!
Every week feels like a year. It’s only slightly eventful, but the new information coming in can be completely disorienting.
Just a single word from a friend or acquaintance can lead to a whole new path opening up. New seeds are planted, some grow into trees and bear fruit while others I forgotten in the ground.
I tried to book a few shows with the intention of practicing for recording. I had hoped to continue recording as we were practicing for the shows but the two shows we played ended up being way more demanding on us before hand.
In the end, I almost completely forgot about recording, which made me panic when I realized I hadn’t done anything. But then I realized that the first four songs we plan to record are far stronger than they were just a few weeks ago
Band that had come to see us play twice asked if we wanted to jam and so we met them in the studio. They’re both pretty experienced, at least more experience than us, with about two years of experience jamming live.
The first hour, I felt a little insecure because they knew exactly what they were doing, and I hadn’t been in the studio in about 12 years, about a year after I started playing in the first place. i’ve been playing at home this whole time, or at friends places, and almost always acoustic when with other people
I had no idea how to use the amps, setting up was not yet second nature, and most importantly, I found that playing with other people and playing by yourself require a different mindset.
When I play by myself, I can slowly build up on my own choosing where each of the pieces land. When playing with others, you have to work around what other people are playing, and since there are more sounds, not every tool in your box will work when you think it might.
I found myself running out of ideas very quickly because I jumped straight from clean to distorted, with delay and all that aloud volume. I had to play like that in order to be heard with so much going on, especially since Guitar was the most prominent instrument.
But with violin and synthesizer, there was so much sound. It took me about another hour to realize that I could play less than I would play if I were playing by myself. Giving space to others isn’t just a courtesy, it’s a necessary skill in order to create something that sounds balanced.
Luckily, the learning curve for me will be relatively sharp because I have all the basics of Guitar town, at least the most necessary ones, plus I have all kinds of experiences of my own, even if they’re not in professional settings or with other people.
I’m learning things really really quickly. It might take someone a year or two to learn that they need to give other space but because I listen to so much music and I’ve talked to so many musicians. For New being in the studio, it might take about 5 to 10 times in the studio to get used to setting up quickly. For me it might take two or three.
I may not have a ton of experience jamming on stage or with others on electric guitar but I’ve had quite a bit with myself or with a single friend on acoustic and a lot of that carries over.
Meanwhile I was able to ask this band a bunch of questions, about compression and saturation, about the music scene in Tokyo, about organizing shows. They aren’t veterans but they aren’t as new as we are, and we have something to offer them too because we’ve been connected to the art scene, experimental music scene, punk and folk and a few more countries nearby so we can help them too.
It’s a pretty nice thing to have people you can push forward with. I’ve had it with writing and just creativity in general here, but with music and in person it’s the first time since I went on hiatus in 2016 (I restarted in late 2025).
I thought my playing sounded kind of shit, but after listening to the recording , half of it sounds decent (not great) and the other half sounds pretty damn good. I didn’t think we could make something that sounded like Tool but gentler or some serious prog folk but we did.
I hope to have two very different shows with them, both sometime between August and November.
Then there is the staff of the band I love who invited me to play twice who wants to organize a show at my friends space I may end up organizing a fairly large show at what’s usually a punk venue
In any case I want to avoid booking any shows for the next 3 weeks so I can sit down and record the bulk of our album. Then get to work on finishing the last song!
At this point the most important thing is getting these songs out sooner rather than later because I can feel more music that wants to come through and if I don’t clear the path, I can’t share it!
The original plan was to do a song a month but now I want to finish the main tracks for 4 songs in one week!
Here’s to a productive next week!
Speaking Leaves
