Guitar Nerds Anonymous

It doesn't help I've never written lyrics and hate the sound of my own voice.
I'm terrible at lyrics and don't push myself anywhere near hard enough to write them.

I've struggled so hard with this for my entire life, always been a guitarist guitarist...
During Covid my mate Lewis (bass) and I started what working on what would become the band that we're recording at the moment and it was basically just something to do once a week ot get out of the house and sit with some acoustic guitars and try to write songs...

It's definitely a muscle and the more of it we did the easier it got and the better the results. I've recently even gotten to a point where I'm comfortable writing on my own now and again, pretty happy with the results of how that's been going...
In terms of vocal I can solely attribute any capabilities I have as a singer to existing solely on a diet of Bon Iver throughout a lot of Covid... listening to Justin Vernon and singing along in the car made me realise I've forever been trying to sing in the wrong register to try and sound like other people when my voice is better suited to lower registers and falsetto...
I'm by no means a great singer or vocalist all of a sudden but I definitely feel like I've found my voice on both fronts in the last few years...

That’s really great to hear man. I think it’s an actually a very common thing struggling to fine a voice. I spent years thinking I couldn’t sing (but inflicting it on people anyway!) before realising that I was trying to sing too high and crucially - too loudly. I think this is really easy trap to fall into when you start out trying to be heard over drums and amps with crappy PA gear.

Not saying I’m anything of a singer now - I definitely have more tenacity than talent, but learning to live within my comfort zone in terms of range, tone and volume was a game changer.

Also, not liking your own voice often means not liking how you sound to you using your totally unaffected speaking voice. Most singers have some degree of affectation in their voice. Some far more than you might realise. There’s no shame in “putting on a voice” you like. Obviously this can go too far but, yeah, I think you’d actually be surprised how far you can go into what might seem like an extreme affectation before it tips into silly. Try it!

But yeah, I fucking hate my voice almost all of the time then once in a while I stumble across a voice that I can do that I don’t hate. I can’t always summon it up at will and have to listen to previous recordings where I got it right - then I copy myself doing that and I’m off to the races.

Final home recording thing, when I do vocals, I loop the track and sing it like 25 times. By the final take I’m relaxed and comfortable in trying a few little improvisations that add variation, and usually by then my voice is starting to get a little ragged and less clear/boring. Then I can use the best take or comp of a couple and that seems to work more often than not.

Weird, an old friend sent me footage of a gig we played from 24 years ago. It’s nice to hear now with a lot of water under the bridge. I got nostalgic and thought about doing something again, but I barely have time to scratch my arse.

I am however, pretty competent at writing lyrics and do so irregularly for a few bands. Shame I don’t have a single tune in my head

Lost lapsed muso swap meet!

@RonAsheton you fucker. Now all I can hear is the missing melotron. Also, thank you because after YEARS of deferring, I just ordered an EHX Mel9.

Haha, apologies, I'm addicted to the mellotron sounds in Logic.

I finally hooked up the Bugera attenuator yesterday. The Solton @rickster sold me all those years ago sounds great, very of its time, low gainy but a bit flubby. It'll sound even better with a bit of boost and a little tone shaping, unfortunately my BOSS EQ is dead, that would've done the whole job on its own. The attenuation works really well, now I want more non-master volume amps.

That can't be good, can it? 💸

PS released two more tracks today. Tell me how shit they are! 🤜🏼💩🤛🏼

Dood! Love it! Didn’t know you had a thing going on.. hooky, weirdly familiar and filthy in all the right places. Love the vocals too. Totally badass.

You're far too kind, I have no idea what I'm doing TBH, just winging it!

Wendy is the fourth singer I've tried to get something happening with, I sent her half a dozen very scrappy ideas over WhatsApp, a few weeks later she came over and in seven takes recorded six entire vocals, she's the real deal!

I like that it's just the two of us, it's a bit daunting on the music side because she hasn't got a clue on that stuff, she can barely work her phone, so I have to take it wherever I see fit. Hard when it's all new ground. Next batch of songs will be a lot more out there production-wise and harder edged, looking forward to it.

Deep down tho' I just wanna play guitar and sing BVs in a power pop band. 🤷🏼‍♂️

I'll write some guff about how i've been thinking about recording lately - or maybe that's best posted on the production thread (although what I do hardly seems to qualify and seems a better fit here tbh).

I've really enjoyed these posts and I'm really enjoying the new Elvers too. I've also really admired your approach to production - you're much more about capturing the cool stuff as much as possible, whereas my tradition comes from the old rock way of double tracking everything, approaching it more as a construction. I've tried to take more of your approach for my acoustic stuff, because I think that's where it works best - we have traditions in music and we should either deliberately respect them or deliberately fuck with them, but we should imo always do either one deliberately.

I'd love to see you guys at one of the folk nights at the Rose and Crown in Walthamstow if you ever fancied it - people go there specifically for the tunes, so it avoids a lot of the awkwardness, which I also hate.

The last gig I did was at a crusty bar in South London and I could hear the table in front of me's conversation more than I could hear my songs. So do you chuck a rock star fit and tell them to shut the fuck up? Can't do that. But do you soldier on when no-one can hear shit? Bit undignified at nearly 50. I'm just past that I think - I might do another Barrack Room Ballads record (I had the whole thing ready to go last year but my dad died and I found myself completely bereft of anything to say that wasn't grief) but I'm not sure I ever want to play those songs live.

But I've started picking a guitar up again recently and I realised I'm like you. I like making music - outside my wife and my family and my dog, it's the only thing that gives my life proper weight and texture. And I like the camaraderie of being in a band. I like the ritual of meeting up on a Saturday and going out for a beer afterward. I like making stuff. I even like the gigging, as long as the table at the front isn't louder than I am.

If it makes you feel better, I had to tell some people to shut the fuck up at a Better Lovers gig so I could listen to the band. Some venues are too quiet and some people need to have some self-awareness

for clarity, i was in the audience for that situation. I am not a former member of ETID

I am not a former member of ETID

Just what we'd EXPECT a former member of ETID to say!

The Luminaire (RIP) in Kilburn used to have these up around the venue. More venues should take a leaf out of their book imo.

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100%.

Sadly brighton gigs, especially anything with a bit of hype round them eg that Better Lovers tour, really attract patrons who want to be seen at the gig but are not actually that fussed about taking in the show.

folk nights at the Rose and Crown in Walthamstow

Ah, are there sessions, too? Despite going to Walthamstow Folk Club for years, I don't think I've heard of these.

The next guests at WFC will be @owl 's band The Embers, coming up this Sunday.

https://www.yeolderoseandcrowntheatrepub.co.uk/whats-on/walthamstow-folk-club-the-embers/about

https://walthamstowfolk.co.uk/guests/14-04-2024/

Absolutely beautiful track mate. Listening now.

I don't think there are sessions but I'd be surprised if Elvers couldn't get a legit show - they've always occupied a very simlilar place in my brain as Embers and not just because of the similar names and the fact that they're both On Here.

Speaking of I didn't realise @owl was in Embers! I know Sam through non-bike muso channels. Unofficial LFGSS meetup on Sun?

I'll be there. Hope you can make it!

The Embers occur mainly in the Folk thread:

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/175308/

Just back from a service and holy smokes it does sound good. Plays pretty well too though tech recommended a re-fret and reckons c. €450 for the job to be done right.

The joys of it...

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450 seems steep - does it have nibs on the binding that they want to keep? I'd be tempted to lose them for a cheaper job and a more playable result. I know they're fancy but they just seem like faff and rougher bend to me.

Ah it's 55 years old this year and I absolutely trust Some Neck Guitars above all else to work on it so I'll probably just stomach it. I am conscious of it being done as sympathetically as possible and to be honest it doesn't need to be done right away so I'll live with it for now.

Hey man. Thanks for the kind words. I'd love to do gigs and beers again! Glad to hear you still have the spark. I dig your stuff man.

Thanks for all of the very sweet words on the new tune - and at the risk of MASSIVELY over milking this little ditty - I have just tweaked the mix to add the (fakey Mel9 generetaed) Mellotron!

https://elvers.bandcamp.com/track/wait-for-the-light-mel9mix

Done now. On to the next thing.

The Mel9 is mental btw. I'll stick up a little review later.

Oh nice! Love those guys. Sundays tricky for me out in the Kentish boonies with the kids these days. Will keep an eye out for more gigs tho. Cheers Oliver.