A Song Each Day

Writing and recording a song each day is definitely a challenge, even if it’s just for a week. Although some better than others, I think I captured some decent ideas especially with only a few hours every night after work to prepare. It was a great exercise in songwriting and engineering.

Looking back on it now, I honestly don’t know how Eric and CJ did it. I would probably go insane or at least turn grey. Hat’s off to Andy as well for completing nearly 3 weeks of songs. You guys should be proud.

I probably should have explained this in the first post but I thought it would be pretty obvious. The image that was posted each day was the same piece of art. Kristen did the actual painting (the first image – acrylic on canvas) and each night I overlaid something new on it. I thought it would be interesting to see the development plus it makes a cool album cover for the project.

Big THANKS to Colin, Alex and my wife Kristen for not only helping but putting up with a song each day.

Until next time,

JM

Songwriter Johnny Massey has decided to complete a project, but his will be shorter than usual: he’ll be doing 7 songs in 7 days. His project will start on Jan 3, 2010!

In advance of his start, here is a bit about Johnny:

Like many kids from small towns, sports played an important role in the development of Johnny Massey. A superstar from a young age in both football and baseball, he seemed destined to come crashing out of the Mississippi Delta and into a full ride at a top notch university. But by the time he reached college his interests had changed and he found himself at a crossroads.

Art had always been a major part of Johnny’s life, but the music bug didn’t bite until his freshman year in college when his parents gave him his first guitar. Soon, every bit of spare time that had been taken up with sports was converted into creating chord progressions, lyrics, and eventually writing full length songs. His love for classic rock gave way to an obsession with Pavement and Silver Jews, and eventually Johnny rediscovered his musical and cultural roots by immersing himself in the blues.

Fast forward 12 years and Johnny lives outside of Atlanta with his wife, two dogs and a recording studio in the basement. He spends his days as the VP of Marketing for a custom carpet manufacturer, but at night he immerses himself in writing and recording songs. He also runs a web design/graphics company called Massey Entertainment and a small digital independent record label under the name ME Records. Johnny has been in several bands over the years but more recently he can be heard playing guitar and singing with Delta Company, as well as Capture Squad, his solo project featuring a revolving group of musicians from Atlanta/MS Delta. Capture Squad’s new album, “Mineral Row”, was released in early December 2009 and can be streamed and downloaded for free from www.masseyentertainment.com

Well, I only made it through 19 songs. Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings definitely put the brakes on things but the real truth is, writing and recording songs at this pace will drive a person mad. The first week was exciting, the second obsessive, the third just plain crazy. I decided rather than go crazy over it all that I would go ahead and admit that writers block had set in. Not that there were no ideas flowing, it was more about the quality of the ideas. To write a good song I always like to have that improvisational enlightenment thing happening. Without that feeling the melodies just are not as good and the words become lame. I have written songs at a fast pace in the past but doing it day after day without a break is draining. I must say that Eric and CJ pulled off something incredibly difficult and deserve a hand for finishing the insanity.

For those who took the time to listen, Many Thanks! I want to also thank CJ for putting forth the effort to keep something like this going, i do not take that for granted. This process definitely offered me a much needed kick in the butt. I am looking forward to hearing music from the next victims. Until then I don’t think I want to hear music for a few days.

What can I say? Doing 30 songs in 30 days is harder than it looks, and I know first-hand.

Andy King cranked out 19 songs in just over 20 days, and the quality of those tunes is exceptional. But alas, Mr. King was struck with a bit of the ol’ writer’s block at an oh-so-inopportune time, and thus fell 11 songs short of his goal. Shit happens!

Anyway, we’ll do the customary wrap-up post shortly and also post all of his songs in one location on the “previous artists” page.

ASongEachDay.com won’t see much action for the rest of the year, but I’m pleased that another songwriter has decided to have a go at it. Though his busy life (and husbandly responsibilities) will only permit him a shorter run, songwriter Johnny Massey will do a 7 Songs in 7 Days project beginning just after the new year. More on him soon!

Once he is done, we will once again need someone to take on the project – any takers??

Beginning Monday, November 16, Atlanta-based musician and songwriter Andy King will begin his daily song project. I know first hand from having been Andy’s neighbor a couple of years back that he is a very prolific songwriter (especially around 3am it seemed…), and I can’t wait to hear what he pulls together here. In fact, as I’ve told Andy on many occasions, the only thing that kept me from calling the cops during his 3am sessions was that the music that woke me up was never bad.

So be cure to check out the “Current Artist” tab up top for more info about Andy, and you can also catch up on past projects by clicking “Previous Artists.”

Thanks!

I am very excited to announce that my good friend Eric Balint has decided that he’s brave enough to take on the project. He will begin posting songs in the next couple of days, and will wrap it up in early November.

Eric and I played together off-and-on for a little less than a year back in ‘03; we recorded around a dozen songs together, but we just couldn’t seem to get a solid band together at the time. Laziness took its toll and we ultimately just scrapped the project; I still have the recordings we did, and I’m actually more proud of those songs than most others I did in that period of my life!

If you want to hear some of Eric’s past work, check out his recordings as The Cleaner Learning Center here: http://www.myspace.com/thecleanerlearningcenter

I’m writing this post on my iPhone because my internet is out at home. Ugh. Anyway, I will post today’s song later if Comcast gets their act together before I have to leave to go play the Grant Park Festival. If not, I’ll post Sat and Sunday’s songs tomorrow from a freakin’ coffee shop if I have to!

Sorry dudes, I’ll make it up tomorrow…

It has come to my attention that this site kinda looks like crap on Windows PCs running Internet Explorer 8. I’m trying to fix the problem without having to re-do the whole site design, so in the meantime…I beg of you to use Firefox or Chrome to visit this site (you should be doing that anyway…)!

I’m working out the kinks in the site design and making sure that all my ducks are in a row. Once I start this project, I don’t want to be interrupted for stupid technical reasons!

I should also mention that in addition to posting audio for each of the songs here, I will also post lyrics (if there are any), as well as what instruments I used, and other little amusing/unnecessary details. I may also post some videos of the process if I’m so inclined…

Look for the first of the 30 songs to go up in the next few days!

Hello everyone, and welcome to ASongEachDay.com!

I’m CJ- singer, guitarist and songwriter. If you have found this site, you probably either know me personally, or know me as the singer in Atlanta band A Fight to the Death. I currently have a bit of spare time away from AFTTD (our drummer had an accident and is unable to play for a month), and I plan to use that time to get this little project going.

I plan to write and record 30 songs in 30 days – one each day. These songs will range in length, style, instrumentation, and certainly in quality. Some I will record in my home studio, others I’ll record on my iphone in my backyard. I might record myself playing my 1980s Casio keyboard in the shower. I might overdub 16 tracks of nothing but xylophone. Either way, each day I’ll have a new song that will sound nothing like the music that I usually perform with A Fight to the Death.

Each of these songs will be available here at ASongEachDay.com after I finish it. For free, of course.

Now here’s the kicker: once my 30 days are over, I will cordially invite other songwriters to take the reigns and do a project of their own. My hope is that this site will provide not only a challenge to me and other writers, but will also provide listeners with a month-long virtual audio diary of a performer’s life.