So I'm changing my whole approach, I think.

Benjamin Strange · #1 10-25-2004, 09:10 PM

As some of you may know I set up a website a while back to post my music on in the hopes of finding like minded musicians to play with. Well, after 7 months, I found a band, and I've thrown my lot in with them. Things are going very well, and hopefully we will start gigging in the next few months once our CD is finished.

So now what was I going to do with my website? After much deliberation, I've decided to take everything down. All my songs are now being submitted to the band, for better or worse. These guys are way professional, and are much better at the recording process than I am. My pitiful little demos just don't match up. So we will probably be re-recording some of them, and it didn't make sense to have demo versions of them available any more. If you got to hear some of those demos, consider yourself fortunate/unfortunate to have heard them.

It's also occured to me that I'm not doing myself any service by letting people hear demo quality music as a first impression of me. So from now on only my weirder stuff that wouldn't fly in this new band will be released on my own, and it will only be released when it's actually sounding good - no more demo quality crap. Hopefully this will force me to be more creative, and more scrutinizing in a studio environment. I need to be better at making recordings, so perhaps this will be a good learning experience for me.

So I guess what I'm saying is that I'm going to be even more artsy, weird, and pretentious in the futre. I hope all of you don't mind. So while you are all waiting for me to put up more music, you can stare at the pretty picture I put up on the site, and quiver in anti-.... pation.

www.benjaminstrange.net

DigMe · #2 10-25-2004, 09:56 PM

I'd like to join in with Benjamin in announcing that I also do not have music available for download.

brad cook

Mike Money · #3 10-25-2004, 10:03 PM

Brad, you rule.

keb · #4 10-25-2004, 10:05 PM

Well, I'm glad I saved a couple of those tunes then!

But I feel the same way you do regarding "demo quality" music. I'm in the writing stage (why does that sound so pretentious?) of an album myself, and while I have a few snippets and demos of half-songs recorded, I have no real intention of sharing. I know of another musician who had a habit of constantly posting rough mixes of his songs, and all he got was a barrage of comments from a million non-musician armchair co-producers in the vein of "Dude, sounds cool, but _______________." (and various flames). I guess he got what he asked for, since he was asking everyone's opinion to begin with, but myself, I'd never get anything done and turn into a total neurotic if I had 8 zillion people's suggestions (and flames!) floating around in my head while I tried to re-record or remix something.

jenderfazz · #5 10-25-2004, 10:12 PM

And here I was thinking you'd start making normal music for a change!

Sometimes it's good to take a look at things and fix them. You now have a band to play with, and so that in itself is a good learning experience. And spending time in the studio working on your creations is equally rewarding. Chances are, you'll record with the band, as well as on your own, which means you'll be experiencing 2 different approaches to recording and contrasting each. And if that means higher quality recordings for us, then all the better!

Benjamin Strange · #6 10-25-2004, 11:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by keb

Well, I'm glad I saved a couple of those tunes then!

But I feel the same way you do regarding "demo quality" music. I'm in the writing stage (why does that sound so pretentious?) of an album myself, and while I have a few snippets and demos of half-songs recorded, I have no real intention of sharing. I know of another musician who had a habit of constantly posting rough mixes of his songs, and all he got was a barrage of comments from a million non-musician armchair co-producers in the vein of "Dude, sounds cool, but _______________." (and various flames). I guess he got what he asked for, since he was asking everyone's opinion to begin with, but myself, I'd never get anything done and turn into a total neurotic if I had 8 zillion people's suggestions (and flames!) floating around in my head while I tried to re-record or remix something.

I was feeling the same thing. My last band was loosely associated with another mega-huge band, and we got alot of flames like that from the other band's fans. Fortunately, most of that has died down, but I still got it every once in a while and it stings. Sure, I shouldn't care too much about what people think, but it still hurts to have a random stranger pound your work. That'll teach me to have a guestbook on my site!

The best comments I got were from dudes on this site. Constructive critisism from some of you helped me improve.

Now, time to go be pretentious.

Matt Till · #7 10-26-2004, 06:33 AM

That's quite odd. I seem to recall your musical styles totally clashing. They more mainstream rock, you more ... whatever the hell.

I suppose your 4/4 songs might fit... if your pop band makes it big with my sampled bassline... holla back at ya boy.

Matt Till · #8 10-26-2004, 08:38 AM

If you are still talking about the same band (they didn't really sound like Nickleback

) and it isn't in the style of your writing approach, don't give up on the solo project, you'll regret it later.

When you write something, think "Is this for the band, or is this for the side project?" Keep Benjamin Strange on the backburner, but keep it going. You'll never know when you might run into some industrial prog nerds such as yourself. :P

So... get your damn site back up.