True progression

Now as the flu has been beaten, I've managed to continue working with vocals. And I'm glad to say I'm now progressing the way I thought I would. It seems that the fact that it wasn't my singing making me in pain, that realization gave me new burst of confidence for screaming and recording vocals the harsh way.

Some 7 songs still have vocals to record, but I'm getting there. And it feels good. Actually I'd go as far as saying that this is quite certainly the best ever Scumfusion package I've done all by myself. I like it all musically, I like it lyrically, it's getting pretty damn close to what I envision Scumfusion to be. And that makes me feel really good.

Also the fact that this album is a tribute to my family members passed away ... the matter of life and death is here and there in the lyrics. Even that it's all space tales from start to finish. 

And it's going to be a truly noisy scifi grind package, indeed.

Them damage (but not really what I thought it was)

 As I was writing about the possible vocal chords' damage previously, it turned out to be something quite else. On last tuesday I recorded bunch of vocals, and quite soon I started feeling sore throat, pain, uneasy feeling in throat. Heck, I thought for almost 2 days it's really about "because I sang in such a wrong way" (using throat) ... but then I fast realised what it was all about; flu. 

Yeah. Suddenly I had high fever, runny nose, explosive sneezes, etc you know the deal. I'm still somewhat sick. At the same I'm relieved that I wasn't doing the damage by singing, but "it's just a damn flu" which coincidentally struck me just the same day as I was recording ... d'oh!

Progressing with vocals + artwork

 As I though I have more than enough work at hand with dayjob, so I haven't had too much time to work with Scumfusion. Lately I've done few sessions though, and it seems I'm finding the style and combination of vocals that fits the music well enough. It's just very exhausting work for me personally, seems that no matter how much I practice using upper body for vocals, I still use too much throat for singing - which results into effects like evening cough, slightly sore / dry throat, very slight throat pain (or simply uneasy feeling in throat area). It's not nice, of course, but I'm "working on it" at the same time I'm working on recording the vocals. It's twice more demanding, because - well, actually I wouldn't say necessarily that it's the "normal" vocals that seem to damage, but it's the sewer vocal style which takes its' toll on me. And on top of that, sewer vocal channel is similar sounding from start to finish - but the "normal vocals" ain't just one style, but there are few different ways of singing, slightly screamy, slightly growly, upper pitched screamy, very upper pitched screamy, ... well that might explain something about why it's demanding, too.

Currently I have 11 songs with vocals, so it's like 55% done ... supposing I'm happy enough with the results. I've also done like 4-5 different rought mix sessions with vocals in the songs so yeah ... and listening to the mixes and comparing, countless times.

In any case, it is progressing slowly but certainly.

I've also done some visual work in the meanwhile; not just front cover artwork is fully completed, but I've done the back cover (CD jewel case size) as well, and also crafted a massive image containing all the lyrics (that wouldn't be necessary, but just for fun and as I am up to it).

Back from summer break and statement about Facebook presence

One might guess nothing really happened with Scumfusion since I last time wrote, ... but the reality is the opposite. Pretty much the same thing happened with creating lyrics than how the music got composed during Spring; it happened really fast. I thought "I might start writing lyrics during June, before my summer holiday starts and that's it" ... well, not only I started writing the lyrics, but I wrote all the lyrics for all the twenty tunes during latter half of June. And it wasn't just writing, but I pretty much did vocal arrangements too, simply by listening the rough mixes and arranging at mind level. 

I also went into recording the vocals during those bit under two weeks in June ... yeah. And I got about 8-9 songs done, vocals recorded. And that's the stage I am currently. I shall be continuing the tricky task of vocals (lots of lyrics and fast pace and..) in coming weeks as / if my daily work permits. At work I have the busiest period of year typically from August into late September, but we'll see how it goes.

PS: Another matter worth (?) mentioning is that Scumfusion (nor any other music projects of mine) no longer has facebook page. It's not worth the hassle. I will have only these blogs and music will always end up in streaming services, and that's it.

One vision (not AI but Finland) from my summer holiday