Two weeks passed since the day
of the last recording session of my Tribute project. All that was planned has
been finished, as well as the new ideas that appeared during the process fixed in digits. Some stuff was filtered out, another got sense. The
process of creation indeed contains some magical ingredient. We could talk many
hours through about it, but for this Journal I am going to limit it to just a few
flashbacks.
From the first day of recording
(8th of July last year) through to the last one I felt as if I was
diving into some adventure. Probably, it is about the responsibility taken when
one wants to record a tribute (whoever it is going to be dedicated to) –
someone might be judging about the original performer having heard your
version.
They say you have to keep putting one foot in front of the other, so
I just had to start doing something. This principle worked even when I didn’t want to go
out into cold and dark night (very often we set up our meeting time in the
studio to take place at 1:00AM) – you just walk out in the street and the road
takes you there. So, step by step, we have reached "today".
The first five songs were
finished in late Summer 2014, and their destination point was the group Tribute
album (on which I shed some light in my previous posts). After everything was
done I’d got a feeling which can be described as “I want more!”, so after the
real candidates had been selected and necessary test-rehearsal done we started
the "second season" of recording. Same studio, same sound engineer, same basic set of
instruments, but different approach and direction. I wanted to escape possible
repetitions, so some portion of the “new” material passed through
metamorphoses. There is a point of view that changing the form of the songs
that we are “accustomed to” may affect their “adequate” perception. But as for
me, I would prefer to hear from my stereo what is currently playing in my
head. I can do nothing about that – this is my perception of those songs.
Many ideas arrived in real time;
I even got some answers to my questions on my way to the studio, and some of
the solutions lied in denial of my initial ideas. I suppose, the material with
justified factor of unpredictability will win in the end.
Of course, the result will
highly depend on the successive mix, and this important process is currently at
its initial stage. I hope I will be able to share the final list of the songs that
will enter my personal Tribute album after two months or so, and to talk about
each of them.
And at the end of the year of
recording I’ve got a new feeling already, something like: “I want to work on
something that is mine!”
Have I acquired a taste for the
process of creation? Has it ripened? Have I ripened? Only when I start doing
something I will be able to give any answer. But this will be (at last!)
something that is mine!