February Album Writing Month - FAWM.ORG

Dennis Jernberg

progress: 42

winner!
joined: July 2008
location: Washington, USA
website: thespacehelmetshow.blogspot.com
influences: hard rock, techno, cyberpunk, rap/hip-hop, metal, industrial, punk, new wave, classical, etc., etc., etc. -- I'm extremely eclectic...

Bio

Professional slacker from Bremerton, the punk rock capital of the Northwest and home of the Slaughter County Roller Vixens. I do comics, prose fiction, and rock 'n' roll. Guitarist and keyboardist in training. Self-styled apostle of the New Wave Revival (punk rock never needed reviving).

After my first spectacular FAWM victory in 2009 (38 songs written, 24 recorded), I'm back for year 2. In the intervening year, I took guitar lessons so that I won't have to MIDI-simulate my guitar parts anymore (just the sound of it annoys me). I'm recording a complete acoustic guitar set in addition to my usual rock songs, and I've been putting out a few synth-pop and dance/electronica tunes as well.

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UPDATE 3/14: I'm currently recovering from the switch to Daylight Saving Time, so I might not do much of anything today. Or at least I won't be doing much in the way of recording. I'll be rehearsing my guitar parts, though, especially on the acoustic songs. That's the next batch of tunes I'll be posting soon. Stay tuned...

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BugFeast 2: 15 new songs and 2 older lyrics completed in the last 2 days of FAWM '10!

New songs: Well Well Well, Go!, It's Not About You, iSuck, Flash Her, Bad Case of Cabin Fever, I Am Your Frankenstein, The Downfall Never Ends, Level Edit, Reality Weekend, Nyah Nyah Nyah, Veiled Threat, To Be Continued (with demo!), Pick of the Pack, and Outro Love

Earlier songs now finished: Don't Let the Pretty Face Fool You, Song 23

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ALBUM COMMENTING: I'll still be commenting on yours, but be patient since I've still got a backlog of recording to do. So here's the lineup of the albums I WILL open to comments:

1) The Sonic Disruptors: This Is Punkwave (The One Man Band Demo)
Going Rouge http://fawm.org/songs/2049/
Song 23 http://fawm.org/songs/6790/
It's Not About You http://fawm.org/songs/8153/
Not yet recorded: Anemone, Living Sex Doll, Ronbo Raygun's Corporate Army, Well Well Well, Go!
From FAWM '09 (to be rerecorded and posted at Fawmers.com): Domination Paradigm, New Wave Power Slave, Sellout Formula, Speak the Command, Step on the King, You Think You're So God
Bonus Single from FAWM '09: New Wave Video Slut with B-side Murder Fetish
Alternate Tracks from FAWM '09 (might not be rerecorded before 50/90): Last Minute Paranoia, Love to the Limit, Threat or Menace

2) Hey Junebug! punk EP:
Online Valentine http://fawm.org/songs/3619/
Baby Baby Baby http://fawm.org/songs/4220/
Yes (And No) http://fawm.org/songs/5927/
To Be Continued (This Ain't Over Yet) http://fawm.org/songs/8977/
Not yet recorded: Flash Her
From FAWM '09 (to be revised and rerecorded): Jesus Is a Zombie

3) Don't Let the Pretty Face Fool You solo LP:
Dead Pixel http://fawm.org/songs/6319/
Not yet recorded: Plays Well With Others, Still Life With Pixie, Don't Let the Pretty Face Fool You, Infernal Machine, It's Nothing, iSuck, I Am Your Frankenstein, The Downfall Never Ends, Level Edit, Reality Evening, Veiled Threat
From 50/90 '09 (not yet recorded): Celebrity Tweeps, Ninja Spy Mafia
Bonus Track from FAWM '09 (not yet recorded): Liquid Chocolate Love Song
Future Bonus Track: Cool Devices

4) The acoustic set is still unrecorded: Bad Song, No Comment, Practice Song, Death by Squirrel, Pick of the Pack
From FAWM '09 (to be rerecorded with real guitar): Somewhere UK
From 50/90 '09 (to be revised and recorded): Theme Song

Please be patient with me. I'll get these finished so you can hear them.

And yes, I'm taking the EMO CRAP Album Challenge!
http://fawm.org/forums/thread/938/
http://fawm.org/forums/thread/975/

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Instruments:
Acoustic, acoustic-electric, and Strat-type electric guitars
Casio WK-200 USB MIDI synthesizer keyboard
An orange dollar-store recorder (and a book on how to play it)
Harmony soprano ukulele of similar vintage to Gary Jugert's (http://fawm.org/fawmers/garyjugert)
Still no trumpet, unfortunately. Do you realize how expensive those things are, even used?

Equipment:
Yamaha Audiogram 6 USB mixer
Audio Technica P615 microphone
Ibanez DS7 distortion pedal
and a computer.

Software:
Reaper http://reaper.fm
Cubase AI 4 (came with USB mixer)
Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net
LMMS http://lmms.sourceforge.net
TuxGuitar http://www.tuxguitar.com.ar
DrumTrack http://www.supercoldmilk.com/drumtrack
and loads of VST plugins that I'm finding way too useful, starting with the Synth1 analog synthesizer http://www.geocities.jp/daichi1969/softsynth/index.html using the GMulator patch set at http://1-2-many.weebly.com/vsti-banks.html

Music page: Space Helmet Records! (neglected, unfortunately ) http://spacehelmetrecords.googlepages.com
The SHR blog is at http://spacehelmetrecords.blogspot.com
Comics/fiction project blog: http://spannersworld.blogspot.com
Comics/fiction project page (neglected): http://spannersworld.googlepages.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/dennis_jernberg (with an underscore)
YouTube (Channel JX9ism!, still unused): http://www.youtube.com/user/JX9ism

My challenges for FAWM 2010:
1) Sing my heart out. (Having a genuine performance mic helps.)
2) Play the actual guitar parts. (Those expensive lessons must not go to waste.)
3) Rehearse till I get it right. (Saves takes.)
4) Think like a drummer (even though I'm not).

RADIO NOTE: Charlie Cheney, Benjamin Nolan, and Joel D. Canfield have my advance permission to play any of my songs on their shows.

COLLABORATIONS: I'm working on them. I'm determined to get them all done by the end of the week.

50 SONGS IN 90 DAYS 2010: This year's 50/90 theme for me will be: SYNTHESIZERS! Starring my Casio WK-200, whose awesome potential I'm only now beginning to tap. Plus lots of VST instrument plugins. Do you realize how many VSTi synths are out there to download for free? I've been loading up on free techno, trance, and drum & bass synths, samples, and loops as well, so I'll definitely be working that direction as well. And I'll be playing both my guitar and my keyboard much better, of course.

Not to be confused with the Swedish rock journalist of the same name (he's at http://criticalmass.se).

2010 Songs

1	Bad Song	4 comments // 1 month ago
2	No Comment	3 comments // 1 month ago
3	Practice Song	2 comments // 1 month ago
4	Going Rouge (Love/Hate Song for the Woman in Red)	28 comments // 1 month ago
5	Plays Well With Others	1 comment // 1 month ago
6	Still Life With Pixie	2 comments // 1 month ago
7	Terror Bunny	zong // 1 month ago
8	Death by Squirrel	3 comments // 1 month ago
9	Disposable Gangsters	1 comment // 1 month ago
10	Don't Let the Pretty Face Fool You	1 comment // 1 month ago
11	Living Sex Doll	1 comment // 1 month ago
12	Infernal Machine	1 comment // 1 month ago
13	Anemone	1 comment // 1 month ago
14	Online Valentine	11 comments // 1 month ago
15	The Evolution	zong // 1 month ago
16	Escape Velocity	zong // 1 month ago
17	Baby Baby Baby (NSFW)	9 comments // 4 weeks ago
18	It's Nothing	3 comments // 4 weeks ago
19	Ronbo Raygun's Corporate Army	3 comments // 3 weeks ago
20	Yes (And No) (FAWM 2010 SongSkirmish #2)	5 comments // 3 weeks ago
21	* Dead Pixel	6 comments // 3 weeks ago
22	[Parody] All About The Ploys (Errol Ate My Shorts) (with Bizarro Errol)	5 comments // 2 weeks ago
23	* Song 23	5 comments // 2 weeks ago
24	Practice Song (with 1B King)	1 comment // 2 weeks ago
25	I Put A Contract Out On Cupid	4 comments // 2 weeks ago
26	My Mind (with Nick)	3 comments // 2 weeks ago
27	Flower (with looprication)	zong // 2 weeks ago
28	Well, Well, Well	zong // 2 weeks ago
29	Go!	zong // 2 weeks ago
30	* It's Not About You	4 comments // 2 weeks ago
31	iSuck	2 comments // 2 weeks ago
32	Flash Her	zong // 2 weeks ago
33	Bad Case of Cabin Fever (Song for the Snowbound)	zong // 2 weeks ago
34	I Am Your Frankenstein	1 comment // 2 weeks ago
35	The Downfall Never Ends	1 comment // 2 weeks ago
36	Level Edit	1 comment // 2 weeks ago
37	Reality Evening	1 comment // 2 weeks ago
38	Nyah Nyah Nyah	1 comment // 2 weeks ago
39	Veiled Threat	zong // 2 weeks ago
40	To Be Continued (This Ain't Over Yet) (FAWM 2010 SongSkirmish #3)	5 comments // 2 weeks ago
41	Pick of the Pack	2 comments // 2 weeks ago
42	Outro Love (It Is All Over Again)	zong // 2 weeks ago

Soundboard

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Haole Wolf 1 day ago

Thanks for the comment on "Botox Zombies"!
Tobermory 1 day ago

Hey Dennis thanks for commenting! Glad you could check me out, I'll have to return the favour. Hey this is almost identical to what Michael just typed. How odd.
Nick 2 days ago

Rockin' job on "My Mind"! I love it! The synth solo was so cool!
Michael Gutierrez-May 4 days ago

Dennis, thanks very much for coming by to listen to my songs. I will have to return the favor soon.
dylansdemise 1 week ago

My Tickle Me Errol came from a post in the Bizarro Errol FAWMer where I just made a joke about "Tickle Me Errol, get yours for Christmas. Oilsdragon told me I needed to turn that into a song and I thought that would be great fun...besides, the music was already written. I was actually very happy with the All about songs, I didn't think I'd get to 14 with DD otherwise
Rob Cooke - Boy@Heart 1 week ago

Thanks for the comment on my song Dennis. I really dig "Going Rouge" by the way!
Errol 1 week ago

Oh dear! Sorry! Next time I'll pronounce it correctly.
Billy Sea 1 week ago

LOL, thanks Dennis. That rock with my alter ego was a blast to do. I wanna be your yoko was my favorite of my fake band
Errol 1 week ago

Alllooo Dennis! I played Dead Pixel on the radio show! Huzzah!

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/fawm/2010/03/02/40--the-daily-fawmcast-2010
brad7a0 1 week ago

Hi Dennis,

Thank you for kind comments on Unwind Me. I kind of imagined a new wave 80's song when we came up with it. The drumming program I'm using is Jamstix and I really like what it can do. You give it some groove settings for the drum pattern, then structure the song and it'll throw in the fills in the style you specify.
garyjugert 1 week ago

Hey Dennis ... thanks for stopping by my page. I own all this music software now, so I thought I'd try to make a little fancier recordings for FAWM. It taught me a lot about rhythm and sound engineering, but not sure it helped me much as a musician. Probably will go back to me and the ukulele alone for 50/90. I'm off to work, but I'll be back to listen to some of your songs.
Nick Sypniewski 1 week ago

Dennis,
Thanks for your comments on my "new wave" songs. Yeah, the 5 O'Clock world song is sadly true - although, having been unemployed for a substantial time now, I'd be happy to be part of it... LOL And yes, YES surprised me, because as I've said elsewhere, I'm not a prolific lyricist and have some songs that are 30 years old and still waiting for lyrics. So to be able to write and record a complete song in under an hour was very surprising. Although afterward - oy, my ulcers... LOL Thanks again.
Vom Vorton 1 week ago

Dennis! Thanks for your comments and dezongings! And hope you're enjoying those synths.

If you do fancy writing a lyric to my 'Every Cloud' song then I'd definitely be up for that - let me know and I'll add you as a collaborator.
Karan 2 weeks ago

Don't know yet what will happen in summer, but yeah, if I'm around, we can do it then... or else, next February! I look forward!
heavyhedonist 2 weeks ago

thus are we closer to that goal of 14,000. i'm gonna get at least one more in tonight, too.
Karan 2 weeks ago

So sorry Dennis, I just didn't have the time today... let's save the idea for next year, shall we? I promise not to have a go at it before February, although the topic is tempting indeed...
garyjugert 2 weeks ago

WOW Dennis!! 39!! I'll be back to listen to all of them as you finish the demos. So excited.
looprication 2 weeks ago

If you're looking to invest, I have to *strongly* suggest Reason+Record. 90% of my output this year was done with that combo.
looprication 2 weeks ago

OK, finally sent the lyrics to "flower" to your email, sorry so late!
Vom Vorton 2 weeks ago

re: Two Left Feet

I have to hold myself back from putting EVERYTHING through that pedal. It's great fun!

Hope you get some good sounds out of SQ8L, I really like the noises it makes although I find it a bit confusing to edit / create my own patches. Luckily I found a load of extra presets for it online somewhere so they're keeping me going
Karan 2 weeks ago

Yayyy!
looprication 2 weeks ago

Hey there, sorry for the delay, but if you're still interested, you're welcome to do what you want with "flower" - let me know if you want the source files. I did it all in Record.
Vom Vorton 3 weeks ago

It's actually the SK5 sampling the awesome Text-to-Speech website - http://www2.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php

Sampling the speak and spell would have been a good idea though, maybe I'll try that one next time!

Cheers for the comment
nightengale 3 weeks ago

Congrats on that number of great songs!
astralbanger 3 weeks ago

i'll be back to check on your progress and get inspire for my own work. keep on rockin ...
Sean_T_Wright 3 weeks ago

thanks for the cool comments, Dennis.
heavyhedonist 3 weeks ago

Oh, and you made that Squirrel scary.
Alayna the Alto 4 weeks ago

Hey! Thanks for the comments! Congrats on winning, by the way!

I hope you get that trumpet, soon. I've always had a weakness for the sound of brass instruments... <3
Emma 4 weeks ago

That's good you solved the problem. Thanks for your comments on my songs.
Happy Atheist 1 month ago

Happy Darwin Day, Dennis!
Dan Fors 1 month ago

Hey Dennis, many thanks for your comment! Tried to listen to Going Rouge but it doesn't play for me..?
Nick 1 month ago

Hey, Dennis. I saw your comment on my song "My Mind" and if you'd like to do a casiopunk version of it, I'd be honored, and I'd love to see what you do with it.
third time lucy 1 month ago

Cheers for the comment on rock star.

The guitar sound specifically is an acoustic electric recorded onto two tracks at the same time: one track is the direct input from the pickups with "indie rock" effect, the other track is from a mic around the 12th fret or so with "heavy blues" effect, with one panned about half left and the other about half right. I quite like how thick it sounds for a single take.
Mal 1 month ago

Dennis! Was talking about you just the other day. Looks like the dam has busted, but too many locked tunes! Let's see and hear them! Share share share!
Scott Lake 1 month ago

Dennis,

Thanks for the nice comments about my Christian irony pop-punk song. Christian punk can have attitude. MXPX anyone?
hbusse 1 month ago

Thanks so much for listening to my song, and for the generous comments! Much appreciated.
1B King 1 month ago

Thanks for the listen Dennis. I never really considered myself a Rush fan, but I have noticed the influence more than once.
Kevin Emmrich 1 month ago

Hey Dennis, thanks for the kind words on a couple of the songs on my page -- it is appreciated!
Errol 1 month ago

Allloooooo Dennis! How's tricks? I see you're back in full force.
1B King 1 month ago

Hi Dennis. Funny, I just visited last night to see if you been around this year and was a bit disappointed that your bio hadn't changed. It looks like I was a little too early. Welcome back.
sheilerk 1 month ago

Wondered if you would be back this year. Have fun with that fourteen this weekend. I'm hopin' to get the last six lines of one done, and see if I can't get one more as well, and I'll call it a decent weekend, lol.
heavyhedonist 1 month ago

so apparently, there's a goal of 14,000 songs collectively this FAWM. i figure you can handle half of that, right? Happy writing, Dennis!