RPM '08

This year I participated in the RPM Challenge. The "challenge" is to write, record and produce an entire album's worth of material in one month. Naturally, they pick the shortest month of the year for the challenge. Home recorder folks all over the globe participate in the challenge and since I didn't do it last year, I really wanted to do it this time around. Plus, since it's leap year. I got an extra day.

If you want to hear it, just click here. There is a little audio player on my page. Start at the song February and let it play through. (The name on the page is Henry because I was in a band in high school called Henry, and when I first signed up for the site it was a bit embarrassing to have my own name up there. So Henry it is,)

Anyway, I mailed my album off yesterday. Writing it was pretty hard. I have never in my life tried to crank out so many songs in such a short amount of time. I'm really happy with some of them, but some of the others are, let's say, sub par. I got off to a really good start. The second song I wrote last month is called Reunion. I am really happy with it. I wrote it shortly after we learned that we're going to be able to get sealed. So it's a happy love song. I was also thinking about the passing of President Hinckley and how cool it must be for him to be back with his wife. What's better than that right?

The other one I'm really proud of is the song Again. I think it's probably one of the stronger songs I've ever written. When I first put it up on MacIdol I got a few comparisons to Brian Eno, which is one of the biggest compliments I've ever gotten regarding my music. I know he's an obscure musician, but he's been so influential on so much of the best pop music out there that when his name came up in regards to my songs, I was thrilled.

I think the most interesting thing I learned from this is that I can force myself to write music. It doesn't mean the music will be good, but I can do it. I usually only wrote this stuff when "the mood" hits me, but with the pressure of the deadline to finish an album's worth of material I was able to sit and just crank out some songs. Granted, there are a few tracks I want to go back and work on A LOT more. But that's fine. These songs wouldn't exist at all had I not participated in the challenge.