Post-Vacation Fatigue, Creative Muscle Flexing, Vinyl Therapy

First day back at work after a week and a day away is always rough. I went a whole week without the tightness in my shoulders and neck that I typically get after a day at my desk. Of course vacation offered its own generous portion of pain and panic, but not that repetitive motion kind of pain. So by the time my workday was done on the first day back I felt like I’d been put through the wringer. The lifting of the boxes, the awkward desk stance, and staring at a computer screen for most of the day took its toll on me. I got home and changed into shorts and sat down on the couch. I’d planned on going for a 4-mile walk, but with my mind and body on post-work shock I decided to just sit the walk out today.

I think it was a wise decision.

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I got my acoustic guitar out and proceeded to just strum. My acoustic guitar has been sitting idle far too long and so I brought it upstairs Monday and made the decision to get it out everyday and play. Last year I’d read Jeff Tweedy’s book How To Write One Song, in which he talks about sitting down and try to write at least one song a day. Doesn’t have to be a complete song, but maybe a skeleton of a song; a chord progression, a riff, a melody, something you can record and hold onto to revisit later. I’ve learned that if something hits you better record it, otherwise it’ll disappear into the ether like a dream you can’t recall only moments after waking from it.

I also recently heard someone say that you can’t wait for inspiration to hit. You need to make your own inspiration. Even if you’re not in the mood to play you pick up the guitar and play anyways. Work through the malaise and go looking for some auditory gold. Even if something doesn’t seem special you record it anyways so it’s saved. X marks the spot, and after a few days you may go back and re-listen and find that something is revealing itself that wasn’t there in the moment. You may end up deleting it at some point, but just in case it proves to be something special later on why not document it? Besides, if anything it’s practice. Keep those callouses good and hard on those fingertips. Mine have gotten a little soft due to lack of playing, so this is good for me either way.

I’ve got 4 song ideas recorded in just a couple days, so I feel this is an exercise worth repeating. For the longest time I’ve felt my days of writing “song” songs were pretty much done. I find much satisfaction out of making instrumental music, so I’ve kind of talked myself out of writing traditional songs. Seeing Dr. Dog last Thursday was an inspirational moment for me. It broke some walls down that I’d built up in regards to songwriting. Though as to dissuade frustration setting in I’m just concentrating on music right now. I get some solid melodies and chord changes locked in I’ll record the music part, then just sit and listen to the music for a bit and see what sort of lyrics and vocal melodies come to mind. If anything, I’ll have some nice instrumentals to listen to.

Mostly, I think I’ve just missed that feeling when a song comes together. The right chord changes, lyrics, and vocal melodies meld to make this perfect little song. It’s kind of magic. No, it is magic. And I used to perform those magic tricks like a pretty good magician. It can’t hurt to play for 20 to 30 minutes a day and record some in-the-moment ideas.

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Another thing that had been lagging a bit was painting. I hadn’t been doing much of it the last couple months. I started one a month or so ago but kind of messed it up so I painted over it and started again. I’d done some work on it the weekend before we left for Denver, and today I got back to it and added some color to it. I’m liking where it’s going. Not sure if I’m done with it or not. If I’m not I think I’m at least close.

I had some extra black paint poured out so I pulled out my sketch book and did a quick thing that kind of opened to door to something new. Might get a bigger canvas out this weekend and try some stuff.

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One thing about that Denver trip was that I got to hit up a couple really cool record shops. Twist and Shout Records and Wax Trax Records. I scored some great albums, including Thom Yorke’s Confidenza Soundtrack, King Crimson’s Three Of A Perfect Pair(remastered on 200 gm vinyl), Freddie Hubbard’s Straight Life, Cluster’s Zuckerzeit, and Joey Tafolla’s Out Of The Sun.

Very happy with all of those purchases, and the latter was kind of a nostalgia trip for me. I’ve got a soft spot for Mike Varney’s Shrapnel Records releases, having been a prime source of inspiration and OCD album finding in my early teens. Honestly, I’ve never even heard the album. It was $7.99 at Twist and Shout and I just knew it had to come home with me. I’m sure it’s very standard 80s neo-classical guitar shredding that is subpar to the handful of guitarists of the time that had something unique about their playing, but that’s okay. Finding something like this out in the wild was fantastic.

It’s all about the thrill of the hunt.