So, I recorded an EP!
I’d wanted to write and record music forever, but it took me a bit to get there. Writing music is scary, and my first few attempts at songwriting ended in failure.
Even though I’d been playing music since grade school, it took me until my sophomore year of college to write my first song, Par for the Course. This song gave me the confidence to write another tune a few months later. Fast forward to my senior year, and I had written five songs that I was proud of!
Then, I joined a band, and I got to experience the dream of sharing my original music with a live audience. Playing Cannonball to a packed crowd at Nocturne, a campus-wide festival at Middlebury, was one of the most fulfilling moments of my life. It felt so magical to sing my heart out, not to someone else’s lyrics, but to my own.
But somehow, the thought of capturing my music by recording it hadn’t entered my mind. I was caught up in the joy of being in a band, booking gigs and jamming out to new songs.
In my last semester of college, I was going on a drive with my best friend when we had the idea to listen to all of my favorite original songs back to back. I’d played them for him on my guitar over the years, but hadn’t thought of them as a collective project. I’d already recorded one song, Last Until June, but the rest of the songs were just low-quality voice memos of me and my guitar. After listening to them all together, though, was when I realized I had unintentionally written an album.
I called up my friend, Xander, who’d already recorded and produced one song with me, to see if he’d be down to spend some more time in the studio before I graduated. Bless his heart, he agreed to work with me on this project, so we immediately booked out 7 hours on Tuesday to get started on the next song. We only had about seven weeks left at college together, so we knew the clock was ticking.
I set a goal for myself: release this EP before I graduate college. Well, just like everything else I did in college, I procrastinated. However, I got it out on time, and was able to celebrate the release on Friday morning, one day before my Saturday graduation. Last Until June is now yours, the accidental EP that wrote itself.
Over the course of this month, I’ll be writing about every track on the EP. I’ll go chronologically, starting with my first composition. For each song, I’ll share where I was when I wrote it, how it evolved over time, what the lyrics mean to me, and how it’s touched other people. I want to share my stories from this experience with you all, to shed some light on the songwriting and recording experience, and also to help keep the memories alive. I also want to hear from you – if there’s any questions about any song or a part of the process, let me know! There’s a comment feature on this blog, and you can also always email me at [email protected] with any questions or thoughts!
It’s been a dream come true to share my music with the world, and I’m so excited to delve deeper into the songwriting process with you all.
Until next time – get ready for next week’s post on Par for the Course!