I owe a lot of this recording to him. He breathed life into some of the older songs and almost all of the really cool vocal arrangements were his idea.  He's a good dude, glad to have him in my life. Otherwise, it's an odd, slightly eclectic collection of songs, spanning a few different genres.  Guess that's what i get for listening to such an odd collection of music.

So feel free to go download it, give it a few listens, recommend it to your friends, etc... I hope you like it, cause I'm really proud of it, but if you don't, that's ok too, just act like you do so your friends will think it's the cool thing to be listening too.

And thanks to everyone for the kind words and encouragement to get it done, especially you hef, it's greatly appreciated.

I created a facebook page, so go "like" it. https://www.facebook.com/byseabyland

Download/listen to it at the bandcamp site: http://byseabyland.bandcamp.com

Next up, I've already gotten about 3.5 new songs written, that are a slightly different style than what's on this album. I'm also toying with the idea of writing an EP about two of my favorite books, Maniac Magee and The Giver.  That'll be an entirely new type of challenge, to write songs that don't necessarily reflect something in my life but I think it'll be a fun, little project.

Anyways, I hope whomever of you listen/download it, enjoy it. Much love.

X

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i've got a soundcloud

so as some of you probably know, i've been talking about doing an acoustic EP/LP for quite a while. it's not anywhere close to being a reality but i've at least made a step forward in it...i've made a sound cloud account! you can check it out here if you're so inclined. i'm using the moniker Urban Electric Company, I saw it on a building once and liked it.

the sound cloud account doesn't seem like much of a step, but i'm really self-conscious about my songs. i think they all suck so this is my way of putting my demos out there for public ridicule. it's also a way for me to listen through the songs and make mental notes (and actual notes on the sound cloud track itself which is neat) to try and improve on the good parts instead of just throwing the songs away like i do normally. all of the songs up there now are demos and have plenty of things wrong with them but i think they have some of the most potential out of the 30+ i've got written. man, i wish i could sing...that'd save me a lot of stress. at least that's what i tell myself but in reality, i'd just find something else to dislike about a song.

below is my newest song, that's actually quite a few weeks old but i still like it.

Devils and Saints by Urban Electric Company

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missing music and the constant loss of self confidence

this blog's title could've been called "serious blog #1" i guess but the current one is pretty accurate as well.

so i haven't been in a band since january and i hate it. it was the right decision to leave dig ur grave, it wasn't the type of band i wanted to be in and the only reason i agreed to play was because i could still play in a band with hef. he quit and then i quit. conrad meant well but i didn't feel like i had any creative input, all my parts were already written for me. plus with me being all the way in charleston, they couldn't play the amount of shows they wanted so it was all for the best.

here in chucktown, we've got bear hugger. absolutely love the music but we can not find a drummer. i thought we might've had one a couple of weeks ago but the rest of the guys weren't sold on him. drumming ability was great but he didn't care to really pay attention to the song parts and his personality would probably conflict with the rest of us, we're all three loners. don't get me wrong, he was a super nice guy...but if we're going to be a band, i want to also be friends. plus being in a band with kyle is a ton of fun.

so this brings me to the second part of my title. i realized today that the amount of self confidence i have is directly correlated to the amount of music i'm writing. when i was in swamp witch and far from true (later to be named bear hugger), i felt good about myself. i got no sleep, was always traveling, and even had to have a knee surgery because of a witch show but again, i felt good. i was able to write new songs at my place, just little acoustic diddys but i was proud of them. now, i can't even finish a song. i'll start one and be somewhat stoked about it but then writers block kicks in and it dies a slow, painful death. when i left DUG, i figured i could focus on my acoustic stuff but it just hasn't happened. ::sigh::

my lack of self-confidence then translates into a lack of trust in everyone, even when it's not deserved. i've got to figure out a way to work on this. i'll add that to the growing list of personality flaws that i need to somehow correct.

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