I Am Strong (Song #5)

My gosh. It feels good to finish things, even the things that I generally like to do. The moment I post that video onto this blog and push the big, orange Publish button, I feel just...accomplished. free. and, if I like what I made, slightly and wrongfully proud. It's a good feeling. 
Anyway, oh me.... this song.
I think so far this was the funnest I've had by far making music. I'm not exactly sure why. This one took the longest, and it consisted of the most breaking points where I just wanted to throw away the whole thing. But the expression that I got across! The joy! The bounce. The movement. The happiness. I feel like I really pinpointed exactly what I wanted to express and I freakin did it. Granted, i did have an original song to model this one after. But still, I feel like I did the mood of the song justice. Maybe I'm just biased. I'll have to listen to it again when I'm in a bad mood and see if it turns that frown upside down! 
yeah....


The Music
I'm pretty sure you could deduce that this isn't my default style. I'm seen as much more of a soulful acoustic kind of a guy by most people. But I think I've always had a secret appreciation for the pulsing bass beats and slurry trance sounds of techno music. 
Let me say straight up that I honestly don't think one music is better than the other. Acoustic folk and Techno both bring their sets of cards to the table, both having uniqueness in them. 
I used to think that techno music wasn't real music. That it was a cop out for people who can't play real instruments.
Now I just don't think that's true. The Midi controller (A rendition of a key board that will play a variety of different sounds that techno artists use)  is in itself a real instrument and I think it takes a lot of skill to be able to play it well.
At the same time, I will always come back to the natural sounds of our world with a reverence. There is something about the hearing of a plucked instrument in real life that just cannot be replaced. There's sincerity in it. There's soul.
So I honestly just can't take sides.

And when it comes to making this kind of music, I'm very very very limited. The program I used was just Garageband (I bent most of the default sounds into something different. And the software in Garageband is very very very limited when it comes to editing sounds). Again, I recorded both the guitar and vocals with my mic on my laptop computer.

I had originally started recording this song at 120 bpms (Beats Per Minute) but felt that it was too slow and bumped it up to 130.
I'm not sure why I just told you that.

The Theme
I'm an avid advocate for free-interpretational rights for the listener when it comes to music. Meaning, I think that there are different, valid ways that people can interpret a piece of art, based on their uniqueness and personal experience. As long as the interpreter isn't being difficult and lame, saying that a song is about yellow dump trucks when it's really about social injustices in the world, I think art really is, to a certain extent, meant to be interpreted. I'm using waaaay too complex of sentence structures. I don't even understand myself.

So in that light, to me, the song I Am Strong is about all of the things in your life that make you you. The things that get you along from day to day. Not exactly the things that you live for, but the things that help you live.
So that's what all the random video footage was throughout my video. It all represented something in my life that helps me live, what gives me zest for life. Everything that keeps me going.

First you saw my dog Jack. He reminds me about joy. He teaches me a little bit about what love is-- the way he is always ecstatic to see me, even when I've ignored him for days at a time. He is one of the most forgiving living things I know.

I'm not exactly sure what the creepy shot was when I was looking through my window into the neighbor's yard. I just needed a filler.

The blue dinosaur represented my childhood. It was worth the wear. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

My Journal. I just really like to express myself, either through the written or spoken word or through music or, on rare occasions, bad dancing. I feel like expression is essential to me. It makes me feel whole.

The ukelele belonged to my grandfather. I think what it means to me is just family. All of my family. I know I sound like most every other being on the face of this earth. But if it wasn't for my family, I would be lost. It also is the instrument for peace, as the Hawaiians say, I think. Peace is something I strive to learn more of. I don't know it too well, but I want to.

My worn out converse. Haha! They don't mean anything too deep. I guess I just like to go places, and these shoes are proof of that.

The cd Takk by Sigur Ros. I chose this one just because it's one of my favorites. It's sad, but music gives meaning to my life I can't find anywhere else. If I had no music in my ears or in my head or on my fingers, if I was deprived of such joys, I would be cursed. I know Christians aren't supposed to say those kinds of things, but it's true. I need music, even though it really doesn't need me.
Also, music is my connection with my closer friends. If it wasn't for music, I wouldn't have some of the friends that I have now. And that would make me sad and a bit broken.

The banana peel. haha....

The bible. I think it's odd that I put this in here. I suppose, no matter how many grievances I have against this present day religion and our conceptions of God and our disguised legalistic standards, it really is, without my permission sometimes, a huge part of me. That's not always true. A lot of times I actually like Christianity. But regardless of my likes and dislikes, it will always remain to be a big influence upon me.

Where the Wild Things Are: I'm a wild thing!!!!! RAWR!!!

And finally, the Little Prince. This book, along with giving me a lasting appreciation for literature in general, is my constant reminder of the importance of the childlike mind. May I always have curiosity for life. May I be tamed. May I find a rose unique to me.

And as a side note, I put the clip of me in the back seat of my parent's Ford Taurus in as well. It kind of goes along the same lines as my converse. I just really like going places. This was taken a year ago when we were driving up to Pennsylvania. My hair was oh very unstylishly short back then.

These are all of the things that help me live life. They are the things that make me strong.

Oh! And if you want to hear the original song,

Anyway, I believe I rambled for long enough now.
I hope you enjoyed this as much as I have.
Thanks for reading
Isaac

Music is seclusion

So I didn't post a video last week.
And this is the precise reason why i said I wouldn't do a one-song-a-week video thing, because I knew things just wouldn't work. I'm much more of a four songs a month kind of a man.
Anyway, all this to say, I'll be adding a beast of a song tomorrow that you can dance to. I'm actually reeeeeeaaally excited about this one. It's the first song that I've made that's actually fully happy. No emotional sad faces or religious theology. Just bounce and smiles. That's what this one consists of. I wish I wrote it. Gosh.... there are so many songs I wish I wrote...
Anyway, I decided to blog tonight anyway just because I felt like it. There were some pretty deep musical thoughts going around in my head a couple hours ago, then my mom wanted to teach me how to file my tax report or something like that. And then I got all taxed out and can't remember exactly what I was thinking. Thanks, mom.

In an interview or a video blog or something, Imogen Heap said that music is a very reclusive art. You spend hours fiddling around with sounds, making them, bending them, editing them, dancing to them. And it's all alone in a dark room. Your only company is the music that you create. This isn't bad, because this is simply the way music comes about. It's a thing created personally, not publicly. I'm not expressing this well.... let me see.
In my opinion, I feel that music must be created at a really private level, either by yourself or with friends that you trust. I don't think the creation of music should be a social thing. I've heard about big artists who have parties while they record parts of their albums. I feel like that's fake. Music looses something, I think, when you make music socially.
And because of that, musicians (If I dare call myself one) are recluses. It's not their fault. I'd wager that most musicians like people in general. But music is an art demanding seclusion.
I've probably spent about five hours working on this song that i'll put up tomorrow. Five hours. No facebook. No homework. No friends. No phone calls. Just art.
I would say that it isn't worth it, to make music, when it demands so much of me. But at the same time, I feel like it's a valid way to spend your time. For one, though you do not connect with people while you're making a song, I feel like you can connect with people anywhere when they hear the song that you created. The listener might not like what they hear, and that might be your fault or theirs, just as people might not like you at a party, when it could be your fault or theirs. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that the transferring of music can be a means for social connection, but the creation of music must not be.

Really, I'm just rambling about something I dont know much about.

I also feel that for this reason of music being such a secluded art, and my longing to see the world and know about it, I've been thinking about changing my college major to something completely random like marine conservation biology or zoology or ecology. Something to get me out to smell the sea and the green grass and animal poo. Perhaps having a major that gets me out doing things will compensate for the seclusion that is making music.

And speaking of Imogen Heap, did you know that she composed and performed a whole orchestral piece? you should go research it. She's so pretty...

Thanks for reading!
Music coming tomorrow!
Isaac