06-16-2018, 08:37 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-16-2018, 08:59 PM by Mattias Westlund.)
(06-16-2018, 07:45 PM)Nayrb Wrote: Waiting is no problem. I'm in a somewhat similar boat still waiting for the cover art to be finished for my next album (again). I could go with another artist who may work more quickly, but I'd rather have the cover I know I'll love. After all, once it's released it'll be as if it was always there and I'll barely remember what the wait felt like. You don't want to have too many regrets on your mind when that day comes. So I say take your time! I'm sure Lore will be an excellent product when it's all done.
What you say about regrets is exactly what I mean -- it would bug me forever if I rushed the release and wasn't happy with the album as a result, while knowing that I could have spent a few more weeks on it and gotten it the way I wanted it. I can live with flaws if I'm doing commissioned work and there's a deadline, because in that case I'll know I did my best with the time I had at my disposal. If an album that I'm doing in my own free time is going to be flawed (which it will likely be in some ways no matter how much time I spend on it), I want the flaws to be due to my shortcomings as a composer and mixing engineer, not because I was struggling to meet a completely artificial deadline. Just like with WoR I set a deadline for Lore mainly to prevent myself from tinkering forever, but on WoR I had to work my ass off the last couple of weeks and that was not a pleasant experience. I just felt that as this isn't a commissioned project, I have much more leeway as far as the time frame is concerned, so why not just let it take the time it takes. I'm not going to go GRRM on the album -- it's done, musically, but the tweaking/polishing bit is only maybe at 50% or so -- so "later this summer" is completely realistic.
On a related note, I took maybe a month's break from the album earlier this year (which is probably why I'm in this situation right now), because I was completely stuck. I reached a point where I'd listened to the unfinished tracks so many times while trying to figure out where to go with them that they became cemented in my mind. I don't know if this is an issue for anyone else but it definitely is for me sometimes. It doesn't matter if I know that a track is only half-finished -- listen to it enough times and that half-finishedness sort of becomes the way it's "supposed" to sound like and it's very difficult to imagine it sounding any other way. When that happens I need to back away until my brain can hear the potential of the tune again, which is frustrating but completely necessary at times.