I have to say, the fact that I’m composing all of the beats on American Expatriate in their entirety has really opened up some possibilities in terms of songwriting. In the past, my beats were always arranged around the sample. The sample determined everything: the mood, the tempo, what could and could not be added, and the more samples I added the more constricted I became in terms of what I could do with a beat.

Now I’m finding that composing my own beats (and having the resources to still have them sound good) is allowing me to make more dramatic changes in my instrumentals, as well as add tons of little extra tweaks to complement the lyrical content. For example, a programmed sounding synth-beat can suddenly break into wide-open, clear-blue-sky piano chords for a moment of lyrical epiphany, and then sink subtly back into the synths. Or whatever, that’s just an example and it will be up to you to decide whether any of this stuff actually works when the album’s finished anyway, but the point is, it’s possible.

I haven’t been doing much writing, but I’m not particularly concerned. I have three songs more or less completely done at this point, a good plan for a fourth, and I’m sure more will come. I still haven’t constructed a solid plot outline for it yet, but I’m thinking that may come after most of the songs are written and it’s just a matter of arranging them properly. The main character and his rather peculiar issue is established and evident in more or less everything so far. I’m not going to tell you anything about that yet, though.

Anyone who likes music or lives in America should know this name. Pitchfork interviewed him recently and it’s worth reading, check it out here:
Pitchfork Interviews Pete Seeger

Thusfar, my investigations into the indie music scene in Harbin have turned up more or less nothing. However, indie music does exist in China, and my internet searches have proved more fruitful.

An excellent source for cutting-edge Chinese music is the artist social networking site Neocha. This is an absolutely awesome site that someone REALLY needs to make a version of for the English-speaking community. Essentially, it’s like a more customizable Facebook for artists both visual and musical, and some of the stuff on there is really awesome. Recognizing that, the people who run the site have started a netlabel (creatively titled “Neocha Netlabel“), through which they’re releasing collections of free music.

You can check out the full collections here, but I’m going to feature some of the songs on this site too, for those of you who don’t want to try to navigate the Chinese. Unfortunately right now Yahoo’s servers don’t seem to want me to upload the song, so check back in a bit and hopefully I’ll have some stuff up. For now, you can check out that site if you have a Neocha account. If not (and you can read Chinese) consider getting one, it’s worth it.

In video form!

Veggie Co Records is doing an online promotion right now where you can stream my whole album Roads on the Earth for free. Check it out here if you haven’t bought the album yet, give it a chance!!!!

Believe it or not, the site with all the acapellas from Can’t See the Forest is still up, and occasionally somebody comes across it and does something wonderful. That’s what happened with producer Nerack’s jazzy take on my song “Can’t See the Forest”:

Can’t See the Forest (Nerack Remix)

Apparently he’s working on remixing the entire album, so I’m looking forward to hearing that! If you want to get in touch with him, his email is nerackbeats (at) gmail.

Continuing in the tradition of offering you random little videos I’ve made in my free time, here’s another quickie with some Harbin scenery and a short interview with some of the guys who work at a restaurant near my apartment.

Please forgive my stuttering Chinese and awkward translation, I’ve only been here a couple weeks and I’m still pretty rusty.

And, on a totally unrelated note, here’s a free piece of music for you. It’s a short, extremely simple piano and strings thing that I made a week or two ago, inspired by both my dark mood and the fact that I was watching two episodes of Six Feet Under a day. I don’t know if anyone will want it in this form–it has been adapted into a more hip-hop instrumental format and might appear in some form on my album with Sarah Clark–but in case you do, here it is: Dying (Composition).

Stay tuned for more episodes of “What the Olympics Mean to Chinese People” as well as other music and video features!

First of all, the good folks over at Veggie Co Records have finally had a go at my Myspace page, which was long in need of an overhaul. I’m still not going to update it much because I hate Myspace, but at least it looks less boring.

I have finished a draft of the first song of American Expatriate, “Arriving”. It’s got a skeleton instrumental and complete lyrics, although I haven’t revised them yet. It describes the narrator’s first moments arriving in China, first while he’s looking out the plane and then later when he’s lugging his luggage up the eight flights of stairs to his apartment. It’s got a chorus that is meant to be sung, so prepare yourselves now: I’ll be singing again on this album. (Don’t worry though, I’ll be getting some knowledgeable help before I record it).

I’ve decided on a writing style for the album that’s heavily influenced by my recent experience writing some short fiction (and reading it). Although the overarching plot of the album isn’t exactly crystallized yet, don’t expect there to be a lot of dialogue. This song, and those that follow it, get the point across largely through a description of the environment, filtered (of course) through the narrator’s somewhat distorted perspective.

Why am I choosing to write it this way? For one, I find it much more interesting than conveying feelings with dialogue. A song already is dialogue in a sense; I can use tone and emotion in the delivery and convey information without having to have the character talk to people. Secondly, it fits one of the overarching themes of the album, which is isolation. This is not to say that the narrator won’t interact with other people–quite the contrary–but my concern is primarily what’s going on inside his head. What happens outside is really only important in that it affects his mind state. Finally, it allows me to paint a visual picture and convey information about the narrator at the same time. Since urban China is an interesting setting, and one that many listeners won’t be familiar with, the more detail I can cram into the songs, the clearer a picture of the setting they are going to get. At the same time, by filtering that detail through the narrator’s language, the listener learns something about him, too. It’s the proverbial two birds-one stone thing.

I’ve also been wanting to bring magical realism into some of my music for a while now, being a fan of authors like Borges, so expect a good bit of that, too. Nothing too crazy, though. I think you’ll like it.

Musically, I’ve got around 40 skeleton instrumentals, of which 3 or 4 might end up on the album, if that. I’m still learning my way around the new Reason, and developing my composition skills. It’s really too early to say anything for sure, but expect real-life drums and stripped-down piano chord melodies mixed with some distortion and occasional electronic intrusions.