FAWM 2014 "win" (AKA, where I've been for the last month)

[midwayfair]

"Winning" a personal challenge is a funny way to put it, but hey, FAWM puts a little trophy when you hit 14!

FAWM, for those who don't know, is a self-challenge to write 14 songs in the month of February. Despite getting a late start and having a few weeks of feeling bad due to illness, I even finished a few days early in part thanks to some collaboration with my friend Mosno.

I wrote a blog post about the process. I figure most people here have an interest not just in music but in creation, and it also contains some thoughts about balancing a large number of hobbies and interests.

I hope you guys enjoy reading. I'll leave the set list here for anyone who just wants to hear some tunes and aren't so interested in reading my lengthy post. I do want to stress that these are demos, self-recorded and self-mixed, so there are a few rough spots. But I am always open to honest criticisms and suggestions about the songs, because it's always a process.

[cloudset]http://soundcloud.com/jon-patton-3/sets/fawm-2014[/cloudset]

[culturejam]

I only listened to the first four songs, but damn dude. That's some really good stuff. I wish I could sing like that. 

Bastard. 

[playpunk]

That is awesome. One of my cousins did nanorimo - the novel writing one, and enjoyed it


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[midwayfair]

Thanks for the listens, guys.

That is awesome. One of my cousins did nanorimo - the novel writing one, and enjoyed it

I've thought about doing nanorimo -- and Forrest did something similar on his own recently. One of the people in my gaming group did it, and she's a nurse, so I have no idea where she found the time. I think part of my problem is that the process of sustaining emotional honesty for hundreds of pages instead of just 24 lines of lyrics turned into something that required health-destroying obsessive mindsets for me. But I seriously miss long-form writing and I should get off my butt and finish a third rewrite of the novel I "finished" in 2006. (Which I already have a local press interested in.)

[jrod]

Very cool, midwayfair! I really respect you being able to write so many songs in that amount of time!

I liked Ringing His Bell a lot. For some reason it reminded me of Jackson Brown and Warren Zevon. I really thought the bass lines were cool!

I also like You're Still Here a lot, too!

[jkokura]

I got a few tracks in last night and intend to listen to the rest. Thanks for sharing Jon!

I should do this sometime, but I'd set myself too high a goal and want to do full instrumentation on every song. After a while, the tracking alone would be too hard to finish, never mind the mixing and songwriting.

Jacob

[midwayfair]

I should do this sometime, but I'd set myself too high a goal and want to do full instrumentation on every song. After a while, the tracking alone would be too hard to finish, never mind the mixing and songwriting.

Although I ended up going with FAWM again, there's another challenge you might find better suited to what you want to do: The RPM challenge. That one is simply 35 minutes of music. Lots of instrumentation to me means more opportunities for complicated instrumental sections, something that can't be composed when you're just trying to reach a number rather than a minute mark. You can be adventurous in different ways.

Me, Joe Scala, and Mosno had originally been planning to do the RPM challenge, but Joe ended up being on vacation for the first couple weeks, so mos and I went FAWM instead. Our idea for it was pretty cool, too, and might still materialize (just not as a challenge): we would each come up with two complete sets of lyrics, hand them to the other two singers, who would then write music for them and sing them, and then we'd get together and play all six songs. We all have different styles and different tastes, so I think it would have been awesome. Maybe that'll be the next Baltimericana EP.

Despite all my mixed feelings about my actual output at the end of these challenges, in the end I know that they are making me a better writer, so I can recommend at least attempting something like this once or twice in your life.

[jkokura]

One of the hardest things for me when recording is actually finishing things to be honest. I think a challenge like this would really be good for me.

Chances are high though, that with 35 minutes of music to record, all I'd do is a few long tracks with large instrumental sections. 3 or 4 tracks for 35 minutes is much different than 10 tracks for 35 minutes...

I'd rather, to be honest, set myself the goal of 3 months to record my next album, set myself a theme, a track goal, and then finish each track I work on. Then whittle it down for the album, and release it. However, I never truly seem to get sustained time. Like this summer, I'm gone for 3 weeks on vacation, and I'll be at summer camps as a speaker for two more weeks, but the summer is actually the time I have the most ability to do recording...

Jacob

[slimtriggers]

That seems like an impossible feat.  Really great job on this!   

[Jabulani Jonny]

Jon,
Some really great stuff here.  There are some fantastic melodies in there and good songwriting.  Congrats on finishing up FAWN, that's a heck of a challenge.  I'm working on new material right now and it is definitely a focused effort, versus capturing inspiration.  Can't wait to see more from you.