journal

Best wishes for 2008 and all that.

Since I'm not one to go out on a drinking binge, I'm home working on some new music. I've been spending most of December coming up with new ideas for a piece that is turning out to be quite lengthy and will in all likelihood include vocals [gasp!]. Which I suppose means I'll have to change the banner up at the top to say Mostly Instrumental Progressive Rock.

Anyway the new piece isn't ready for sharing yet but I've got roughly the first 12 minutes arranged and several more ideas left to incorporate. Most of the writing has been done on piano and a little on bass. For lyrics I've been playing around with the idea of adapting some Anne Sexton poetry. I'm no expert on literature but it appears she is best known for tackling controversial topics. Personally I just like the way she arranges words in ways that are unusual and grammatically strange but evoke strong images. I found a poem called "Young" that I really like some of the imagery in and I like some of the rhythmic structures.

A thousand doors ago
when I was a lonely kid
in a big house with four
garages and it was summer
as long as I could remember,
I lay on the lawn at night,
clover wrinkling under me,
the wise stars bedding over me,
my mother's window a funnel
of yellow heat running out,
my father's window, half shut,
an eye where sleeper's pass,
and the boards of the house
were smooth and white as wax
and probably a million leaves
sailed on their strange stalks
as the crickets ticked together
and I, in my brand new body,
which was not a woman's yet,
told the stars my questions
and thought God could really see
the heat and the painted light,
elbows, knees, dreams, goodnight.

Oh and not to worry. If there are vocals I won't go DIY with the singing - I'll get a professional. Anyway if everything works out I'll do a limited release of this new song as an EP in the Spring.