So, the RPM Challenge is to record an album of original music in the month of February, which had 28 days this year. Robbie texted me on the 27th of those 28 days to let me know he had another song almost finished – it just needed final vocals…

Sweet origin story for the lovely Anders family. Mike had most of the song written prior to February, and he and Margaret fine-tuned the words at the studio while we were setting up to record. Mike invited his bluegrass pickin’ buddies over…

This one has quite a convoluted path, too! The origin was toward the end of the first RPM recording session on Saturday, 2/4, when Matt said, "Hey, can we jam on G – D – Em – C and see what happens?" We arrayed ourselves around the studio…

Maggie’s beautiful, heartbreaking hymn to loved ones lost too soon. The intense, somber feeling of loss, both individual and communal, and support in the room as the other 6 or 7 of us listened to Maggie and Sara Beth perform the first take…

Early on, after we recorded the first couple of takes of Leum’s song, Silence is Sound, Nick and I chatted about Leum’s request for somebody to replace the guitar part on the song. I thought about maybe using my baritone and/or 12-string hollowbody…

Another go at trying out a new plugin or two.

As usual, the track titles have nothing to do with the actual music/sounds - I usually just pick something that fits with whatever theme/concept is in my head when it's time to get the cover art together. (This time around, it's power grid failures…

Used Hainbach's excellent Landfill Totems VST for these noisy ruminations. Also had some samples from an LP recorded by a local high school band nearly 40 years ago, but I re-rendered this version without those samples, just in case... Kevin…

This one combines a tape loop I made, hardware synths (the volcas again), the RPM-40 drum machine, my guitar effects processor, and a few more samples I found online. Kevin Craig - Synths, tape loop, mixing.

Was playing around in VCV Rack, trying to build a generative patch so the synth would make music on its own. (Can't remember if I used one of Omri Cohen's VCV patches as a starting point, or was just following along with one of his videos. Either…