A strange mix

Spring is when I wake up from my depressive winter slumber, as I’m sure most people do, and get pretty inspired pretty quickly. Over this past winter I’ve been working on new music in fits and starts with several main themes running through them which led to me having three separate “sessions” worth of songs I’d started but never finished. Now, I’m embarking on a huge life change that’s going to make the music I make after this completely different, at least as far as theme and certainly in its style.

Having a batch of songs that are loosely connected then another set that are tightly connected makes for an interesting mix of music. It’s a problem I often have. So what should be done here? Do you just pick the best songs from all the sessions and package them as an album? Do you shelve everything and just move forward with the new stuff? Or do you prep the old stuff for release and hold the new stuff back until that’s ready for a separate release since it’s all written around a tight theme.

I generally write all my music around themes. I don’t think there’s ever been a Darph album that wasn’t a concept album. I do want to release at least two records this year so maybe that’s the way to go.

What happened that’s changing everything for me is that I’m moving. Not just anywhere but into an old Victorian house built in the late 1800s in the center of my state’s second largest city. I’ll have a much larger studio and a space that’s separate from the main house that gives me a whole lot more options for vocals, drums, and more. If all goes well this will be happening at the end of June.

All this is to say there’s music that’s finished. Some that needs a little work to finish, and a new batch that is being worked on now. I’m going to say that July is when the first release will be out and then another will come around Halloween or Thanksgiving.

If you follow me over on Bandcamp I’ll release a few previews and subscriber-only singles before it comes out.