This whole RPM Challenge thing has really re-ignited my musical creativity. I just released my first new song in over 9 years, after feeling like I might be permanently retired from song writing. I’ve gone from being done with making music to actually planning out my creative endeavors, as I really want to try and not lose the muse again and keep this energy flowing. So here’s a quick look at what I’ve got planned.
April and May
My main focus for April and into may will be to finish up the RPM Challenge songs. I’m shooting to get them all done by the end of April, but I also want to be realistic with myself, so I expect it will stretch into early May. I’m getting married in June, so there’s a lot of work and planning to be done for that, so I’m keeping those time constraints in mind.
Any extra time I have will probably be spent on the occasional light noodling and musical experimentation, as well as continuing to work on the set-up of my home studio. I’m planning a bit of a re-structuring and re-working later in the year, and a bit more light re-decorating in there, so I’ll keep working on the planning for that.
June
As I mentioned before, I’m getting married in mid-June, and heading off on our honeymoon shortly thereafter. So June is going to be a light month musically. If there’s any time at all, it will be more of the noodling and planning mentioned above. I certainly won’t be starting anything major at this point.
July and On
In an effort to try and keep that creativity flowing, I’ve giving myself my own new challenge. The JC Challenge, if you will. Starting in July I’m challenging myself to write and release at least one new song each month. This will be harder during the summer months, where I’m much busier with all manner of summer activities, not to mention the fact that my studio is not air conditioned and can get really hot in the warmer months, but I’m confident I can pull it off.
Fall/Winter
At some point later this year, once those busy summer months have elapsed, I want to undertake a project I’m calling “Spelunking the Archives”. There will be two aspects to this, with the ultimate goal being the clearing out of all my old, unfinished business musically. The first aspect will be to get proper multitrack archives of all my old, completed songs, the second to clear out the dozens and dozens of old, unfinished songs. Either finish it or delete it once and for all! There will be an entire separate post about this whole process, as it’s going to be a big undertaking.