FAWM 2008

Hey, guess what? I actually managed to finish February Album Writing Month 2008 (FAWM08)! It really helps to have a plan. The object is to write 14 songs in 28 days (although this year it was 29 days because of the leap year day), so I figured I had to write a song on an odd numbered day and record it on an even numbered day. You actually don't have to record a song for it to count, but I always feel I have to in order for me to feel like I wrote a song.

Last year I failed miserably with only seven songs. I realized my problem was that I spent too much time with the recording. So, this year, I basically just put together a drum loop, guitar, and sang over that. That was it. No messing with lead parts or laying down a bass track (for the most part).

I did come up with a few gimmicky songs just to make it over the finish line, and most of the melodies are rather tired and bland, but I still feel like a winner! I think I'll go back and fix up these songs--even going back to last year's efforts.

Here's the track list for 2008:

There Goes My Head
I'm Going to McDonalds
Edison Chen, You're a Special Kind of Stupid
I Don't Want to Die Alone
I'll Save You a Spot
I've Got Nothing
All the T&A in China
I'm Going to Straighten Your Ass Out
24 Hours of Sleep
I've Dug Myself a Hole From Which I Cannot Escape
I Blame You
If I Had a Million Dollars
It's Almost Over
Nowhere

See? That's fourteen. I did it. Yep. The links to all the demos are on my FAWM page. Most of the songs are deliberately sad. Or at least I tried to make them sad and pathetic because I want the next CD to be really wretched. I think I'm really fascinated with sadness and despair because I'm not a person who ever gets sad. People die left and right and it doesn't really register with me. I don't know why.

Anyway, what I really need to do now is go back and listen and give comments to all the other Fawmers now that it's all over. I meant to do that last year but, again, I'm so friggin' lazy.