Nervous

Dan here. I am very glad to see this blog being used already!

Friends, I am very nervous about this semester's Record Time event. I've spent the last 5 or 6 years developing my songwriting and recording skills, all the while having a very good idea of what I wanted to sound like. Astonishingly, I think with my last Record Time album, "Mass in C Major," I finally hit that mark. So I've been really looking forward to RT4 because, well...I'm not sure what I should do next.

I haven't written anything yet, of course, but I have made some preparations that probably hint at the direction of this record. First of all, I built a new drumkit with Battery 3, and it is designed to bring THE HEAVY. Second, I realized that all this time, I was not compressing my drum track whatsoever...a bad move that clearly does not help to bring said heavy. Third, I designed a new guitar patch on my POD XT, with an amp model not subtly called "L6 SMASH." This will be my guitar sound on the record, and will also help to (all together now) bring the heavy. In conclusion, this album shall bring the heavy, and will sound "like an ocean liner being dragged over concrete," to quote Martin Hagstrom of Meshuggah.

And on top of all that, I've done something drastic! I've made the switch from the beautiful Open C tuning (CGCGCE, my tuning for the last 4 years) to the demonic Open C Minor (CGCGCEb)!

Of course, no album of mine would be complete without 6-part vocal harmonies, glockenspiel, and extremely sudden and frustrating stylistic changes every minute or two. Don't worry, I haven't changed that much!