Acoustic Album Update #2

This acoustic album project started earlier this year. I don’t even remember when I started it. That aspect doesn’t even matter, but for your and my sake, I’d like to post more regular updates. My first thought about this project was that it would be quick and easy, and it’s not quite either of those things.

I posted about this a little bit on Twitter the other day. Depending on the song, doing these acoustic versions can be exceptionally easy or hard. In either case, so far at least, they’ve all been fun to work on. As of writing this, I’m not finished with any songs, but I’m mostly done on 3 songs. Let me give an update on those 3 songs here. Notice that I’m giving them cute pet names at this time. They’ll have their real names when it’s done.

“Everyone I Know Is an Acoustiholic”
This was the first song that I recorded acoustic guitar on ever. In the beginning, I was generally pleased with the results. But just today, after listening to it at the same time as my more recent recordings…I don’t like it as much. The reasons for that are poor microphone placement as well as crappy guitar playing. I had been playing acoustic guitar for months leading up to recording, so it’s not as if I were out of practice. I’m pretty sure the reason is because I was playing with headphones and could not hear myself play at all. And I think particularly with acoustic guitar, if you’re not fretting those big chords perfectly, it sounds bad. Ugh. So I plan on re-recording all the guitar for this song. Other than that, I’m pretty happy with it. The drum patterns are similar to the original, but are real sounding.

“Acoustic the World”
I’m not even sure I’ll end up finishing this song, an acoustic version of “Around the World,” which is another song I put in Rock Band back in the day. Unlike “Everyone I Know Is an Alcoholic,” I had never played or written this song on guitar. Transcribing the synthesizer parts on an acoustic guitar was a bit of a chore, but all in all, I enjoyed that process. I’ve got about the first minute completed, up until the chorus. I’ve figured out how to play the chorus on guitar, but I need to practice more. There’s no way I’m ready to record it yet. The drums need some work at this point as well. And the vocals…I’m still working on how to handle those. I’m really trying not to employ my growly voice on these acoustic songs. My current take on this song is kind of a loud but clean shouting, I guess. I don’t like it.

“Acoustic Little Ditty”
I both decided to actually recorded this song over the weekend. Why? Two reasons. One, I wanted something I could put together quickly just to get my engine going. The original version on Punk Rebel Renegade is pretty straightforward (until the end). Just clean guitar and my almost-passable singing. The end gets weird, and in this new acoustic version, it doesn’t even exist. So right now, there’s just one guitar track and two vocal tracks. If I do say so myself, the guitar sounds really good, way better than it does in “Acoustiholic.” The second reason I recorded this is because it’s “Pretty Little Ditty,” my most streamed song on Spotify. I feel bad that so many people have listened to that song because it sounds so bad. Unless you like the end of it for some reason, this new acoustic version will be a million times more enjoyable to hear.

Other than those 3 songs, I don’t have anything recorded. I’ve certainly noodled around on a handful of other old songs that may or may not become fleshed out. I’ve been trying out “Countdown to a Breakdown.” That hasn’t sounded as good as I had hoped. And I’ve even fiddled around with doing acoustic versions of old unreleased songs. That would probably be weird to do though. I don’t know.

So yeah, there’s a nice update. I’m still shooting for a release this year with around 10 songs. And right now, I’m feeling like there will be 3 or 4 old songs and the rest will be new ones. But hey, who knows how it’ll all turn out. Stay tuned. I want to post more regular updates on this, so…I will.