[Do You Have Your Mic?]

I dont own myown Mic. or FX effects unfortunately, but I do take an interest in my own voice, especailly when screaming.

Do you know how to do it properly? It can be really dangerous.

I'm just starting to really take care of my voice. I'm breaking the habit of constantly clearing my throat (Tourettes syndrome, but I can actually quit thanks to the meds I'm on), I'm drinking lots more water than I used to to thin the mucus in my throat, and I've been using moisterizing nasal spray. And I've been refusing to talk when my throat hurts. I don't think I've damaged it that much yet, but I don't want to anymore. Though I probably know more about the vocal process because of my background in choral singing.

[Gig Prices]

The best concerts I've ever been to were all $10-$15. The really expensive ones over where I live are usually in overcrowded venues with shitty sound quality, they only cost so much because the bands are popular. Fortunately for me, most of the bands I really like are pretty underground. I would shell out to see, say, Beirut or Arcade Fire, but they're elitist bastards who have never come near enough.

[Screaming]

I hate screamo, it sounds like adolescent girls. But old punk is alright, like Fear.

I never scream, I'm the stereotypical image of an opera singer.

"Shh! I've got to conserve my voice!"

[Music Experiments]

I've started to experiment with blues scales. It's weird for me because I don't really listen to the blues, but it's what I'm writing. At least I know I'm being original.

[Writers To Learn From]

Conor Oberst doesn't have a very good voice and his melodies aren't that great, but his songwriting is amazing.

We must talk in every telephone, get eaten off the web

We must rip out all the epilogues from the books that we have read

Into the face of every criminal strapped firmly to a chair

We must stare, we must stare, we must stare

We must take all of the medicines too expensive now to sell

Set fire to the preacher who is promising us hell

Into the ear of every anarchist that sleeps but doesn't dream

We must sing, we must sing, we must sing

And it'll go like this, all right

While my mother waters plants, my father loads his gun

He says, "Death will give us back to God

Just like the setting sun

Is returned to the lonesome ocean"

We must blend into the choir, sing as static with the whole

We must memorize nine numbers and deny we have a soul

Into this endless race for property and privilege to be won

We must run, we must run, we must run

We must hang up in the belfry where the bats and moonlight laugh

We must stare into a crystal ball and only see the past

Into the caverns of tomorrow with just our flashlights and our love

We must plunge, we must plunge, we must plunge

And then we'll get down there

Way down to the very bottom of everything

And then we'll see it, oh, we'll see it! We'll see it! We’ll see it!

Oh, my morning's coming back

The whole world’s waking up

All the city buses swimming past

I'm happy just because

I found out I am really no one

The plot developement is superb, and he doesn't use repetitive choruses. I want to learn how not to do that.

[Test Your Hearing- Age Matters]

That was painful.