Well… here we are! 2012 is well underway and it’s already been long enough for some to break their New Year’s Resolutions! I’m usually pretty good at sticking to them, but last year’s promise of a finished album failed to deliver. Despite the frustration of interruptions suffered during 2011, my continued efforts to finish the ‘House of Cards’ album means that I can confidently say that it will be released in the early part of this year! Is that a New Year’s Resolution? Well if it is then it it’s the one that I’ll be sticking to in 2012.
In fact, I was hoping to have finished mixing the album over the Christmas break; as previously mentioned on this blog, recording is complete and we’re already well into the mixing stage. Sadly, my ears were rendered useless during the festive period as a bout of illness hit hard, blocking all my sinuses and leaving me in a state of total lethargy. Typically, I was feeling more or less back to normal the day before the holidays were over. Bah. This week is to be spent catching up on a few bits and bobs and then I’ll be back at the mixing desk at the weekend. It can’t come soon enough.
It has been a frustrating wait, but I can’t complain too much; while it will be nice to finally have the album finished, at least there has been justification in the delay; moving house was a major change this past year, and the process of selling, finding and buying a house took up a lot of the summer. Remedial work on the new place followed, and I tried to balance recording with the growing amount of essential maintenance that was continuing to present itself in our newly acquired Victorian farmhouse.
Unpacking: "Now I know my talkbox is in one of these crates…"
The day job had also been taking up a lot more time than it had previously commanded; I found myself undertaking a four hour round trip each day just to get to the office! A welcome promotion resulted in my appointment as the design agency’s Art Director, however, by the time I was getting back each evening I had absolutely no time available to spend on the album. It was now becoming a weekend-only pursuit and ‘House of Cards’ had to compete with everything else that was going on in my life. Not ideal.
On top of this, my obsession with cars took on a life of its own; I hadn’t been spending any time tinkering on my project motors (I have been pretty disciplined in that respect!) as I was spending the free time that I did have recording, but I had been invited to become a features writer for Total Vauxhall magazine. It was an opportunity I couldn’t refuse; getting paid to write articles about cars that I have a real passion for (and to do it for one of my favourite magazines) is a complete thrill. An ambition was realised when my first commission became the cover story for December’s issue. 
The Vaux-Hall of Fame. Arf arf.
And that more or less brings us to 2012. The distractions of the past year are more or less behind me, and while they did serve to prevent me from finishing the recording of the album as quickly as I’d like, I did spend all the free time that was available to me in the confines of the studio. Mixing will resume this weekend and then a plan of action will slowly be brought into focus which will put a formal album release together. It’s very exciting and I’m looking forward to this final phase of the project (which will also include the development of the album artwork).
As I write this blog entry I’m acutely aware that there is an overdue 30 Day Song Challenge entry (or twenty) waiting to be prepared… Day 09 of the challenge is ‘A Song That You Can Dance To’. It’s quite difficult to know what to suggest as I don’t really ‘do’ dancing unless I’m pissed, which isn’t very often these days due to all of the above… so here’s the first song that sprang to mind when I thought about getting up and having a boogie. Bruno Tonioli would be proud…
Daredevil squirrels and dancing robots: Move Your Feet!
Alioa just about kept up with me and in the end our efforts paid off
More to follow…
Dan
X
Heh, that Junior Senior music video is awesome. Lovin' that!
It's such a great song and the video is perfect for it!