FAWM 2018 Demos

I just thought I'd put all of my FAWM 2018 demos in one place, along with what I wrote about them.  Usually for FAWM, I have some instrumental goals.  Here's my description for this year:

This year's FAWM (2018) will be my 9th. 

For every song, I want to use at least two of the following: a keyboard instrument, guitar in open D tuning, slide guitar, and a "wind" instrument.  I'm defining "wind" instrument simply as an instrument I play by blowing into it, which (in my case) means harmonica, recorder, flute, and melodica (maybe even trombone, but probably not).

1. "Den gamle"

I came up with the basic electric piano part for this about a week ago and thought I would flesh it out during FAWM.  For one section, there's a modulation to v (rather than vi or IV, which are pretty common).  I thought I'd heard this in Oscar Joost's "Am Montag fängt die Woche an," and while I think I was wrong, I still thought it was an interesting modulation and wanted to use it.  At the end of that section, I'd intended to go back to the tonic, but because I'm not a great keyboard player, I accidentally played the dominant (Gsus4 to G major, actually), which I thought sounded better, so I kept it.

I wrote a part on acoustic piano that I wanted to play on recorder, but I had to change the key from E major to C major to get a better range.*  As it ended up, I kept that part on piano because it didn't sound great on recorder.  I still wanted a recorder part, but what I eventually came up with isn't all that interesting.  On the whole, I think this is too repetitive and kind of boring (I guess that's what I get for using |: C major | F major :|).  An inauspicious start for FAWM 2018.

*This also revealed that I'd inadvertently nicked the chords from the bridge of the Zombies' "Maybe after He's Gone."  Changing the key made them exactly the same: D minor | E minor | F major | Gsus4 | G major.

2. "Når og nå"

When I started writing this I thought it was in A minor; then I thought it was in G major. I considered resolving it to E major (with a Picardy third), but I eventually ended it at the end of a different section, where it resolved to C major.  So I have no idea what key this is in.

I've listened to nothing but Handel for the last three days, which is why this has harpsichord and recorder (the recorder might be a bit much though).  I'm not sure how similar they are, but the slide guitar part in ELO's "Whisper in the Night" was the referent for mine.

Originally, I was going to have harpsichord all the way through, but the rhythmic change in the melody between the end of the B section and the beginning of the (repeated) A section proved too difficult for me.  Rather than record the harpsichord part section by section, I just dropt it for that bit and had only acoustic guitar.

Once again, I took something from the Zombies.  The chord progression in the middle of my A section owes a lot to that in the bridges of "I Want Her She Wants Me."  The beginning of the chord progression for my B section is straight out of Jeff Lynne's ELO's "When I Was a Boy" (although my changes are faster).

Maybe it's because I just wrote it, but I think the sections might be a bit disconnected.

3. "Den kjempestor fornøyelsespark ved sjøen"

I wrote two sections (melody + chords) of this about a month ago after I practiced my B major scale on piano.  Yester-day I started writing a harmony part for one of the melodies, and it started out OK but didn't work towards the end.  So instead, I just made that its own melody in a second A section.  I was going to play the whole thing on piano, but the chord changes near the end of the A section are a bit beyond my skill (without sufficient time to practice, anyway), so I kept the melody on piano and moved the chords to guitar, which I think actually turned out better.

I was just going to export the file with guitar and two piano parts (acoustic and electric), but I'm not sure that really counts as fulfilling my instrumental goals, so I added a small slide guitar part too.

I'm not sure some of my transitions are that great.  The song's mainly in B major, but one section is in C# minor, and it seems a bit shaky going back to B major.  And somehow I ended up resolving with an F# minor.

4. "Trekant"

I recently rewatched a performance of Handel's Water Music (I've listened to nothing but Handel since FAWM started), and this was my (feeble) attempt to write something like the first movement of the G major suite (in the performance I watched, this movement was mostly flute and lute, which is quite different from the recording I have by Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields).  Really, all I took from Handel was 3/4 time and something of the instrumentation (I used flute and guitar in open D tuning).  Mine's also in G major, but I think that was coincidence rather than borrowing.

I think this is only the fourth thing I've recorded with flute, and while I'm getting better, I'm still not very good at playing flute or recording it.  (I think part of my problem was that I wrote the flute part on keyboard, and while I had my [limited] range in mind, I neglected to consider the breathing.)  Like a song I recorded for 50/90 last year, I recorded the flute part phrase by phrase.

5. "En annen krone"

I wasn't planning on doing much for FAWM to-day, but I wrote this in about two and a half hours.

Once again, I modulated to v for the B section.  This is the first time I've played slide guitar using acoustic guitar.  It wasn't quite loud enough, so I double tracked it.

The fuzz guitar part is just a little too repetitive.  If I revisit this, I might change it for a section or two.  At first I was going to use electric guitar without any effect, but I thought the extra sustain that comes with the fuzz effect would help with all of the glissandi.

I probably could have varied the acoustic guitar part a bit too.  For most of the song, it just plays straight chords, which gets a bit boring.

Between the instrumentation and the key (D major), this reminded me of a song I wrote for 50/90 a couple years ago.  That's where the title came from.

6. "Et svart hjul"

I came up with this guitar part, and - were it not for FAWM - I probably wouldn't have done anything with it because it's not that great.  But I have fourteen songs to write, so I threw some stuff on top of it.  I missed a note or two near the end, but I didn't bother re-doing it.

For 50/90 a few years ago, I wrote a song where I had two harmonized slide guitar parts.  It didn't turn out that great because I wasn't very good at slide guitar yet, so I thought I'd try doing something like that again.  This is certainly better, but I'm not sure I really have what I was going for yet.

I recently found out that the Moody Blues' Ray Thomas died last month, which is probably why I used both harmonica and flute here.  The flute part even has the same rhythm as the mellotron part at the end of the Moody Blues' "The Sun Set," although that was just a coincidence.

The minor key (D minor) made this sound somewhat funereal.  That reminded me of a line in The Great Gatsby, which I used for the title (I just translated it into Norwegian).

7. "Falco plastico"

I started writing this for 50/90 in 2016 (which is why the title is in Italian rather than Norwegian).  I didn't finish it then because I didn't know how to structure it (and part of the guitar picking was giving me problems, which I solved by playing it on the G B E strings instead of high up the neck on the D G B strings).  I'm not sure that the structure I have now is all that great, but at least I finished it.  Back in 2016, I had just this acoustic guitar part and most of the electric six-string guitar melody.  Everything else is new.  (This is why the melodica and clavichord parts repeat but the guitar part is different the second time.)

I haven't used twelve-string guitar for a while, and I haven't used melodica or finger cymbals for even longer.  I just kind of threw them all together here.

I'm still not sure about that low C note on clavichord at the end though....

8. "En sjanse"

I try to practice a scale a day, cycling through five instruments before moving on to the next scale.  I wrote the first section of this after practicing the Eb major scale on piano back in October and decided to save it to develop during FAWM.  I recently returned to Eb major in my cycle of scale practice, so I finished this off.

A couple days ago, I finally got a Nord Electro 5, which I've been looking at for years.  The piano sounds are so much better than what I had been using, so I went with acoustic piano rather than electric piano, which had been my intent.  I used a single line out, but in hindsight, maybe I should have used left and right channels and spread the sound out a bit.  I also used mellotron, which I couldn't have done before.

I tried to break up the acoustic guitar part a bit, but I'm not sure how well that turned out.  The melodica sections feel a bit out of place too.  I probably should have just used mellotron for that, but I felt that that was cheating on my instrumental goals a bit.

9. "Redselsfull"

I wrote this guitar part way back in April 2012.  I had the notion to do something with it during FAWM, but I don't really like what I came up with (although the slide guitar part isn't too bad).  I recorded the guitar parts and the first electric piano part yester-day and intended to do something different for the other two sections.  But because I'm behind and already didn't like this one that much, I just repeated the same thing, switching to acoustic piano for one section.

I stuck around on an E major in the guitar part, and I thought I could either do something really neat there or it would cause me some problems.  It was certainly the latter.

10. "En fugl eller en tosk"

I've run out of ideas, but I threw a bunch of stuff together for this just so I could have an-other FAWM song.  Last night I started playing around with the beginning of a chord progression my cousin used in a song he wrote (an unusual progression: C major | D minor | F major | F minor), and I tried to develop my own thing from it.

I came up with the middle bit a few days ago and initially rejected it because I thought, "This is too short; I can't do anything with it."  It might not be exactly what I'd been playing around with, but it's pretty close (I remembered the chords I played, at least).  I had to do a couple takes because I kept messing up, so while one note is a bit rushed, it was the best I could do without taking some time to practice it.  I probably should have waited an-other measure before going back to the A section, but I didn't want to have the same problem I had in my last FAWM song.

I recorded the electric piano part first and layered stuff on top of that.  The vibes part was added last, and because of that, there might be some dissonances between it and the electric piano part (I'm pretty sure I played a B note above an F major, for instance).  By that point, I couldn't do anything to fix it though.  I wanted to use glockenspiel, but I don't own one, and the glockenspiel sound on my keyboard wasn't exactly what I was going for.  I'm not sure it's a large enough part to constitute improvisation, but I hadn't planned on playing the notes at the end (for the record: G and C).

11. "En elsker av sølv"

This started with my revisiting a phrase I used in a 50/90 song back in 2014.  I moved it from E minor to E major and used a different chord progression.  From there this developed into its own thing.

The acoustic guitar part at the end is an old idea I've had laying around for years (since December 2012).  I'm not really sure it goes with the first part, but I needed to make this longer and it was in the same key so....

I feel I cheated a bit on my instrumental goals (at least two of: a keyboard instrument, guitar in open D tuning, slide guitar, and a "wind" instrument).  This does contain two keyboard parts though, so maybe it works.  I probably should have added something to the first two sections because they feel a bit empty.

12. "Kvinnen i rød"

It's getting to the point where I'm just throwing stuff together to have a FAWM song and I don't know if it's any good or not.

One of the recorder parts shifts between double-tracking the first part and harmonizing with it, which - if I remember correctly - is a feature of some Buddy Holly songs, albeit with vocals (I think the Beatles also did this on some early albums).

I played acoustic guitar all the way through, but after I'd recorded the softer section (with picking rather than strumming), it sounded too involved.  I cut the guitar out for that part, but now it sounds a bit too empty.  The whole song is a bit sparse, really.

There are two chords I should have played for only one measure each instead of two measures each because there are three measures without anything happening.

The last section is supposed to be the same as the first, but because I wrote and recorded the other parts in between recording those two, I'm not sure if they actually match.

13. "Mer frost"

I realized that one of the obstacles for my writing songs is that I think I have to come up with an original chord progression for each one.  To avoid that, I just outright stole this chord progression along with a bit of the structure and the feeling of the unaccompanied piano phrase.

The slide guitar part gets a bit too repetitive (and there's some sort of mistake at the end of the last one, but I kind of liked how it sounded, so I didn't re-do it), and I'm not sure the second mellotron part really goes with the piano part (there might be some dissonance there).

14. "Skygger"

I recently listened to a three-disc set of the Shadows.  In one of the tracks ("Theme from a Filleted Place"), one of the guitars switches between chords and a harmony part.  This is my attempt at something like that.  I didn't have a lot of time to spend on the harmonies though, so I don't know if they really work.

For part of the chord progression, I re-used the chords from an earlier FAWM song.  This is in 4/4 and standard tuning where that was in 3/4 and open D.

It seems that I usually start my melodies on the second beat, so I tried to avoid that here and started with an upbeat.

The F#s on my harmonica sound a bit off, but I couldn't really do anything about that.

Mixing this gave me some troubles, partially because I've developed a cold and my ears are a bit blocked up.

FAWM 2014 Goals

I had thought I'd written a post like this for FAWM last year, but I hadn't even started this blog yet when FAWM 2013 started.

First things first:  February Album Writing Month is the challenge to write fourteen songs in the twenty-eight days of February.  I've been doing this since 2010.  Technically, I've won every year, but for the first two years, that winning included my writing some terrible lyrics without music and some not-very-interesting instrumentals.  So I feel I deserve credit only for 2012 and 2013.

For FAWM 2013, I gave myself the additional challenge to not use any string instruments.  This forced me into using other instruments and getting better at them.  I became more familiar with keyboard instruments, and I started using harmonica in my songs.  I considered doing something similar for FAWM this year and not use guitar, but I don't think I'm up for that challenge yet.  And since I'm already constricting myself from electric instruments until 1 July, I wouldn't be left with too many instruments to use.

I do have some instrumental aspirations though.  I've been relearning trombone for awhile, and I'd like to use that in some more of my songs.  I used it in one song for FAWM last year, but I replaced it with melodica when I re-recorded it.  I'd like to use it a lot more and have it remain a significant feature.  I'd also like to use more melodica.  I'm sure there will be things I want to do on trombone that my limited skills won't allow me to do, but I could probably play them on melodica.  While I'm not prohibiting myself from guitar, I'd like to keep it in the background and not emphasize it.  At the most, I'm going to use it only for chordal accompaniment.  If the other parts stand up by themselves, I may even remove that.

I've also been playing with the idea of writings songs that aren't so dependent upon repetition.  In fact, I think there was previously a challenge for this in either FAWM or 50/90 where you write a song without any repeats.  I sort of doubt I'll be able to do that for every single song, but I'd like to step out of easily-predictable formulae for at least a few songs.

---&---

{YouTube}{Twitter}{Tumblr}{Bandcamp}

The Magna Carta Exercise

I listened to a greatest hits album of Chicago (the band, not the city) to-day, and because I hadn't listened to Chicago for a long time (I think this is the first time I've listened to them this year), I noticed some things I hadn't previously been aware of.  Actually, it was pretty much just one thing:  some of the songs had electric piano in them.

So I got thinking about this (as I often do).  I really like the sound of an electric piano.  In my own compositions, I'm more likely to use electric piano than regular piano.  Partially because the sound of the fake piano on my keyboard doesn't sound particularly good to me but also because I prefer electric piano.  It's probably because of all of the Zombies songs I listen to.  At their time at Decca, only three songs were released with piano; the rest feature electric piano or organ.

In any case, I got thinking about certain musical elements I like.  Along with the sound of electric piano, I adore the sound of a Hammond organ, and I like hand claps as long as they're in an interesting rhythm.  I hate the standard one-clap-on-the-first-of-four-beats sort of clapping.

Because NaNoWriMo was last month, I'd been reading Chris Baty's No Plot? No Problem!  In the section of the book that explains how to come up with at least a general plot, he explains his two Magna Cartas.  On the first, you're supposed to answer the question "What, to you, makes a good novel?"  He writes that "Anything that floats your fictional boat should go on the list" and explains that "the things you appreciate as a reader are also the things you'll likely excel at as a writer.  These bits of language, color, and technique, for whatever reason, make sense to your creative brain."

The second Magna Carta (called "Magna Carta II, the Evil Twin of Magna Carta I") lists "those things that bore or depress you in novels."  The point is to avoid writing these into your novel.

I couldn't help but notice that my mental listing of instruments that I like the sound of was akin to the Magna Carta Exercise.  And then I had the idea to apply my list in the same way that the Magna Cartas apply to NaNoWriMo.  February Album Writing Month provides me with the perfect opportunity to do this.  Like NaNoWriMo, it's a challenge that takes place during a single month.  I can create a list of things I like about music and then try to stick as many of those elements as possible into the songs that I write during FAWM.

Of course, it doesn't apply in exactly the same way.  Just because I like the sound of an instrument doesn't mean that I have the ability to play it.  But I still think the Magna Carta idea could work as a general template.

And while I do intend to do this idea eventually, I don't think I'll be doing it any time soon.  My problem is that I have too many musical projects that have objectives that conflict with each other.  I stick with these projects for one year at a time, and the projects that I have in mind for the next two years either totally prevent my using electric piano and organ or constrain me from using them as fully as I'd like.

But I still think that applying the Magna Carta Exercise to FAWM is a good idea.  I just probably won't get around to doing it for a few years.

---&---

{YouTube}{Twitter}{Tumblr}{Bandcamp}

Practical Pianism (FAWM 2013)

I've been doing February Album Writing Month ever since 2010.  (I set up a new profile this year, so the dates may not corroborate that.)  Technically, I've completed the challenge every year, but I feel that I earned that distinction only for the last two years because it was only for the last two years that I actually recorded versions of most of the songs - each song had an actual musical component rather than melody-less lyrics, which was the case for most of 2010 and much of 2011.

Last year, my FAWM songs all had a common theme - 19th century criminals.  Concept albums and common themes are suggested for FAWM, so for this year, I had the idea to constrict my instrumentation.  Originally, I had planned to use only keyboard instruments, but I eventually widened that and just outlawed string instruments.  By now, I've been playing guitar for four years, so I felt that having to be without it would help me grow musically.  I'm not sure if it did or not.

Within the next few months, I'm planning to revamp a few of these songs and completely re-record some others.  I'll then put the album on Bandcamp.  My Bandcamp page looks a little bare, since the only thing I currently have on there is the album that I wrote during FAWM 2012.  I'm considering putting no minimum price on this one, but I'm not sure about that yet.  The most expensive I would make it is $1.

---&---

"I"

I'd been playing around with the core of this since the end of December.  I think this was the first time I recorded something with harmonica since 50/90 in 2011.

---&---

"II"

I took the idea of the octaves in the left hand from Graham Nash's "Simple Man," which I had either recently learned or was in the process of learning (though I realise it's fairly common).  I tried to make it more interesting than just octaves in the one hand and chords in the other, so I included Esus2 and Esus4 instead of just a straight E major (though they're all partial chords because I didn't play the B note in any of them).

The second part of this (beginning around 1:13) became one of my favourite things that I wrote during February.  I had just written this piece shortly before I recorded it, and since then I've become much better at playing it.  Here, it's a bit slow because it's new.

Notice at the end how I don't just go from A to D.  I hit the A note, and then play the A and D simultaneously.  I did that because I wanted all of the songs to flow to-gether (see my Note Continuity project), and the next one starts on an A note.

---&---

"III"

I actually wrote the first part of this on guitar.  About a month before, I'd restrung my old electric guitar and tuned it in open D.  In playing around with that, I wrote this opening part, which - without my realising it until after I'd recorded this - somehow transferred over to electric piano.

---&---

"IV"

I hadn't planned on this one at all.  But since I had moved myself to a Bb note, I took advantage of the freedom that FAWM allows and dug out my trombone, which I haven't really played for ten years, because trombones and Bb go well to-gether.  Or at least they would if my playing hadn't deteriorated so much.

---&---

"V"

This is a melody I'd been working on for a really long time.  I recorded a guitar version way back on 15 October 2011.  (I came up with the chords during FAWM though.)  If I remember correctly, we had talked about Rudyard Kipling's "The White Man's Burden" in my history class, and I inadvertently wrote a melody that fit his poem.  What I had written sounded vaguely hymn-like, so I thought it would transfer well to a keyboard instrument.  I think the organ settings sounded too heavy though, so I went with the electric piano again.

---&---

"VI"

This exemplifies one of the few things I remember from the piano class I took in spring 2011 - inversions.  This is the longest of all of the pieces I wrote for FAWM, simply because I could combine the chords and the melody in so many different ways.

Again, note the end, where I manipulate the notes so I could get to a C.

---&---

"VII"

This turned out better than I thought it would, but I think I was more surprised that I made it through the harmonica parts than anything else.  When I first started learning harmonica, I figured out that the only two chords you can really get are C major and G major, so I had to figure out a melody that sounded OK with just those two chords and that had no accidentals.

---&---

"VIII"

I first started playing around with the origins of this in July 2012.  I may have had thoughts about developing it into a song for 50/90, but instead it languished until FAWM, when I remembered that I had a few keyboard-based pieces that I could expand.

---&---

"IX"

I had started working on some organ overdubs for this, but I had fallen behind because of school work, so I didn't finish those.

---&---

"X"

I really went all-out with the inversions on this one.  Also parallel motion, which I'm always surprised I can still do.  I'd intended on using trombone in this one too, but it was too low.  And because I don't have a trumpet, I used melodica instead.  I'm not particularly happy with the ending of this one.  I think I go from A major to C# minor too much, just because that chord change is in the Zombies' "This Will Be Our Year," which is one of the few piano songs that I know (though only until the key change).

Also, for what it's worth, I wrote this while watching an episode of Bones.

---&---

"XI"

This is almost certainly the best thing that I wrote during FAWM.  I'd become tired of the paradigm that I'd used almost without exception to this point - chords in the left hand and melody in the right.  I wanted to do something more complex.

I'm not sure if it's evident, but I was thinking of the organ parts in Argent's "Rejoice" while writing this.

---&---

"XII"

Since I'd written such a (at least comparatively) complex piece, I wanted to stay at that level, but I guess I just didn't have the ideas because this one saw me revert to the octave-in-the-left-hand convention.  The other parts come in too abruptly, which is something I'll have to fix.

---&---

"XIII"

The structure of this is really similar to "VI" - there're the same two chords (one played as an inversion), but just different melodies on top of them.  It's also similar to "VII" since the two chords are C major and G major.

---&---

"XIV"

The first part of this is too fast.  It's supposed to be up-beat, but I overdid it.  The second part is pretty similar to the second part of "II," though it also has some similarities with "Mandeville" - the only solo keyboard piece I'd written before FAWM.

---&---

I still don't think I'm that proficient at keyboards, but I'm certainly a lot better than I was before FAWM.  I'm not sure if it's true for every song, but I feel that these melodies are a lot more chromatic than mine usually are.  Since 50/90 last year, I've been paying more attention to what keys my songs are in, but even aside from that, I think these melodies are more chromatic because I used keyboard instruments.  One of the things I learned in piano class was the five-fingered position, and I think that may have had an effect on my writing.

---&---

{YouTube}{Tumblr}{Bandcamp}

More Musical Prescriptions

February Album Writing Month ended yester-day.  I did complete my fourteen songs though it seemed to be more of a challenge this year than last year.  I'm going to put that off to my depriving myself of string instruments and not really planning anything.  I'm planning on writing a more in-depth post about FAWM within a week or so.

In order to indoctrinate myself to keyboard-based songs, I listened to Rod Argent's Classically Speaking everyday from 22 January to 28 February.  But now since FAWM is over, I don't have to do that anymore. I enjoyed it though - listening to something multiple times (and especially with that sort of frequency) naturally causes one to become more familiar with it.  So I sort of want to do that again this month with a different album.

But while I was trying to decide which album I should listen to every month, I noticed that I have stacks of albums that I haven't even listened to once.  So I'm going to postpone that intensive every-day-for-a-month album listening for awhile.  Instead, I'm going to work my way through the albums that I haven't listened to yet.  But even before I get to those, I'm going to listen to the CDs that I've borrowed from my sister.  (Many of which I've had for about a year.)

So to-day I'm starting a project which essentially entails listening to something new everyday.  If you're so inclined, you can follow my progress over on the music listening journal I started at the beginning of the year. Asterisks indicate the first time I've listened to something.

---&---

{YouTube}{Tumblr}{Bandcamp}

Argent August and Other Musical Prescriptions

One of my minor musical projects for 2013 is to listen to the Zombies' Odessey and Oracle every Monday and the Moody Blues' Days of Future Passed every Tuesday.  It started out as just Days of Future Passed on Tuesdays because 2013 began on a Tuesday and that's the album that contains "Tuesday Afternoon," but soon after, I added Odessey and Oracle just because I like it so much.

So far, I've been able to keep up with it (excepting one Monday when I was terribly ill).

For February Album Writing Month, I've excluded all string instruments and written all of my songs with at least some keyboard element.  In order to indoctrinate myself to that particular paradigm, I've listened to Rod Argent's Classically Speaking everyday for the past three weeks or so.

Because I've been listening to these albums so much, I've been able to pick out things that I hadn't heard before.  For instance, I hadn't realised how prominent the sound of the mellotron is for Days of Future Passed or Odessey and Oracle.  And I like having that; it's like I'm rediscovering music that I've known for years.

Last night, I realised that I have five Argent albums (Argent, Ring of Hands, All Together Now, In Deep, and Nexus) and that it would be interesting to listen to one of those for each day of the week.  I later expanded this to include the live album from 1974 and the greatest hits album I have, which includes different versions of the songs, such as the edited singles.  That makes seven albums - one for each day of the week.  So I decided to make this a project I'll do in August - listen to one Argent album everyday.

But then the more I got thinking about this, the more I realised that other groups could fit into this paradigm too (though they aren't as alliterative).  I have five Colin Blunstone albums (One Year, Ennismore, Journey, The Ghost of You and Me, and On the Air Tonight) - there's an album for every weekday of July.  And for June, I could have two albums by the Zombies.  One set of the original albums (Begin Here, Odessey and Oracle, New World, As Far As I Can See, and Breathe Out, Breathe In) and one set that includes the four discs of Zombie Heaven and Into the Afterlife, which includes some more Zombies songs and transitional tracks from the Zombies to Colin Blunstone and Argent.

I'll have to do some more planning to figure out specifically what albums I have to listen to on what days, but I think this is a good idea and it's certainly a thing I'm going to try to do.  Not only will it allow me to become more familiar with the artists that I enjoy, but it was also further cement them into my brain so that - with any luck - the songs I write will more closely resemble the songs that influenced them.

---&---

{January's Cloak}{Tumblr}{Bandcamp}