About RPM

RPM Challenge is a month long event that takes place in February each year to challenge musicians in recording an album's worth of all original music. Learn More

Listen

Transnational Fidelity (2009)

Linear Thought (2010)

Other RPM Partcipants

Black Molly

Steve Haley - Two Steps in the Dark

COR13

The Farr Alvins

Sonic Space

Handsome Sweater

Keith Bradnam

Baby Man

Nubsy

Sake Of Reason

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Transnational Fidelity(2009)

When thinking of "what kind of album should I make," I really wasn't sure, exactly, what I wanted to do. I knew what I DIDNT'T want to do, and kind of went from there. Having just recorded a full album with my band Sonny Tripp over the Christmas holidays, I really didn't have many songs kicking around that I was dying to record. In the end, only 2 songs written prior to February wound up on the album (even those ended up being quite different). So, during the first two weeks in February, I pretty much recorded everything I randomly played on guitar using my computer's mic, and built the songs from there. Some came out as whole songs, while others were built from bits and pieces. When I thought I had a solid 10 songs ready to go, I recorded the drum tracks on a Sunday night (the 15th). That next Friday I recorded the acoustic tracks, the electric guitars on Saturday, the vocals on a flu-ridden Sunday (my birthday!), and the bass on Monday. Piano and some extra percussion were added over the course of the next few days, and mixing was done by week's end. Everything was recorded with a few vocal mics, and I was just kind of making up all the musical parts as I was going along. It was really fun recording the tracks without having any intention of ever playing these songs in a band setting. No worries of "how will I do this live?" Lots of ideas kept popping up, which lead to lots and lots of overdubs, and a general "why NOT" attitude which I enjoyed way too much. And the result... 10 songs, 37 minutes. Performed by me, recorded over the span of 2 weeks in a basement bedroom. Enjoy!

Linear Thought(2010)

February started off on a not so great note... I formatted my computer without realizing how, losing all my song ideas and such. This left me more than frustrated, but I quickly moved on, starting mostly from scratch, and decided to use my old 4 track cassette recorder to make demos of new songs. Two weeks later, I had my 10 songs written and ready to go (one of which was later scrapped in favour of a last minute song idea). I started recording, using my computer and a few rented microphones, starting off with just acoustic guitar and a click track (something new for me). I wasn't really sure what I wanted the overall sound of the album to be, but I thought starting with acoustic guitar would be a safe bet. A few days later, I managed to get a few hours with a drum set (not owning one of my own), and recorded all of the songs while playing them for the first time... From there, I began recording the various other instruments and the vocals interchangeably; a recording practice that was new to me, as I almost always record all guitars, then all bass, and so on. With not having a space of my own, noise complaints were a definite issue playing on my mind throughout the month, so I ended up recording a lot of the vocals and guitar parts in my bathroom, which I attempted to sound-proof with some blankets. They say the best ideas always come in the shower.... so why not record there?!