Tag Archives: 2010 project

“Threshold” (Chris Moore) – Original Wednesday

Posted on by
Reply

By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to my first true Laptop Session in quite a while — since December, to be specific, when I covered the Goo Goo Dolls song “Laughing.”  Well, I’m back today with an original song from my new album, The 2010 Project, which was released just a couple weeks ago.  In fact, the day after my album hit the web for download, Mike Fusco (who mixed and produced it) and I went to see the Goo Goo Dolls.  This was our second time seeing them — and I won’t repeat what I wrote about them back in December — but suffice it to say that it was exciting going to see a band with so many anthemic songs, a group that can create such energy and drive the audience so masterfully.  And look like they’re having the time of their lives on stage.

We left the concert revved up: proud of the project we had just completed the day before and excited for new music to come.

So, now that a couple weeks have passed and I’ve had the opportunity to play The 2010 Project songs live again, thinking of them as whole songs to perform rather than in pieces (as I did during the recording sessions), I had the itch to return to the Laptop Sessions and debut those songs that haven’t been seen and heard here yet.

This is the second track on the album, “Threshold,” and one which stands out from the rest for the fast delivery during the verses and the statement of purpose in the chorus that could very well be the thesis statement for the entire album.  For this video, I (for obvious reasons) couldn’t include the guitar solo performed on the studio version, so I broke out my “E” harmonica and worked out a simple solo and added some flares to the beginning and end of the performance.  It clocks in at under three minutes, and is a good example of the type of music I’m making these days.

And, for those who have heard the demo version, this is a significantly improved arrangement!

I also recorded “You Will Thank Me” as well as the single from the album “It All Comes Around” — those videos are in the archive.

See you next session!

 

More from the Laptop Sessions

“You Will Thank Me” (Chris Moore) – Original Wednesday

Posted on by
Reply

By Chris Moore:

Where once it was “a session-a-day,” it’s become more like “a session-a-month” for me.

I’m back today with another installment in my 2010 Project acoustic music video series.  Today’s selection is one of the most recently written songs, “You Will Thank Me.”  It’s an escapist song, one written from the point of view of someone who’s getting out of town, leaving it all behind.  I sing “I’m sellin’ out, son,” but I think it’s less of a cop-out or giving up than it is of literally selling out — cashing in and walking away from a table that’s lost any possibility for good fortune.

I love singing and playing this one — it’s probably one of the simplest I wrote for this album — although I did have some trouble playing it, so I recruited Nicole to come sit on the couch and act as audience so that I felt some pressure, like there was something on the line in this performance.

Speaking of performance, I’ve been feeling the itch to play live recently.  I’ll go on record here saying that I would be very disappointed if I didn’t play at least one show before the year was out.  I’ve been playing acoustic and electric, and even practicing bass, so that I’ll be ready to fit in wherever and however the gig calls for.

Have a happy “Hump Day” and hurry back for more soon.  (Really: who ever thought of that nickname for Wednesday??)

See you next session!

More from the Laptop Sessions

“I Would Prefer Not To” (Chris Moore original)

Posted on by
Reply

By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to another edition of Original Wednesday here at the Laptop Sessions!

Tonight, I’m happy to present the second installment of my summer preview series of my forthcoming album The 2010 Project.  I began recording demos a few months ago, as I mentioned in a previous post, and now I’ve officially hacked out a track listing.  There will be thirteen tracks, all of which are fully composed now and have been recorded in demo form — a few of the demos are more fully produced, but minimally.

Now, I’m at the phase where I’m putting together the tools I need to record.  With the help of a friend, I’ve recently picked up a set of seriously great headphones, which will be a necessary component of the mixing process.  He also helped me pick out a USB microphone that I’ve been experimenting with this week.  There is a line in and external mic plug that I may use if I’d like to refine the sound quality as I begin to record the tracks in a couple weeks.  Finally, I had to replace my guitar pedal, which I had to throw away a few months ago when I pulled it out of storage and found the batteries had leaked.  I tried to clean it out, but it was too far gone.  So, I just got the latest Zoom pedal, which I can’t wait to try out!

Which brings me to the track I’m unveiling today.  Previously, this has only been played for two people: my girlfriend and one of my dearest friends of all time.  Both encouraged me that the new music I’ve been writing is among my best, so I’m hoping to make them proud by the time I’ve finished recording this new album.

And it’s about time — this marks four years since Love Out of Fashion!

“I Would Prefer Not To” will be the second track on the album, following “No Lights, No Sound.”  Those of you English majors out there will pick up on the allusion to the Herman Melville short story “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street.”  The verses are as simple as they come, only two chords: D and A.  When I record the studio version, I hope to flesh out the riff I have in my mind and make that more catchy.  The chorus is more interesting and, as in my favorite songs by artists like Bob Dylan, Mike Fusco, and others, the lyrics change slightly each time around.  The song deals with the conflicts that arise from not wanting to disappoint others, but also needing to follow your impulses and passions.  It’s a very personal song, critical at times — though it’s meant to be more confident than scathing — and I think there is a universal quality to it, regardless of its personal nature.

Without further ado, I give you my acoustic performance of “I Would Prefer Not To.”  I hope you like it, and that you’ll continue to check back for more Original Wednesdays in the near future.

See you next session!

Related posts

“No Lights, No Sound” (Original Wednesday)

Posted on by
Reply

By Chris Moore:

Well, it’s been a while since I posted a music video, so I figured I’d better make certain my YouTube account was still functional…

This week, instead of recording a cover song, I felt that it was time to kick off The 2010 Project music video series I’ve been planning for a while.  You may be wondering, what exactly is The 2010 Project?  It is the working title — and, based on a recent conversation, very possibly the official title — of my forthcoming album.

Thus far, as of April break, I’ve chosen the thirteen songs that I plan to record and completed the writing of both music and lyrics.  Since then, I’ve recorded acoustic demos of each song and begun listening them in order to help me think of and decide on arrangements and various aspects of how I’d like the final products to sound.  I’ve been experimenting with GarageBand drum loops, and I’ve been practicing the songs quite a bit since April.  Every weekend since then, I’ve taken an hour to sit down and play through the album in order.

As with any big project like recording an album’s worth of material, anything’s liable to change by the time the final product is ready to be heard.  That being said, I plan to string together thirteen installments in this music video series, each featuring one of the aforementioned songs.  And, understanding that anything can change, I’ll be releasing them here on the blog in the order I plan to sequence them on the album.

The first song up is “No Lights, No Sound.”  Laptop Sessions regulars may recognize this as a video I’ve already recorded and posted over a year ago.  However, this is the finalized version, with some slight lyric changes and additional verses.  This song is a rare case of old lyrics re-emerging on a new song.  The story here is that, a few months ago, I came across the lyrics for an old song that I never really committed to, but had always liked a few lines from.  I thought they might fit nicely into this song, and with a few alterations, I think they do.

In a lot of ways, this is one of the simplest songs on the list, a tune that started as I walked around my room in the dark almost two years ago.  I was home alone, my capo on the second fret from having played another song (which I’ve since forgotten), and the first line sort of came to me: “The lights are off; there’s no one around…”  I wrote this and the first chorus, but that was it for a while.  It wasn’t until months later that I added the middle section and new verses.  Then, this past April, I deleted a verse and added two more in.

“No Lights, No Sound” is a song that has weathered several phases in my recent life, a track that has been conceived, shaped, and reshaped by these phases and survives in its current form with a scheduled slot as the opening track of The 2010 Project.

I hope you like this one.  For some reason, even though my allergies haven’t been hitting me as hard as they probably will soon, my voice wasn’t at its peak today.  That being said, I feel that worked for this solo acoustic performance.

So, without further ado, here is the first installment in the series — hurry back every day this week and both days of the weekend for new posts!

See you next session!

More music articles