Continuing on from the last (October 2023) post I picked up a few foot percussion and effects pedals to try and improve the sound of the potential live set with, namely the Zoom G1 and V6 SP to vary the guitar tone between songs and also to add occasional unison, formants and harmony the the vocal line. I ended up not going with the Logjam Rattlebox for the snare sound but instead customized a skiffle style one using a foot tambourine frame and an old small tin box of Celestial seasonings tea with a few nuts and bolts and odds and ends in it.

I did go with the, chain based, Stank foot percussion too thou. Its quite heavy duty and has a really distinct sound. The metal, washboard like, board it came with has also works as a base for the above customized tin snare and simple foot tambourine. I might try and make another, softer in tone, skiffle foot snare based on the same rig maybe using some bamboo shaker bits. I’ve kept going with trying to memorize the 20+ cover songs I had planned out (and added one or two others I stumbled across since). About half are probably outside my tonal/pitch range, and as such, are more useful as practicals but the others I think should give the set more variety and interest (and be abit of fun to perform).
“With the improved workflow, mentioned in the last post, I think the process has sped up a good bit”
On the illustration front I’ve recently gotten back to working on the folk illustrations to accompany the Brothers Grimm score/compositions (more of which below). The current piece is based on the story ‘The Worn Out Dancing Shoes’. The pencil sketch is pretty busy, especially with the six characters, but I’m hoping I can shrink/space out the various figures a good bit when I scan it into Photoshop to add the coloring. The large realism piece I started painting back in 2021 is nearly on the final lap. All of the detailing is done and I just need to add in the shadows and highlights – something that will probably take a couple of months as there is alot of different elements. Its tedious at times but its also satisfying to see the initial concept, and ideas I found during the process, start to come together.

The brother Grimm composition work has been going well enough since the start of the year. I have four orchestrations on the go and, with the improved workflow mentioned in the last post, I think the process has sped up a good bit. I went back and added alot more decorations and passing/neighbouring tones to the previous seven scores. This makes some of the sections overly busy at times but gives me much more scope when orchestrating the short score. I still havent managed to get back to making more electro tracks but have started to brainstorm concepts for the music video for Katyusha. If I get the time and energy in the summer I’d love to get that finished to round out and complete that block of five tracks and shooting script storys.