All A Game
New Jersey, USA
Check Out the Album
Original Concept:
After long deliberation, i decided to go light-hearted this year: an album of tracks each inspired by a classic and/or memorable video game from my youth. For some, i plan to use metaphor or narrowed focus to make the track content more like a "normal" song, perhaps even obfuscating the game itself. (I look forward to having fun with how that turns out.) In terms of production and accessibility, i think i'd like to continue to push the envelope from last year's challenge and move another step closer to a professional-sounding record. For me, this likely means simplifying my instrumentation, so this year's focus may lean heavily toward my over-two-decade-old songwriting roots of just vocals and acoustic guitar with minimal additional instruments.
Artist Post-Game:
Overall, i'm fairly proud of the results of this year's challenge. As has often been the case, i was very pleased with the songwriting/compostion side of the album from the creative standpoint. Not only did i meet my goal of writing songs about the games i selected, i also worked a few puzzles into the album to make it (sorta) a game itself! As has always been the case, there were some production compromises that limit the album's accessibility as a traditional pop/rock record. As i had set out to do, i did successfully bring up the overall recording quality relative to previous years' albums. However (as expected), doing this required that i severely limit my instrumentation. This meant that, instead of last year's album of fully instrumented songs with obvious quality issues, i had decent-quality songs that likely sound "unfinished" to most listeners. On the whole, though, i consider this a win, as i was able to accomplish my goals as prioritized fully within the parameters of the challenge (with, in fact, nothing pre-written or pre-recorded other than a few samples used on one track).