This time two years ago I wrote a post listing all the things I wanted to achieve music-wise in the year. I called 2013 Return of the Polymuse because I knew I wanted to work in an interdisciplinary way, incorporating various art methodologies into my work.
This resulted in me doing a lot more with film and photography. Check out my Video Every Day in February project for an example of this. I’m aware I still haven’t posted the completed piece of music that was supposed to crown the project, but don’t think I’ve forgotten!
For some reason I didn’t get around to naming 2014. This was probably due to my unstable living situation at the time, but perhaps I could give it a name now. Since I spent a lot of time experimenting with new production styles, maybe I could call it 2014: The Experiment.
I want to name 2015 the Year of the Completionist (borrowing from video gaming language) since I’ll be completing and releasing as much material as I dare electronically. In the spirit of this, I’d like to go through my 2013 list just to see for myself how much I managed to do and what I have left to do.
Suburban Explorer
This has since become Glorious Storyboards. I’ve done a lot of photography and design for some of these tracks, but the recording will be on the back burner this year.
Untitled Spring-Themed EP
This has become Innermost. I’ve done lots on this and learned a lot about electronic production styles. The spring theme has fallen by the wayside, but the idea of subtle beats, synths and samples is still strong in all the tracks.
New Glitter Punch Album
We have plans for a double album, or album in two halves. I need to track a lot of vocals still, but please don’t think we’ve stopped working together. Matt is heavily involved in a lot of other projects, and I’ve got a new baby, so we’re taking it slowly for this release.
New Worship Music
I wrote a little ditty that would be good as a children’s church song, but ‘worship’ (or congregational songs) as a genre isn’t really my bag, it seems. There are plenty of artists dedicated to writing songs that stand up well equally well in secular and sacred fields, but I just don’t feel that’s where my strengths lie. I prefer to write in a more vague sort of way that doesn’t lend itself so well to church use, but I’m certainly still writing about my faith.
Love Consume Me will be my most theologically weighty offering since my ‘Demo Album’ in 2005, but it won’t be too hymn-ish.
Polymuse
I’m yet to release this, but it will be pieces of music from my VEDF 2013 video project and the ‘final piece’ I talked about.
Tea Break
This has become Semi-Precious sounds, All the Way to Yesterday and Shy.
CarylCake and Friends (or some other equally cheesy title…)
I haven’t ended up doing so many collaborations. I covered Falling Slowly with my friend James Mercer. I also covered Linzer Dinzer’s song, Harmony, but that’s about it.
Digital Delight
This is now a 4-track EP. I’ve managed to make some real headway with this one and should be able to release some time around March 2015.
J-Pop Covers
Again, I’ve still only done Spring of Life by Perfume, but I have big plans for lots more covers, and not just of Japanese songs. I want to do some croony numbers like When I Fall in love or Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps. I’m going to call it ‘Caryl-oke’ because I’m incredibly punny like that!
So, what of this year? I’m taking a simple approach this time.
March 2015: Digital Delight
September 2015: All the Way to Yesterday
That’s it. That’s all I want to have finished by next year. A total of 9 songs. Two EPs in a year would be considered high output if I were a mainstream artist, but for some reason we indie folk seem to want to push content much harder than our mass media counterparts. With the exception of maybe Beyonce…
Hope you’ll all have a fabulous new year! Please let me know what projects you want to do so I can plug them.