SMOKE SESSION: Strawberry Cough

the rippin' and the tearin'

seattle power shredder

For this week's SMOKE SESSION I vaped some Strawberry Cough from GLP and started elaborating on some ideas I had recently come up with. First off, the line "You don't even have a heart to break" sounded like such a bitter concept, I wanted to see what I could do with it. Its something you'd have to be really angry to say to someone else. Also the title of the song "Kiss and Tell" to me has such a push and pull to it, the KISS is the sweet, wonderful part but the TELL is much more mysterious - who did you tell and what did you tell them?! I'm also working to simplify my musical delivery, and this is a demo but I'm intentionally not overdoing the guitars and other instruments during the verses and vocal parts. I can always add more later, but I like hearing some space in there every so often. I wish I sang this better but typically with demos the vocal melody is so totally new, that I'm honestly just not that good at singing it yet! The next version I'll have it locked in I promise! 

As for the cannabis in today's session, Strawberry Cough from Green Life Productions is one of my absolute favorites! Years ago when cannabis first went legal in Nevada, Strawberry Cough was a strain I just HAD to track down, in addition to the incredibly sweet, fruity scent and taste, SC's effects are ideal for creative folks [check https://www.leafly.com/sativa/strawberry-cough] so I had to see what it was capable of. Immediately I felt the rush of euphoria and creativity that makes you just want to write songs all day! This one tastes great and feels great on the mind/body level as well. 

So even tho this song is far from perfect, it IS what I was able to come up with today on Strawberry Cough, bruises and all. I'll have to post a remix soon. But for now I'm happy with the bitter love concepts in the lyrics and the guitars at the end are kinda cool. Hope y'all are having a great day - until next session... 

HOME Studio Remodel pt. 1

Hola! which I believe in Spanish means, "howdy!" - or just "hello". Is there a Spanish word for "Howdy"?? Regardless, today's post comes without music, but WAS quite productive nonetheless. I cleaned up my studio and did a slight re-organization of my mixing console, adjusted for room acoustics, routed cables and wires more cleanly, etc. All of this was in preparation for my NEW STUDIO COMPUTER! I've gone from the digital stone age to now running a 64-bit Windows 10 rig with 16 GB RAM. I'm working on Pro Tools 12 - and with the help of my good friend Anthony, I will soon be learning Ableton Live. Anthony also put this beast of a computer together so a big thanks to him coming back and forth to my house over the past month or so.

I'm in STAGE ONE of acoustic treatment for this room. You'll see the foam pads placed (ALMOST!) symmetrically throughout the room - which has already improved the accuracy of the sound coming through the speakers. My next step will be to get a pair of bass traps for the 2 corners of this room - lots of sound, particularly bass, will get mushed up and muddied in those corners and F with what you THINK you're hearing. A few posters and autographed things for inspiration is always good - I don't stare at them - but I've surrounded myself with positive energy and that can't be bad. So this is my home studio setup; fairly simple, small to medium sized, and fully capable of delivering a "professional" result. Now whether I achieve that result or not is another question....

The picture below is what one might call the "live room" - but its really just in the loft area of my house. I sectioned off a portion of the room and surrounded it with Audimute blankets to deaden the sound, and then placed some curtains/sheets over the top via staple gun to make it look more nifty. I record all my drums in here with a 4 mic technique and also record any electric guitars through the guitar amp in the back right of the below pic. 

This room works well for sound isolation and controls what the mics do AND DON'T pick up. The drums haven't been mic'd up or sound checked yet - that is my mission for the rest of today and through the weekend. I will post more as it happens, so DON'T MOVE - just keep refreshing this page!! HAHA