Critical Analysis
I decided fairly early on I didn't want to overestimate the amount of music I had on this project so I said I was going to do a 4 or 5 song EP and this proved beneficial as this was the most organized part of my project. My project has a reverb and chorus-heavy sound taking influence sonically from bands like The Stone Roses debut album and The Cure's sound throughout the 80s when it comes down to the guitar. I wanted to combine guitar and drums similarly to BROCKHAMPTON, they have very typical pop guitar riffs combined with either trap drums or live drums. I, for the most part, succeeded in this. My work wasn't anywhere nearly as refined as theirs but when it comes down to the basic fundamentals of each of the artists' sounds I mentioned, I feel like I got the general feeling of the vibe. I used chorus and reverb pedals to emulate the bright 80s sound of the stone roses with the majority of my tracks, as well as combined trap drums and guitar on a couple of the tracks. One of my tracks called Sad(which never got finished) got the most attention on my project and this was only a guitar and drums made by me and UJ at college. It took me 5 minutes to record the guitar track and UJ 15 minutes to do the trappy drums on it. It got over 100 views in 2 days because it has a very typical sound and fits in with the emo guitar trap sound that is popular right now. This is quite disappointing as it is the track that I spent the least time on and couldn't finish. But overall I am satisfied with how my EP turned out. I felt like I had a consistent sound throughout a lot of it which I struggled doing last year for my other project, but I feel like I also had enough variation in the music to keep it interesting.
I struggled with finding appropriate research for my case studies and literature reviews. As I began my project attempting to do case studies on Brockhampton and Gus Dapperton and Boy Pablo I realized all of these artists have only caught some sort of internet fame or mainstream attention in the last couple years so attempting to find sources on specific subjects like BROCKHAMPTON's use of genre mixing or how indie artists like Gus Dapperton and Boy Pablo use pedals for tone. I got around this by looking at older artists rather than newer artists, I still looked at BROCKHAMPTON and scraped by using reviews and videos on the band and for my indie case study I looked at bands like The Cure and The Stone Roses as well as recorded a bunch of demo tracks of my different pedals leading up to the case study to help me with my sound later on in the project.
Unfortunately, I didn't get any vocals on my tracks other than a backing vocal on one right at the end. This is annoying as I feel like my EP would sound way better with a couple of different vocalists featuring on it. Due to time restraints and other people at college needing to do work, it was difficult getting people available to record vocals. Will managed to do a chorus and backing vocals on one of the tracks as I mentioned earlier but I only kept the backing vocals in the actual EP as I feel like it would be off-putting for if all of a sudden vocals came in on my last track. This is one of the things I regret in my project. I also didn't get to complete my third case study on The Beatles as I had planned to. I had done some research for it but by the time it had got to the deadline I was unable to finish it.
In hindsight, I would have got more of the music finished earlier on even though I wasn't really behind schedule ever with my music plan. I spent two weeks generally on each song sometimes recording a melody or chord progression for a song a couple weeks before actually making the song. If I had got one or two songs done a week I would have had time to put vocals on my tracks as well as completed The Beatles case study.
Research
As I mentioned earlier on I had to change one of my case studies about Indie and guitar pedals. I shifted it from being about modern indie artists like Gus Dapperton and Boy Pablo and made it about older indie artists like The Cure and The Stone Roses. I couldn't find any information about what I wanted with the previous idea and found a lot more sources for older bands as I feel like fans of older indie know more about guitar and every so often they'll provide some of that knowledge on the internet. Leading up to that case study I researched pedals and how they work as well as what they sound like. I put up ten mp3s of my reverb, chorus, and flanger pedals on my SoundCloud and embedded them into my weekly updates. I had at least two different versions of the pedal with different settings on the post as well as a version with all three pedals active. My case studies and literature reviews consisted of a lot of music articles online and blog posts or reviews as well as a couple of videos. My project didn't require a lot of practical research outside of a studio environment and I have guitars, drums, a laptop, and logic as well as multiple guitar effects at my home so I could get a lot of work done at home as well, so I felt like the bits of research I had done were beneficial t my project.
I incorporated a lot of the sonic ideas of the older indie bands I keep mentioning into my music as well as a lot of the studio techniques teachers like Farz and Grant had taught me over the past 2 years. I had taken a lot of inspiration from BROCKHAMPTON in terms of how I approached my project, it being to do heavily with genre fluidity. I feel like I could've emphasized this more with my music and done it in a more exaggerated way but I liked the simplicity of a lot of my tracks and felt like they all came from a similar place which is a good step in the right direction for me.
I feel like I could've put more research into my weekly updates as this is probably the most lacking part of my project as a whole but I attempted to make up for it with the amount of music on there as well as the pedal tests I did. Other than me not completing the Beatles case study, I feel like I had done enough research for the other two case studies I completed. I had at least 4 or 5 sources for each one and Harvard referenced correctly. I feel like some of the research on the BROCKHAMPTON case study was a bit irrelevant but I made my point clear throughout the majority of it so I don't feel like this affected the quality of work.
I should have looked at a few more indie artists for my case studies and looked at more artists than BROCKHAMPTON when it came down to the genre fluidity side of my project as this would've given me more opportunity to research that avenue as I feel like this is a part of my project that is lacking even though it is one of the biggest parts of it. I wrote a lot for the information that I used but should have searched for more sources and not limited myself by artist. I did go into the project attempting to look at The Beatles and how they changed and melded genres with Sgt Peppers but as I've mentioned several times I ran out of time.
I have learned how to use my guitar pedals more efficiently as well how to mix tracks to a better standard than I could last year. I mixed every single track on this EP only being helped with the drums on a couple of them and I am quite happy with the result. It wasn't the exact sound I was going for but it isn't far off for an instrumental.
Technical/Practical Skills
My practical research helped me with deciding what settings on my guitar pedals to use for my actual songs as well helped me get better at mixing tracks as I had never recorded this many guitar tracks guitar pedals on them. I learned that getting the sound right whilst you're recording it makes the overall process way easier. Knowing what tone a guitar will produce with those specific pedals on it is the next step for me in understanding my type of music. I had got into the habit of recording any idea I came up with whether it be a hip hop beat or a guitar chord progression and this proved beneficial for me as I had ideas there throughout the course of the project. I feel like my skills in guitar and mixing have developed enough to the point of being able to release music that has more of a consistent idea to it than it did a year ago. I still struggle with knowing exactly what something will sound like thrown into the mix but I have definitely got better at making instruments blend together better through stage gaining and eq.
As I mentioned before I began recording any ideas I had for music when I started the EP and this helped me develop my sound way quicker as I had melodies and chord progressions there to use when I needed or wanted to make a song. I also recorded all of those guitar pedal tracks which helped me with my final decision with a lot of the guitar sounds.
Presenting Your Work
I choose to put my project on SoundCloud only, as I was just attempting to make a proper project for the first time. I didn't really want to put in unnecessary effort into advertising an EP with 5 instrumentals on it. This project was just more about me proving to myself I could make an EP without any direct help. Also, SoundCloud is where a lot of music made by people in my generation gets big so I feel like that is a good place for my first project to be released. Brockhampton used SoundCloud to help get bigger and they were a big part of my project.
One of my songs got over 100 views in a day so I feel like I definitely had some sort of audience their even if I wasn't directly promoting anything, people just enjoyed the beat I made. So if I can get attention like that for a beat with a 10-second guitar loop and drums on it, I could easily advertise a full song with vocals on it and have it gain some sort of attention through social media. Me putting my music on social media was more of a learning experience than anything else.
Project Management
For me, parts of the project were easier to work on and others required more time than I was aware of it. I overestimated some parts of and underestimated others. All of my actual music(no vocals) was done relatively easy with me getting songs done every two of weeks(generally I done the overall chord and melody progression on one week and the drums and any finishing touches production wise the next week). However, this meant when it came down to the last couple weeks of the project I didn't have many people available to do vocals on my EP as everyone was focusing on their own projects.
Even though I hadn't got any vocals done on my tracks I still collaborated with other people for my project and theirs. I recorded a couple of guitar tracks for UJ and he helped me with my song "Sad". Joseph done the drums for me on "Nostalgia" and me and done both made "Tension". I also made a beat with Will for his EP which he rapped on.
As I've mentioned multiple times I struggled with finishing my final Case Study On The Beatles resulting in it not being completed and I also struggled to find sources for my other two case studies so I ended up changing one of them or just taking the research back a couple decades and looked at unconventional sources for the other.
I would either text my friends at college when I wanted to make a track with them or I'd just ask them if they wanted to book out the studio or come back to mine when we were at college. I didn't really use the studio at college much as I could do everything I could there with the guitar that I could at home with my own setup and I was more comfortable with it. However, I did record a couple of drums tracks using the mics at college for one of my songs called Tension. This was a difficult session as it involved Joseph attempting to stay in time as well as increase velocity every beat. He played one track which he played the snare in crochets, as well as a kick drum track and toms done separately.
Problem Solving
I hadn't completed one of my case studies so I went back to my other ones and added some more information and sources to them to make up for it. I also struggled with some of the drums on my tracks so I went to either Joseph or UJ when this situation occurred as they both have production styles that are very drum heavy. I attempted to research Gus Dapperton and Boy Pablo as I have mentioned before, these bands have very little sources on the production side of their music let alone the specifics of the guitar pedals they use. I just ended up changing the idea of the case study as there wasn't a single academic paper on the previous idea.
I have definitely been more influenced by this concept of genre fluidity in my music and it is something I am probably going to be pursuing for a while proving the research I have done useful.
I have got much better at recording guitar for my music as well as how to mix live instruments way better.
Conclusion
I succeeded in releasing a project that feels like it comes from the same place consistently throughout the EP. I have got the majority of the written work completed as well as five finished instrumentals. I am disappointed that I didn't manage to get vocals on my project but this is a learning curve for me as I discovered how long and strenuous it can be to get an entire project finished. I have developed the most as a guitarist production-wise, as well as mixing wise and have a decent sound to leave college with which will prove useful in the next couple years.
