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About this blog

What I'm up to

Entries in this blog

Back Recording Again

It's been years since I truly focused on my own music. Really, a long, long time. I think I took most of my songs offline around 2008, and only posted some song drafts on Songstuff and the sleepy backwater of my website. Most of my new songs were never recorded never mind released. Instead, for years I have focused on helping other musicians write, record and release their music. While I still plan to do that, I am, at last, back recording my music.   In truth I had decided to do that

john

Planning an EP and an Album plus Singles

Well a while ago I shelved plans for an album due to life getting in the road... but here I am back again, in the early stages of planning an EP and an album with accompanying singles.   For now I have a provisional timescale, with the plan to release the single in October, followed by an EP in November. Hopefully then I will release singles and an album to follow in April / May. The tracks are mostly written for both EP and album and recording has begun. Tracks are being selected for

john

Moving Home, Moving Home Recording Studio

It’s typical. Just I am happy with my home studio, I have to strip it down and move the whole fecking thing. Grrr.   It had to be done so… just suck it up and get on with it, John. (Talking to myself in the 3rd person now too!)   Moving house can be a stressful time for anyone, especially if you are a musician and have to rebuild your home recording studio. It can feel like a daunting task, but with a little bit of planning and effort, you can have your new studio up

john in Studio

Recording!

Phew! It’s good to be back recording again. The first track in a while isn’t even one of the several songs I have been writing in preparation for being able to record again. Nope. The first track is something that came out of road testing my set up.   I started with a melody, worked through some basic chords on my Nord, and then started building the track out on my DAW. Having put together a verse and chorus and laid down a “do do do” version of the  melody, I started on writing some l

john in EP 1

Connected

Hey Gang   At last. Connections all made in my studio, set up complete, about to start testing and ready to start room conditioning!   It’s even beginning to look kinda pretty…     I can’t wait. Testing should start tomorrow. Yay!   I’ll update you soon!

john in Studio

Lyrical Motivation

I am churning out music I am happy with, a lot quicker than I am currently managing to produce lyrics. It's not a wuestion of ideas, it's motivation. I thinked I've sussed out what's wrong (again). Motivation. (still) I just don't spend enough time writing. When I sit down with an instrument I can simply express myself. My inner feelings are given a voice and it's good just to let that out. With lyrics, I tend to put a lot of myself into them. They are about me, my life, or someth

john

My Own Site

For those interested, you can find my own site at: johnmoxey.com Let me know what you think of it! I also run blogs here: http://blog.myspace.com/johnmoxey

john

Creating A New Mix Of “Sleep”, A Song Written By Mahesh

So, I’ve been using my studio to work on a track for Mahesh. It’s a track I love, called “Sleep”. Truly beautiful.   Re-arranging and producing a track for someone else is not something I often do these days. I do hope it sees the light of day as a release. Not that I have any expectation that it might not be released. Far from it. I fully expect it will be released, but you never be too sure. A song can seem to be working well and developing in a positive direction. But appeal can be

Always On My Mind

I've recently added the first (very preliminary) mix to the songwriting critique board. Always On My Mind This is a slower mix, also pitched down a little. I have also started a slightly higher pitched and faster version for comparison, but that is not posted yet. I know there's lots wrong with the actual mix, but I'm trying to get the feel going. This is the first track I've recorded in a while, and I didn't use my usual recording set up. It's nice to be back recording.

john

At Last

Yay!   A working studio. All connected together. Flashy lights, things that go beep and everything!   A brief tidy up required and I should be good to go. I can’t wait.   Some experimenting will come fist. Maybe a track or two will drop out of the process, maybe nothing.

john in Studio

21 Lyrics In 31 Days

I've set myself a challenge of writing 21 lyrics during the 31 days of January, pretty well 2 lyrics every 3 days. The point isn't to write masterpieces, but to try to get ideas flowing without letting myself get bogged down. I have no idea if it'll work, or if I'll even get close to writing that many lyrics in such a short time, but it will be interesting! If anyone else is interested in such a challenge I've posted a topic here: lyrics writing challenge Please join in and c

john

Ray Lamontagne

Hey Just chillin' and listening to the Ray LaMontagne album "Trouble". A great album with some well written songs. Not the happiest of albums, but it does resonate with me in some way. It also reminds me of what can be done with essentially an acoustic and an emotional vocal. It's one of those albums that, for me, evokes a feeling of "you could do this with your own music". If you know what I mean. Not write and record Ray's album, more that if Ray can get an album of this quality out there

john

System Updates

Windows 11 Upgrading   I lose a lot of time updating my recording system. Good that it is up to date, but updates take a while to do.   The most annoying bit is that every time I go through the update cycle, I restart my system. It’s a Windows 10 system. That means, every restart brings the “Upgrade to Windows 11!” Messages and software download… even when you don’t want to update! Arrggghh!   I would upgrade to Windows 11 if it wasn’t for concerns about compatibili

john in Studio

Recording A New Song...

It's been a while since I worked on a recording, well at least a serious recording anyway. At the moment I've started by laying down a guide guitar track, bass drums and some strings. I sometimes block in a track to act as frame for working up the parts, and other times I already have a clear view of the full arrangement. I find varying how I approach the recording, arrangement or writing helps keep me in a creative mood. Anyway, on this track I started with bass, strings, drums then guitar

john

Getting My Studio Into Shape!

So, I have been reworking my studio. The purpose has been to update my core system while preparing it for future developments, both for my own music, Deep Red Sea, and of course Songstuff.   The feature photo for this post IS NOT my studio, but it does feel like that sometimes! That’s why I chose it.   One big change ups setting up the studio as a viable streaming studio. I already have a couple of good lights and a green screen, along with a couple of decent back drops... I

john in EP 1

I Dream Of Blue Screen

“It’s all going well...”   Famous last words. The title of the post pretty well gives it away.   Just as I got it all working together, I was touring about trying instruments out, and the DAW froze, along with the whole PC, a high pitched whine came out the speakers and I had to reboot. Within an hour it had happened another 3 times.   I suspect a dodgy VST. I hope it is a dodgy VST. At least that would be an easy fix.   So tomorrow it’s Windows 10 Event V

john in Studio

Writing Lyrics

I've been doing lots of writing and I'm really enjoying it. I think it's because I've got lots of ideas flowing, both melodically and lyrically, and that is helping to keep my creative juices flowing. I'm almost ready to start using my collaboration space. First time I'll have used it in anger, so to speak. It's been a while since I've recorded with other musicians and I'm really looking forward to hearing the little unexpected twists and ideas you get when working with others. Onwards

john

John Moxey On Songwriting And Music

In addition to this blog, which will be more focused on my own writings and my experience in creating my own works, I have created a new blog which will focus on Songwriting and Music in general. It will cover music and lyrics writing, and the combined creative process of creating a song, music technology, music production and the business aspects of the music industry: John Moxey On Songwriting and Music To start with I will be adding articles on topics of interest to songwriters and

john

Tales Of A Working Studio…

So my Studio is ALMOST tidy. Cough cough. Tidyness is not my strong point. I have my doubts that my studio will ever be truly tidy. I just have too much stuff that gets stored in my studio. Old music gear, music books, cables… more to the point, I suck at putting things away.   The good news is that my studio is up and running again. Loads to explore too. Not a completely new set up, but enough of a change that it will be a while before I am familiar with it all. The journey should be

john in Studio

File Sharing - The Great Misinformed

Ok so the file sharing people have kindly killed off not just the major labels as they like to think in their most Robin Hood of moments, but they have also massacred the independent labels and musicians. Little thought goes into their actions. They want free music. They feel entitled to it, and no matter what argument is presented they invariably come back with some "striking at the big boys", some anti-corporate crap and the vague notion that we should all trust them to buy the stuff that

john

Improve Your Lyric Writing

Hey Lyric writing comes from the heart, but not the heart alone. Writing lyrics uses several aspects of our mind, not just our feelings. Improve Your Lyric Writing Drop by and have a read. Feel free to post any comment in the Music Forum

john

Writing Some New Songs

Hey I've been writing quite a lot lately. I've got about 7 songs with partial lyrics and about 5 new tunes that I think are ready to get some lyrics. It's put me in mind of the problem of selecting suitable topics for a lyric, a subject I've been meaning to write an article about for a while. It's a problem that seems to affect a lot of writers after they get passed the vibrancy of youth and grind to a crawl in their late 20s. I mean once you've notched up some experiience you kind of

john

Pro Sound Cards

I'm a little out of touch with latest soundcards. My Carillon is now 6 years old. It's got two Creamware sound cards fitted. They've been pretty excellent soundcards, but they are old style pci. Contemplating upgrading my Carillon has of course prompted the question about the latest sound cards. So, I checked out the Creamware range again, but being honest the whole uncertainty over Creamware's future after yet another bankrupcy and take over puts me off. Sure the new companies taking over

john

Writing An Instrumental

It's been ages since I've written an instrumental. I've only written 2 before, and they were for a whole band. With that in mind I've decided to write an instrumental for the guitar. At the moment I'm thinking of using an alternate tuning. I've experimented from time to time with different guitar tunings, but so far I've not written any pieces using anything other than standard tuning. My guitar style does often use a lot of open chords, so I think it should lend to an alternate tuning, but

john

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