Another Wednesday means another new original song acoustic music video here on the Laptop Sessions music video blog! The site is more popular than ever and I’m very happy to have my new original music featured in front of so many eyes and ears.
In the midst of working an eight hour day and another almost full-time night job, I got a minute to record this video. I’ve been working on my new album, “Halfway There” for almost two years now and it’s been a whole four years since my last effort. Well, we did have a band in the middle there, so that’s where all of my creativity went for a couple years.
This song actually branches off of that sentiment. The band was a great idea in theory. We were even great on stage. But, when everyone in the band is close to each other friend-wise, then it makes it really difficult to mix work with it. If I had met the other band members at a job somewhere, it probably would’ve worked out better. Tonight’s original song is one that tells the story of the night that signaled the end of the band as we knew it.
I’m not angry. I’m a bit more ashamed, as I say in the song. I really wanted the band to work, but realized it wasn’t working and really couldn’t work with the personell we had. I felt ashamed because I always finish what I start and never got that satisfaction with the band. We even released an album that was credited to the band last year, but in actuality, it was a compilation of what each member was doing at the time. When I think of what might have been…
On my new album, this song is probably the most rockin’ out of the 11 tracks. It’s short, but there’s a pretty cool guitar solo in there that always makes people’s eyes light up whenever I play it for them. I guess they never pegged me as the Guitar Hero type. Well, it’s off to work for the rest of the night- I hope you enjoy tonight’s video. I still want to remix and remaster four songs because I want this one to be as near-perfect as I can get it. See you then!
Hello and welcome to my first Original Wednesday since Christmas Eve! This is an exciting week for me, as I’m off from work. There have been plenty of things to keep me busy — really, too many to list — but I woke up this morning and, despite the work I should be doing, I decided to work out this song and record it for tonight’s session.
The song is called “Transitions” and this is a Laptop Sessions world premiere. It may make it to my next album, it may not… Only time will tell! I hope you like it. This is the first fully recorded version of it, so it’s a demo of sorts. It’s not perfectly arranged yet, to be sure, but I’m pretty happy with the overall structure of it. Some of the words may change, some of the rough edges will be smoothed out, but this is your sneak peak at the first complete version of it. I messed around with the harmonica even after I finished recording this video, and I have to say that this song has (and/or will have) one of my favorite harmonica parts that I’ve written in a very long time. It’s a very deliberate aspect, but not so note-for-note that it sounds scripted.
Outside of writing and recording this song, I’ve been busy during my February break with some grading for my classes, jury duty yesterday (I was released after “a day’s service”), preparing logs for my BEST portfolio, reading three things (Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Pro Wrestling, and the 40-page booklet to the Sam Jones film I Am Trying to Break Your Heart), and listening to several albums, including MoU’s Homestead’s Revenge (I think “Worlds Apart” is my favorite song we’ve ever done!), Pearl Jam’s Binaural, and Dan Auerbach’s Keep It Hid. Oh, and I can’t forget to mention my favorite playlist that I referred to in Monday’s post — the “Albums of 2008” iTunes playlist. Good stuff all around…
We’ve gotten a decent number of views to the blog for the chords and cover video of Dan Auerbach’s “My Last Mistake.” That’s exciting because I wasn’t sure what to expect with this fairly obscure song choice. It’s all the more incentive for me to keep on top of new rock music, bringing whatever I can to the blog as my contribution to this, the best acoustic cover song blog in the universe! No kidding!
Okay, that’s it for me for this week. But, even as I write that, I’ll be back to choose and post a Guest Session for Friday. We’re accepting submissions every day, so don’t wait — record a video on YouTube and send the link to us today with an interesting description.
Yes, that’s right- a world premiere tonight here on the Laptop Sessions music video blog!
My first solo album in four years — “Halfway There” — was in the works. I can’t believe it’s been that long. And, with the production value and songwriting skills, you’ll realize that I’ve grown in many ways over that time. I’ve seen a band come and (essentially) go in that time. I’ve produced and written songs for two albums while in that band. “Homestead’s Revenge” is truly a great album and I can only hope that “Halfway There” can top it.
I hope to create some sort of buzz for the new album. I spent so long making it and I’m so proud of it that I wanted to wait until the Laptop Sessions got popular to release it. Maybe now, my collegues here on the site will realize why I’ve been pushing them so hard to find better avenues for popularity here on the music video blog…
This song, “Halfway There”, is obviously the title track, but it doesn’t appear until track 10 on the 11 track album. It’s funny- my last album was 13 tracks and this new album is longer with two fewer songs! The songs on this album are well-thought-out and complete. The songs on this album take their time and don’t sound too rushed. The songs on this album are the songs I always knew I could make, but never really had the time or the resources to complete. You can see why I’m so proud of it!
Of course, this album has a theme. When you see the album cover, which is awesome, by the way, you’ll get more of the theme’s meaning. I’m having a great painter named Ben Quesnel paint the cover. In exchange, I’ll be making him a website for all of his artististic work. It’s a great trade-off and I know we’ll both be very happy in the end.
Tonight’s song really sums-up the whole concept of feeling “Halfway There”, hence it’s place towards the end of the album. I give examples of what I’m trying to say throughout the album and finally give it a nice summary towards the end.
The tune came to me while driving back home after our usual trip to my parents’ house on Thursday nights for TNA iMPACT! on Spike TV. I knew the title of the album long before I wrote this song. Thinking of the album and its title, I started to sing to myself in the car: “Halfway there…halfway there…halfway there…I’ll always be halfway there…” I proceeded to drive home much faster than usual and fleshed-out the song a bit more.
Actually, I made a YouTube video of how I developed this song- here it is below. Then, you can watch tonight’s Laptop Session Original Wednesday version and get a better feel for the finished product.
Of course, the REAL finished product has literally ten of my vocals on the chorus- it sounds so cool! Again, I finally have the techniques and everything down to make productions like this possible…and sound good, too! But, for now, I hope you’ll enjoy the first newly-released track off of my upcoming album, “Halfway There” on acoustic guitar for tonight’s Original Wednesday music video.
Hello and welcome to a special Christmas Eve edition of your best bet for excellence in cover musicianship on the web — the Laptop Sessions home page!
For tonight’s video, I had initially planned on recording my original Christmas song “Moment.” I have written two original Christmas songs in the past, and I already recorded the other (“Christmas Cards”) last year. Thus, I began practicing “Moment.” And I wish I had taken the time to record it earlier, because I really do like that song. I take issue with some of the lyrics now, as I find them much too cheesy at points, but the overall feel of the song is one that I love.
Then, a song started coming to me. And I’ll break my general silence on my songwriting process here, as there is such an amalgamation of influences and ideas that came together to forge this song. First, you should know that I am purposely tipping my hat to the classic Christmas tune “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” with the beginning of my chorus lines. Also, I used a chord pattern that Jim and I found to be recurrent in a lot of our favorite Christmas songs. It’s a cycle of sorts with barre chords, starting with a major, going down two frets to a minor, then the lower minor on the same fret, and finally jumping back up to a higher fret. Then, the same pattern is repeated.
In terms of what the words mean, I started off writing about my feelings about a very important person — my girlfriend of three years — who I’m no longer with. I haven’t really resolved the situation, so there’s a lot on my mind and I think the emotion got this song started.
Then, I began to think about Christmas in general. The past few years, I’ve really missed being able to spend the Christmas Eve festivities with my close friends. Thus, the song shifted to be about reclaiming my Christmas traditions with my friends.
As the lyrics progressed and I changed lines, the song shifted again to be about my grandmother, who passed away a little over a year ago. This is only my second Christmas without her, and I can’t understate how big a part she has always been of my Christmas. As a kid, she and my grandfather would come over on Christmas Eve and we would have a really relaxing, enjoyable night — nights that I will forever remember with great fondness. As a young man and up until last year, Christmas became an increasingly more important opportunity to spend quality time with her. I don’t quite have the words right now in this format to describe what those days were like or what our relationship was like, and that’s what I tried to accomplish in the song.
Thus, I dedicate this song to my Grandma Moore, a person that I am truly better off for having known and grown up with. I’m going to miss her a lot tomorrow, but writing this song really did help me to express some of that emotion.
As a final sidenote, I spent tonight at the second annual Fusco-Moore Experience Christmas Eve party. I didn’t attend last year, but I figured I should probably attend this year, as my name is in the title and all… According to Jim, the real reason I attended was because I didn’t have anything better to do. Now, this may be true, but… Seriously, though, tonight was really relaxing and fun, the food was amazing, I’m somehow still full from the multi-course meal, and thankfully, Jim’s mom cleaned the dishes. It was a Christmas miracle, as far as I was concerned, that I didn’t have to clean them. I always expect to, and there was more than double our average amount of dirty dishes tonight! Thank you again, Mrs. Fusco!!
Jim, Mike, and I are planning a little get-together we’ll call “Mas Christmas” — or, for those of you who do not habla espanol, “More Christmas.” I’m definitely looking forward to that!
For now, I’m off to get ready for Christmas morning. It will be a full day, capped off by an all-new episode of TNA Impact! at 9pm in the Fusco Theatre. And YOU will have an exciting new yuletide Jeff Copperthite video to look forward to…
