Black Rice (Women cover)
Posted a cover. One of my favorite songs right now. Word up.
Black Rice (Women cover)
6/2/12
5/28/12
5/8/12
3/15/12
[New Song: Dried Out]
We uploaded a new song with the hopes that some people might listen to it. It's a 3-minute indie-folk-rock-thing about desertion.
It'll be on the album that we hope to release at some point before the fall.
You can listen and download below for free. Because we believe in that kind of thing.
Dried Out by videosforpictures It'll be on the album that we hope to release at some point before the fall.
You can listen and download below for free. Because we believe in that kind of thing.
<3
~-~
3/14/12
A music rant. It's been awhile.
Over this two-week (!) spring break, I've been sleeping between 4 and 5AM each morning and waking up between 1 and 2PM. It's an awful sleep schedule, but I've accepted it as unavoidable. Day in and day out, I'm finding myself either recording, producing, writing, buying, or discovering music. Nothing more, nothing less. Everything's revolving around music, and I'm getting loads done as a result. By the same hand, it's driving me remotely insane. In a good way.
I've been forgoing sleep and constantly musicing because I know that time is of the essence when I'm home. Time is the medium I'm working in when I make music, and I know that I don't have very much of it before I have to go back to school for another 9 weeks. Once I'm back at school, there'll be no time for this stuff. I have to get as much done as musically possible now. I'm not rushing this full-length album at all, and neither is Jeremy. But it's giving the whole project a sense of urgency, spontaneity, and immediacy, which is something I've long desired to capture in a recording anyways.
So fuck sleep, and long live pursuing a passion like it's your last day on Earth, I guess.
---
These are songs and the order that we're thinking of placing them in:
1. Dried Out
2. Unclothed, Uninvited
3. The Drop (pt. 1)
4. Propeller
5. From A Line
6. Interlude
7. T.V. Snow
8. +
Bits have been recorded for all eight of these songs. Over the next couple of days, I'm going to be focusing solely on recording the remaining parts. I'll worry about mixing over the summer. Mixing's going to take a while anyways - we're not just dealing with piano and vocals anymore. Now it's guitar, piano, cello, drums, banjo, vocals, and noises. Thank God Jeremy's here to finally push the project to expand its sound with an array of new instruments; we're looking at a much folkier release this time around. At the same time, there are some tracks that veer on post-rock and even shoegaze. It's still very much a diverse, do-whatever-the-fuck type project. But it's becoming a bit more focused, which I approve of a lot.
While we're back at school, we hope to complete the writing for this album. We're shooting for 10 or 11 tracks in total.
I'm most worried about promotion with this release. Now that I've finally given up the YouTube ghost, I'm wondering how I'm going to generate interest in what I make. I've been pursuing a couple of outlets (namely a couple of subcommunities on SoundCloud), but I need something more. Someone suggested that I try mutual promotion, like: a band pimps videosforpictures, videosforpictures pimps a band in return. This strategy would work to an extent, I'm sure, but I don't know how effective my attempts would be. Another idea came to mind that I'd compile a list of 100 music blogs and labels to send an e-mail out to in advance, saying "Hey - we've got a full-length here. Blah blah blah. Check it out." But I don't want to spam people's inboxes. I'm sure they get enough of that as is.
I guess part of the problem with the music world is that you have to be either ubiquitous or lucky. One path requires a lot of effort to get your name "out there," the other path requires almost no effort. If I could put on a proper live show, I would so try for ubiquity. But instead, videosforpictures is that project that will just have to keep working in the digital shadows until a big name comes through and says "Hey. We like what you do." And from there, the listeners start coming. I know that. But how the fuck do I get there?
It's a question that will either answer itself with time or will leave videosforpictures in a state of permanent obscurity. Either way, music is something that I really like to do, and I'll only give it up when I'm dead.
In other news, I still smell like smoke from the bonfire earlier today.
I've been forgoing sleep and constantly musicing because I know that time is of the essence when I'm home. Time is the medium I'm working in when I make music, and I know that I don't have very much of it before I have to go back to school for another 9 weeks. Once I'm back at school, there'll be no time for this stuff. I have to get as much done as musically possible now. I'm not rushing this full-length album at all, and neither is Jeremy. But it's giving the whole project a sense of urgency, spontaneity, and immediacy, which is something I've long desired to capture in a recording anyways.
So fuck sleep, and long live pursuing a passion like it's your last day on Earth, I guess.
---
These are songs and the order that we're thinking of placing them in:
1. Dried Out
2. Unclothed, Uninvited
3. The Drop (pt. 1)
4. Propeller
5. From A Line
6. Interlude
7. T.V. Snow
8. +
Bits have been recorded for all eight of these songs. Over the next couple of days, I'm going to be focusing solely on recording the remaining parts. I'll worry about mixing over the summer. Mixing's going to take a while anyways - we're not just dealing with piano and vocals anymore. Now it's guitar, piano, cello, drums, banjo, vocals, and noises. Thank God Jeremy's here to finally push the project to expand its sound with an array of new instruments; we're looking at a much folkier release this time around. At the same time, there are some tracks that veer on post-rock and even shoegaze. It's still very much a diverse, do-whatever-the-fuck type project. But it's becoming a bit more focused, which I approve of a lot.
While we're back at school, we hope to complete the writing for this album. We're shooting for 10 or 11 tracks in total.
I'm most worried about promotion with this release. Now that I've finally given up the YouTube ghost, I'm wondering how I'm going to generate interest in what I make. I've been pursuing a couple of outlets (namely a couple of subcommunities on SoundCloud), but I need something more. Someone suggested that I try mutual promotion, like: a band pimps videosforpictures, videosforpictures pimps a band in return. This strategy would work to an extent, I'm sure, but I don't know how effective my attempts would be. Another idea came to mind that I'd compile a list of 100 music blogs and labels to send an e-mail out to in advance, saying "Hey - we've got a full-length here. Blah blah blah. Check it out." But I don't want to spam people's inboxes. I'm sure they get enough of that as is.
I guess part of the problem with the music world is that you have to be either ubiquitous or lucky. One path requires a lot of effort to get your name "out there," the other path requires almost no effort. If I could put on a proper live show, I would so try for ubiquity. But instead, videosforpictures is that project that will just have to keep working in the digital shadows until a big name comes through and says "Hey. We like what you do." And from there, the listeners start coming. I know that. But how the fuck do I get there?
It's a question that will either answer itself with time or will leave videosforpictures in a state of permanent obscurity. Either way, music is something that I really like to do, and I'll only give it up when I'm dead.
In other news, I still smell like smoke from the bonfire earlier today.
~-~
3/12/12
Never mind.
Remember when this blog was called 'A Day In The Life Of A Teen Musician?' Well. I'm still 19, and still technically a teen musician. And about 1800 days later, I can safely say that we made it. I started this blog when I was 14 with a few covers in mind and the beginnings of a few songs. And now, after 4 EPs and a 16-track compilation, I'm going to release my first proper full-length in the summer (with a friend, of course. videosforpictures has doubled in size). If I had known this was where I'd be 5 years ago, I'd be pretty shocked. I don't have a substantial fanbase at all, but I've put out a lot of music. 5 years ago, I thought recording in a studio was the only way to commit music to tape. I didn't think that I'd ever record more than a couple of songs. I've since put out 40 songs, and recorded probably close to 100. That's huge.
It's a personal legacy.
And I'm pretty proud of it.
And who knows what the next 5 years will bring?
Fuck it, maybe I won't take this blog down after all.
No. I'm going to start talking again.
~-~
2/28/12
listless
for the last
few days i've felt listless.
going through
the motions living life day
in and day out
that i might trudge up to the fourth
floor even though i live on third
and as i realize
and as i realize my mistake
and start walking back down
the fire alarm goes off
and i can't even tell
if i pulled it.
day
in and day out
few days i've felt listless.
going through
the motions living life day
in and day out
that i might trudge up to the fourth
floor even though i live on third
and as i realize
and as i realize my mistake
and start walking back down
the fire alarm goes off
and i can't even tell
if i pulled it.
day
in and day out
2/16/12
The End Of This Blog.
I'm shutting "A Day In The Life of A Teen Nightlight" down on March 20th, the 5-year anniversary of my first post here.
It's run its course: as a blog, as a site for my poetry, as everything else that I may have used it for.
It's served me well.
It's time for something else.
There's quite a bit of history running in the annals of this blog...
My first legitimate recording session.
The end of my piano lessons.
My first trip to NYC and how heavy that was.
Seeing Jeff Mangum live. Holy shit, seeing Jeff Mangum live.
Writing down every single song idea I had coursing through my veins in those first days where I figured I would try songwriting...
Talent shows.
How I never won a single talent show.
And how I still kind of resent that.
A lot of poetry.
And so many other assorted thoughts and pieces all rearranged into an organized space.
And I'm just going to throw it away.
I am what some people might call "temporally obsessed." I don't like looking back on things that I've done from a few years ago, because the past always feels like yesterday to me. As a result, I become aware of my present mortality and a mini-existential crisis ensues. It seems silly, because it is. But time genuinely bothers me. I think I've made that clear in many of the posts I've made here over the years... This blog is just always going to be here if I don't do something about it. I'm having similar feelings towards my YouTube channel right now. These things that I've created will sit and serve as pleasant nostalgia, but more prominently as a sign that I'm only getting older.
I just want to exist outside the context of the Internet. I really do. I want to start going places, networking with people, finding shows to play at, being creative with friends. To not have the fleeting thought of maintaining a *PRESENCE* linger over my head every time I visit a website.
Writing on here's done a lot for me. It's helped me document and track my progress into becoming a person who can write, record, produce, and release music, who can musically collaborate with others, who can jot his mind onto a piece of paper whenever he wants to. Who can, once in a while, dream big.
So it's time that I wrap things up and put it to sleep. I'll be blogging in a notebook from now on.
Thanks to everyone who's been following over the years, if there are any of you left at this point. I love you a lot.
It's run its course: as a blog, as a site for my poetry, as everything else that I may have used it for.
It's served me well.
It's time for something else.
There's quite a bit of history running in the annals of this blog...
My first legitimate recording session.
The end of my piano lessons.
My first trip to NYC and how heavy that was.
Seeing Jeff Mangum live. Holy shit, seeing Jeff Mangum live.
Writing down every single song idea I had coursing through my veins in those first days where I figured I would try songwriting...
Talent shows.
How I never won a single talent show.
And how I still kind of resent that.
A lot of poetry.
And so many other assorted thoughts and pieces all rearranged into an organized space.
And I'm just going to throw it away.
I am what some people might call "temporally obsessed." I don't like looking back on things that I've done from a few years ago, because the past always feels like yesterday to me. As a result, I become aware of my present mortality and a mini-existential crisis ensues. It seems silly, because it is. But time genuinely bothers me. I think I've made that clear in many of the posts I've made here over the years... This blog is just always going to be here if I don't do something about it. I'm having similar feelings towards my YouTube channel right now. These things that I've created will sit and serve as pleasant nostalgia, but more prominently as a sign that I'm only getting older.
I just want to exist outside the context of the Internet. I really do. I want to start going places, networking with people, finding shows to play at, being creative with friends. To not have the fleeting thought of maintaining a *PRESENCE* linger over my head every time I visit a website.
Writing on here's done a lot for me. It's helped me document and track my progress into becoming a person who can write, record, produce, and release music, who can musically collaborate with others, who can jot his mind onto a piece of paper whenever he wants to. Who can, once in a while, dream big.
So it's time that I wrap things up and put it to sleep. I'll be blogging in a notebook from now on.
Thanks to everyone who's been following over the years, if there are any of you left at this point. I love you a lot.
~-~
2/14/12
Notes..---
Beats hour:
Burial - Loner
Young Magic – Jam
Karet
Lapalux – Moments
Fresh Arcade - ٩(•●)۶
Goth-Trad
– Anti-Grid
Dream
Consequence – B Free
Portico
Quartet - Ruins
Ambient hour:
Grouper – Demona (Dead Moon cover)
Lotus Plaza – These Years
Lapalux – Face Down, Eyes Shut
Julianna Barwick – Never Change
Force Tranquille - Aelab
0318 – Fennesz +
Sakamoto
2/9/12
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