Hi everyone. It's been a while since I checked in. After “Electric Kingdom” was released, I kind of needed to step away and decompress a little. Of course that just meant work and family time. I think that Reddit fiasco also affected me more than I was willing to admit. It was just a bunch of negative feedback on Reddit about my album cover. You can read my last blog if you want details. I needed to step away from all of that and recharge. I've also been playing more at my church.
I've had the opportunity to play bass more and it has sort of re-ignited my interest in the instrument. It has been a lot of fun. I realized one of my basses, my Tobias Growler needed a bit of work, so I've been working on getting it fixed. I've had this bass for many years, and when I purchased it used, it came with knobs and switches bent up from the shipping. The knobs I replaced it with back then were terrible, and it has been that way since. So I found the original knobs and switches online and sent it to a guitar tech to get the knobs, switches and pots replaced. The repair tech also noted that one of the tuning heads was busted (I had noticed it was hard to turn). So I replaced those as well. It's 100% now, and I can't wait to put it to work this Sunday. The guy who fixed my bass runs a shop out of his house called Howl Guitars. I highly recommend him if you need any guitars or amps fixed. He did a great job and was very professional. My other Yamaha bass needs a little work and I may look into his services again. With all that, I'm now beginning to look at using my basses for one of my next projects. Let's talk about it…
If you've been following my blogs, you know “Electric Kingdom” was an offshoot of my initial album idea, “Into The Broken Nothing.” I did that because there was a bit of a schism between the vibes of the songs I was writing. Some were dark and thought provoking, and others had more of a dance flavor and were light-hearted. It wasn't vibing to be a coherent album. So I pulled out those dance tracks and Electric Kingdom was born. This left me 4 tracks, “Into The Broken Nothing,” “Next To You,” “The Invisible Hands,” and “Tomorrow & Me.” It also left me another issue to ponder… vocals. As all those songs will require it.
While working on Electric Kingdom, I discovered an AI vocal tool, Synthesizer V Studio 2 by Dreamtronics. I'll admit, it's pretty amazing. Yes, it's AI generated vocals. So I used it. You can hear it all over Mechanical Bliss and RobTRON. I mangled the vocal up to make it sound more robotic. However, these new songs will require more than just catchy phrases and short verses. I've developed entire lyric sets, and the AI just isn't cutting it. Especially because I am very specific about what I want from the performance. I tried singing myself. But I can't stand my singing. I can hold a pitch, but my voice doesn't cut it either.
I do believe AI vocals can be used artistically (more on that later). But for this project, I need to secure vocalists. And I'm happy to say I have so far secured one vocalist for Into The Broken Nothing. I'm also trying to get another one on board as well. But I'm not going to say who these singers are yet. I want to dedicate an entire Blog for that, and not just announce that as a minor footnote in this blog. I also want to make sure everyone is on board before I get ahead of myself. So stay tuned for those announcements! All I can say is with that, this is going to be a very exciting album production. I love working with other Artists! And speaking of working with other Artists…
I am planning on putting out another remix album. I'm hoping to get that started this Summer. I want to put out artist remixes for Electric Kingdom. And hopefully build my artist roster even further than what I had before. So again, stay tuned for those announcements as well!
Finally, here's a good example of using AI for art. I've mentioned before, but I want to shout out again my collaborator Byron Kane's current project.. The D.A.N.A. Project. He has really been active on Instagram and has put out a few singles. Click the image below to go to his Instagram page and follow!
You can also check out the music that has come out of this project here.
Well, that's it for now. I need to get back to it and continue tracking some bass for Broken Nothing. Once again, a big thanks for the support. If you haven't already, consider purchasing my album here. Pick your price! Maybe a generous donation? :-) Regardless, Thank you!
-Joda
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