February Album Writing Month

Aridstarling · 22-01-2009 2:51am #1

http://www.fawm.org

Anybody else doing this? I think its a great idea, I've set out to do it with just an acoustic guitar and vocals though, I like to make things extra tough!

What do you all think?

tbaymusicman · 22-01-2009 4:03pm

its a great concept but how many people are going to gain from it???

Aridstarling · 22-01-2009 5:25pm

What do you mean gain? Its just a challenge to yourself as a songwriter. Sure theres a CD at the end with the best submitted tracks, I dont think anyone will gain a whole lot from that, its just a prize for doing well really.

tbaymusicman · 22-01-2009 7:13pm

Aridstarling wrote: »

What do you mean gain? Its just a challenge to yourself as a songwriter. Sure theres a CD at the end with the best submitted tracks, I dont think anyone will gain a whole lot from that, its just a prize for doing well really.

ye its a nice challenge alright but who makes money of said album and who keeps the rights????

Aridstarling · 22-01-2009 11:12pm

I dont know, can't say I thought about it. Just a cool idea, don't submit the tracks if you don't want to.

flav · 27-01-2009 5:43pm

this is amazing.... great post aridstarling

i'm definately doing it too.... accoustic and vocal only for extra toughness hehehe..... maybe a few noise pieces too.... im getting all excited thinking about it... did you register???

who cares about rights etc... just create and let it flow

Aridstarling · 27-01-2009 5:47pm

Yeah I'm registered, waiting patiently for the site to be up and running properly. I'm thinking about doing it twice... 14 acoustic songs and 14 grunge songs, though that may well be over ambitious considering I have a busy month ahead anyway! I'll say 14 acoustics and anything after that is a bonus!

flav · 28-01-2009 1:56pm

hahaha very ambitious, you could always just do grunge versions of your accoustic songs .... im thinking a big mixed bag of accoustic, grunge, noise, rock.... something for everyone, and nothing for anyone..... we should swap albums whens its done... its gonna be a crazy month of creating

Aridstarling · 28-01-2009 3:54pm

Yeah man, sounds good! Cant wait to hear the results.

I think I have to limit myself, because I know I could do 14 songs in a week if I had everything at my disposal. I think I did 7 in the last week without even really trying! That included all sorts of stuff though, electronica to industrial to acoustic to post-rock. So I think its best to set a goal for this!:D

Aridstarling · 03-02-2009 7:53pm

Two down, twelve to go!

flav · 09-02-2009 4:11pm

3 down.... 11 to go

oh god, should have stayed in at the weekend.... lost two days due to an unhealthy relationship with the uisce beatha

i got to get my creative hat on

Aridstarling · 11-02-2009 4:24pm

Ok, lost a lot of time due to a trip to London over the weekend and a lot of college work that needs doing as well as a gig that needs organising (4th of March in the Button Factory, come one, come all!) So hopefully I'll get back in the swing of things soon...

I'm on 4 by the way.

flav · 16-02-2009 8:50pm

what name are you doing it under so i can check your page out? had a very successful weekend with the guitar got up to 8 now, think i should pull this off, i hope so its good to get over the half way mark....

Aridstarling · 17-02-2009 1:19pm

I dont have anything uploaded because all the recordings I had decided to disappear! Bastards... Anyway, I'll get around to recording them again soon. So busy rehearsing and working on songs already written though, its hard to know when I'll have the time. Never been so busy...

Oh and to answer the original questoin I'm AridStar I think.

humberklog · 28-02-2009 9:51pm

I was wondering how this was going for anyone that's entering. Struck me as a great idea. I'd be 2years and a million miles from be able to enter.
So anyone pull it together in time?

Aridstarling · 28-02-2009 11:03pm

Well I got to 11 in the end, lots of unfinished ones along with that. Had a very busy month though so I'm quite happy with it overall.

You can hear some in The Button Factory on Wednesday at half eight if you want!

humberklog · 01-03-2009 12:52pm

What's this Button Factory thing Arid? How much in and what's the line up? I like that venue (curve st. Temp. Bar?). Have you a residency there or something?

Aridstarling · 01-03-2009 1:59pm

It is a gig organised by Gigsmart in association with the Sound Training Centre. They are holding a few gigs there, one a month or so, until June/July, recording them and then (hopefully) releasing the best tracks from all the gigs on a CD sometime around the end of August. There are 4 bands playing on Wednesday, us (AridStar), The Looks, Soundproof and I Phoenix. Its 6 quid at the door, come around eight-ish. We're on first. Its our first show as a group, before this it has just been me by myself, so we're hoping for all the support we can get.

Its a really great idea, its giving young bands a chance to play in a top venue, none of this pay-to-play crap, and gives them exposure to a pretty large audience who won't have heard them before. Check out the website, http://www.gigsmartireland.com, great community there.

And yeah, Curved St. it is. If you get a chance to come you should, its looking like a great night. The other bands are excellent going on recommendations.

humberklog · 01-03-2009 9:02pm

That looks like a good thing you got going there Arid. I'll definately pop my head in the door if I'm down that way. If you see a guy with a club foot, a hunch back and a wrangler jacket with the arm cut away...then I'll be standing next to him.

Aridstarling · 02-03-2009 3:43pm

I'll be the main singer in the first band, gizza shout after.

flav · 18-04-2009 11:26pm

.. the FAWM thing was amazing thanks for pointing me onto that Arid.. got to 14 in the end...just...

are your songs posted anywhere i could listen???

the people on there are pretty cool, its a great community.

i have my songs posted here if anybody would like to have a listen www.upyourlegsforever.com/flv

did you hear about 50/90... its write 50 songs in 90 days...:D

i think i'll attempt it but i have no plans to complete, if i make it to 20 i will be pleased

Aridstarling · 19-04-2009 12:35am

I made it to about 12 I believe, about two of which were any good. It was strange, I wrote far better stuff in the first two weeks of March! It was interesting to try and it really taught me a lot about the way I write and what problems I have.

I will have two of the songs that came from February up on my band's myspace soon, we've been playing them live since March so they are a little more developed. I think I have the original recordings of all the songs on a harddrive somewhere but they are far from fit for anyone's ears!

I'm glad you got on so well, I will have a listen to the tunes as soon as I can.

flav · 19-04-2009 5:59pm

hey thats really cool, thats two songs you have that you didnt have before... i learned loads about how i write too it was a really enlightening experience

i will check out your myspace page when i get back home

good luck with the band, hope its all going well

iMADEtheBBC · 21-04-2009 5:12pm

I tried the November Solo Album Month project back in (of course) November. Unfortunately I only joined half-way through the month but did manage to reach my goal of getting 20-odd minutes of an 'album' (and I use that word in the loosest possible sense !)

I've kept one or two of the pieces on a myspace http://myspace.com/iLIVEinAsuitcase it's completely different from my usual stuff.

It's a great unblocker for creativity & I learned a lot from it. Not sure I could commit to doing the February or the 50/90 project.

February Album Writing Month

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