Bon soir, Arrrrggggg...for the past week my mind hasn't been at ease for more than 5 minutes and I think I'm slowly driving myself insane! My band goes back into the studio next Monday through Thurs to record a 6 or 7 song EP, and since its still in a late stage of completion with one weekend left, the stress is crippling me. We recorded a 5 song EP in October, but I had little if any expectations for that album, so when it turned out really well I was simply overjoyed. For this recording, we're trying to really push ourselves to make the most of each and every note on the album and everyone is slowly realizing that we're just not having as much fun writing these songs as before. Perhaps one could blame it on the steady diet of Pet Sounds and Ok Computer we've been digesting for the past year or so, but listening to great works of art and then comparing them to your own measely attempts at greatness is just insanity, but its what we're doing. We're so hyper-analytical of ourselves its a miracle any of these songs were written to begin with. I'm just so terrified of making the same record twice that I'm trying to push each and every button on this recording until its entirely different than its predecessor, which I know doesn't give the song its proper room to breathe every now and again. During the entire writing/recording process of October, I was really into religion at that time so I just put the entire thing in God's hands every night and miraculously things worked out beyond all hopes and dreams. Now, the cynic has crawled back to the forefront of me, and he has promptly sweeped the room of any traces of beliefs in Greater Beings (tm); now, I don't have that one guiding light that comforts me everytime a jam session goes awry or the clarinet line doesn't quite gel with the guitar. As a result, I'm totally running myself into the ground trying to be the next Brian Wilson, or at least trying to think of new ways to expand our sound, and I'm not sure its to the benefit of the songs. Any advice on matters such as these would be extremely appreciated right about now because not too many people in this town are artistic or neurotic, much less both. I'm sure everyone who cares about their art at one time or another says to himself "What are you trying to say? Do you even have anything to say? Why are you doing this? Is this really the best you can do?" and so on and so forth, and its extremely troubling. I guess its these internal debates that keep us pushing for the next hurdle with the intent of clearing it, and as Marx says "as each person advances his or her art, likewise the human race evolves." I'm sorry this had no B&S content. Hmmm...well, in August a band called Camera Obscura is playing Washington, DC. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Struan once play in a band called Camera Obscura or am I mixing things up? Love and Hot Freaks... Steve C. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* "Which Paul?" "BLAH!" visit http://callowkids.tripod.com or your crush will hate you forever Call WRNR 103.1 at (410) 269-1031 and request Callow's "Lessons in Shut-eye" or you will have bad luck...forever or something. +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the undead Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "peculiarly deranged fanbase" "frighteningly named +-+ +-+ Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+