An Indie Musician's Diary Volume 4: Album two in the making

Back on Track/Quantity and Lists Lead to Quality

January 17th 2022

After Christmas, until now, I have been resting and catching up with a lot of practical things that we indie musicians run into but now it is time to get real and get back into music creation.

New battery:

I now found a place that can replace my Macbook battery that is about 600 SEK cheaper than the next cheapest and has a six month guarantee. I looked into their reviews to make sure I would be getting a good deal and it seems o.k. I always shop around for the best deals except my guitar repair guy. He is just so good at what he does! So I am going to pay half up front and wait until they can order and get the battery before I go in to get it fixed. Until then I have to keep it plugged in and turn it off when not using it.

Part time job:

I have a part time job now, teaching English online for a kid that needs extra support. So much fun! It did take a large chunk out of my Monday today, though. 45 minutes teaching and about a half an hour in prep for Wednesday's class. Except for the class on Wednesday, I'm done for this week. I get paid for 3 hours a week and it turns out to be a good thing to keep me going. I need the money to pay for the new battery and I am saving up for an iMac to replace my old, beaten Macbook Pro.

Building up the studio

My living room was where we celebrated Christmas, so, after the Christmas break, I had to build up my studio again. That took a few hours. And I had not been mixing for a few weeks.

A mastering video

Then I opened my last project (JJÄD). I just couldn't get myself to get into it at first. (That was last week). Today, Monday, I went back to a video that has helped me before in the border between mixing and mastering - the one at the top of this chapter from Music Tech Help Guy. It got me back into the mindset I needed to get going. I took notes and started thinking through where I had left off with my last track.

I'm so glad for all the great videos he's done but I am sick and tired of YouTube's ads that ruin the experience. As a musician I don't have the money to buy premium so I simply take off my headphones while the ads run and do something else while they waste time. But the wait is worth is because MTHG is great.

Because of this video, I remembered precisely where I left off with my mix and I hope to get going on Wednesday with finalising it for mastering. (Tomorrow I am all booked up with family business!)

As a music creator you have to get yourself to the point that you are focusing on quantity and not quality in order for quality to start to materialise.

Let me explain that. You see as you learn all these tricks of the trade, you can easily get bogged down in technique and details. You can find yourself trying to get "that perfect mix" which will never happen anyway.

I've come to find that I am too slow for my own good. I am so afraid of making mediocre music (striving for perfection) that I had almost stopped creating music at all last year. I found myself going in circles. Too critical> no joy.

Then I saw a workshop from the Mike Monday (See vol 3 of the Indie Musician's Diary) Automatic Music Machine it made me understand that I need to have about three projects going at once so I don't get bogged down in details of one specific project.  That is my plan as soon as I get this last project out. The Abide album is going  to be one template for all, scaled down and as acoustic as possible and 3 projects in parallel with start as soon as I get the Swedish and English versions of JJÄD out (hopefully, the end of January).

Using Lists and Multiple Sessions to go forward

When you have three projects going simultaneously you move forward faster than if you only have one according to Mike Monday.

Start your day with listening to the mix-downs you did the day before

List what is bothering you, I use Microsoft To Do.

Bite off three important changes on your first mi,. and make a new mix, putting it aside for the next day. 

Go to the second mix. Rinse and repeat.

Check out their videos. Music Tech Help Guy and Mike Monday. Great resources for free on YouTube!