I Wouldn't Have Believed It If You Told Me...

One of the reasons I've been a bit quiet on the blog since I returned from my vacation to Maine is that I've been messing around with the music side of the OilCan Drive project. It makes it hard to show you on a day to day basis what is going on since music exists in only one dimension and I'm not ready to show (play?) anything yet. But, hopefully, soon...

Things are going MUCH better than they did when I last attempted this in the spring. I don't know if I told you this or not, but having OilCan Drive on an actual radio show was both a blessing and a curse. Don't get me wrong, it was really cool that they got on the air but then turning around to record new stuff I had a little voice in the back of my head saying, "this better be really good...you were on the radio...no more goofing around anymore."

Which is the worst voice to have in your head. I started messing around with the music side of the cartoon band to simply have fun and see if I could do it. The greatest achievement I was striving for was to make it sound like a real band. Even if you hated the music and thought the band sucked, if you thought it was a real band, I figured I'd already won.

But, when the music was deemed good enough to be on the radio I figured now I not only had to sound like a real band but a really GOOD band.

So, I drove myself a little crazy last spring.

But, this time feels different. I've been away from the project long enough and it's been about ten months since it was on the radio so I am enjoying the process of just goofing off again and trying to make sounds.

And, while I was trying to make some of those sounds, I did something I really didn't think was possible on an electronic drum kit with rubber rims and mesh heads. I actually broke a drum stick.

In doing that I feel like I've stepped through a doorway and passed some sort of initiation test. Everything is flowing, everything is feeling better, and everything is fun.

And, I don't feel nearly as crazy as I did with the music as I did a few months ago.