International

Concept

Album

Month

In light of some recent events, i've been forced to update my concept and plan for JCAM this year.  Plans may be updated further, but as of now, i'm expecting to pursue a low-key process recording of mainly guitar and vocals, with many or most composition driven primarily by improvisation.  I'm not really sure exactly where i'm going with it, but in this case, that's part of the point.  I'm going to let this be a very process- and heart-led experiment.

The best summary of how this year's challenge went may well be in the "liner notes" posted at the album link above, but it may suffice to say that this was in various ways both my most inspired and most challenging JoCoAlbMo project yet.  The original working title, The Requiem Sessions, sought to capture my production approach: to fill the canvas of the album with pieces -- or possibly even one long piece -- derived largely from improvisation.  For the most part, this approach was adhered to.  I captured musical ideas on a simple voice-memo app as ideas and jams came to me; i discarded some and developed others as the month went on.  For production recording, i actually recorded the entire album into one long piece, using only a few tracks to delineate vocals from acoustic guitar from electric.  As the album filled out, i rearranged the pieces in the editor and used automation (where necessary) and occasional comp-track approaches to mix (since the pieces were not each their own mix).  This overall approach worked well given my plan to stay within the realm of guitars and vocals, and in the end, helped me spend less time on production.  The all-original album used nothing pre-written, so the Rules of 40, 30, 20, and 10 were adhered to.  While the subject matter was emotionally difficult to get through, i believe the combination of powerful inspiration and bare-bones production resulted in a very heartfelt and authentic record -- and perhaps my most approachable JoCoAlbMo project.  I'm very grateful.  (More details on the day-to-day progress of production can be found on my Twitter (twitter.com/josephmancuso), for anyone interested.)

Conversations you have in your head: with yourself, with people you love, with people you hate.

I see this as being a sort of musical flayed man. I'll know more come March.

Songs about life in corporate america...

These are inspired by the security announcements at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport.

Nothing yet.

I intend to create a fun concept album about professional wrestling. The idea hasn't been fully developed, but I think I want the album to be like a PPV event, with the songs being matches, ads, interviews, commercials, arguments, etc...

This will likely fit more clearly into 'sound art' than 'music'

I'm going to put it off until the very end. I'll be lucky to get anything done.
I have No Time for this.