WINDBORN BLOG http://windborn.ca/home.cfm Fri, 03 Feb 2012 04:05:00 GMT http://bandzoogle.com Spitting Bullets http://windborn.ca/home.cfm?feature=3016016&postid=1756447  I’m writing this on the ferry from Vancouver to Nanaimo. I’m passing a house on an island right now that sits on top of a cliff with a waterfall pouring off of it into the ocean. Expensive serenity. This has nothing to do with this blog but it was still worth mentioning.  I pretty rarely explain the meaning of my songs. I used to explain them but lately I’ve found that I prefer leaving them open to interpretation. I think one of the best experiences as a song writer is hearing people’s interpretations of my songs. The weird thing is that when people tell me what they took from one of my songs it’s almost never exactly what I wrote it about. Pretty often it’s not at all what I wrote it about. Spitting Bullets has by far been the song that has resulted in the most feedback. I’ve had a lot of people that I know ask me if I wrote it about them or they would guess that it was about someone that they and I know. Spitting Bullets was inspired by something that I’ve seen in everyone including myself. It was inspired by a specific event but the event made me start to think about all the different ways and reasons that we spit bullets into the people around us.  The song is about letting our own frustrations get to us and then venting them on other people. That’s it. Pretty straight forward but at the same time I think most of us don’t catch it in ourselves and we drive the people closest to us away by venting our frustrations on them. It’s always the people closest to us that we take things out on. Family and friends. A lot of people don’t find a way to deal with what’s getting to them and things get worse and worse until they end up alone because everyone who would have loved them can’t stand being around them anymore.  That’s the point of the song. It’s still open to your own interpretation of the concept. The first thing to think about isn’t how you see other people doing this but how you do this yourself. Everyone does it to some degree. One line in the song says, what good has it ever done living for number one? I think the least selfish thing you can do is try to make yourself a better person so that you can have a positive influence on the world around you. It might seem like a self absorbed thing to do but it’s actually not at all. Take the plank out of your own eye so you can see clearly to remove the spec of dust out of someone else’s.  Gaze through bloodshot eyes. Words cut them down to size. Fuel. You’re getting ready to burn. You’re going to make them learn. Oh, slow down. It’s easy. Lay your crown beside me. What good has it ever done living for number one? No one can carry the weight. Die to your crushing fate. Selfish desires leading into endless confrontations. Mouthful of fire. You’re spitting bullets into everyone. Oh, slow down. It’s easy. Lay your crown beside me. You think you’ll make it alone high on your crumbling throne. You’re going to crash and burn. Then will you eve learn? Selfish desires leading into endless confrontations. Mouthful of fire. You’re spitting bullets into everyone. Your pace never tires. You’re chasing nothing but your limitations. Mouthful of fire. You’re spitting bullets into everyone.  I’m writing this on the ferry from Vancouver to Nanaimo. I’m passing a house on an island right now that sits on top of a cliff with a waterfall pouring off of it into the ocean. Expensive serenity. This has nothing to do with this blog but it was still worth mentioning. 

I pretty rarely explain the meaning of my songs. I used to explain them but lately I’ve found that I prefer leaving them open to interpretation. I think one of the best experiences as a song writer is hearing people’s interpretations of my songs. The weird thing is that when people tell me what they took from one of my songs it’s almost never exactly what I wrote it about. Pretty often it’s not at all what I wrote it about. Spitting Bullets has by far been the song that has resulted in the most feedback. I’ve had a lot of people that I know ask me if I wrote it about them or they would guess that it was about someone that they and I know. Spitting Bullets was inspired by something that I’ve seen in everyone including myself. It was inspired by a specific event but the event made me start to think about all the different ways and reasons that we spit bullets into the people around us. 

The song is about letting our own frustrations get to us and then venting them on other people. That’s it. Pretty straight forward but at the same time I think most of us don’t catch it in ourselves and we drive the people closest to us away by venting our frustrations on them. It’s always the people closest to us that we take things out on. Family and friends. A lot of people don’t find a way to deal with what’s getting to them and things get worse and worse until they end up alone because everyone who would have loved them can’t stand being around them anymore. 

That’s the point of the song. It’s still open to your own interpretation of the concept. The first thing to think about isn’t how you see other people doing this but how you do this yourself. Everyone does it to some degree. One line in the song says, what good has it ever done living for number one? I think the least selfish thing you can do is try to make yourself a better person so that you can have a positive influence on the world around you. It might seem like a self absorbed thing to do but it’s actually not at all. Take the plank out of your own eye so you can see clearly to remove the spec of dust out of someone else’s. 

Gaze through bloodshot eyes. Words cut them down to size. Fuel. You’re getting ready to burn. You’re going to make them learn. Oh, slow down. It’s easy. Lay your crown beside me. What good has it ever done living for number one? No one can carry the weight. Die to your crushing fate. Selfish desires leading into endless confrontations. Mouthful of fire. You’re spitting bullets into everyone. Oh, slow down. It’s easy. Lay your crown beside me. You think you’ll make it alone high on your crumbling throne. You’re going to crash and burn. Then will you eve learn? Selfish desires leading into endless confrontations. Mouthful of fire. You’re spitting bullets into everyone. Your pace never tires. You’re chasing nothing but your limitations. Mouthful of fire. You’re spitting bullets into everyone. 

]]> Fri, 03 Feb 2012 04:05:00 GMT 6007752FDB26ABE0A0C4BD233527630D Wether you think you are or not you might be a good singer http://windborn.ca/home.cfm?feature=3016016&postid=1731721 Singing is actually an interesting topic for me. In my opinion 75% or more of people who could be very good vocalists think that they are mediocre or just can’t sing. I tell this to people and almost everyone says, “Yeah sure, but I actually can’t sing”. If you thought that then you should really read through and consider this.  There’s a barrier when it comes to singing that you have to break through. If by chance you’re even afforded the opportunity to break through it a lot of people will give up before they make it through and are left not thinking that it’s too difficult, but that they actually can’t sing at all. The barrier is between what I call your ‘bedroom voice’ and being a performing vocalist. Here’s what I mean. I started messing around on the guitar and making up songs when I was 14 or 15. For 2 years I’d just make up songs and sing to them alone. Never in front of anyone. When I was 17 I was part of a monthly event at my high school called LA Rock. I played a few of the songs that I had written for it. I remember the sound guy telling me to sing ‘out’, to ‘push it’. He had my line so cranked that he couldn’t control the feedback.  When you’re singing alone in your bedroom, or car, or wherever, you’re not usually singing at the volume that you would be singing on stage. To really hit vocals clean and clear you need to use your lung capacity and push the air through your vocal chords. It feels like your voice is coming from your chest. Not your head. You may have heard people say to ‘sing from your diaphragm.’ For a while it will feel like you’re yelling but that’s where you find your voice and can then bring it under control and work on your tone. When you first start to really ‘sing out’ it’s a very different feeling and you have to change how your vocal chords produce the notes. So sometimes when you’re pushing it you’ll go off key until your voice is trained. This is the point where a lot of people will decide that they can’t sing and will quit.  If you stick with singing you should be continually getting better. If I listen to my old recordings there is a huge difference in my vocals. I’m sure that for a while when I first started singing people probably didn’t think that I was any good at it. That is why a lot of people will quit at this point not realizing that they’ll get better and will gain more control. The thing is that it takes practice performing in front of people to really improve. Yeah you can take vocal lessons if you want to but a big part of singing on stage is getting over your nerves. The best way to become a good singer is to just force yourself to sing.  So if you hear someone singing live and it’s a bit shaky give them a chance. They might be new at it. If they’ve been performing live for a few years though and can’t hit notes it means that they’re probably tone deaf to some degree and their family and friends don’t have the heart to tell them. I have experienced some extreme cases of this where someone get’s on stage and is amazing at guitar and then starts singing and no one has any idea what notes they’re even going for. It’s sad to see.  There are some incredible vocalists out there and I can really appreciate the art of singing and what it takes to get there. I’m rarely that impressed by a really good vocalist though because I know that there are a lot of people out there that could be just as good but their lives didn’t ever lead them in a direction where they would discover it. What I can really appreciate is when someone writes the lyrics to a song and sings it putting out the raw emotions that they felt when they wrote the song. If you wrote the lyrics that you are singing and you blow everyone away with your vocals and emotion invested in the song, that’s impressive. A lot of the “best” vocalists didn’t write the lyrics that they sing.  Another thing that not a lot of people think about is singing styles. People consider vocalists who perform certain singing styles to be the most talented vocalists. Take Josh Groban for example. A lot of people think that he’s one of the most amazing vocalists in the world. I think he’s very good but at the same time he’s just singing a style that people consider to be the best or to take the most talent. It’s just a style that he chose to sing. I proved this one time when I was having this discussion and whipped out Josh Groban’esque, vocals with no practice. It’s just a style of singing. Most country artists don’t talk with a twang in their voice. They throw that on to make their music sound ‘country’. Metal vocalists don’t scream when they talk. Rappers. Well rappers do talk the way they rap because rap is just talking poetically. Or trying at least. A rapper could be called a beat poet but a pretty small number of them are in any way poetic.  So if you wish you could sing I say go for it because you probably can. The question is do you have the determination to push through a few years breaking into your voice and possible risking some embarrassing moments. Guaranteed if you had a recording of one of your favorite vocalists in their first few years of performing you wouldn’t be able to believe that it was the same person.  Singing is actually an interesting topic for me. In my opinion 75% or more of people who could be very good vocalists think that they are mediocre or just can’t sing. I tell this to people and almost everyone says, “Yeah sure, but I actually can’t sing”. If you thought that then you should really read through and consider this. 

There’s a barrier when it comes to singing that you have to break through. If by chance you’re even afforded the opportunity to break through it a lot of people will give up before they make it through and are left not thinking that it’s too difficult, but that they actually can’t sing at all. The barrier is between what I call your ‘bedroom voice’ and being a performing vocalist. Here’s what I mean.

I started messing around on the guitar and making up songs when I was 14 or 15. For 2 years I’d just make up songs and sing to them alone. Never in front of anyone. When I was 17 I was part of a monthly event at my high school called LA Rock. I played a few of the songs that I had written for it. I remember the sound guy telling me to sing ‘out’, to ‘push it’. He had my line so cranked that he couldn’t control the feedback. 

When you’re singing alone in your bedroom, or car, or wherever, you’re not usually singing at the volume that you would be singing on stage. To really hit vocals clean and clear you need to use your lung capacity and push the air through your vocal chords. It feels like your voice is coming from your chest. Not your head. You may have heard people say to ‘sing from your diaphragm.’ For a while it will feel like you’re yelling but that’s where you find your voice and can then bring it under control and work on your tone. When you first start to really ‘sing out’ it’s a very different feeling and you have to change how your vocal chords produce the notes. So sometimes when you’re pushing it you’ll go off key until your voice is trained. This is the point where a lot of people will decide that they can’t sing and will quit. 

If you stick with singing you should be continually getting better. If I listen to my old recordings there is a huge difference in my vocals. I’m sure that for a while when I first started singing people probably didn’t think that I was any good at it. That is why a lot of people will quit at this point not realizing that they’ll get better and will gain more control. The thing is that it takes practice performing in front of people to really improve. Yeah you can take vocal lessons if you want to but a big part of singing on stage is getting over your nerves. The best way to become a good singer is to just force yourself to sing. 

So if you hear someone singing live and it’s a bit shaky give them a chance. They might be new at it. If they’ve been performing live for a few years though and can’t hit notes it means that they’re probably tone deaf to some degree and their family and friends don’t have the heart to tell them. I have experienced some extreme cases of this where someone get’s on stage and is amazing at guitar and then starts singing and no one has any idea what notes they’re even going for. It’s sad to see. 

There are some incredible vocalists out there and I can really appreciate the art of singing and what it takes to get there. I’m rarely that impressed by a really good vocalist though because I know that there are a lot of people out there that could be just as good but their lives didn’t ever lead them in a direction where they would discover it. What I can really appreciate is when someone writes the lyrics to a song and sings it putting out the raw emotions that they felt when they wrote the song. If you wrote the lyrics that you are singing and you blow everyone away with your vocals and emotion invested in the song, that’s impressive. A lot of the “best” vocalists didn’t write the lyrics that they sing. 

Another thing that not a lot of people think about is singing styles. People consider vocalists who perform certain singing styles to be the most talented vocalists. Take Josh Groban for example. A lot of people think that he’s one of the most amazing vocalists in the world. I think he’s very good but at the same time he’s just singing a style that people consider to be the best or to take the most talent. It’s just a style that he chose to sing. I proved this one time when I was having this discussion and whipped out Josh Groban’esque, vocals with no practice. It’s just a style of singing. Most country artists don’t talk with a twang in their voice. They throw that on to make their music sound ‘country’. Metal vocalists don’t scream when they talk. Rappers. Well rappers do talk the way they rap because rap is just talking poetically. Or trying at least. A rapper could be called a beat poet but a pretty small number of them are in any way poetic. 

So if you wish you could sing I say go for it because you probably can. The question is do you have the determination to push through a few years breaking into your voice and possible risking some embarrassing moments. Guaranteed if you had a recording of one of your favorite vocalists in their first few years of performing you wouldn’t be able to believe that it was the same person. 


]]> Sat, 21 Jan 2012 02:00:37 GMT 6C97628D78372986AE74F1895C5F07C4 Tour video log and blog. http://windborn.ca/home.cfm?feature=3016016&postid=1659049 So in 3 days I'll be out of my house and full time homeless. After a little prep I'll be hitting the road on January 6th for my western canada tour which most likely will turn into a cross Canada tour. I'm going to be posting video logs while I'm on tour and since I'm going to have a lot of spare time during the days I'm going to start actually blogging about anything and everything. Basically recording my thoughts on shit. May be a good read. May be more or less just a fun way for me to pass time. We'll see. Hope to catch you on tour. Peace.-Jeff Hope to catch you on tour.
Peace.
-Jeff]]> Tue, 27 Dec 2011 08:23:35 GMT 90A116E34104B44995A9BA4DACECC61D Back from the Oregon Coast http://windborn.ca/home.cfm?feature=3016016&postid=1637688 Just got back from vacation on the Oregon Coast and now it's back to business. Writing, recording and working to pay for the instruments I need to write and record. Working too much to write and record. The never ending catch 22. Fri, 02 Sep 2011 14:21:44 GMT 7A1C744675EFC5A5AA51152602AAF30A