Music

All That’s Left

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2024 was a year of learning. While exploring how to improve recording and bedroom music production, I came across many YouTube videos and Reddit threads full of advice. It’s amazing how helpful random people are on the internet.

Over the past year, I’ve learned about singing techniques, guitar chords, production tips, plugins, the importance of Dynamics Processing, amps, pedals, amp sims, and so much more. I didn’t even have to ask the questions – every question you can think of has probably already been asked by someone else on the internet. It’s just how the world works now.

Because of that, I’ve been able to record higher-quality music through constant practice and knowledge absorption. 

Let’s come back to the point of this post: I’ve got a new demo out.

This is dedicated to Miki, Vanessa’s dog, who passed away earlier this year. He’s one of the goodest boys. I’ve been playing the song at recent live shows and a friend asked me to record it so he could listen to it without coming to watch me (hah!). I put it off – until last night.

Feeling inspired, I set aside some time to record a demo of Miki before I played some nightly Dota. What I intended to be a two-hour session turned into four despite it being a simple, short song. I kept redoing parts until it got too late to yell (without waking up neighbors), so I settled with acceptable takes for vocals. Then I had to figure out how to stop tracks from clipping without being too soft, equalizing, compressing, and the whole shebang.

The result is a demo I’m mostly happy with. I can improve the vocals and drums significantly, but that will take another day. Here’s something that I believe is good enough to listen to. Maybe get a real bass for the bass guitar parts (but who listens to the bass anyway 😂).

Either way, my goal was to have the song recorded and out there for people to listen to – mission accomplished. I have a few more songs in the cooker but I’m unsure if I’ll be able to complete them before 2024 ends. Regardless, one recorded song this year is better than none.

Happy holidays everybody. Take care.

Miki
dry nose
I see you lying with your
eyes closed
staring at an endless
sunset
the sun won't rise again
even if you believe it

dry nose
shallow breathing with your
eyes closed
what you see is in your mind
it never used to be this way
but now it happens all the time

respond to me, respond to me
miki show me you're still breathing
call out to me, call out to me
miki let me know you're healing
come back to me, come back to me
miki I will be here with my arms wide open saying
I love you

I know
you're better off without this
pain I'd
like to believe you're in
peace all
dogs go to heaven,
at least that's what they say

I hope
it's more pleasant there, and
you're happy
someday I'll see you again
I'll make
sure to bring you a treat
you bet it'll be something sweet

I miss your tongue hanging out
the soft footsteps that you made
as you struggled up the stairs
but you never gave up hope
how you curled up when you slept
and scratched at the door to
go out to see the morning light
how you yelped when I hugged you tight
now all that remains are ashes of you

I’ve also uploaded it to YouTube and TikTok because Instagram no longer accepts posts or reels over 3 minutes (such a dumb dumb move).

@goodnewsgeorg3

since ig no longer lets me post 3min+ videos, I guess I have a reason to start posting videos here. some of you may have heard me perform this song in the past, I finally got around to demoing it. this one goes out to the goodest boi, Miki. rip ❤️🐩#music #poppunk

♬ original sound – George Wong – George Wong

Instagram ads are alright

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I dislike ads. I’m sure most of you know that. I recommend uBlock Origin to everyone I know, I purposely purchased a domain name and rented server space so I could have an ad-free blog, and use a third-party YouTube app on my mobile devices so I don’t have to deal with them interrupting my videos.

Sometimes, ads can’t be avoided – like in the Instagram app. These advertisements show up in your feed after scrolling through a few posts, and other times they insert themselves in between stories of people you’re browsing. Most of the time I’ve received bullshit ads that I swipe away immediately, but recently I think the algorithm has me figured out (yay).

These days I don’t get any more adverts for strange sex toys, rubbish manga or cash-grabbing mobile games. Instead, I get music video ads that I watch and swipe up to. I like the fact that I can instantly load their YouTube video or Spotify page to continue listening to the whole song. While I haven’t found my next favorite band yet, I have discovered quite a lot of songs that I would have missed if it wasn’t for the intrusion.

Thank you for the encroaching commercials, Instagram (Facebook). For once, I can wholly support them, and I hope this trend keeps up.

In the meantime, do check out some of the bands I’ve discovered through the power of advertising:

Properties of Nature – You Didn’t Start a Fire in My Heart, You Started it in My House!

East of June – Rebel

PNKR – Olivia

LØE – People Have The Power (Official)

Anti-Modern-Radio Me

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When I was young, I remember being bored to death whenever my parents switched radio channels to listen to oldies. Songs they listened to growing up. They would tell me that they don’t make songs like they used to anymore. I would fervently disagree with them, defending my tastes in Limp Bizkit and Eminem. I assumed they didn’t know better.

Now that I’m older, I don’t listen to the radio anymore – mostly because they mostly play songs I dislike, have terrible DJs and too many advertisements. When I have to (because I’m driving someone else’s car), I tune into Light and Easy – a channel that mostly plays oldies because I can enjoy them, unironically. I enjoy listening to songs that I heard growing up even though I wasn’t a big fan of them back in the day because, amongst the cesspool of modern radio, they sound euphonious.

It can’t be that music has gotten worse – there must be a reason why these artists on modern radio are getting airtime and making new records. There is a demand for them even though I might not like their music. It’s just not for me.

But why do I not enjoy a lot of current music? I think it comes down to a few factors:

  • I’m listening to the wrong stations – maybe, but I can’t be bothered to give other radio stations a shot. It’s not worth the time, so I stick with what I know and enjoy.
  • My tastes have already developed and I’m rejecting what’s new and unfamiliar. I have noticed that it doesn’t apply to a lot of new music I discover that’s not on the radio, so probably not the case.
  • Mainstream radio has always been trash and the only reason I enjoy old pop hits now is that I grew up listening to them – the nostalgia and singalong factor is what draws me to them. This seems like the most likely reason.

Is this what my parents were experiencing when I was growing up? As kids did they face the same chagrin for their music tastes from their parents? I’ll have to ask them to find out.

On the other hand, if you think I’m just some whiney old boomer who is wrong about modern music, feel free to share some songs to change my mind. I’m open to listening to new songs and artists. I know there’s a lot of good stuff out there I have yet to discover.