This is my "theme" for the day.
I believe that music as well as words can convey a feeling, a message, a power.
And the message and power that the music and words convey may not be restricted to what is being sung. You have to listen closer, deeper, to your heart, and soul. The world speaks to us. Everything has a voice. There is a message in the smallest piece of earth. We are all together, part of one great soul, each living the same mystery, in different incarnations. And music has as much as a voice as a singer.
Ok, so if that's not "earthy-crunchy" enough for you, I told Mike tonight that I have felt that the message in the music of the Legacy project was "stop the apocalypse." I think the world is telling us this. I think that we all know it intuitively. And I think that this project expresses the urgency of that message. The words might be about a vampire and the human-drama of son and father, husband and wife ... but there is something deeper behind it... something which transcends the plot outline that it is built upon.
The music is like a secret code...waiting to be decoded by the most astute and sensitive.
This world will find peace... but not before great struggle and change. And man, spirit, and animal will stand side-by-side in the new world, no longer hunter and prey... just the brethren we always were.
But can we get from here to there without an apocalypse?
It can be described as a labor of love I guess. Sometimes, you're so
weary from the weight of life that your shoulders burn. While
physically tired, your mind continues to work, it continues to drive
you forward, ideas and inner thoughts fuel your passion to create. This
is the plight of 'builders', people who can't always slow the spring of
ideas or are even sure from whence they come. When you're driven in
this manner, you sometimes don't really have a choice of whether or not
you go to 'work' -you just work. If, for no other reason, to help
to empty your head of your ideas, give them the freedom they deserve,
give them a life. To see if they can stand on their own two feet...have
a life.
I truely hope people will enjoy our endeavors, I hope they find a
connection to some of these thoughts and ideas that come from some of
the dimly lit, blurry corners of our imaginations.
.
Return to Dark-House: Legacy
With work being so insane these past couple months, music development became virtually impossible for both Mike and I. For me, the gap was filled in short stretches trying to make the new site look at least "approachable" in case we have any casual visitors. I wanted a flash based jukebox with our songs. My nephew had intially written one for me, but he was too busy to add more than the basic features (which were still pretty good), so I invested in the CoffeeCup Web Jukebox. Nice little product. Spent some time customizing it by designing some skins (downloadable to the public), got involved in their forums a bit, offered an xml sdk, etc. Their forum admin people actually began referring questions about skinning to me, here at dar-house.org. That's kind of cool.
Anyway... Right now "just about" every link has at least a "place holder" page, if not some relevent content. We don't have anything for the store yet, though it would be nice someday if we could have various items (you know, hats, bumper stickers, t shirts, cards, pens, decals, posters...) with the logos and art we have created for the site (largely me at this point, but I expect Mike will jump in more when he has time.) I feell like the site does not currently have enough continuity to its look and feel. Part of that was by design. I definitely wanted the main page to be different from the individual projects (Legacy, and Dark Random Thoughts). I also wanted those indvidual projects to be different from one another. I guess using that guideline, it only follows that a certain amount of consistency would be lost.
It was fun building the "about us" questionnaire. That will probably grow over time. Mike still has a few to answer. When I was loading up the page, and reading our respective answers, it amused me how little cross-over there was between our answers. In a lot of cases, it was almost like looking at opposites (literally in the case of Fire/Water ... Spring/Winter...) I think the only thing we both agreed on were favorite actress Winona Ryder, and actor, Ed Norton. This must be why there is a good creative mix when we collaborate. We are not so far apart in our concepts ... but there is definitely a difference in our driving forces.
It bugs me that if a visitor goes to the blog and forum, they are redirected off the site, but I don't seem to have way to put a direct link to go BACK to our MAIN site. I had tried adding a hyperlink, but the CS2 was changing the link code on me. I'll need to try again later. Maybe I'll start adding a link back to Legacy in the individual blogs.
I have a whole page of news built with RSS feeds. It takes about 15 seconds to load since it has so many news and entertainment feeds. http://dark-house.org/myPortal/portal.asp The stocks that are currently on the page are ones that I am watching. The RSS gets transformed on the server. That also slows it down, but at least there is no issue with browser compatability when it is transformed... unlike client-side solutions.
We actually have pretty humble gear. Mike will need to send me the specs on his current mic setup,( and maybe a footnote about how many of his online orders went to the wrong address or had other problems from that popular (but lousy) unfriendly musician's instrument reseller.)
Anyway, for me, we have...
- Kubicki x-factor Bass Serial # 2229 made: 3/90
- Takamine one-piece solid body Guitar (X200-TB), with string locking mechanisms.
- large commercial soundfont collection, with Creative Prodikeys for PC interface
- Roland D20 synth; Sequential Circuits Prophet 600 synth;
- Creative Audigy2 Platinum Pro soundcard and instrument interface
- Line6 GuitarPort
- Roland Cube-100 Guitar Amp
- Once upon a time I had a real violin, trumpet, cornet, upright piano, and french horn, but those days have passed (and don't ask me if I was any good at any of those things. Them's fightin' words!) (the answer, by the way, would be 'no' :-) ) If I had lots of excess cash (as opposed to being flat broke and in debt, which I am - ah the life of a musician - ), I would not only buy a new French Horn, but I would also buy a Cello; just for my own enjoyment. Classical has always been an important part of my life.
- My bass amp was a Yamaha, but I gave it to someone who was actually doing live gigs not long ago. I am in a virtual world these days. Maybe we can get a "virtual gig." I wonder how that would work?
It is May 16, 2006. We have only in this past week registered this new domain name. It is a bigger better host with more options, and a boatload of storage for sound files.
It was slightly over two years ago that this project began. The first phase was shortly after New Years in 2004 when I got an idea for a screenplay, and thought it might be fun to simultaneously develop a concept album AND a screenplay. Mike and I had been in a band together many years before an I loved his lyrics, so I contacted him with the idea, asking if he wanted to write the words. At that point, I was really thinking about writing the music, having him do the words, and getting a totally separate band to play it. It was going to be a "production" project. Mike initially shyed away because the story was too dark, then reconsidered two - three weeks later.
In the next phase, we needed to get a sense of the story. I had the outline for the screenplay and gave Mike a short recap of the whole thing. We broke it down into key emotional moments. He began producing rough lyrics.
I realized I wanted to be able to mock everything up, so I invested in technology for my computer. I turned it into a recording studio. I'd never done anything like this in the 'digital world' before, so EVERYTHING was a learning curve for me. Over time, I would eventually get my synths set up, and soundfont batteries, and thanks to the Audigy2 Platinum Pro, I was able to hook up guitars and basses. Thanks to PowerTracks (an easy to use, affordable, and surprisingly powerful multitrack recorder) I was able to begin creating mockups of music ideas. Then I realized Mike's voice was probably best for the project. Then I realized that I was probably best suited for the music. Neither one of us may be the "best-in-class" in our respective areas, but we each have a certain conviction which I think gives this project its pulse.
We had sat down, during one of our "Chilis" meetings, and discussed the style. From the outset, the style was clear. It was going to be alternative metal, but with a dramatic overtone, operatic, classical, a "pageant". Further, there would be other influcenes in the music: pop, techno, acoustic...
We never really strayed from that. For several of the earlier tunes, I dipped into my classical background and built a "wall of sound." For some of the tunes we are finishing up now, I am using a simpler guitar driven approach.
We are talking about "illustrating" the scenes with some vignettes. Mike is a great artist. He can create compelling art freehand if he chooses. I spent many years in Marketing, and have done a lot of work with images, so I can do a bit on my own (just don't ask me to draw freehand!)
We also have a second project which is not so heavy, not so dark. Those songs (over ten) have been on the backburner so we could try to finish the concept album. Between work and families, and a thousand obstacles along the way, it takes a while for us to put this together. At least we are doing it remotely (he does his parts at his house. i do mine at mine. he uploads the vocals to our website. i download them, add them to the project, and then I do the ten-thousand obligatory mixes per song till we come up with one we like.)
It will be fun when we wrap up the last handful of tunes, and burn a cd in proper sequence, and sit back with a beer, tequila, rum, or coca-cola (depending on mood), and have a listen. We're both perfectionist freaks, so I know neither one of us will ever really be satisfied with the songs. On the other hand, I like "raw edges" to things because if a sound is too-polished, I think the emotion gets sapped away. Pushing production over emotion is boring.
In the end, it should be a great self-produced "indy" album. And it all started here.
copyright 2006 dark-house.org m. larson m. malone