Thursday, April 14, 2016

FROM SLEEP INTO A FILM

It's very strange how the creative mind works. You can get an idea or an inspiration while working or chilling or even in your sleep. That is what happened to me one Saturday morning.

I had been working so hard for almost 2 months trying to get the new single 'Blow a fuse' finished. I have never spent so much time on a song, but I wanted to get this song just right. I was having problems with the songline, it just wasn't hitting the happy spot in my creative nerves. I have a mini-disc full of different ways for me to sing it, but I must admit I was struggling. I even had to put the release date back by a month as I was nowhere near finished

Then one morning during the walk with our boxer dog, Bruce, something came to me. Luckily, I was in the middle of a field and that I had my mobile with me, as I have a recording app on it. So singing in a field is cool, but when you find a songline after weeks of disappointment it is a brilliant feeling. So with my beautiful Aingeal off to her work and the pee monster all crapped out and lying in the warm Provence sun, I recorded the vocals on a Thursday morning in a few hours. All I had to do was the final mixdown.....but I wanted a break from recording. So I set about making advertisements for the release of the single.
I made a few cool ones just to annoy so-called friends (but, that is another story and blog) I laughed as they all had my strange sense of humour, but there no response from anyone, so that is enough proof, it has hit a nerve, ha ha ha.
Anyway, I went to bed Friday evening feeling good with how the campaign was going, Mrs. Freak came up with a few good ideas and also kept me in check with my posting to much...thank God she is around. I know I slept great, but around 4 in the morning I awoke very sharply and was wide awake within seconds, something had come to me in a dream, I had this marketing idea I just had to make a promotional film for the single, it only took me seconds to come up with old lady thing, as I have been playing around with the idea of changing from Psycho Rock to Pensioner Rock (well, I ain't fecking 20 anymore).
I scribbled down a few notes and went back to sleep.

In the morning, I set about writing a scenario, not much was needed as it was to be a short film to let the people get just a taste of the new song.

Then after the usual house chores and food, we set about getting the wardrobe ready, that is where my Aingeal comes in.
Mrs. Freak was in top form and proving that our humour and life's are on the same wavelength, because nearly everything she brought out for me to look at, was perfect. My wardrobe was ready,

It was sunny but windy and we thought about delaying the filming until the Sunday as less wind was expected, but we decided to get it done as knowing my luck it would be raining on that particular Sunday.

We got everything set up, camera on a mike stand and then I went into wardrobe. There was no need for makeup as it was not the plan for me to have my face in the picture a lot.

And so to the shoot, we decided at the end of the drive, by the passing road would be a perfect location and after a try-out run...we filmed what you see on the promo film....of course, it has been speeded up to make the film shorter, but you get the idea.
The passing car was a bonus, it was totally not planned and it's passing could not have been better. And I wonder if anyone notices Granny kicking the dog, ha ha ha

Filming finished and so it was onto finishing the final mix of the song. I had to have a small portion to put with the film to get the public interested.

With the song now ready, it was back on the computer to edit everything, now the internet here in Cabannes isn't great at the best of times, but when I was editing it was perfect, my only problem was when trying to upload the finished promo film, it is advised to leave the USB stick with the film in the computer. FFS ha ha ha what an idiot. So with that sorted, the final film was uploaded to the internet and YouTube.

It was a fun journey, moments of losing our cool at each other, but Mrs Freak (Agatha Stoneheart) and I honestly make a great team, she has the same sense of humour and without that Aingeal, I would never have got this or the single finished and to such a high quality.

I hope people enjoy the song and the Promo video, I am now working on the actual video for the song....gonna be funny and yes Granny is involved.

ZEEKtheFREAK Cabannes 14/04/2016


Thursday, April 7, 2016

FROM BRAIN CELL TO EARLOBE

Finally, I can say with my hand on my heart and without fear of contradiction that the single 'Blow a Fuse' is nearly finished, ha ha ha.

Yes Groovy people, it has been some journey.  I have never ever spent so much time working on track, Christ, I had the track from writing to recorded, mixed and out in an afternoon. With ZEEK & GIZ, we did a whole tape recording in one afternoon. Gone are these days, with the technology, the sounds and equipment are more advanced. I did, however, record this track on my old trustworthy Roland VS840 zip disc, as I know I have a whole studio on my computer and the next CD will probably be recorded on that, but I needed to get this done quickly....now we all know how that has gone FFS.

From the idea to getting this far, must be 2 and a half months and to think I want 10 tracks on the 'Gullible travels' CD...what was the date I wanted to bring it out, I think we can scrap that idea.

I struggled with original songline, the music has been done for about a month and after about 20 different ideas, the final idea came to me when I was out walking Bruce. Luckily nowadays on your mobile, you can record, so I did it in the middle of a field at the back of our house and I think I had it totally thought through in less than 10 minutes. I knew there was a reason why it just didn;t feel right. I didn't want to sound like another singer or band. I am so happy I followed my intuition, I knew it would eventually come to me.

The lyrics were also changed drastically, thanks to the changing songline and what started with a line about gay porn ended up more about how religions are dying and fading away. Yes, my mother would turn in her grave if she hadn't been cremated. Always Blasphemy.

My Sol helped me Immensely, being my energy and also my critic and thanks to her comments, I am happy to release the first new song in almost 6 years. Good grief how time flies, but things are looking good in Camp Freak and after the final mix down tomorrow, I will start work on the next song and also the first Fools Funnybone, yes the website is ready, so on to that, but that will be in the next blog. Thanks for reading, hope you are all well.
Peace and Love
ZEEKtheFREAK

www.zeekthefreak.com

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