"Shadow Work"
Pennsylvania, USA
Original Concept:
No matter how fervently we seek the light, there are always remnants of our journey, forgotten and unchecked in the shadows.
Before they can be let go, they need illumination.
Artist Post-Game:
This year, i came very close to a strict win, but decided not to compromise the unfinished portion of the album just to make the deadline. I felt that, in this case, i'd rather produce the album that i really wanted to make, even if it meant coming in late.
I did successfully complete recording and mixing for 10 songs that add up to over 39 minutes of music. I'm generally happy with the writing and guitar parts, and mostly satisfied with the vocal performances — though, as always, there are things i wish i could've gotten better.
Despite this runtime being just about what i needed for the Rule Of 40, i leveraged more pre-written material on this record than i have on albums past (one full song as well as fragments of four others). As i result, i technically needed ~7 more minutes of new material in order to meet the Rule Of 30. I came up with specific ideas for how i wanted to fill those 7 minutes, but i couldn't realize them before time ran out.
Rather than just give up on those ideas and fill the time with a huge freestyle jam or something, i'm taking a "PARTIAL" this year so that i can stay true to the concept and vision i had for the album. My hope is to complete the record in the months to come, and release a final mastered version. As of now, i'm not planning to re-record or re-mix any of the 10 songs that are already completed, but focus only on composing and rendering the additional material to fill out the record.
On the whole, this year's challenge was fraught with some usual difficulties — including some health issues that complicated things — but i'm very glad i stuck with it and got as far as i did. While part of me wishes i'd pushed harder earlier in the month and enabled the record to get fully completed, another part realizes that the songs i _did_ complete (some of which i really love) very likely needed that time to grow. Much of the writing here definitely helped to affirm some of the emotions and catharses that inspired the album's concept, but (as one of the songs yet to be written will loudly declare) there is always more shadow work to be done.
[LINK TO FINAL ALBUM to be provided when available ...]