![[avatar]](https://avatars.fawm.org/fawm2023/31250.png)
- Newton, Massachusetts, US
Are you looking to collaborate on DAW-based songs (the warmer and funkier, the better) during and after FAWM? Please get in touch!
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I fell in love with songwriting as a young teenager. By the time I got out of college, I'd written about a hundred songs. Most were on my Yamaha classical guitar; a few were on piano.
In my mid-20s, I put together a small home studio in the attic of the place we were renting: fake "Les Paul" Franken-guitar, Juno 6 and Yamaha DX7 synths, a drum machine, a small mixer, and a big reel-to-reel tape recorder.
I created some songs on that system. And I decided: This is too hard. I hate analog. Wake me up when all this is digitized.
Decades passed during which I was a sign-language interpreter, computer programmer, grad student, writer, crossword puzzle constructor, grad student again, and (now) relationship counselor / sex therapist in private practice, drifting toward retirement.
Three years ago I woke up and realized I'd overslept: home recording *was* now digitized. In fact, it had been digitized for years, and the products had become sophisticated and powerful.
I fell in love all over again. I put together a new small home studio to write and record songs. I heard about FAWM in January of 2023 and my heart leapt. Getting stuff out rather than getting it perfect is exactly what I need. By dropping things on the floor right and left (example: my taxes), I posted seven songs. FAWM 2024 was similarly thrilling and exhausting, with the added thrill of stretching myself in new ways and gaining insights into my creative process. Best of all, the community is wonderful.
Now I'm back for my third FAWM. Yay!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
I fell in love with songwriting as a young teenager. By the time I got out of college, I'd written about a hundred songs. Most were on my Yamaha classical guitar; a few were on piano.
In my mid-20s, I put together a small home studio in the attic of the place we were renting: fake "Les Paul" Franken-guitar, Juno 6 and Yamaha DX7 synths, a drum machine, a small mixer, and a big reel-to-reel tape recorder.
I created some songs on that system. And I decided: This is too hard. I hate analog. Wake me up when all this is digitized.
Decades passed during which I was a sign-language interpreter, computer programmer, grad student, writer, crossword puzzle constructor, grad student again, and (now) relationship counselor / sex therapist in private practice, drifting toward retirement.
Three years ago I woke up and realized I'd overslept: home recording *was* now digitized. In fact, it had been digitized for years, and the products had become sophisticated and powerful.
I fell in love all over again. I put together a new small home studio to write and record songs. I heard about FAWM in January of 2023 and my heart leapt. Getting stuff out rather than getting it perfect is exactly what I need. By dropping things on the floor right and left (example: my taxes), I posted seven songs. FAWM 2024 was similarly thrilling and exhausting, with the added thrill of stretching myself in new ways and gaining insights into my creative process. Best of all, the community is wonderful.
Now I'm back for my third FAWM. Yay!
Songs
Soundboard
![[avatar]](https://avatars.fawm.org/fawm2025/4fd8726c-0cbe-439f-bee9-8f7433ec206f.png)
@zervas1
Hey Eric - Thx for the comments. FYI I taught 4th grade in Newton for 25 years!
![[avatar]](https://avatars.fawm.org/fawm2024/2b82c755-07cf-49b0-9f74-650d23d3b987.png)
ERIC thank you so much for the lovely comments <3 the way you listen and find the nuances is a real honour and a compliment. Sugar in the lines is absolutely a little Mountain Goats reference (Fault Lines - “i’ve got sugar in the fuel lines, both of us do”).
I’ll tell you the secret that is not a secret - I’m very new to playing electric guitar (literally got my first one since last FAWM) and I’m not even recording with an amp, I’m just playing around with the presets on garageband until I get a tone in the right neighbourhood, and then tweaking the specifics until it sounds right to my ears. Happy to tell you the ones I’ve used, it’s a very fun and accessible way to find the tone I’m going for in each song without as many variables - the amps I have are pretty old and busted, very suitable for practice and playing with the punk band I got them for (one of them has an “insane” mode!) and not a whole lot of nuance outside of that. I’m on a big learning curve about playing plugged in!
I’ll tell you the secret that is not a secret - I’m very new to playing electric guitar (literally got my first one since last FAWM) and I’m not even recording with an amp, I’m just playing around with the presets on garageband until I get a tone in the right neighbourhood, and then tweaking the specifics until it sounds right to my ears. Happy to tell you the ones I’ve used, it’s a very fun and accessible way to find the tone I’m going for in each song without as many variables - the amps I have are pretty old and busted, very suitable for practice and playing with the punk band I got them for (one of them has an “insane” mode!) and not a whole lot of nuance outside of that. I’m on a big learning curve about playing plugged in!
![[avatar]](https://avatars.fawm.org/fawm2025/5b564667-918a-4704-b037-22d6681a01ac.png)
Thanks for touching base Eric! That sounds good to me.
![[avatar]](https://avatars.fawm.org/fawm2025/5b564667-918a-4704-b037-22d6681a01ac.png)
Hi Eric - either works for me - looking forward to it!
![[avatar]](https://avatars.fawm.org/fawm2024/c5cc7c1b-c900-49da-894f-50c3191e6004.png)
Hiya! I have added you to my spreadsheet of people to contact later about doing a summer challenge. I hope you have a wonderful, super creative month!
![[avatar]](https://avatars.fawm.org/fawm2024/8e5c71e6-21f5-4153-b8d6-593ca17e8d7c.png)
Hey Eric! Thanks for the note, yes I am back and glad to see you here too! Happy FAWMing!
![[avatar]](https://avatars.fawm.org/fawm2024/2b82c755-07cf-49b0-9f74-650d23d3b987.png)
Eric! So excited to see you, definitely let’s do something again this year!
![[avatar]](https://avatars.fawm.org/fawm2023/9175.png)
Hi Eric. good to see you back, and am looking forward to your music.
![[avatar]](https://avatars.fawm.org/fawm2023/9150.png)
Happy FAWMing!
![[avatar]](https://avatars.fawm.org/fawm2023/8439.png)
@ericalbert - I think I was the one who put 27 tracks of guitar on our collaboration, so less of a jam than a monologue? Ha, thanks for the encouragement and here's to a successful FAWM for you!
![[avatar]](https://avatars.fawm.org/fawm2024/893686ce-352d-4d2a-b96d-61dfee4e203a.png)
Re: Ravyn Lanae: Sweet! Maybe the warmest percussion treatement I've ever heard, anywhere, as it opens. I didn't know this vocalist before. Her phrasing is to SWOOOOOOON for!
![[avatar]](https://avatars.fawm.org/fawm2023/1505.png)
Hi Eric, nice to see you! Thanks for the kind words and welcome. I always start the challenge with the intent to do more collabs, and then time runs away from me, but let's try and make something happen!
![[avatar]](https://avatars.fawm.org/fawm2023/8439.png)
I have some obligations during the first half of FAWM but who knows, perhaps the stars will align for more 27-guitar-track jams!
![[avatar]](https://avatars.fawm.org/fawm2025/95101e69-8058-4f75-9d41-43fd708093b5.png)
Howdy, Eric - good FAWM! Looking forward to seeing what lyrics you send my way 😄
![[avatar]](https://avatars.fawm.org/fawm2025/4fdfa054-150c-458b-a197-8fdfb8544a8e.png)
I hope you have a fabulous FAWM, Eric!
![[avatar]](https://avatars.fawm.org/fawm2025/dc11b749-004f-4c48-9609-304346e86146.png)
Welcome back Eric! Make sure to post in the FAWMers of New England forum.