Gospel Of Bluid And Ambitions

One of the first songs I ever wrote, the first I ever recorded way back in 2006-2008. Originally meant as a demo for the band I was in at the time, but I got booted and they soon folded. Somewhere I still have the original 4-track recording on a flash card I'm sure, but since I only know where the mp3 file is I gave it a little modest mixing and mastering to release for the world.

The drums are from the Zoom RhythmTrak 234. This was my first drum machine, and this "beat", if we are being generous, was probably only the third or fourth attempt to work that drum machine.

The drum machine I started with.

I was running all my instruments and vocals through a BOSS BR-8 and then sending that into a BOSS BR-532. Why? Because the BR-8 records to a ZIP disc and I had no way to get those files into any other device, but the BR-532 saves to a flash card which I could insert directly into my computer for transferring files.

But why not just record directly onto the BR-532? The FX sucked in comparison to the 8-track's FX. But wait, it gets dumber.

My old busted 8-track.

The only way I could record those vocals without disturbing anyone, or anyone disturbing me, was late at night in the large white van my ex and I owned at the time. The vocals were recorded on the BR-532 because it could run on batteries. So I bounced the instruments to a stereo "pre-mix" on the 4-track's memory card and tracked my vocals in the van in the middle of the night. Then I sent those vocal tracks into the BR-8 for mixing and FX because, as previously mentioned, the 4-track's FX sucked in comparison.

After I got the mix about good-ish I ran a 1/4" cable from the phones output to the input of the BR-532 4-track. If all of that sounds overly complicated to you that is because all of that is overly complicated. I knew so little about about so little back then; these days I know so little about so much, and it shows.

When originally recorded this was always meant to only be a demo to pass between myself and my bandmates. In that band the singer had told us to bring in any song ideas we had, and I figured a fleshed out demo would be better than just random riffs played while the drummer took a piss. The drummer we had was actually pretty phenomenal, which is why I did not even bother trying to come up with any fancy drum parts. I had no idea how to program that drum machine either, so I couldn't have come up with anything better if I had tried.

So if this demo had gone the way I had envisioned at the time the only parts I was expecting to survive to the final version were the two riffs and lyrics. The way I performed the vocals was influenced by a couple of Louisiana bands, and mutated by my insecurity hiding behind FX and too many layers. If the band I was in had used any of the song I assure you that their singer would have not done the thing that I did there.

And that's really the point of releasing "Gospel Of Bluid" in this barely polished form. I still think it holds up for what it was intended to be. I had never written a whole song, never used a drum machine, and never recorded anything before this song. Honestly not much has changed since then, but this version was only meant to be a jumping off point for 3-4 other people to rip inspiration from and build something better from parts of this demo.

Since I first tracked "Gospel Of Bluid" quite a whole hell of a lot has rearranged in the world. The old white van is no more, along with some other odds and ends. My wife has occasionally found a copy of "Gospel Of Bluid" and asked me why I don't redo it. I keep saying I might.

When I wrote this song I still had ambitions to become a successful touring artist. The band I was in had a few good things going for it, so my ambitions were not unreasonable. The band I was in, and I, had a few bad things working against us as well, so our ambitions were not attainable.

When I release this song I have ambitions to become successful at inspiring, educating, and guiding as many people as I can to create new things - and I hope to never stop being successful at being inspired, educated, and guided by as many people as I can to create new things.