I’m sure a lot of people are wondering if I’m still making music. I very much am, but it’s a slow process putting a whole album together. When I started on it, three years ago now, CD albums were still pretty much what a musician shot for. But I don’t write songs that fast. About a year into it, the whole industry seemed to change, and the concept of the CD album melted away, dissipated, unraveled. It seemed like smaller online EPs and singles were necessary to keep your music current and accessible. Not to mention that live performances seem almost essential now for generating buzz, and Bounte has never been much of a live project.

But I was left with this whole album project in mind and in process. So I kept at it, writing demos, and filing them away, took hiatuses for getting married and honeymoon, developing Beatserv and for playing with The Atomica Project, took some trips around the country. This year I became a homeowner and moved around town, and helped some friends produce their music. By this time, all the writing was done, but 11 songs still needed final vocal recording and mixing, and that all takes time as well.

Right now 2 or 3 songs are completely done, ready for consumption, and I’m deciding what to do with the whole pile of work. Do I share a couple tracks now to keep everyone interested? Do I reserve it all for a come-out-of-nowhere surprise attack? Do I release the whole thing myself? Do I shop around for record labels? Any ideas?

Not from me though. My friend Pete’s band, Number Nine, has been playing so hard that they blew up their bass amp. So he called me up and asked if they could try blowing up mine. So I said, sure, good luck! I installed a 15″ Eminence Legend speaker in my GK combo, so it’s twice as loud, twice as heavy, and there’s no way the amp can pump enough power through the speaker to blow it or overdrive and fry the electronics. There are definitely better amps out there, but this has one hell of a speaker.

I was going to invest in some acoustic treatment for my studio, but I’ll have to maintain my car instead. My studio has some odd bass rumbling, so I’ll need some bass traps, but my car had some odd rumbling in the brakes. I figure the priority is in stopping the car before stopping the bass.

1969 Martin 016-NY

I’m borrowing a very nice guitar that’s made for finger style and sounds stunning when played by someone with guitar skills, so I figured I should learn how to use it properly. So I took a finger picking guitar workshop this weekend at the Old Town School of Folk Music. What better place to learn how to play a folk guitar? It’s a friendly and relaxed atmosphere there. The workshop leader, Charles Kim, is a very fine teacher who seems to enjoy playing and teaching.  While I learn most things just fine on my own, it’s nice to have some foundations to build off of. At least I know how some of that jangly contrapuntal guitar music is made now. Actually, for someone like me with a more linear music sense, the finger style is a comfortable concept. And as a bass player, the finger movements are already somewhat familiar.

I don’t know that I’ll include the style in any songs, but it is a new tool in the toolbox. I’ll keep practicing the couple patterns I learned and see how it goes.

Alan

Alin

Today Wade Alin and Alan Ruffin get a shout out. Wade’s been pumpin’ away on pimpin’ out Alan’s vocals on the new Bounte tracks. You can look forward to some pretty moments, some sophisticated moments, and some “holy badass, Fatman!” moments on these tracks. Soon you will find out What’s In The Cards for you and me.