In this update of the Behind-The-Scenes with October Evans series, I am going to talk about my experiences, feelings and thoughts of writing and making new music in the midst of a global pandemic, working with studio musicians from SoundBetter in remote home studio locations separately, and finding a way to continue living my life without going back to the \"old normal,\" because let's face it - there is NO NORMAL TO RETURN TO.
This is all while protests are happening, dedicated to partaking in the actively anti-racist actions we commit to from here on out to the day we die old and grey for the Black Lives Matter movement, and I have been unlearning shit, unpacking everything, and re-parenting myself so that I can embrace the real possibility of being loved properly someday. I got a lot of C-PTSD shit bottled up inside that I gotta let out for sure.
But throughout it all, I have found a way to adapt to a new life at home, to be able to work from home and not get infected with COVID-19 at all, and thus far, I've been able to avoid getting sick, so let's keep it that way - knock on wood. And the way I used to make music, by traveling many miles between home to someone's recording studio facility, pay the money upfront and start recording music, vocals, etc. - that's gone now, and I'm pretty sure I do not want to return to that, because why the hell would I want to show up at a studio like Robot Dog Studio in Vermont, all exhausted, emotionally drained from dealing with toxic people on the way there and feeling a little bit checked out, ya know? I think doing it this way with the new changes I've made by connecting with some really great studio musicians at SoundBetter, working on music directly at home and just enjoying myself and being able to rest without stress or worry is a bit of a rather very rare experience, or privilege to have that kind of calm, that kind of peace and silence in being able to rest, to reflect, to unlearn, unpack everything and to take better care of oneself while creating brand new music that's coming out soon... it reminds me of the old days when I would work with my first band, Empty Existence, and me and the original members of that band would get together in different home studio locations, all in our basements, and just work separately, then rarely getting together at least once every two weeks to review what we've done so far, and then keep exchanging sound files, demos, song ideas, lyrics, etc. until it was completed, then by say, the end of a 3 or 6 month songwriting process in its demo stages, we rehearse, practice until we get it right, then go into someone's studio and pay a shitload of money that takes forever for us to save up and record the damn songs and make it into an album. We'd call these old days the \"Basement Studio Dog Days of Our Fucked Up, Anxious Lives\" - that sounds about right - (laughs).
Re-framing my point that I'm trying to make here, it seems to be a lot better this way in the midst of a pandemic, because back then, it'd take literally HOURS, if not days, just to be able to save files, then upload it and send it to our friends in the band, or to just put it on some USB flash drive stick or a burned CD to hand over to each other, especially since we were still growing in terms of the launch of the Internet, and the speed was insanely slow, not as fast as it is today. Do you even know how long it would've taken to just upload an official music video on YouTube back then? It'd probably end up taking like, 3 or 4 days, but if you're really lucky and you're rich white assholes, you'd probably get it done within a day or less. Today? Well, it's pretty fast.
Anyway, this pandemic really forced many people, myself included, to learn to re-adapt to some of the older ways of the songwriting and recording studio process, but also to re-parent ourselves, for a lack of a better term, in being able to get used to living at home more often and working on new music in home studio set-ups that we'd put together for at least a couple hundred dollars, if that. Maybe it'd take about at least 2 grand to put together some really good quality shit to use for recording and making demos together. But then comes the question that begs to be answered: How do we finalize the recording and songwriting process in post-production prior to a single, EP or full-length album release? That's a pretty damn good question.
For me, and I'm not sure how everyone else does their thing - I'd finalize all payments and receive all the files I would then get from the studio musicians I've hired to work on the music and instrumental tracks for me, then record my vocals/lyrics, all that stuff, then send it off to a studio engineer with a complete studio production team who would then do the mixing and mastering process, as well as any additional finishing touches that needs to be done in post-production, have it burned and ready to go, put it in WAV and MP3 files, and for those who are aware of iTunes/Apple Music, we'd put it in an iTunes-ready mastering process and send it off to our distributors (whether that'd be our record labels or indie labels handling that part, or for indie musicians like myself, we'd send it off to CD Baby, TuneCore, use ReverbNation's digital distribution features, or sign up with DistroKid and get it distributed to as many music stores and music streaming platforms as possible, from Spotify all the way up to Tencent Music and beyond), and then comes the hard work, well, at least for indie musicians like myself: shameless self-promotion. Gotta get the word out, ask people to stream, listen, download, buy, etc. on all the music stores and music streaming platforms, including our websites or our Bandcamp platforms, etc., and try to gain real fans that will stay with us and not leave every time we get a single out, or an EP or a full-length album release out, etc.
The real fans, the ones who really enjoy what we do, they're the ones worth keeping around for the rest of your lives, ya know? And it's not easy, especially if you're under the federal poverty level, low income and just trying to make ends meet and save up forever to try to pay the musicians and studio team to get the music out and finished ready to go. Many indie musicians I know have suffered similar fates like me. But we're still around, right? We're still kicking ass.
But all the while, throughout the demo sessions, the songwriting and recording studio process, I have had several moments during all this where I would lose sense of time and not really pay attention to time. I would end up looking up around me in my apartment, and realize that an entire day has gone by, and I have finished writing at least 20 different chorus versions of the lyrics, or the guitarist could end up recording 1,000 melody hooks for a bridge or something, and the drummer could end up drumming throughout the night and not realize it is fucking 10 AM in the morning and he's been up for nearly 36 hours in California working on drum tracks. Hell, even the bassist could end up playing some random bass lines and get goofy.
Trust me, losing the sense of time during a pandemic isn't fun, but at the same time, it can be made to be enjoyable and fun. Why? Because of that possibility that you have just unlocked that untapped creative genius within you and drinking from its well to put out something really fucking amazing, soul-baring and honest, ya know? It's kinda a weird way to explain having lost that sense of time at home as a musician, but I think that many in the music world and its industry would agree with me on that. Maybe, maybe not - but then again, I'm just human and only one person.
Anyway, when I was writing the tunes with the crew at SoundBetter for songs like Shades of Myself and Sleeping Awake, and working on more songs yet to come, I had not really noticed yet that I had lost that sense of time, at least until around July 4th, and I had then realized that I was working nonstop for almost a month and not even realize it was the 4th of July already. I do my best to keep track of the time I spend in the world, but when you're in a global pandemic, it's like time just freezes. Almost very eerily similar to the feelings/emotions/thoughts I have had when I was writing the song lyrics for Frozen in Timeless Trauma, which is another song that I will release later on in 2021 or at least around 2022 - there are so many songs I will be releasing in the form of EPs and single releases, but to have a complete album at some point, I'm not even sure if and when that will happen, because this pandemic could go on for a decade until a vaccine is developed, and we gotta be realistic about that possibility becoming an reality.
With that being said, maybe just doing single releases and EP releases is probably the best path going forward in terms of budgeting, ensuring that I have enough money to survive on each month after paying my rent, my bills and paying my studio musicians and my studio production team, etc., so as long as I am on budget and keeping true to that budget, I should be okay going forward from here. As I've said earlier, there is no normal to go back to. If you can't accept that, well, bully for you. I don't give a shit about your anti-lockdown rants and whiny white boy bitching. Shut the fuck up and deal with it. Wear a mask, for fuck's sake! You want your grandmas to die of COVID-19? Or your nieces? Or even your nephews, your mothers and fathers, your cousins, your aunts, uncles, etc.? Think about somebody else for a fucking change, white people. Jesus fucking Christ...
Whew. Okay, I'm not in ranting mode anymore, so let's get back to the topic at hand. Yeah, I'd say that working on music during an pandemic is very different now than working on music in someone's studio for hundreds of dollars or thousands of dollars per session by the hour, etc. before the pandemic happened, and this is a more cost-effective way of doing so, so I'm glad I was able to stay on budget for the songwriting and recording studio process at home while my crew at SoundBetter makes it so much easier to work on the music while I work on some instrumental ideas, write all the lyrics myself and lay down the vocals and spit-fire some mad rhymes on sick beats in certain songs. Sometimes I rap, but most of the songs, I usually sing, harmonize, scream or croon - sometimes, I do a mix of everything vocal/rapping wise, so it's fun to challenge myself and to get out of my comfort zone to pull off the impossible.
I hope you all enjoyed having this discussion with me and with that in mind, I present to you something that me and the crew put together as yet another instrumental rough draft version of Sleeping Awake. Enjoy. The final finished version should be finished in a few weeks, and then we'll have it out and ready for release on all music streaming/store platforms, on my official website, here on Patreon and of course, on Bandcamp. Until then, take care, stay safe, wash your damn hands, wear a mask, save lives and keep fighting for the Black Lives Matter movement. One Love to you all. See you next time.
Xoxo,
October.