Stop. Collaborate.

The pendulum always swings, and it is heading back to hiatus for me. I am happiest creating with other people and it has become clear that just isn’t going to happen here in Abq.

I am going to work on some scoring projects, but outside of that probably stop all music production until the next change of venue, then jump back into collaborating.

Thanks for all of the support. I’ll see you on the other side.

Chooch
June 2020, Abq NM

I release music under the moniker The Art of Falling

RPM Challenge 2020

FINAL UPDATE: The album is now available on Spotify, Apple, Amazon, Tidal and all the other streaming services!
UPDATE: I “won” the RPM Challenge!

I completed recording my album first. Posted on my RPM Challenge profile. I consider this the rough mix, or first draft since some of the songs got a quick mix in the dead of night and none are properly mastered. But recording was completed in February!

You’ll see in the progress bars that two songs didn’t quite make it. Level Up was really far along, but needed a tone change and I got stuck trying to pivot. Prevenge has never made it past three riffs and a concept. They might make it on the full release as bonus tracks 🙂

So now I’m going to make some notes, mix, master, and polish and submit for sale/stream on iTunes, Android, Spotify and all that.
Update March 2021: I have begun final mixing and mastering on the album and anticipate completion in April!!

I’d like to dedicate this album to my wife, my muse. Without her support and encouragement, I never could have done this!

I’d also like to thank Bob Dorsey – a shining light in Rio Rancho. His encouragement, lyrics, and musical chops restored my faith in musicians.

{c}

Backing up… to 2/1/2020:

I am taking on the RPM Challenge this year. The gimmick is to record an album in a month. It’s like NaNoWriMo which you might recognize if you are an author or have writer friends. Like NaNo it’s a kick in the pants for creative people to enforce the habit of daily creation to reach a difficult goal.

The conditions for completion (ie: “what do you mean by album?”) is at least 10 songs -or- 30 minutes of music. So it could be one 30 minute song, or ten 3 minute songs. So far I plan on doing 10 songs that will weigh in at about 45 minutes total.

The only concrete rule of RPM that everything must be recorded in the month of February. Bands are encouraged to start from scratch and write, record, produce everything in the month, but a lot (most?) bring bits, pieces, samples, and drafts to the table.

I’m absolutely one of those people! Most of these songs started life as lunchtime lullabys a few years ago and are finally getting re-recorded and extended into full songs.

Below is my progress. The hope is to move the meters a little bit every day, but I’m kind of a binge worker so we’ll see how it goes. I am considering the progress of each song to span the whole process, not just recording – so a 10% done song probably means most of the instrumentation is worked out but I still need to write lyrics and start actual recording.

My Musical Wanderings

On my own I tend to write rock or techno / trip-hop / downtempo songs. Sometimes synth pop.

I record as The Art of Falling and you can head there to hear some demos and my debut album. I once sang and played keys for Ego Daemonium. I may still, but I haven’t heard from them in awhile.

I used to play in alt rock band Ditched by Kate… and speed metal band Hidden Fury.. and punk band Captain Chooch and his Band of Rabid Saber Toothed Crotch Crickets From Hell.. and half of the parody duo Kermit Rotten.. and band-that-never-materialized Squash.

A few years ago I did a song-a-week project. I’m thinking about starting it up again. You can hear those tracks below: