Random Blog Post #2

I’m halfway through another Robby Reviews post, but before I get that put up, I’m going to ramble about some music things. A lot of it is going to piggyback off of the last Random Blog Post I did, but maybe that’s a good reason to do another one anyway. I don’t know.

So Heat Stroke has been out for about a month now. It’s available everywhere, I’ve hyped the crap out of it, and the only feedback I’ve received had to be wrought out from listeners that probably don’t like whatever type of music I make anyway. I wasn’t expecting rave reviews and to sell a bunch of mp3s of whatever, but after all the advertising I did, I expected at least some random tweets. As I mentioned in the last post, I reached out to a few websites well in advance of the release, and that didn’t go anywhere. I’m not sure what I expected though, but after listening through the album a few dozen more times and going by what people have told me about it, I suppose I understand why.

Although I don’t really see myself as someone who creates pop music, maybe I am. Maybe I should be someone who creates pop music. Like, more electronic and beat-driven stuff instead of hard rock/metal/whatever most of my music is. I mean, I guess it’s obvious when I think about it. I’ve been making music for almost 15 years now, and everyone digs the techno type songs the most. Whether it’s “Everyone I Know Is an Alcoholic” or “Twisted” or “A Little Disco,” the standout tracks are always those that lean a little on the dancey side. Obviously the fact that people aren’t liking the songs as much I originally did bugs me a little. But that’s just because I made the decision to make Heat Stroke public. None of my past albums were made available. So I guess I wanted to feel like someone was waiting for me to finally release some music that could be heard easily or something.

Okay, I’m whining. I’ll stop. No, I’m not whining, because I’m honestly not down in the dumps about it. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m already planning on what to do next. I had mentioned getting my Punk Rebel Renegade album mastered and released like I did with Heat Stroke. Since there are more songs on it, it would be a little more expensive to have done, but…whatever. And actually, it’s probably a better album that Heat Stroke anyway. I hate saying that just because at the time of recording Punk Rebel Renegade, I felt like it was a disaster. But I’ve been reworking the tracks to get them ready for mastering, and most of them entertain me a lot. In a broad sense, the album has the same sort of sound as Heat Stroke. There’s a lot of guitars, and…well, I guess that’s about it. But it’s sillier and probably just more fun to listen to. It’ll get released eventually. Probably some time this year. It’s hopefully understandable that it’s not a top priority to release something like that.

Anyway…what else is going on? Oh, the idea of a cover album has been floating around since before Robby Suavé was even a thing. I had a band, I guess you could call it, called Blind Hate in high school. It didn’t last long, but it was a thing long enough that it instilled a desire in me to make music at least. Perhaps that’s a good thing, but I guess it depends on who you ask. As with most crappy little bands like that, you tend to play some cover songs. I can’t remember if we ever considered recording a cover album, or even an album at all, just because we didn’t have the equipment to do so. But if we did have the proper equipment, I’m sure we would have recorded some covers. And when I started doing my solo stuff, I did a lot of covers. Maybe I’ll post some sometime. I did everything from Primus’ “Puddin’ Taine” to Metallica’s “Harvester of Sorrow” to Marilyn Manson’s “The Beautiful People” to…I can’t even remember now. Then after doing a lot of original songs, I went back to do some more covers. Then it was more originals, and maybe a few more covers, and back to the originals. The really early stuff wouldn’t make it on this collection of covers. If I still have my MIDI files or even just the drum tracks of those initial cover songs, I could probably retain the same sound, if I wanted to. So the point is that over the years, I’ve done a lot of cover songs, and I want to do a lot more.

What rekindled my interest in doing a cover album? I heard a song on the radio last Saturday that I had definitely heard before, but wasn’t a song that I would consider a favorite or anything. I couldn’t even tell you the last time I had heard it. But 30 seconds into the song, the idea to cover it popped in my head, and as soon as I got to my computer, I began working on it. And man, as early in development as it is, it sounds so awesome to me. And then I began to wonder why not all the songs I work on give me that feeling. I think it’s just because, and maybe it’s just by coincidence or my imagination, I make cooler stuff when I’m not sad or whatever, and usually when I’m not sad, I’m not making music. But it could also just be that there’s a certain charm to cover songs. You don’t have to think about the lyrics or even the music really. You just have to reinterpret something that already exists.

If you’ve read this far, I’ll throw you a bone and give you a list of as many songs that I can think of that I’ve at least partially covered in the last 15 years as a solo guy.

Marilyn Manson – “The Beautiful People,” “Disposable Teens,” “The Love Song,” “Para-noir,” “Misery Machine,” “1996”
Primus – “My Name is Mud”
Depeche Mode – “A Question of Time”
Team America – “America, Fuck Yeah”
Sir Mix-a-lot – “Baby Got Back”
Ram Jam – “Black Betty”
Avril Lavigne – “Sk8er Boi”
Wiz Khalifa – “California”
Oasis – “Champagne Supernova”
Metallica – “Creeping Death,” “Harvester of Sorrow,” “For Whom the Bell Tolls”
Kottonmouth Kings – “Don’t Make Me Beg”
Hanzel und Gretyl – “Ubermensch Uberfrau”
Def Leppard – “Pour Some Sugar On Me”
Ludacris – “Rollout (My Business)”
Kenny Rogers – “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town”
Eminem – “Shake That”
America – “Sister Golden Hair”
Corey Hart – “Sunglasses at Night”
Jack Off Jill – “Super Sadist”
Gwen Stefani – “What You Waiting For?”

Note that I didn’t mention this new one that I’m working on in that list. It’s going to remain a surprise until it’s ready to be heard. I’m kind of excited about it because from what I’ve gathered from lengthy Internet searches, no one has covered it as a dancey pop song. But it would fit perfectly along with some other cover songs. I feel like the vocal delivery and tempo matches my specialty, if I have one. I don’t know. I just have a good feeling about it. I can’t distribute cover songs like I can original songs, so maybe I won’t even release them to the world as a unit. Maybe I’ll just post them everywhere I can as I feel like it. But really, I’m super excited about this particular song. That’s basically the point of this entire post: I just want to say that this cover song I’m working on is super exciting to me.

THE END