Dan Hewins: The Deck » general

Halftime Break

hewins — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 20:10:45 +0000

I am taking a short 1-2 week break as a halftime respite for myself. Don't fret (not that you would), I'll be back with more later!

Wardrobe (Mal)function

Halftime Assesment

hewins — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 05:40:15 +0000

So, there are 26 songs so far. I'm going back and listening to some of them again so I can asses what I've done so far. Here's how I see it:

I think there are about 6 categories that these songs could fall under: guitar and voice songs, acoustic-based instrumentals, ambient, rock songs, African-influenced songs and instrumentals, and 'other.'

Guitar and Voice Songs:

Ace of Spades: The Beginning
Two of Spades: Merry And The Swede
Four of Spades: Song Of The Sea
Seven of Spades: O Captain
Eight of Spades: Contemplation Of A City: Los Angeles
Nine of Spades: Road Song In The Key Of We
Ten of Spades: Subway Platform: 2:45 AM
Ace of Clubs: A Proposal
Two of Clubs: Let It Rain
Seven of Clubs: Remember The Sound
Ten of Clubs: Big Indian
King of Clubs: A Very Old Man With Very Large Wings
Queen of Clubs: Half

Acoustic Instrumentals:

Five of Spades: Five Of Spades
Queen of Spades: Darn These Walls
Four of Clubs: Two Days After A Day At Coney Island

African-influenced Songs:

Three of Spades: Letters Home
Six of Spades: The Sun Rises But Shines Not
Jack of Spades: A Man A Plan A Canal Panama (instr)
King of Spades: King Of Spades
Jack of Clubs: That’s How You Act, That’s What You Get (instr)

Rock Songs:

Six of Clubs: Featherlight
Nine of Clubs: Special Glasses

Ambient:

Four of Clubs: Two Days After A Day At Coney Island
Eight of Clubs: End of May, Part 1 (guitar)

Other*:

Five of Clubs: Bad Day/Song

* Concerning the "other" category, I'm not really sure what this thing is but I like it. If you want to get to the meat of this one, skip ahead to about 2:56. In fact, in listening back to a bunch of these songs, I've learned that a lot of them reward listening to the end. If you don't you might miss something interesting.

Nine of Clubs: Special Glasses

hewins — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 04:09:58 +0000

The Nine of Clubs is a song with a drumbeat. These drums are synthetic but they keep good time.

This song is inspired by Sonic Youth.

Downloads!

hewins — Mon, 04 May 2009 15:26:07 +0000

I just creted a page on the site where I am offering zip files of batches of songs. The first batch I offer is a collection of all of the Spades. Check it out.

Slight delay…

hewins — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:48:09 +0000

I was in Boston over the weekend. Go Sox! They beat the Orioles 2-1 in a pretty good game. It was a bit cold at the game but it was great to be there with my family. So, anyway I had planned on recording this week's song last night when I got home. But when I got home, I realized that we had been burglarized over the weekend! My evening was overtaken by visits by the police, talking to Detectives and getting my fingerprints taken to differentiate between mine and the prints they found on things in my apartment. I didn't have time to record it.

So, I plan to finish it tonight and post it here as soon as it's done. Keep your blog eyes peeled.

Ten of Spades: Subway Platform: 2:45 am

hewins — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 05:29:33 +0000

This week's song is about riding the subway late at night. Very late at night, or maybe very early in the morning. It's basically how I feel now, tired and overworked; but the only difference is that I'm home right now. Which is where I wanted to be in this song.

I did this one this weekend at the space. There are some differences between recording at home and at the space and they each have their advantages and disadvantages. At home, I have reason so I can do fake drums and synths and keyboards. But at the space, I have my better guitar, the ability to play it loudly, and my bass and, basically my better equipment. But the drawback is that the space is home to many bands and it's not the most soundproofed place in the world, as you will be able to hear at the end of this song if you listen carefully. I think it gives it character. But that's because I have to live with it.

Here's a photo of the A Train platform at 34th Street at 2:45 am:

from flickr

Eight of Spades: Contemplation of a City: Los Angeles

hewins — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 19:41:48 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I took a trip to Long Beach and Los Angeles, CA. I really love California and I used to live in Walnut Creek a long time ago, when I was youg.

There is an ongoing rivalry between LA and New York, where I live now. People in each city think theirs is better and try to convince their counterparts of those facts.

I won't get into what I think here in this post, but you can find out by listening to this song.

This is The Deck

hewins — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 17:00:28 +0000

The Deck is my attempt to create a lot of music in 2009. The plan is to put a deck of songs together made of songs I write and songs I didn't write, but record a version of. The songs I write will be the black cards: spades and the clubs. The cover songs will be the red cards: diamonds and hearts. The goal is to have two decks by the end of the year. Or at least two decks'-worth of spades and clubs, because I am going to concentrate more on original songs. I'll fit in the covers as I can (I'll take suggestions for cover song ideas as time goes on).

Ten years ago, my friend, Michael Zapruder, wrote 52 songs in one year and I would say that that is definitely part of the inspiration for doing this. Another inspiration is that I really wanted to force myself to make music this year and something structured like this is the only way I know how.

I really don't know what's going to happen, how well it will work, if I fail or succeed, or what any of these songs are going to sound like. I have no set agenda of making any number of any kind or genre of song. I may or may not end up with a group of songs that could later become an album. Some songs will have vocals, probably most, and some will be instrumental. Along the way, I will probably have friends play an instrument or sing on a song or a few. I am as in the dark about what the results will be here as anyone else. So, off we go!

I will start posting the songs here very soon.