Building habits, bit by bit

Yesterday, after I finished my post for the day, a habit that I’m trying to build after years of not sticking to writing every day, I got down to work on Seesaw.

It’s another habit I’m trying to build. Working daily on my own music, with the intent of making at least small steps in finsihing things. Not necessarily getting done with one song in a day (as some electronic musicians seem to have the habit of), but more like setting an achievable goal (every night) and achieving it.

So I’m quite proud to say that I finished the song as a draft production, and it has come out surprisingly well. This basically means it is yet another song that I could choose to professionally produce and release whenever I get around to doing it.

As usual, I shared the song with the three people that I share my works with, and all three had shared positive (varying levels of) feedback about it. The most positive one came from my ex-colleague, and hers felt more like how I had felt about the song. So I chatted with her a bit about the song and the whole creative process.

That’s when it struck me that I could write a blog post about the song, the process, and the habit that I’m trying to build. Here it goes.

Seesaw has been in my life for about 8 weeks. It was born on the day before my knee surgery. An idea had seemingly floated into my brain, inspiring me to grab the guitar to write a hook and record it on my phone.

I remember having checked out the recording after dinner at the hospital, before Jay would leave for the night. It still had it. It had me. It had the potential of being a catchy song that would easily find its place is my top 10 dance/pop discography.

I came back to it on the second week after surgery, when I was finding it difficult to sleep one night. By then the melody for the three parts of the song was set in my head, and it was easy to write lines of the right meter to fit it.

The next day I sang it for the first time, and it was a bit of a let-down because I wasn’t getting the poppy punch that I was hoping it would have, right out of the gate.

Cut forward three more weeks, and I was able to sit at my music work desk for a long enough duration to start working on my productions. Mind you, I had a good excuse to not work on this song. My pop bass was away with my bandmate, who was sub-bing for me during my recovery period.

Yet, somehow, picking up the bass that I generally use for thrash metal gigs out of storage, I started laying down the parts.

The guitars were simple. Clean Telecaster with middle-of-the-neck riffs with a lot of syncopation and muting. Drums were too. Straight up one-two kick and snare with hats. A pickup loop and claps for the chorus. Reverse cymbals for transitions.

Keys were more difficult. I needed some nice sounding pads and a gentle arpeggiator. Pads were a disaster and eventually went on mute. The arpeggiator was found after a few hits and misses. Then came the bass.

For producers/musicians out there, if you are wondering why I’m tacking bass the last before vocals, I really don’t have a good answer.

The best I can come up with is that when I lay down a bass groove after the other elements come in, it's almost like I’m jamming with a band, just like how I would in a real band. That seems to give me enough freedom to loop and come up with some bass line ideas, one of which will eventually make it to the song.

It wasn’t easy at all. Because of some damned pick-up, earthing noise I have at my desk with that bass. It was frustrating at best, and over the course of three days (not consecutive by any means), I had three versions of the bass line, each noisy in one way or the other.

Of these, the last one had manageable noise and was groovy enough for me to want to sing the song in the way that I had always imagined it. That’s how I had left the session three days ago.

So when I wrapped up my post here and opened the song session, I had no idea that it was that groovy. Also, before sitting down to write on the blog, I was jamming some songs on a new acoustic grand piano VST I had downloaded (Autograph Grand; thank you, Spitfire Audio).

Since I’m about a year into playing chords on keys (it means that not proficient at playing piano), I had to slow my chords down so that I made fewer mistakes, which also forced me to sing the same melody in diferent ways.

Finally, I had hit the right vocal texture for Seesaw. Then I tried the vocal texture on the guitar at the right speed, and it sounded good. So much so that I came up with a backup vocal hook that had the potential to fix my arrangement as well.

VoilĂ , in about an hour, I had done the vocal tracking and done the basic mixing. Then I did some more editing for getting the dynamics of the arrangement right and did a quick master, before cranking out a mix-down.

My first listen on my MacBook Pro speakers was a disaster. Terrible cut-through noise from the bass (instrument) over the bass (line). It had sounded so good on headphones and on the monitor speakers!

A couple of listens on some bluetooth earbuds eased my anxiety, and the song did sound great in the choruses, especially the second one, which had the new backup vocal hook glueing everything together.

By the time I was in bed, adrenaline was high, and I was expecting another night of difficulty in falling asleep. But I had some podcasts as lullabies and despite sleeping 2 hours later than my schedule, I did get a decent night of sleep.

So, after a terribly busy workday, featuring me doing a lot of re-reviewing things—because the original review’s comments were ignored—I was left with choosing to take a break from the new habit. I am tired. I was tired when I had the option of not sticking to the habit-forming habit.

I resisted. I went back to a song that I wanted to improve on. And I started the process. Before I had my dinner. That’s because I knew that I ought to give myself an early night of sleep.

So, here I am, after dinner, feeling the first waves of sleep, finishing this post, proud of having two habits with unbroken streaks.

Tomorrow will be a challenge because Jay and I are headed out to the country house over the weekend, after a late-evening physical therapy session. I do have to wake up real early and get my reading and exercise done before a whole workday and the evening shenanigans.

I’ll wish myself luck, but I’m fairly confident that I’ll keep the street intact, for I can choose to write for both. Maybe I can write about what I wrote for my second habit. We shall see tomorrow evening.

Creativity after a creative workday

There is a problem with spending your entire workday being creative, especially if you have to continue being creative beyond the workday.

Months ago—maybe years ago at this point—I was researching on the best routines for creative individuals to not get stuck at creating. The consensus answer seemed straightforward—make use of the best part of the day for your creativity.

For me, this happens to be the morning. Early morning, actually. When things are quiet and when there is more hope than the bottom of the barrel.

I still remember a period about a year an half ago. It had felt like I had come upon the gentle slope that would lead one out of a trough of depression. It was not. At this point, the trough seems more like the freshly minted ocean floor that surfaces as the ice age deepens.

There was this one morning when I had woken up before dawn and I had written a song about suicide called The Night Ends at Dawn. Within a couple of days, I was able to render it in a draft recording that somehow made me sound less like how I used to be. It has turned out to be one of the best songs I have written.

Anyway, at the end of this recording, I came to the conclusion that the more I used the mornings for music, the more I would feel satisfied being a musician.

Then my reading routines changed. I was reading more and it was easier for me to settle myself for the day if I were to have read with my morning coffee, before my morning exercise routine.

It felt okay to change the routine because I still had the evening, hopefully, after a busy but rewarding workday. And it did work, for a few months, until I started doing creative audiovisual work at work.

Coming back the full circle. Today, at work, I spent a lot of time outlining, prepping for, recording, and early post-production for some videos that I’m making as part of a video series at work.

But unlike other days, today I was positively triggered (?motivated/?inspired) by a new piano VST plugin that I could download. So right after logging out, I installed the plugin and started singing (no surprise) Dave Matthews songs. And that led to other songs and that led to me singing Seesaw, the song that I’m struggling to complete.

By the time I reluctantly peeled myself off my desk to grab some questionably safe dinner (leftover yesterday’s prawn biryani from the fridge), I had already sort of worked myself into a mindset of hope/determination to be able to make some strides on the song.

That’s what I’m about to do now. Wish me luck. And maybe hope and determination.

Consuming and Creating

A day bookended by the gripping first quarter of Blindsight and the entertaining suspense/thriller narrative of Knock At The Cabin.

A day when I continued to reel from the after effects of watching Dave Matthews sing with extreme facial gesticulations.

A day mostly spent in creation of web designs wireframes, which left me wanting to learn more about web development.

A day that is now turning into another when I find myself curled up to watch the E04 S01 of The Last Of Us.

A day where I continued to think about the brilliance of E03 S01 of The Last Of Us, which was reinforced by some of the scenes in Knock At The Cabin.

PS: Does anyone else like Cabin In The Woods more than one would expect to?

Come into me

No, I’m not being lewd. It’s just want Dave Matthews is singing to me. In Crash Into Me, that song from the ‘90s that typified him and his band.

I was watching a Dave Matthews Tiny Desk Concerts literally a minute ago. I stopped because I was sufficiently inspired to go back and work on that song that I’m working on.

Despite the headache that I’m having. The one that has been there for over a day. Not sure what’s going on. Is this how the rest of the life is going to be for me? Hopefully not.

The song that I’m working on is something that I would imagine a artists with shades of of George Michael and Bruno Mars would write/sing. It’s called Seesaw. The problem with it—well, the problem is me—is that it is just right in the middle of my comfortable chest and head voice ranges.

My vocal instructor did ask me to roll some songs down by three to five half-steps so I could render them at my best. This song might need a six or seven.

So why am I typing this when I got inspired by Dave Matthews? Because I can’t renege on the promise that I made myself. For writing every day. Every night actually. Maybe on weekends, I should try writing on the day as well.

Anyway, I think I have done enough writing. The headache’s still there. My friend at work, who I knew before I joined work, is going through some trouble. I spent over two and a half hours listening to his side of the story and trying to understand.

Oh, also I met someone from Philadelphia who I think I’m going to be working closely with for a cause that I think I’ll be proud of in the long run. Sneak peek? Well, it’s related to LGBTIQ+.

Moonday

Not quite, but close. It was a day when a couple of my friends noticed the magnificence rising up over the Eastern horizon in the evening.

Yesterday was full moon. I noticed it when I walked out to meet Jay and his friends for dinner. The air was clear and the moon looked spectacular. Yet, it is today that I’m thinking about how it looked and why it matters how it looks.

Looking out into the night sky and being at awe, even in the most polluted cities around the world, must be one of the last consistent worldwide sources of grounding and inspiration at the same time.

To me, it usually sparks to joy of photography, which in my case is pretty amateur. Twice or thrice every year, I set up my astronomy binoculars and try to take an image of the magnified moon using my smart camera.

It has move up from there, hasn’t it? A proper telescope and a DSLR. I can dream at least.

In other forms of creativity, no drawing/sketching today. Maybe I’ll work on a song after I finish this.

Meanwhile, I am caught in the middle of three literary narratives. Peter Watt’s Blindsight is the most gripping one, followed by Hanya Yanigahara’s To Paradise and James S. A. Corey’s Tiamat’s Wrath. And I already have my eyes on a bunch of others, including Midnight’s Children and Victory City by Salman Rushdie.

Sleepful night

It feels good after a relatively sleepful night, doesn’t it?

The coffee seems to come out better and you seem to get things done better. You seem to reach places on time (or before, in my case) and you receive good words from physical therapists.

All of this happened. Happenstance or coincidence. But it did start with a night of restful sleep.

That too, one after watching the wonderful movie Awakenings. Not sure how I didn’t watch it until 33 years after its release. Robin Williams and Robert De Niro are exceptional.

My physical therapist did say good things — that I can get rid of my walking stick right away and I can be off brace in another two weeks. I really hop that I can soon start jogging or brisk walking in the park that I used to frequent.

Then I went, with J and his close friends, to a new breakfast place I kinda randomly discovered. Expensive but worth visiting, especially because there will be doggos around. I spent about 10 minutes petting someone’s dog in the hour and a quarter we spent there.

I spent the afternoon learning sketching and water coloring. Pretty disastrous results with the latter. Feel like a total amateur, especially trying to attain some definition.

Evening meal at Bademiya. Didn’t enjoy it at all. There is no nostalgia for me especially when things are so fucking loud in the popular joints in Mumbai.

Tomorrow I’m back home, which means more sport-watching and sketching.

Wholly day

Pun aside, today was different.

No office work meant looseness and lightness.

This despite yet another night of troubled sleep. I overslept because I underslept when it matters.

A mild headache. Lazy coffee. In fact, no making bed before. Playing with the feline before reaching out for the ground coffee jar. Then, despite the summery winter sun pelting down, sitting on the chair on the kitchen balcony and reading.

What? <em>Blindsight</em> by Peter Watts. That's the seventh or the thirteenth book I'm currently on.

But this one is different. It's captivating. Like Alastair Reynolds openings. Not familiar? Try <em>Chasm City</em> or <em>Absolution Gap</em>.

Then came the hard part. Looking for bank documents and realising that your relatively neat organisational strategy is not nearly as good as you think it is. Three hours. Seemingly lost things rediscovered. Old cards and memories.

Hunger is abated by Quaker's oatmeal. I pack and I set off to a couple of banks. Or so I think.

The first one only exists on Google Maps. Then off to another branch that you know has to continue to exist beyond Google servers.

A bit of a wait. More of Peter Watts. Extremely difficult to focus on hard sci-fi over harsh voices of disenchanted patrons.

I get a less-than-adequate resolution eventually. It's so because adequate is either difficult or impossible.

Quickly off to the second bank, which was almost empty. So much nicer and got done real quick. Like in two (literal) minutes. Faster than Maggi by a lot.

Then a new Keralaite restaurant. A mild disappointment because it was too homely.

Then back home. The help has brought new feathers. Another long play session. Some tea and cake before heading south.

Fleshing out my latest sci-fi short story idea on the train. Got at least two original hooks in the process. Have to say that I surprised and pleased myself.

The day is wholly. "Not bad," I say to myself, like everyone else says when they mean "Is good."

Sleepless in the night

Sleeping is a difficult task. It becomes even more so when you age. For the last eight weeks or so, I have been having trouble. Initially, it was postoperative pain, then it was aching of the operated limb, and then it was nothing that I could put my finger on.

Yesterday, I woke up at around 3 am and couldn’t fall asleep until about 5.30 am. I feel exhausted now and I think I’ll fall asleep as soon as I try to. But I am also fairly certain that I’ll spend 2 or 3 hours in the night trying to fall asleep again.

This is not something that you can easily fall asleep to.

Dreaming and Writing

If you are reading, you ain’t dreaming. But what about writing?

I guess you are reading while you are writing—at least you should be. But do you dream while you write.

Loosely speaking, I suppose one does dream while they are writing. Especially when you don’t know what you are about to write.

When you write fiction, you are breathing life into dreams, aren’t you? There was nothing until you wrote what you did.

What I think I’m trying to say is that I’m dreaming right now and that’s about to end.

Back to life.

Engayging Life has moved to WordPress

Engayging Life has fully moved to WordPress

Yes, I am alive and I'm still blogging. Regularly. But on WordPress because offers an easier workflow for me. Here is a selection of wh...