Learning How to Work Again: The Making of "January Hymn" (Patreon)

I love recording. Love, love, love it. But I don't do enough of it here at home. Recording and mixing are a big part of the reason I pursued a musician's path. While making a demo with my early band Juicy, I became fascinated by the magical potential at the intersection of performance and studio wizardry.  I love it to this day.

But here in The Blue Room, I’ve got tools and equipment I never learned to use. And I still haven’t *really* learned how to set a reasonable pace for my projects. I either go all in, working myself to exhaustion to the exclusion of the rest of my life, or I avoid The Blue Room altogether. Obsessed or averse; no in between.

Over the past several years I have also felt my attention become deeply fragmented. Though I manage to appear busy at all times, I have made precious little progress on my bigger projects and life goals. My days are full of shallow tasks that use up any energy I might have for deeper work. I don't know how to fit it all in, so I've been taking care of the easy little things to feel productive -- but this isn't getting me where I most want and need to go.

I want to repair this scattered feeling, achieve a better work/life balance, and cultivate a mind more suited to stretches of deep, disciplined effort. I want to play in my studio on a regular basis! And I want to put shallow work in its rightful place. So I took some tips I picked up in Cal Newport’s DEEP WORK and tried something new this past week. 

The challenge:

Launch a one-song studio project that requires concentration, innovation, problem-solving, discipline, choices, efficiency, flexibility

Use instruments, tools, and skills that I need practice with: keyboards, delay, compression, EQ, arranging, time management

The project: A cover of The Decemberists’ “January Hymn”

Method:

Set a hard deadline to force efficiency and focus

Schedule no more than 4 hours in studio per day

Note problems and progress on paper

Use walking and driving time outside of studio to meditate on arrangement ideas

Allot time for shallow tasks only between deep work sessions

Quantify the hours spent each day to learn how much time recording *really* takes

End each work day by 5:30pm (!)

Stay off of social media completely and keep the phone elsewhere

Surprises and discoveries:

Pickles. She sleeps 20 hours a day but whenever I'm in the studio, she suddenly finds herself beset by urgent and mysterious needs that apparently only I can resolve. Except that I can’t. So there were many interruptions which challenged my focus.

I re-recorded one of the keyboard lines more than 30 times, partly because it was fun, partly because I don’t play well and wanted the practice, but also because I really believed I could get the whole thing right all the way through if I just did it One. More. Time. I knew this was silly as I was doing it, but I got hooked and couldn’t stop. Had I laid down a basic track and spot-fixed problem areas, I could’ve saved myself two hours of noodle time.

When it was time to sing, my voice was rough. Living alone, dry winter air, caffeine, and not taking to anyone except the cat all took a toll. More warm-up and singing needed daily.

Three or four hours makes a good session. The work gets done. The ears aren’t fatigued, and neither is the mind. There’s still some pep left for other creative endeavors.

Even when I left a session frustrated, I was energized by the challenges and slept deeply every night.

Walking meditation really works. I tend to overplay but when I “listened” to the song in my head, I found the parts the song wanted.

Shallow tasks can be whittled to an hour a day, tops. Wowza.

I twitched once or twice and *almost* logged on to social media to escape fleeting moments of frustration, boredom, or to fill a minute between other work. But ultimately, it wasn’t hard to retrain myself to stay on task and in the evenings, I learned to fill my spare time in other ways. Read. Cooked. Did puzzles. Called friends. And - whose kitty needs a catnip/valerian toy? I made some out of scrap flannel. Happy to share!

January 20 was not the original due date. It was January 15. I didn’t know how long recordings *really* take, so I set an unreasonable deadline of two days. LOL. But, having tallied my work hours, I have a framework for the next recording. And having practiced with my gear and tools, things will go a little faster next time.

Helpers:

Thanks to Jim Henry, who gave me a mountain of helpful advice and mastered the recording which, by the way, you should listen to on good speakers or headphones -- the laptop leaves out all the low information. To Pickles, who taught me about focus and patience, and that little breaks aren’t all bad. And You. I needed someone for whom to make this recording. You are my 116 reasons. Thank you.

Is the song done? It's done for now. The point was work, focus, and creating a shift in habits. To that end, I'm thrilled with how it went. Maybe this ends up being a sketch for a band production later, but for now I'm happy with it and ready to start another. Enjoy, friends, and thanks for your support. xotg