This is a song a wrote a few years ago called “Down”. We’ve been trying for some new vibes and sounds on this record…. hope you like where we ended up with this one.

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Couple links for y’all…

Dave and Misha just released another record which you can check out here.

Also, Dave created this FANTASTIC music video a few months back that I can;t get enough of:

PJ

Although, I’m never away from it, really.  My spare moments have been spent developing lyrics for the 6 songs whose words aren’t finished.  And my drive to and from work, I generally listen through the tracks, rethinking arrangements, coming up with new voice ideas, etc… And Adam’s been keeping things moving with his fantastic new piano/keyboard arrangements.

Lately, I’m thinking “Flora” isn’t Flora.  Right now I’m thinking it’s called “Christmas Day”.  Originally, I had wanted it to be a narrative song… in the general folk tradition of telling a fictional short story, maybe loosely based on something I witnessed or even experienced.  But I’ve never really written anything like that and I’m not sure it’s what I do.  I’m not sure it’s really want I want to do with these either.

My songs tend to be very personal.  For me, with all the other things I have my hand in, songwriting is the only purely personal thing I do that doesn’t involve a client, or a paycheck.  there’s something extremely satisfying and kind of liberating about it.

Still trying to figure out what the Untitled song is about.  the other are all pretty clear, but this one wiggly.  I mean I KNOW what it’s about, but articulating it into words had been very very challenging.  Maybe it’s an instrumental. Nah, it needs words.

Was listening to some Mike Doughty yesterday. “Skittish” is so fantastic, all stripped down like it is…. such a great vibe, and reminds me so much of living in Park Slope.  Hope he does another one of those.

And listened to Paul Simon’s “One Trick Pony” again for like the 100th time while I was drawing this past weekend.  it’s definitely not his best record, but it’s just so flawed and intimate and great.  The movie of the same name is also great…. definitely worth a viewing if you’re a fan of songwriting, specifically, 70′s songwriting.

Hope I can keep a few of these tracks vibey in the same vein.  It’s sometimes hard to pull back when you have unlimited tracks and voices at your disposal.

More later.

PJ

Flora’s just about done, all but the vocals.  My mumbling-melody scratch track is in there for now… lyrics and final melodies to be added soon:

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enjoy…

PJ

Funny seeing my name attached to that hair.

And after a little more fishing, I discovered another Peter Loughran working in entertainment:

To think, I could have been a master of illusion.

So the trip was great, and great to hang with Adam… but we didn’t really get anything done.  There’s was lots of catching up, and touring his new house, and a smidgen of playing.  But not concerned… we’ve done this before. He’s going to be working on parts this weeks… will share the results with ya’ll once I get em.

On another, suffering from a bit of writers block.  I’ve been on 3 or 4 relatively long flights in the last month with very little lyric to show for it.  Open to any suggestions on how to shake this, cause it’s starting to get a little frustrating.

More as it comes….

PJ

The first is “Spinning On”, and you’ll hear that a lot of it’s im place.  Vocals are still scratch and the mix is still rough, but its mostly there.

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Flora is still a bit open, and no vocals yet… However, hoping that Adam will be filling in some of the space this week.

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Off to LA… more later this week.

PJ

PJ Loughran Tracking “Flora” from Stephen Shirk on Vimeo.

enjoy:

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During this past week, while setting up for the days work at the studio, I put on some Holiday music that a friend gave me.  Not your run-of-the-mill stuff you hear at Macy’s, but something with a little twist.  With no further adieu, I give you…

Cactus Jim and The Wranglers!

Wait For The Wagon (On Christmas Day)

So while this music may sound dated, it gets my wheels spinning.  I love the texture of the music.  I like how the band isn’t right in your face.  It’s all about the vocal.  The band is there to just support that and nothing more.  These days with all the studio production tools at our disposal, it’s so easy to get caught up trying to make every instrument sound huge and perfect.  The quest for a huge wall of sound.  Listening to music like that on Cactus Jim and The Wranglers “Western Christmas” album (despite being a bit hokey) reminds me of what’s most important in a song…the vocal.  It kind of makes me want to do a track on PJ’s album where we have the rhythm section all in one room, everything bleeding into one another, all a little bit muted, and then the vocal…right up front.   While I don’t think a vintage Christmas album is what we’re after in terms of style for this album (or anything too 60′s sounding for that matter), I think there are approaches like this that we can call upon to get some interesting vibes on the upcoming recordings.

We’ll see how it goes.

In the meantime, stay warm…  Here’s a little something to help.

O Tannenbaum (recorded in 1907)