Category Archives: Music

New Song – Back Then

Posted by on December 21, 2011 No comments

“Back then” in February 2010, I had the great idea of trying to complete the RPM Challenge.  The first day  of the challenge, I wrote a song called ‘Back Then’.  Me being me, worked on that song but a few days later realised that working full time and with family commitments, I couldn’t complete an album in a month.  So I delayed the album making goal to reduce my stress levels and the song just sat there.

About a month ago, I sat down to re-recorded this song as I want to work on rebuild my recording ‘chops’ for a project I’m starting VERY soon!  Time still escaped me with this song.  I had exactly a 1 month break in the middle of this song.  The vocal I will probably never by happy with, but I’m satisfied with this version.

So I now present to you, “Back Then”…

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

Download: Daniel Porter – Back Then.mp3

Lyrics:

Back Then

Reading my notebook, from the Summer of ‘92.
I had to laugh at all the things I thought I knew.
What words would I write with that pen?
If I had the chance to, go back again.

Back then,
I didn’t pay the rent.
Back then,
I didn’t make what I spent.
I’ve got my parents to thank for that
And they know one day that I’ll probably pay them back.
But if only… I knew then what I know now.

I had a girlfriend who I hardly knew,
I wrote her letters every day which ended I love you.
Giving those words away so freely then,
they didn’t mean anything in the end.

But back then
I didn’t pay any bills.
Back then
I’d always get my fills.
I did some stupid things, I will say that,
even a few times I wore my dunce hat,
But if only… I knew then what I know now

But back then,
I didn’t have a child.
Back then,
I could go out and be wild.
All the speed humps that got in the way,
they taught me and shaped me in to the man I am today,
Cause now, I know more than I knew then..

I know more than I knew then,
I know more than I knew then,
I know more than I knew then.

————————–

Song licensed by Daniel Porter 2011 under the Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-SA 3.0


Day 2..3..4 well you get the idea

Posted by on March 15, 2010 No comments

Well…. Yes.

I will say that last month did not go as planned. The first few days I had great hopes of recording an album during the month of February but they just dwindled as the week(s)/month went on.

In 1997 I tried doing the RPM Challenge with a few friends (online). I few songs had been written before hand, but we started working on one in particular (which had been written during the month).. that was about as far as we got, recording just that song. Mind you we finished recording the song about a year later. The song deserved the time we put in to it. And I think that’s where I went askew with this year. The first song written / chosen to record is a really good one and you want it to sound GREAT.

Initially I had planned on recording all instruments myself (drums included). However on the first or second night I started to have problems with my Ashton Drum Pads. The plan was to connect them to my computer and using them to ‘trigger’ better sounds in the computer. I don’t know if it was the sensitivity (ie having to bash the ‘crap’ out of the kit to get the right sound), or something else that mean’t the drums just weren’t working for me was a major set back. The irony, what I had tried to record actually sounded pretty good whilst playing live.

After that night I thought I would enlist the help of a drummer who’s helped me out before, and if I could get him a bassist who had also helped me before, but my drummer didn’t appear to be online for the early part of the month, so I just gave up on that idea.

The final thought was an acoustic album. Then came one day of enthuiasm and recording then my motivation died.

So I’ve decided to turn RPM (Recording Project Month) Challenge in to RPY (Recording Project Year) Challenge. Less pressure leading to a higher quality album.

As I record songs I’ll put them up here. So keep and eye / ear out.

Day 1 – WIP – Back Then

Posted by on February 2, 2010 No comments

Writing exercises weren’t as fruitful as I had hoped (only got 1 opportunity on the way home).  I’ve got a couple of lines and ideas for songs though from the few words I wrote.  Will definately have to work on that.

When I got home I wanted to record something, so I picked up a lyric which I wrote earlier and gave it a rewrite, it’s no longer called ‘If Only’, it’s now ‘Back Then’.

The track is very much a WIP, the drums aren’t right and the organs / lead guitar / bass needs work.  I’m almost 1/2 tempted to ask a few friends on a forum I’m on give me a hand cause I think this song could really shine.

Apologies for the mix… Back Then

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

Back Then Demo mp3

Lyrics and Music Copyright Daniel Porter 2010

Let me know what you think.

The night before RPM starts

Posted by on January 31, 2010 No comments

Well, it’s 31st of January, from midnight RPM Challenge entrants can start to record their album.  I had planned on have some material written before now.  Aside from the couple of lyrics I wrote recently (published in this blog), I don’t really have anything.

I’m not too sure if I’ll bring a few songs out of the closet from my old lyric books to get my started.  I think I might just do a couple of writing exercises tomorrow -morning, lunch and ride home to see if I can come up with something to record tomorrow night.

Althought I do want the first track on the album to be an instrumental… so that might make it a bit easier :-D

Tonight I set up my ‘studio’ area, got my microphones out, guitars arranged, connected up my sound card and my drum pads and tested everything to make sure it works.

There is a slight hum in my monitors (speakers) but aside from that everything else is ready to Rock’n'Roll!

RPM Challenge

Posted by on January 18, 2010 No comments

OK, in my previous post I had a throw away line in regards to my music “write and record an album in February”.  Well the only way to get things done (like recording a CD), is to just do it (should I give Nike a trademark to that statement?)

What I was referring to is the  The RPM Challenge.  The challenge is really simple:

Record an album in 28 days, just because you can.

This page goes in to more depth, such all no previously released material can be used and all recording must be done in February.  They do encourage you to write all your songs during February.  That part I won’t be following 100% (as it’s only encouragement), cause I know with that time won’t permit.  I have a few lyrics which I already have which are either WIP or very close to Finished.

So I’ve signed up – this is me.

So from February 1 expect frequent updates here (and probably on my twitter).  I’ll post my WIP recordings and Final versions of songs on here and just the final versions of my songs on RPM’s Site.

There we go! It’s in writing :-D

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