Well, we’ve moved.
Yesterday, Ana and I lifted our posts and hitched a ride from FlatRate all the way up to Bedford Park, an area in the Bronx heavy on art deco but light on crazy rents. We have a lot more space, almost more than we know what to do with, and it’s pretty amazing.
While I hate being the guy that’s all, “You’d have to live here to understand,” you really would. My cheapest apartment in Pittsburgh had a separate living room, kitchen, and bedroom, and in NYC that’s just crazy talk. We now have a foyer. You know, like pimps and millionaires have. Ana was having trouble sleeping last night because our bedroom is so big now that the SOUND of it is strange to us; air just bounces off of walls for longer, it’s very strange. I kept getting up and surveying the domain, because that’s fun to do when you can do it. For two years we’ve been crammed into a junior-1BR, and now we have a sunken living room, and a dining area separate from our kitchen proper. She moved our terrace furniture into a corner of this living room, is how much space we have now.
I’ll be doing a lot more unpacking and stuff today, but yesterday was about setting up the crown jewel of the space: my home office and studio. I’ve got a nice black glass desk, a new PC, a closet that I’ve turned into a vocal booth (FINALLY), a mixerstand so the R24 can be at waist-length and act as a DAW controller from all over the room — I am more prepared than ever to do all the things I’ve been dabbling in in a much more productive and concentrated way. I also have a couple of Plantronics headset/microphones that let me enjoy neighbor-free music (they can’t hear me, but more importantly, I can’t hear them) while I putter around the house, and make lots of calls trying to drum up interest in the album.
My first project involves cutting together an interview with a radio celebrity from segments that I’ve already recorded and processed. I can’t wait to roll my sleeves up and put it together. Next after that will be another few Song Monkeys, first the one I talked about last Monday (the time never materialized) and then one from Oingo Boingo that I’ve been excited to do for some time. After that, maybe I redesign this space somehow, and make it more fun to read. Somewhere during those projects, I’m going to be working on something for the album.
Basically, though, what I’ve done is make things very scary for myself. I now have to put up or shut up, and earn the space that Ana has allowed me to cordon off from our shared dominion. Laziness, complacency, failure, none of these work if I want to keep this corner of the world, this idyllic setting in NYC that somehow has zero shared walls that aren’t shared with other rooms in my apartment, this, if you will, silent zone.
Oh, yeah — the album is almost done. Brandon and I think we’re done tracking, other than the thing I’m spinning from loose thread at home, and some bits of inspiration he thinks he might have while he’s mixing. We’re going to comp the last few vocals together by me running the stems through Cubase Essential and sending him notes, then he’s going to go to town, and then Allen will work his magic, and then you who have pre-ordered will have your digital downloads, and then CD Baby will come into play. I’m flipping the order because I want everyone to have the album as soon as you can — you’ve all been more than patient. One would almost think you didn’t care.
I’m just kidding, internet: I know it’s the most important thing to you, this album.
I’m just kidding, internet: I know cat pictures are the most important thing to you, and I get it, even though I’m more into funny dog videos these days.