Happy New Year!
I've been at work on a new album that's on an important mission - to help you use technology mindfully! You'll benefit from even a moment of remembering how absurd our online world can be. Then the powerful emotions that come from moments of envy, political anger, sales pressure and expectations of likes and shares, won't have as much control over you.
I use music and humor to build you and your relationships up. On this album you'll hear a funny rant about overuse of acronyms in our vernacular, set to an AC/DC inspired track. When I lament feeling like the only one without a yacht and all the fabulous photos posted online, I set the music to…what else?… yacht rock! I sing about noticing that I'm distracted in a sea of social media on “Too Many Tabs Open.” When I call out the hypocrisy of social media moguls making these online gathering spaces meaner, I go with a funk setting. On “Disinformation Overload,” I set the ominous lyric to grunge.
I plan to release this album, titled “Digital Carnival,” this spring. For the first time, I'm considering offering vinyl records of this album. In order to make this commitment, I'd need to know that enough people want to buy vinyl.
Do you listen to or collect vinyl records? If you want me to press vinyl and you want a copy, please email me at jasondidner@gmail.com.
A New Recording Process
On all my previous albums I'd write a song, either alone or with Amy, rehearse it, record all the parts for that song, usually starting with a temporary “scratch” vocal and a guitar part, then layer the drums, bass, keyboard and more guitars, then mix and master the one song.
Then I'd wait for inspiration to strike and repeat the whole process, one song at a time.
Since much of the songwriting came together in bunches, I went with a different process. I concentrated on acoustic-only or piano-only pre-production versions of these songs and waited until the entire album was written to start on a band instrumentation.
I then recorded drums for each of the songs, in album order. I felt my grooves get tighter with each successive song and I was able to leave my gear set up for recording drums, so I'd spend less time setting up and breaking down recording equipment.
I then went through all the tracks on bass and got into a good groove as that part of the process went on.
When I got to rhythm guitar (which is what I'm currently near completing), I immediately noticed how much it paid off that I had invested in effects pedals and a new amp. Usually to make my guitar sound “big” I have to apply distortion. But my new Ibanez Tube Screamer pedal I got this summer could make the guitar sound big while maintaining lots of clarity - kind of like The Edge's tone on U2's anthems. You'll hear this on several of our tracks. Of course some tracks demand that more distorted sound, like when I go for the AC/DC vibe on “People Against the Abuse of Acronyms (PAAA).”
By tonight I expect to have the rhythm guitar done, and this weekend I can move into guitar solos. Then keyboards, lead and background vocals.
By working in this new way, I'm able to make the songs more consistent with each other, creating a more unified and cohesive album than I've done before.