Jody Whitesides

Tag: independent music recording journey

  • Finalizing “Waiting On One Thing”: New Arrangement and Studio Prep

    Finalizing “Waiting On One Thing”: New Arrangement and Studio Prep

    Getting these songs done is taking a little longer than anticipated. Grrrrr. Outside interests wanting music created in a hurry is the main reason. Another is the onslaught of the holidays. Of course there was recent mic issue. Despite that, I’m happy to announce that the eighth song finalized is “Waiting On One Thing”.

    I spent time rethinking the arrangement. Mostly I’m adding additional bars of things between sections to give it some extra ear candy to the flow of the song. It was short before. Now it’s at it’s full length and it’s still less than 3 minutes long. Kind of surprising to me. I don’t usually write songs for myself that come in so short. Especially full fledged pop/rock style stuff.

    At this point the flesh is there. I’m waiting on the mic (one thing) to come back so I can lay down the tweaked lyrics. That’s the last part. An important part, but it won’t change the arrangement at this point. No, the song is not about waiting on a piece of gear that is out of order. Geez. I have little more depth than that.

    I’ve got 10 songs to go. I have my guesses as to what it will be. You’ll have to wait to find out when I announce it. However, I won’t stop you from emailing me a guess (The Song List Link). Maybe it will change my mind…

    For now, be aware that song eight to be finalized is “Waiting On One Thing”. Have a great day and spread some cheer whatever your holiday greeting is!

  • The Creative Process of Finalizing My New Track “In Disguise”

    The Creative Process of Finalizing My New Track “In Disguise”

    Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving in the States. I got to spend time with friends and family which is always a bonus. I got a little sidetracked in getting this demo done (I’ll explain in a bit). However, my third song finalized is In Disguise. Got it done last night.

    First off, last week one of my best friends, Jeff Scott Soto, was in town for a couple of days. He’s on tour with TSO (Trans Siberian Orchestra) as one of the lead singers. Nothing like getting a call to come hang out with him and then meet several of the other awesome singers (Nathan James, Dustin Brayley). Monday night was a fun night of bar hopping, some alcohol, and hitting the stage where a blues night open jam was going on. I think we freaked out the band. They took it in stride and we had a blast on stage. The TSO show itself was a sonic and visual spectacle. Go if you can!

    Then the holiday and a couple of days of down time. Leads me a couple of days behind where I thought I’d be.

    In Disguise was a co-writing thing that involved myself, Johnny Elkins, and Lindy Robbins. Being the musical guy in a room with a couple of lyricists that I had just met was a great experience. I played traffic cop on all the words they were putting together, along with coming up with the music parts and helping with the melody. We got a real winner of a tune that came of it. The original demo was sung by Lindy herself – who is no slouch of the singer: She Got Pipes!

    This tweak for my version ended up taking two days. I can’t sing quite as high as Lindy so I had to figure out what key I was going to put the song in. I tweaked the tempo slightly. Then I had to lay down all the parts again in the new key. I put in my vocals and mapped out some of the extra parts that I’ll be bringing some of my TSO singing buddies to sing background on this bad boy in the studio. It’ll be a bit more beefed up, a little more ballsy, and a hair faster than the original demo. In listening back I can also hear some additional parts of some horns and maybe in the bridge a bit of dub bass. Hmmmm…

    Parts laid out.

    Anyway, consider another one down and ready for final flight. Because the third song finalized is In Disguise and it’s a super keeper. Tomorrow has me choosing another song to dress up for pre-production goodness. Stay tuned to find out what song it is and… how soon I get it done.

    — Jody

  • Recording My New Album: The 18 Tracks That Made the Cut

    Recording My New Album: The 18 Tracks That Made the Cut

    Music is flow. Music is life. When it comes to getting ready to record new music, decisions have to be made. Sometimes they’re easy, sometimes they’re not. I’ve been slotting out new songs and have finally got it down to 18 new ones that seem to resonate best. Not only with me, but with others as well. It’s these song decisions that make up what artists will release.

    I’ve been mulling it over and I’ve come to decide the following. I will put full effort into the final 18 songs that are left in the hopper. Meaning I will record all 18 of them to studio greatness. Once I’ve done that 12 of them will go on to make the official release. The other 6 will be bonus gems to be fawned over by die hard fans.

    Here’s the song titles, in no particular order other than alphabetic:

    American Mayhem
    Careful
    Femke
    Imagine Life
    In Disguise
    It Burns
    Jupiter Bowl
    Love Takes a Holiday
    New Here
    Stand My Ground
    Stand Up
    Things Left Unsaid
    Thump Thump Thump
    Till We Meet Again
    Touch
    Vaporize Your Heart
    Waiting On One thing
    You Can’t Hear

    I’m not going to tease you with a time frame just yet but these songs are going to see a release date. I promise you that. Besides what good would it be for me to make these song decisions and then screw up the date if they weren’t done yet? None, I tell you. None good.

    — Jody

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