I think what my plans are for the next release that it will be more of an album. An internet exclusive album. It won’t be on CD. Just for the internet only. When I get the songs completed and ready to go, I’ll find a place to upload them where you can stream them in it’s entirety. Maybe, I will have a change of heart with bandcamp and upload it on there for you to stream and download for free. Don’t know yet but I will think of something.

I don’t know why bands continue to make CD’s ’cause you have to be honest with yourself that nobody’s buying them anyway, right? Nobody’s buying CD’s anymore and this is another good reason for releasing your music for free.

I got 5 songs ideas down, working on a 6th song.

I’m pretty serious that this is going to be a more folky and poetic album. You’ll know once you hear it. There’s going to be plenty of finger picking, light strumming and heartfelt singing. It may not be rock n’ roll Brock you want it to be. I will have a few upbeat rock n’roll songs on there but I wanna concentrate on slower music.

Also for the album, I will have bonus tracks on it. I’m planning to bring back a few of my older songs like “Evil Fred”, “Mr. Tough Guy”, and “Time Bomb”… kind of like a Greatest Hits thing to bring back memories from the old days.

I don’t know what I’m going to name the album yet. I’ll think of a title after I get the lyrics done and I’ll pick an album title from the lyrics. The album may not be studio perfect but I just wanted to keep it old-school and homemade. I want to show other musicians and bands you don’t have to be all special when making music.

I will come up as many songs as I can for the next album. It could be more than 10 songs, maybe 20, 30, etc. Can’t wait for you to hear them. Teasers, previews… coming soon.

Kev

Why do I find home recording better than paying by the hour at local studios? For a lot of reasons. I’m just trying to show people that as a local musician you don’t need to be all fancy and special with your music. Home recording may not be all that perfect quality but you can still make a decent home recording. Keep it old-school. Home recording is great. You can be your own boss. Record all day, all you want to and do whatever the hell you want. Bands shouldn’t neglect home recording. They don’t need to spend all kinds of money at a studio when you can save a lot more recording at home.

Anyway, just recorded rhythm and riff ideas for 5 different songs. I got lots more to go. Plenty of song ideas spinning in my head, it’s crazy! Yep, I think it’s time to get my music going again. I miss it and wanna do it all over again.

Will I get back to playing live again? To start playing these new songs in front of an audience? I’ll try to play a few gigs for them and maybe hit a few open mics, why not. For now, I’ll just release music for the internet only.

I’m proud of how these new songs are coming out so far but I still gotta record vocals for them which I will do soon. I’m gonna try to make the singing good this time. I’m most focused on recording guitar parts first. How many songs will I come up with? I’d say if you’re the type of songwriter who’s gonna say, “I’m planning to write 10 or 11 songs for this album”… then you’re doing it wrong. What a lot of songwriters do out there is write a bunch of songs all day. They would come up with around 30 – 100 songs and then they pick the best material for their albums. That’s how it’s done mostly. It shouldn’t be planned ahead of how many songs you plan to do. It should be unpredictable. Your mind is like a radio. You have songs spinning in your head, all the time. You gotta get them out of you, the best you can.

Kev

I found myself recording a lot more over the weekend. It’s pretty amazing really. The inspiration for songwriting is coming at me like crazy. I got tons of great ideas. Tons of melodies inside of my head and I’m just trying my best to get ’em down on recording so I don’t forget ’em. The way I used to record is that I used to record the whole song down in one take. Write the song first, and then record it down. I used to never agree with recording little by little and editing them together but I find that to be much easier now. I’m just recording a bunch of riff and rhythm ideas for now. Just trying to get ’em out of my head. Yes, I’m playing along with a “click track”, this time. I’ve really gotten the hang with the metronome. The metronome is pretty easy, it’s not that hard to play along with to stay in sync. Just takes a lot of practice and it pays off.

Once I get the ideas down for all the songs, I’ll start finishing them up. I’ve got about 5 song ideas down and pretty proud of how they’re coming out. I’ll have to warn you though, that these songs could be a little intense and emotional. The lyrics may be a little deep too. I’ll do my best to make these songs great. I’m hoping these songs could get a lot of plays and could go viral. If nobody still cares, that’s okay… I’ll enjoy ’em for myself.

There has been a change in my singing voice. I don’t sing as deep as I used to. I’ve been working on my singing really hard… have a bit more range now and you could already hear that in my Richie Havens cover in youtube.

Practice makes perfect. If you want to improve, practice is key and you’ll get better.

Kev

I was just doing a little googling and researching more about poetry about rhyming. I found this interesting little article that explains perfectly why you don’t always need to rhyme.

10 Reasons Poems Don’t Always Need to Rhyme…

I forgot about the poet, Ezra Pound. He was another poet who never believed in rhyming.

When I write these new songs I’m planning to do, the lyrics are going to be very poetic. In order to make my lyrics poetic, I’m not gonna make ’em rhyme at all. I’m planning on writing the lyrics just like a poem. Gonna try to, anyway.

I started writing my own poetry ’cause I might turn some of them into lyrics.

I’m hoping my songs will get the respect they deserve with this new direction. Writing folk songs and slow ballads in poetry form, that’s my idea. I’m also planning to record a few spoken word tracks and acapella stuff. The acapella stuff, I’m planning to do is just so that I can show I am pretty confident with my singing. I got something to prove with the next release.

Kev

I’m thinking sometime in the Fall, I’ll be ready to release these songs. I think I’m gonna pick a release day. Sometime in Sept. or Oct. Before then, I’ll release one video clip of each song, a preview and do some kind of count down thing to help create a buzz. I won’t sell these songs, I’ll just release them all on the same day for people to make them downloadable. I’ll think of a plan.

I’ve been coming up with a lot of great ideas in songwriting. I’m not making it up when I say I’m changing a different direction. Slower ballads maybe in the likes of Leonard Cohen, acoustic Neil Young and stuff like that. After the large response to the Whitney Houston tribute, that’s what inspired the change and figure something like that is my genre.

I don’t think I’ll write too many political songs… kind of changed my mind about that. I think people get bored of them. I think I’ll write about other stuff. More autobiographical songs and write about topics people can relate to. I’ll write about a mixture of things.

I think people are gonna like these tunes and can’t wait for people to hear them. Hopefully, these songs will get a lot more listeners and fans — I’m gonna try my best.

Kev

I just spent most of my afternoon tracking down rhythm and riff ideas for new original music. Recorded a bunch of riffs and putting them together in a full song. I’m just recording the music first. Then I’ll write the lyrics and record the vocals last. I used to write lyrics first before the music but I’m going to try it the other way around. Maybe that’ll help improve my songs even more if I write the lyrics last.

Seriously though, my next batch of songs will be in a different direction. More folk music. There will still be rock n’ roll songs but I wanna try some ballads. Feels good to start recording again. How many songs will I come up with in my next batch? As much as I can come up with. I’ll just write a bunch of tunes and release my best work to the public.

Feels good to start recording again finally. I got home recording software. Music Creator 5, I currently use. I used to use ProTools but the ProTools I got no longer works ’cause it’s so old. I’ll need to buy an updated version of ProTools sometime in the future. You can make a decent studio sounding demo right at home. It sounds nice right where I am. I don’t really need to go to no expensive studio.

I’m gonna try my best to make my next batch of songs the best ever. Gonna take my time with ’em. Gonna take vocals seriously. I believe I have what it takes to sing ’em real good. I have been working my ass off on my singing all year. I really want to “sing” with these songs. You might hear a lot more high notes, vibrato, and more range. That’s how hard I’ve been working on it. You will notice the difference in my voice when you hear these songs. I didn’t like my singing voice in my last batch of songs and felt like it needed a lot of improvement. Think I got it now! I’ll prove it soon!

Kev

Ya know, in my next batch of original songs, I think I’m going to take vocals a little more seriously, next time around. Not trying to sound like an egomaniac but I think people will be surprised of the new direction I’m planning to take my songs in. I think they will be a little different than all of the earlier stuff I did in the past. I really would like people to take me seriously as a singer/songwriter and doing all I can. I’m gonna really focus on the singing. Really try to sing good. With more heart, passion, and intensity.

My goal with my songs is that I’m not trying to write music that people can dance and sing along to — that’s never been my thing. I would like people to feel goosebumps with my songs. I would like people to enjoy them like any musician would. Just sit back and relax, enjoy. That’s the kind of songwriter I wanna be. I’m not about hit songs. I’m about the art.

I learned that you can’t beg people to like your music. It’s your job to get them to by writing the best music possible. I want to try the folk music direction to see if that works.

Now that I’ve read enough poetry and starting to write poems of my own that should be good enough to get me to start writing lyrics again. I’ll make the demo homemade just so I can give people an example to do things old-school, and you don’t have to go to no expensive studio in town.

I think I’m ready to start writing music again, finally.

Kev

Pretty much the reason why I haven’t released new songs yet when I kept saying I was going to is that I’m still trying to teach myself better guitar. Trying brush up on my music theory knowledge and trying to improve that. I’m hoping to become a more professionally skilled guitarist. Study theory and practicing a little more challenging guitar instruction.

I have also been reading a lot of poetry still. I want to read a lot of poetry so I can help improve my lyric writing a little bit. Plus, to write poetry of my own, of course.

I’m always trying to find ways to improve my songwriting skills and I think this is the best way. Teach myself. I’ll publicly admit that I’ve been on a writers block in songwriting so to help get out of the rut… I thought I would practice more guitar. Learn stuff I haven’t learned yet. Take my guitar skills to the next level. Same with lyric writing. I’m still practicing my vocal chops too.

I really want to improve my skills. Not only for your listening enjoyment and hoping to get positive feedback on my upcoming songs but it’s something I felt like doing. After listening to all the negative criticism of my earlier songs… that’s when I realized, I needed to work on my talent and try to improve myself.

I really appreciate that some out there actually enjoy my music… it’s pretty flattering and I’m honored. I’m never giving this up. I will always try to find ways to improve myself musically ’cause that’s what a musician does. There are even plenty of famous musicians who don’t even know what they’re doing at all! They just play!

When I’m ready to start to release new songs, you’ll be the first to know ’cause you can betcha this blog will be the first place where you’ll hear a new song from me. What kind of music will I be doing next time around? Whatever I come up with, I guess. Acoustic rock, folk, etc. Just play whatever comes out. That’s what songwriting does.

I’ll be a songwriting machine again. I’m just trying to improve my musical talent all around. I don’t get bothered by negative critics anymore ’cause they inspire me to get better. The time will come, and I’ll be making new music again. I want to get back into it.

Kev

Ya know, this song has always been important to me. “Evil Fred” my original folk song about a serial killer on the loose. This song has always been performed at all of my gigs; it’s also one of my most requested originals, and I will probably end up bringing that one back. I will do a little re-writing on that one though. Change the lyrics and the music around some. I wanna bring that song back to youtube with just me performing at home. I’ve always viewed this song as an important anthem of mine.

I want to try and make this song a little better. Improve it some. Make the singing a little better, the lyrics too, and change the guitar parts around some.

There is already a live video of me performing Evil Fred at a gig, and that video got like 504 views. I wanna keep this song and keep it going ’cause I think this song deserves to get heard.

The song is dark and controversial, yes, but I think that’s why people enjoy it. They enjoy the creepy sound of it. That was the goal with the song; I wanted it to be scary. Evil. I want to do a little re-write. The song has meaning to it. The song was never meant to be a radio-friendly hit. There was a story I wanted to tell behind it. The song is about an ax-murderer who is hiding out and you just never know when he’ll come out and find you.

The song also got the biggest applause by the crowd every time I performed it live. It’s a special song to me and it deserves to be big. To me, that song is the “Stairway To Heaven” in my musical life. Always has been.

If I ever made my first studio album with a real CD cover, this song will probably make it on there.

I almost wanted to do a concept album of the Evil Fred character, but I threw that idea in the trash, and thought it would be better if I just left the character mysterious in one song. I still do plan on giving it a re-write, though.

Should I keep writing dark & evil original music? I probably should but I just write whatever comes out of me. It all depends on what I’m feeling. I wrote “Evil Fred” ’cause maybe I was angry about something and it was a way to help get those feelings out of my system. I wrote that song years ago. Sometime around 2004-2005, maybe a little earlier. It was originally titled, “Here Comes Evil Fred”, but I cut the title in half. See? The song has been re-written too many times. Sometimes it takes a lot of re-writes to make it perfect.

Not trying to sound like an ego-maniac but this song deserves to be huge and you might even agree with it. I really shouldn’t throw it away and keep it going.

Kev

Yes, I really am thinking about changing my music into a different direction. Taking the “music” more seriously and start writing some actual songs. Start writing some real and honest stuff. I really want to try writing some slower and folky kind of songs. Kind of like what Springsteen and Neil Young do. I just bought 3 different books on poetry, so I would start reading through those for lyrical inspiration; hoping to make my lyrics a little more poetic. I just want to start writing songs that everyone could enjoy. I really do believe I have what it takes to write heartfelt original folk songs. I have been listening to acoustic music and folk music for many years, so I have an idea of what the genre would sound like by now. Like I said before, I’ll do rock n’ roll. I’m just trying to be more versatile, ya know??? I need to write an original folk song, get it uploaded to see what kind of response I get.

I’m just beginning to feel that maybe people really do like my music out there after all. People say positive stuff about my music and it means a lot, ya know? That’s part of the reason why I want to get my music going again ’cause of the positive responses. When those negative people accuse you of being nothing in music, don’t listen to that shit. Don’t listen to the doubters. The key to being successful in music and moving forward is supporting the fans who do support your music, ignoring all the haters completely. Yeah, you’re gonna get haters but all musicians & bands have their share of haters. I’m sure EBJ even has their share of haters as well. All bands have ’em. Bands don’t respond to any of them ’cause it’s a professional thing to do. If you become defensive over negative criticism, then you’re not gonna get any further in your music career. I need to take that advice in mind as well.

I’m gonna be making some changes in my official facebook fanpage and already made a change. Changing the facebook URL; making it easier for people to find me. Feel free to join it, here: https://www.facebook.com/kevbrockmusic

I’m kind of serious on changing into the folk genre. I just want a wider audience and people seem to be into that stuff more than the rock n’ roll. I’ll still play rock n’ roll ’cause that’s what I like the most and could never give up the rock. \m/

Kev