They have a bunch of fun, songwriting contests too, so I am hoping to enter them. Their first one is to write a song about Time Travel. After thinking about it for a while, I thought it would be neat to write a song that when played backwards, it would accompany itself. I didn’t know how hard this would be, but hey, I’ve crashed and burned many times. I wouldn’t let a little thing like utter failure stop me.

I needed a theme and I thought I could write how I broke my time machine. After pondering it for a bit, I came up against a snag. I wanted it to play forward, and then I when I activated the ‘time machine’, it would play in reverse and accompany itself. But… I couldn’t get that to work and make sense. I scrapped that idea.

Then I thought about an evil twin! Like in Star Trek’s “Mirror Mirror”. But instead of evil, the guy just travels backwards in time. And we write a song together. I quickly wrote out some words and started working on the tune. It was hard. Timing a song going backwards doesn’t work the way I thought it would. I thought “8th notes should just sound normal!” Well, it doesn’t. After much instrument and drum switching, melody scrapping, and sound simplification, I finished the song! HUZZAH!

And then I made a video. Ugh. I thought I had it on just three takes. But when I brought it into Premiere, I realized I changed to the other side of the table on the wrong line of the verse. AAAARRRGHHH. So I had to redo the video again, and it took me another 10 takes to get it right. I tried not to look at the words as much, so I kept screwing up. And everytime I screwed up, I had to drink more juice. By the end of that video, I was leaking mango juice through my pores.

But it’s done! Huzzah! I don’t think it’s the type of song they’re looking for, but it was such a fun concept that I had to try it! So I give you:

Time Reverse Dimensional Twin

Just in case you were wondering, I did finish the Children’s CD, called “Binary For Babies”. I printed off 50 copies, and gave them all away.

Now I need to print a few more copies to put on CDBaby, however, I want to remix/remaster some of the songs, so I will do that in January!

So I’m looking at a Feb release of the CD. Here’s hoping!

I’m needing a place to keep track of my children’s CD. As songs get finished, I’ll update it here! I might have more, I might have less. I’ll update as I go along. I’m hoping to get this thing done before December. Considering I’m also doing Nanowrimo, things may get a bit hectic. *sigh*

Oh, and if you’ve noticed that all I’ve done is just write lyrics and not one lick of music, you’re right.

Tentative Title – Binary for Babies

1. Binary For Babies – Music by Mike Skliar [done]
2. Narwhal Pet – Music by Erin Morgan[done]
3. !backwards is song This – Music by Sen-Foong Lim[done]
4. I Like to be Loud – Music by Charlie Cheney [done]
5. Bad Idea – Music by Mike Skliar [done]
6. Pirate Birthday Song Sing Along – Music by Billy Sea [done]
7. AT-AT’s in the Snow – Music by Mike Skliar [done]
8. Sing Together - Music by Nancy Rost & Hoopshank [done]
9. Chicken on a Stick – Words by Jocelyn[done]
10. Moon is a Whale – completely by Mike Skliar [done]
11. Jabberwocky Song – Music by Mark James [done]
12. My Sister Turned Teenager – completely by Hugh Johnston [done]
13. I’m Just Me – Music by Billy Sea [done]
14. Caterpillar Ghost – Music by Deborah Linden [done]
15. My Dad Snores – Music by Tyler Goen [done]
16. Geek Love Song v1.3 – Sung by Zoe [done]

Direct Download

FAWM clear its songs every year, so all the links will eventually be lost. This was written for 50/90, which I wasn’t doing but I wanted to write a song with pifie! I think the instrumental is awesome. The song did so well because the music he did was so cool.

Liner Notes:

ERROL:
I asked pifie to write an instrumental that I could write lyrics too. And for some strange reason he said yes and actually made one for me! So here I am singing to it. It is very… very… geeky. In fact, I think only two of you will get the reference. But… oh well.

This SOUNDS easy, but it wasn’t… and I messed up in the end, but it was 2am and I got tired. Timing was really hard, and I now officially hate the word “Screwdriver”. And “Canary”.

Oh, and for those of you who don’t know, this is a Walkthrough on how to solve the first Zork, a text game.

EDIT by pifie:
For all the guys coming for the first time to 50/90: welcome to 50/90, hope to see you making songs around here on February (on fawm.org). And… all the credit goes to Errol!: he is the one who made lyrics!

Lyrics:

“SOUTH”
“EAST”
“OPEN WINDOW”
“ENTER HOUSE”
“WEST”
“GET THE LAMP”
“MOVE THE RUG”
“OPEN THE TRAP DOOR”

“LIGHT LAMP”,”D”,”S”,”E”, “GET THE PAINTING”, “N”, “U”, “U”, “GET KNIFE AND ROPE”, “D”, “W”, “OPEN CASE”, “PUT PAINTING IN CASE”, “DROP KNIFE”, “GET SWORD”, “OPEN TRAP DOOR”, “D”, “N”, “KILL TROLL WITH SWORD”, “DROP SWORD”, “E”, “E”, “SE”, “E”, “TIE ROPE TO RAILING”, “CLIMB DOWN ROPE”, “S”, “E”, “GET COFFIN”, “W”, “S”, “PRAY”, “DOUSE LAMP”, “S”, “N”, “E”, “D” TO THE CANYON BOTTOM, “N”, “DROP COFFIN”, “OPEN COFFIN”, “GET SCEPTRE”, “WAVE SCEPTRE”, “LOOK”, “GET GOLD AND COFFIN”, “SW”, “U” TO CANYON VIEW, “NW”, “W”, “ENTER HOUSE AND OPEN BAG” “GET GARLIC”, “W”, “PUT COFFIN, SCEPTRE, AND GOLD IN CASE” “OPEN THE TRAP DOOR”, “AND LIGHT THE LAMP”,

(this maze is twisty)

“D”, “N”, “E”, “N”, “NE”, “E”, “N”, “GET THE MATCHES”, “N”, “GET WRENCH AND SCREWDRIVER”, “PUSH YELLOW BUTTON”, “S”, “S”, “TURN THE BOLT WITH WRENCH”, “S”, “D”, “W”, “SE”, “E”, “CLIMB DOWN ROPE”, “GET TORCH”, “DOUSE LAMP”, AND “S”,

(this maze is twisty)

“GET THE BELL, BOOK, CANDLES”, “ENTER HOLE”, “D”, “RING THE BELL”, “LIGHT MATCH”, “LIGHT THE CANDLES WITH THE MATCH”, “READ BOOK”, “DROP BOOK”, “S”, “GET SKULL”, “N”, “U”, “N”, “PUT OUT CANDLES”, “RUB MIRROR”,

“N”, “W”, “N”, “W”, “N”, “E”, “PUT THE TORCH IN BASKET”, “LIGHT THE LAMP”, “N”, “D”, “E”, “NE”, “SE”, “SW”, “D”, “D” TO THE LADDER BOTTOM. “S”, “GET COAL”, “N”, “U” TO LADDER TOP, “U”, “N”, “E”, “S”, “N”, “U”, “S”, “PUT THE COAL AND SCREWDRIVER IN BASKET”, “LOWER BASKET”, “N”, “D”, “E”, “NE”, “SE”, “SW”, “D”, “D”, “W”, “DROP ALL”, “ENTER CRACK”, “GET COAL, TORCH, AND SCREWDRIVER”, “S”, “OPEN LID”, “PUT COAL INTO MACHINE”, “CLOSE LID”, “TURN SWITCH WITH SCREWDRIVER”, “OPEN LID”, “GET DIAMOND”, “DROP SCREWDRIVER”, “N”, “PUT THE TORCH AND DIAMOND IN THE BASKET”, “E”, “E”

“GET SKULL, LAMP, AND GARLIC”, “E”, “N” TO THE LADDER BOTTOM, THROUGH THE COAL MINE TO THE GAS ROOM, “GET BRACELET”, “U”, “S”, “RAISE BASKET”, “GET THE TORCH AND DIAMOND”, “TURN OFF LAMP”, “W”, “GET JADE”, “S”, “E”, “S”, AND “ENTER SLIDE”, “U”,
“PUT DIAMOND, JADE, BRACELET, AND TORCH IN CASE”, “DROP GARLIC”, “TURN ON LAMP”, “N”, “E”, “N”, “NE”, “N”, “GET TRUNK”,

(it is pitch black)

“N”, “GET AIR PUMP”, “N”, “GET TRIDENT”, “S” TO RESERVOIR SOUTH, “E”, “E”, “INFLATE BOAT WITH PUMP”, “GET IN BOAT”, “SAY LAUNCH” “WAIT” wait wait “GET BUOY”, “E” TO THE BEACH”, “EXIT BOAT”, “GET THE SHOVEL”, “NE” “DIG WITH SHOVEL” Dig dig dig

(you are likely)

“DROP SHOVEL”, “GET THE SCARAB”, “SW”, “DROP BUOY”, “OPEN BUOY”, “GET EMERALD”, “S” TO THE FALLS, “CROSS RAINBOW”, “TURN OFF LAMP”,

(to be eaten)

“SW” TO CANYON BOTTOM, “U” TO CANYON VIEW”, GO BACK TO THE WHITE HOUSE GO TO THE LIVING ROOM. “PUT CHEST, EMERALD, THE SCARAB, AND THE TRIDENT IN CASE”, “E”, “E”, “N”, “N”,

(by a grue)

“CLIMB THE TREE”, “GET EGG”, “CLIMB DOWN”, “S”, “E”, BACK TO THE LIVING ROOM, “LIGHT LAMP”, “D”, “N” “W”, “S”, “U”, “TAKE COINS AND KEY”, “SW”, “E”, “S”, “SE” TO THE CYCLOPS ROOM.
“ODYSSEUS”
“U”, “GIVE EGG TO THIEF”, “D”, “E”, “PUT COINS IN CASE”, “GET KNIFE”, “W”, “U”,
“KILL THE THIEF WITH KNIFE”
“KILL THE THIEF WITH KNIFE”

“GET ALL”, “D”, “NW”, “S”, “W”, “U”, “D”, “NE”, “UNLOCK GRATE”, “OPEN GRATE”, “U”, “S”, “CLIMB TREE”, “WIND UP CANARY”, “CLIMB DOWN”, “GET BAUBLE”, GO BACK TO LIVING ROOM, “REMOVE CANARY FROM EGG”, “PUT EGG, CANARY, BAUBLE, STILETTO IN CASE”, “D”, “N”, “E”, UNTIL YOU GET TO THE LOUD ROOM,
“ECHO”,
“GET BAR”, “W” TO THE TROLL ROOM, “S”, “U”,

“PUT ALL EXCEPT THE LAMP INTO THE CASE”

I then invited every person I could and I had to keep it quiet that I planned on putting a concert on as her birthday present. Fortunately, she was surprised by the concert! I was a happy guy.

Here is the finished product made in my living room, as well as a few songs in Andrew’s basement. I also needed to add in a song I did with Jeffery Rankine for FAWM 2009. I really like his guitar on there. Tyler Goen did the music for “Aware of my Ignorance” and it was a hoot to sing. You may be wondering why I have the german song in there. Well, I sang it at Sara Schneider’s wedding, and had invested enough time in learning it that I needed to do a cover! And of course, I had to have Pure Cane Lover in there because I love that song.

Download Album in zip format!

In February, people challenge themselves to write 14 songs in 28 days: February Album Writing Month. In January, of 2009, when I was trying to get the first GLS album out, I had written 3 or so songs in one month. I didn’t think I could do 14.

But then FAWM came and I immersed myself in it completely! Complete and utter fun. The spirit of FAWM is to write music, and I explored different styles and genres I never would have. Most of the songs are pretty rough, and a lot don’t make any sense. But then, that’s me.

However, the greatest opportunity was doing collaborations. I think I only had about 8 or 9 songs on just my own. But then the other 20 or so were with other people! It was great! I listened to so much music, I wrote more songs than I ever though possible. It was great!

So, if you ever want to try FAWM out, go for it. February. Mark it on your calendars.

This album has a bunch of songs I originally wrote, or I got someone else to originally write.  It’s an album in progress. Well, progress sounds like that the songs get better as I complete them so that may not be the proper term to use. It’s an album that is constantly growing with songs. One day you’ll be able to buy it, and then I can make my music support my family…. BWA HA HA HA HA. Sorry, I couldn’t say that with a straight face.

If you are wondering who my band members are, I have Mark James on the guitar for a few of the songs, and I have Andrew Skivington on drums, and Sen Foong Lim.

If you want, you can download the whole album in zip format.

And here’s a fun video of the Title song:

I like writing geek lyrics, so I took some popular songs and did a Weird Al on them. Maybe not as creative, but I had fun. This was my first foray into actually recording myself. I called a few friends to help me with these songs. I begged Deborah Linden to sing “Virtual World” with me, and then got her to sing “My Partner’s A Nerd”. Finally I made Victoria Anisman-Reiner sing two songs with me because I needed more people to sing with. Thanks guys! I had a lot of fun.

EDIT: Download now available!