I just finished up mixing for my upcoming album, The Architect; The Engineer. It's been years in the making, as I originally started recording for this back in 2010, so I am incredibly excited about completing this project.
And, better yet, it sounds pretty freaking amazing. This is something I'm incredibly proud of. It's a work that, I feel, stands on its own. When I listen to it, I don't hear my influences; I don't hear Trace Bundy or Trevor Gordon Hall. Instead, I hear my own, unique voice. And it's good. No, it's great. That's what I've spent 5 years on. This is the fruit of years of dedication, thousands of hours of practice, and a significant financial investment.
But behind all of the work that has yielded success, are a number of hard decisions. Some of that is in the musical discernment itself - how to play a certain note or whether to rerecord a section of a song - but some of the decisions are after the fact.
A particular decision I've wrestled with is what to include on the album. As I stated, I started this in 2010. Well, back in 2010, I can guarantee you I was not playing how I play today. That was before taking lessons with Trevor Gordon Hall and having my entire approach to guitar playing rocked. That was before my most current pedalboard configuration, which has evolved into this vehicle for tonal excellence. That was before a lot of things. So I have recordings from then and now - most recently last summer. And somehow they have to all have this cohesive element to them. Otherwise, what's the point, right? I might as well have just released singles. And I'm not really about that at all.
For the most part, the cohesion is natural. There are enough similarities between 2010 me and 2014 me that they can stand side-by-side. The piece from 2014 is, in my opinion, superior in writing and playing ability, but that doesn't make the 2010 piece "bad" per se.
But then there are a few that are on the fence. Those are the trouble. Because this whole thing is such an investment. For pieces that don't quite measure up, I can still remember writing them; I can still remember when, at one point in time, I thought they were something of great worth. And, naturally, I'd love for others to have that same experience.
But there isn't room for sub-par art. Not with the over-saturation that we currently have. And definitely not in my album. Anything that doesn't add value is taking away value. So there has been one track cut so far, Clairvoyant Observation. It's unfortunate that I had to spend time and money on mixing and recording, but it just doesn't measure up. A second, Revival, will be decided on in the near future. But there are some really cool things I've done with the piece that I don't want to lose. And I know this isn't a huge loss - it's one song (or two), afterall. But it's admitting that the piece isn't good enough. And, maybe, admitting that it was never good to start with.
Perhaps they'll resurface in the future as B-Sides or maybe I'll give them away at some point; I don't know. It's weird that something can be so near completion and then pulled back. But it's a humbling experience and I think this is going to help to shape how I approach album number 4.
