Public Album: FAQ
Watch Me Create My First Album in 8 Years Step-by-Step
What’s this all about?!
Since I created my last official “album” over eight years ago, I have been through multiple periods of writer’s block, started and scratched more albums than I can count, and struggled through periods of musical indifference and doubt.
Now I’m ready to push through my musical blocks…once and for all.
I’ve tried different methods of getting my musical inspiration back. Nothing has worked for me the way I’ve wanted it to. Everything I’ve tried has felt very forced and unnatural to me.
While racking my brain for something that would actual inspire me to write the music I want to write, I came up with a new idea: “What if I was to write, create, and publish my music online and blog about it…while I’m writing it?”
How is this going to happen?
The goal: I will be writing nearly every day until I have accomplished a series of 8 (or more) complete songs that I am pleased with.
For me, writing music goes through a series of steps:
- I have an idea in my head or I just start writing.
- I come up with a series of small parts based on the ideas.
- I then combine different parts into a complete song.
I will write, record, and post my different parts and completed songs as I work through them. Sometimes you may hear a small riff, other times I may post an entire section (or even a completed piece).
You will see me take sections away, put them together, and combine them in new ways until I am satisfied with the results and have completed my full eight track minimum.
How do I keep up with what you’re doing?
Follow me here at JSOhlander.com as I publicly create my next album. When I have some new audio to load, I will do it through a tiny flash player on a new post as an update. JSOhlander.com will also contain updates about my progress, thoughts, and feelings. Occasionally, I will post more complete versions of my works in progress on my MySpace page for those who still go to that site.
So if you don’t want to miss out, make sure to get here every day to hear what I’m writing. Better yet, sign up for my RSS feed or sign up for Email updates.
Each post title will start with: “Public Album Update #…”
Each piece that I’m writing is going to be numbered, starting at 001. So as I update and add to each song/piece, 001 will be replaced by a new, updated version. When I have a new part I’ve written, it will be 002 and so on.
You can see all the Public Album posts I’ve done thus far by clicking on the Public Album tag here.
The Music So Far
Here are quick links to what I’ve written so far (as of 9/2/09):
001:
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002:
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You can also hear these pieces over at my MySpace page.
You can follow how each track was developed by clicking on the tag for each piece below:
What do you want from me/why blog about it?
Nothing.
I’m doing this for me.
Feel free to come along with me on this journey. You can leave comments on here and I will approve them if they are valuable, insightful, or contribute positively to this project in some way.
All comments are moderated.
Why are you doing this?
Because I think it will be a fascinating journey for a previously very private musician.
I have no idea what’s going to happen.
That scares me a little and excites me a lot.
I’m going from a very, very, very private music creator to a very, very, very public music creator for this project.
In the last few years since starting my raw food blog (with my love, Heidi), Raw Food Right Now, I’ve learned to sort of fall in love with the idea of sharing parts of my personal life online.
Specifically, I love the accountability that being public about something brings. For example, I haven’t been a perfect raw foodist. Nope. I’ve said it on my blog many times. Nothing to hide there.
But we’ve found that many of our readers have benefited tremendously from our insight and experience, especially in regards to frustrations with the raw food diet.
That is part of my aim here as well. If this project can help serve and inspire others in a similar position to break through their extreme writer’s block and finally get their music (or other art) flowing again, I would be honored to be a part of that.
Besides all of that, I think this is much more interesting than the typical band/fan relationship and boring drudgery of the album/release cycle we’re all so familiar with.
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Make sure to follow me by signing up to my RSS feed or to receive updates via email.
Have anything to say or specific questions? You can contact my via my contact form.
Let’s see what happens.
~ JS
Please note that all songs, clips, and audio I post on here are Copyright © 2009 Justin S. Ohlander.