I don’t know why, but, when I get to the end of a piece I find it incredibly hard to finish. I’ve spent the last month rewriting, tweaking, hating the tone quality and generally being dreadfully unhappy with everything about the Wendi piece.

This is normal – I wish I didn’t go through it but I do. I’m probably another couple of weeks away from publishing but it will come eventually. While I work through the bullshit – every now and again I have to sit down and beat the crap out of my frustration on the keys. This is what it sounds like…

transition from one theme to another – no editing yet – just volume and tones – lots of listening to do…

While we’re finishing off the mix on Wendi, couldn’t help but be pretty stoked by the fact that Frustration is now generating over 1,000 views a week on YouTube.

Check it out…

Free members of music2work2 can download Frustration along with the rest of the Writer’s playlist.

I’m an uncle again – heh!

This is her main theme, popped out yesterday – I’ll be working on it after Wendi is published.

Download audio file (caroline-clip.mp3)

I love Christmas – the boys conjured up a new room mic so I put it to use yesterday afternoon. A buddy was going to come over and record a track as a present for a friend but the session got cancelled – so I thought I’d record one instead.

I worked as a writer on a Country gig a few years back; there are several songs from those sessions that I’m very happy with and thought I’d bring them out for a spin. When I listen to this I imagine Kelli or Patsy Cline singing it – I suggest you do the same – my vocals aren’t exactly my A game!

It’s a super loose recording – everything was done in a couple of hours yesterday afternoon – so – with all those caveats aside – here is:

What Am I To Do?

co-written with Kelli Lidell

One of the great things about the Creative Commons license that we use on music2work2, is that it enables other media creators to easily use our music in their projects. Last week we got a request from a Croatian channel asking if they could use the music from Irene to highlight the problems that a local family are facing after their house burned down last year.

If like us you don’t speak or read Croatian, the family in the video lost everything in a terrible fire more than a year ago. They were put into an absolute ruin of a house without flowing water and just one room that is safe from collapse and that can be heated. Apparently they have been forgotten by social services in Croatia so a number of independent artists have got together to raise awareness of their plight. Video’s like this are used to get people interested in helping them out.

If you would like to use music2work2 in a project – give us a shout

Raw mix from this morning’s session. The string parts are almost there and the keys are pretty much dialed in too. This is using the raw audio from the Roland HP203 which I kinda dig. No balancing and just a little bit of panning. Still not got the parts on the back end – but that should come throughout the week.

With the arrival of the new iPhone 4S, video suddenly becomes a lot easier. I’ll be working out things like lighting, candles, mailchimp T-shirts etc over the next few months, the audio track on this is a little low but you should get the idea. Also not quite sure why YouTube insists on sticking me upside down for the still – odd!

I like the rallentando into a perfect 6 count while I take a drink..awesome!

You can listen to the full track below – hell – you can even download it here

Download audio file (oct-21-magix.mp3)

Took a week off the Wendi development last week to let some ideas sink in and incubate. Started back on it again last night and will be working through it this week.

It’s interesting how some themes suddenly pop up and last night I had a visit from an old friend – The Anam Cara.

Originally written for a wedding I like the fact that it pops up in the middle of Wendi’s theme; makes me smile.

Been listening to this all week along with a deeper variation of the core piano theme – the strings need editing but you can hear where they’re going. I love the initial C# where the top string comes in – it delivers a subtle spookiness which is appropriate I think for this theme!

Don’t forget to check out membership – free members get to download the writer’s playlist which contains Frustration – but you’ll need to be an annual member ($15) to get this track when it is published