So posted by Kiron on September 18, 2009

---

My new job is pretty lame but at least I'm making money and I don't need to invest a lot of time in it. Also working on a bunch of new songs; might release some stuff at the end of the month.

Currently listening to: Doe Maar - De Bom · View Comments

Tweetification posted by Kiron on September 11, 2009

---

Told old people at a retirement home I'm Batman. Lifelong ambition fulfilled.

Currently listening to: Muse - United States of Eurasia (+Collateral Damage) · View Comments

New features! posted by Kiron on September 7, 2009

---

First of all, something I've wanted to do for a while but never got around to implementing. I've already posted about this on the main page, so I'll just copy-paste it here:

"On /blog/, you will now see a shiny new orange button. Click it to get to the brand new RSS feed! So what can you do with this? In Firefox, you'll get a button that'll help you put the feed into your bookmarks, so you can easily see when the blog updates. I'm not sure about other browsers, but I guess something similar happens.

To go along with this, the Add button for Your List has been polished up and downsized to fit with its new friend.

RSS support will be added to other parts of the site as I go along. And I'm not just talking about /poetry/..."

Moreover, the side panel to your left now also has an easy way to track the newest posts. And if all goes to plan, you'll need it because Jonny ain't the only one who'll be shaking things up for the end of the year...

Currently listening to: The Beatles - Hello Goodbye · View Comments

Stretching my legs posted by Kiron on September 7, 2009

---

Hey, what's up, you guys? I'm doing some writing warm-ups, but I'm wondering where my weak points in writing are. What do you guys think of my action scenes? Do they read well? I mean, I like 'em, but that's because I know exactly how I envision them. It's like forgetting to explain a plot point because you already know about it yourself (something I've most likely already done at least once.) But what do you guys think?

Currently listening to: Lemon Demon - White Bread Boyfriend · View Comments

Progressive rock: a self-indulgent analysis courtesy of your friendly neighbourhood time-waster posted by Kiron on September 5, 2009

---

Opeth's "Windowpane" is a pretty incredible song. It's progressive rock, and appropriately clocks in at 7 minutes and 44 seconds, but unlike most songs of its genre, it seems entirely effortless. In fact, the rest of the Damnation album does likewise, but this is the longest track (the shortest being just over four minutes.)

With most progressive rock, it seems like the songs are either really long just for the sake of it, or over-complicated concept albums that only really make sense if you have an hour or more to waste to sit down and really pay attention- which, most of the time, isn't what I'm looking for in music.

As such, it has been one of my ongoing ambitions in songwriting to pen a song with such complicated beauty as "Windowpane" without losing the flow that carries the song in a way that barely makes you realise the length exceeds that of the average radio single.

To completely recap my progress on this front would undoubtedly result in a long-winded musical autobiography, so I'll boil it down to two major milestones. My longest released song (although that says nothing; I've barely released maybe a fifth of my work) is titled "In Fear", and has the duration of 5 minutes and 40 seconds. However, well over half of this is a long-winded intro, followed by two minutes of mindless shredding (which, to add insult to injury, isn't even performed with real guitars on the released version.) In other words, that isn't even remotely close to my goal.

The other milestone is a recent song called "Gridlock," which is five minutes long. Although its riffs are endlessly more sophisticated than the former, it still relies on a long build-up before getting to the meat of the song, after which a fairly conventional verse-chorus-verse-chorus takes place, followed by a short guitar solo, and then the end.

To return to my prime example, "Windowpane" surprisingly adheres to a standard pop structure itself for most of its run. Until the bridge section, the only irregularity is the guitar solo placed directly after the first verse; the instrumental intro riff acting as a chorus, it then goes into another verse, followed by the bridge. After that, we get an extended breakdown, followed by a repetition of the main riff, another verse, and then the end.

So what is it that makes this song so special? From the moment it starts, before anything particularly interesting even seems to happen on a technical level, the song grabs you by the arm and pulls you along. The real genius lies in the song's riffs, on top of which all the other odds and ends are built. There's no particular rhyme or reason to why these riffs are just so damn cool, and by extension, no true formula to writing a song this good.

Enfin, writing a good song is mostly luck.

Currently listening to: Kiron Pubben - Thursdays (Demo 2) (Mix C) · View Comments