Releasing a Debut Rock Album in 2020 from my Room
Back in early July 2020, I got in contact with a friend of mine that I have played some gigs with. I play drums and he mainly plays guitar. We were both part of a local cover band, but we were both aware that writing original music was the ultimate expression of being a musician. It became abundantly clear, however, that the other members of our group did not feel the same way. That left the two of us yearning for more.
When I reached out to him, I brought up the idea of releasing an EP; a short album, essentially. The previous year we attempted to write a full length, comprehensive concept album, however with a lack of writing experience and beginner-level recording equipment, the endeavor did not get far off the ground. When I convinced him that only writing a handful of songs would be much easier to manage, he was onboard. Once the plan was set, we got right to work. There was only one problem: the EP needed to be written and recorded in two months, as we are both in college and I go to school out of town.
This obstacle only drove our determination more. After multiple meetings, jam sessions, and phone calls, we decided that the EP would be comprised of four songs, each with their own character. As we continued to meet, our ideas were allowed to breathe and develop naturally to the point where we felt they were ready to be recorded. Though it soon became clear that another problem would arise.
We didn’t have the resources to go to a recording studio, as it very costly to do so, and our own equipment was sub-par. Our recordings up to that point were not pleasant to listen to. Not for a lack of musicianship, but for the quality of the recordings themselves. Our solution: do as much research on budget recording equipment and make an investment. We both upgraded our audio interfaces and luckily, that did the trick. We also shifted from recording with Audacity, an entry-level recording software, to Reaper, a more advanced recording software. Both of these upgrades kickstarted our recording process.
Over the course of a week, we recorded our parts from our respective homes where we have our instruments set up. My drums were in my room, and that was where all the recording took place. With all the wiring, mics, equipment, computers, and drums, my room was the physical manifestation of “Do-It-Yourself.” Once my drum parts were recorded, I sent them to my friend for him to record over (My job was to record the drums and write the lyrics, his was everything else.)
I also submitted a request to an artist on Fiverr for some album artwork. Album artwork is one of my favorite aspects of a body of musical work, as I enjoy trying to figure out why exactly a certain piece of visual art was chosen to be paired with the music. Below is the album art that we chose for this project.
It wasn’t very long until he got back to me with the finished tracks. Then it was time to upload our music for the world to hear. This would prove to be the easiest part; as it was only a matter of picking a distribution service and uploading our music. We had to pick a name for our band and we went with the name “Control.” As for the EP title, I had come up with the name “Isolation Waves” as the EP had been recorded by the two of us physically separated and over the Internet.
I learned a lot about recording and writing from this experience. Releasing this EP is one of my best accomplishments and I am very proud of the results. I plan on continuing to write and record music to share with anyone who wants to hear it.
If you are interested in hearing the final product of this EP, once again, the group is called Control and the EP is titled Isolation Waves. It is available on streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, and it is also on iTunes.
