i'm really happy with the way "hold on to my hand" turned out sound-wise. this is the third song i've recorded, so it makes sense that i would start to zero in on what "sound" i want the album to have right around now.
this is pretty normal for my writing process -- i like to think that i can envision large projects in their totality before i start, but it never works out that way. instead, it usually takes me a fair bit of writing and listening and tweaking and absorbing before the overall tone of something starts to crystallize.
my good friend and sometime sound engineer Mike Nirenberg was telling me the other day not to do any final mixes early on; he said it's very common to mix something in january that sounds nothing like what you mixed last august or whatever. that makes sense to me; i already hear huge differences in my sonic goals between long way off and hold on to my hand.
i'm probably going to revisit long way off; i've tinkered with the mix for hours and hours though in the past two weeks and i'm sort of sick of that song right now. so i'm just going to put it on the back burner for a bit while i work on other things.
i've also been thinking about production. it's really difficult to keep perspective on how something sounds when it's your own material and you're also not entirely sure what the final, final sonic end point is going to be. i've been thinking about eventually working with a co-producer who has an ear for the kinds of sounds i'm trying to experiment with. i have approximately zero dollars to do this, though, so i might just solicit the help of friends whose taste i trust, unless i can find someone to team up with who's willing to work for a percentage rather than a fee.
