I've finally had enough time to pull another cover together, "Milk" by Sweet Trip. This time and as part of my learning, I've mixed and mastered the track myself mostly from watching YouTube videos. There are subtle but very important things that need to be done to the track in order for it to sound decent, for example panning some instruments to the left and right of the audio track so they're not mashed together in the middle; Modulizing and EQ filtering instruments and vocals, making sure nothing is clipping in the master track, etc.
October was all about music and good times. We kicked it off at the Paramount Theatre with Yung Gravy, and that show brought the energy big time. Next, we headed out to Remlinger Farms for Goth Babe. Shoutout to Pato for letting us borrow his jeep.
The musical highlight of the month was definitely Moon Hooch at The Nectar. Honestly, it’s my second favorite performance ever — only Bad Bunny at Coachella beats it. The vibe was crazy and the energy was off the charts. I can't believe with 3 instruments they were producing sounds that resembled dubstep.
We didn’t stop there. We also saw Lamp at the Showbox. Getting in was wild since the line was massive, but once we were inside, it was all worth it. I loved how people were shouting "suki da yo" (好きだよ), me being a weeb and knowing what it meant.
After all the noise and chaos, we drove to Ocean Shores with Tofu for the chillest experience of the year. Abby mentioned how good it feels to just run in an open field and feeling free. So we both ran with Tofu, it felt incredible. Driving on the beach to good tunes was pure magic, and “Strangest Thing” by The War on Drugs really hit the spot.
A couple of weeks ago we hit Beverly Dunes. It was an exciting experience, and aside from thinking we were dying or totaling the truck at one point, it was a great experience.
I knew the terrain needed to be scouted first, which we did for a little while before getting hyped up and just sending it. Eventually, we reached what was the drop of a dune and that felt like we were done for.
I tried breaking but it was too late, it happened in less than 2 seconds but then we were just peacefully sliding on the other side of the dune. Basically like this:
I asked Abby to give me the All American roadtrip experience, where she played some country bangers. Also a lot of Neil Young.
The desert was dead quiet. Had not experienced that in years.
It was December of last year when I decided to try learning a new instrument.
Although I still had a lot to learn and practice on the piano, for better or worse, I've always thought of myself as someone who goes wide into hobbies rather than deep.
I figured the bass would be a good instrument to start with strings since you typically deal with single notes and patterns instead of chords. I picked it up and quickly began to understand how it works.
Coming from a piano background, it wasn't hard to grasp the patterns. The frets on a bass follow the same order as the keys on a piano, so once you find a couple of landmark frets, you can figure out your way around fairly easily.
Of course, I'm speaking on a basic "gets the job done" level, as all instruments have different levels of complexity depending on how you're playing them and how fancy you want to get.
After having the bass for a couple of weeks, I figured I could simultaneously learn how to play guitar since I was already taking lessons from my teacher, Larson, who could also teach me the guitar.
I picked up a beautiful sunburst Squier, and oh boy, it was definitely more difficult to learn than the bass. Single notes wouldn't do it anymore; now, I had to learn chords, strumming techniques and patterns, and deal with the calluses that come with it. Eventually, I was tempted by Facebook Marketplace to get an acoustic guitar, so I got that too.
I thought I now had enough instruments to start covering a few songs that I liked and that I found to be "simple" enough for a beginner to play. Although I knew I still wasn't at an ideal level to actually play music, let alone sing, I figured covering some songs would be a cool way to stay motivated and see that all the lessons and practice are paying off.
So here they are. I recommend using headphones, and also note that there is a brief period of silence at the beginning of the videos.
Enjoy!
"Love's not an Obstacle" by Metronomy
"Living Proof" by The War on Drugs
And for an outro:
"How our love grows" by Tyler Burkhart
These were recorded over a period of six months. It turns out that recording the instruments is one thing, but recording video, editing, and dealing with Ableton and Adobe Premiere as a newbie also take their own time.
Special thanks to my sensei, Larson, and my producer, Franco.
Last weekend, we went to Kachess lake for a little bit of off-roading and kayaking, which I finally had the chance to introduce Tofu to! We had a lot of fun and though she was nervous at times, we think she enjoyed it a lot. Many more summer adventures ahead!
Riding in the truck bed felt good in the 26c weather!
I spent my birthday's weekend in Glacier National Park. We got to see some pretty views, and it was the first time I was traveling with Tofu, she did great! Montana, specifically Kalispell, reminded me a lot of Laredo Texas (just more white and conservative 😝) which is beautiful in it's own way.
Views
Pup cup for Tofu
Tofu's first time in the water! (Didn't think she'd want to go in)
One of the many stops along Going-to-the-Sun road
Friday, July 5, 2024
hey! I created this blog in anticipation for uploading some cover music videos I've been working on for the past few months as I don't think youtube's copyright system would allow for much.
although I must say, for a while I've been thinking on starting a blog. Not made for anyone specifically, but for me. I hope it serves as some sort of journal I can come back to, reflecting my interests and thoughts at the time of each post.
