In five days February will be here, which signals the start of the RPM Challenge. I’ll have 29 days to write and record ten songs from scratch. Last year’s effort yielded wonderful fruit. Seven of the songs became the Accidents and Melodies album, and the last three became Boolean Knife’s Astrid and the Killer Penguin EP (which coincidentally arrives in the digital marketplace this coming Monday).
In 2015, I blogged along as I created the 10 songs and I plan to do the same this year. I’m still not sure how I was able to create 10 songs in a month, and furthermore that the songs were great enough to release. I can only hope that RPM 2016 goes as smoothly.
According to the RPM rules, I’m not supposed to use any lyrics or music created before February 1st. Last year I stuck to this for the most part, but there were a few lyrical lines that snuck in that had been bouncing around in my head for awhile. I expect the same will happen this year. I have some vague ideas of things I’d like to sing about, so we’ll see how it goes.
I’m tempted to go more ‘out there’ sonically, but at the same time want to keep things in the style that Boolean Knife has been cultivating (thick, multi-layered guitars, atmospheric electronics, a bit of ‘tude). I don’t know what’s going to happen… how or what these songs will turn out to be… I will assuredly have a bunch of songs for the band, and possibly a few that I will release under my own name. It’s anybody’s guess at this point.
So, stayed tuned folks! It’s going to be a hell of a ride!
-WS
