Tag: recording

Music

Emerging indie bands

A talented writer and indie music supporter at emerging indie bands music blog reviewed The Rungs EP! It brightened up our day to read such beautiful words about our music,  and we’re feeling very thankful for the indie music support that websites like this create.

Check it out the review because it is a good read! http://emergingindiebands.com/the-rungs-synth-dance/

When we started playing our first shows a little over a year ago, I wouldn’t have predicted us evolving into a ‘real band.’ I guess it all depends on what you define as a band, but now we have an EP out, a real music release! And I have stickers now. Band stickers! So based on the music release and sticker scale, I’d say we’re getting pretty close to real band material.

Boy were those first few shows rough. I made silly mistakes, forgot chords, mumbled mixed up lyrics, and the list of goofy errors goes on. Thankfully, Diwas exercised the most amazing patience with my newbie musician growing pains. Because you have to start somewhere right?

The Rungs early days

 

Okay lets be real here, I still do all of those things at our live shows, but at least less frequently!

The point is, if any closet musicians are out there reading this, then run out to your nearest open mic! Don’t be afraid of sharing your music because releasing it to the world and letting go of the hesitations is one of the most rewarding feelings! Take it from me and my new EP 🙂 And take it from folks who are supporting indie musicians, like our generous emergingindiebands.com reviewer.

 

Music

Making Time for Music

Hello Blog! I am sorry to have left you unattended for so long!

Since my last post, we’ve recorded two songs that we’ve been slowly but surely taking our time on.  I didn’t expect us to take this much time, but I’m afraid I’ve spread myself so thin over too many other projects. Most of these are extra assignments at work, home improvements, a few family gatherings, and then those little ongoing obligatory chores.

And now, here I am. Almost an entire month later, with a couple of incomplete songs and a neglected blog! Which brings me to the point of this post.

I often meet musicians and artists who struggle to make time for their craft. (guilty here!) Months can turn into years that go by as creative endeavors sit on the side, waiting for attention. As the ideas keep collecting in our heads, our desire to see them develop into  visible or audible form grows. It grows!

I’ve found that making time for music and art is easy if you define to yourself what it is that you really want to achieve. I must remember to ask myself, ‘Okay, what projects do you want to see through?!?!’

Then, before signing up for everything from here to the moon, and saying yes to every invitation and favor that is asked, I must remember to ask myself ‘Do you really have time for this? What does your creative idea, the one that is burning a hole in your brain and crying for attention, have to say about this?!?!’

Here is what my little idea guy has been like for the past month:

finally“Seriously? What about me? I’m not asking for much here. You’ve gotta at least give me something.”

“Ten minutes a day? You can’t spare at least ten minutes a day? C’mon.”

“If you had to feed and walk me, like a real pet, I’d be dead dude. Lets get going on this.”

Soooooo, It’s time to give that patient little guy ( or girl 🙂 ) some love!

Lyrics

Writing Lyrics: Expressing past memories and emotions

I remember getting out of  elementary school in the early afternoon and bolting out on my bike to ride around the neighborhood with my friends. Our 3 little blocks seemed like an endless world of grasshoppers and lizards and perfectly branched climbing trees. We defined our surroundings by a combination of limited knowledge and our Disney influenced imaginations. A haunted house at the end of a long driveway, a hole in the ground that we tirelessly dug to China, the Creek where pirates had once been who we sent bottled messages to, and the sky fort in my backyard that transformed from a ship on the sea into a castle on an island into an airplane in the sky.

Now I’ve gone back there a few times over the past five years. Walking the entire neighborhood in a short 20 min, I recalled strong emotions of adventure, fear and excitement that were once triggered by childhood fantasies. Have I lost this ability to create new dimensions? Have I acquired enough knowledge to scientifically understand everything in front of me and closed in on the gaps that used to be filled with make-believe? Or could I be suppressing a playfulness that is not a social norm in the workplace adult world? I remember this empowering phenomenon that grew in the company of my childhood friends. When we were in the same wavelength, sharing the same imaginative visions of being witches or steering a pirate ship. We fed off of each other’s energy and fueled each other’s energy.

I tried writing a song about these feelings and memories. Here is a video from one of our first attempts playing the song live. Right now its called, ‘Best Friend,’ but I’m working on the recording so everything is subject to change! (things can get crazy when it comes to recording 🙂 ) I dedicate the song to all of my good friends who I grew up with. Man we have sure learned a lot of lessons together! I’m so happy to have music as a channel through which to express these childhood memories.

 

About us

So what the heck is my blog about?!

In the most simple explanation, the purpose of my blog is to share the fun musical endeavors of The Rungs, an electronic indie pop band formed by my husband (Diwas) and me (Mandy). Let me give you a bite-size version of the back story:

My husband and I spent our first year together in a long-distance relationship while I completed college. He was a dedicated guitar player in a local rock band in upstate New York and I was studying plant science at the University of Delaware.  I was never quite fond of my college town (no offense Delaware!) and as soon as I graduated I loaded up my car and headed to New York to live with my ever so compatible dude 🙂

Now being a Florida native, in the very beginning of my first upstate New York winter I discovered I needed a serious indoor hobby. Something that could keep me busy while sitting next to the heater in thick warm socks from December to March…those long winter months!

With Diwas in and out of the house on band tours and practices, I took advantage of the rotating population of guitars in our living room. ‘Okay guitars, its you and me, lets do this!’ Diwas taught me basic scales and chord progressions, bought me a metronome and downloaded Reaper, a nice user-friendly recording software to my computer. At this point my little musically unexperienced brain was just like, ‘Wwwowww!!!&!#@$@!!!!!’ I thought that playing music at home was just the best thing ever and I pushed through my 9-to-5 plant-bio-lab-tech job with the thought in the back of my head, “I can’t wait to get home and plant myself in the living room with a guitar!!!” I spent evenings recording layers of guitar on top of each other (You can only imagine how awkward the first recordings sounded), somehow became obsessed with the White Stripes,  and for reasons I will explain in a future blog post I started singing.

About a year after this newfound hobby (or should I say lifestyle?), Diwas organized a Birthday Bash for me at a local venue. We played a few songs together and it was a blast of a bash! We got such a great response from friends that we continued to play together around town. Eventually we needed a name, and being the clever devil he is, Diwas dubbed us The Rungs.

Oh what a fateful night that Birthday Bash was! …as you can see in the dark fuzzy cell phone image provided by my sister… How long we’ve come since then!

at delilah's

Fast forward to today: I’m boiling over with excitement about music and I needed a place to log and share this overflow of musical energy! I must admit I was a little hesitant at the thought of starting a blog, not really knowing what to write about or how to organize my pages. For the past few weeks I’ve been dipping my toes in and slowly swishing around the WordPress waters.  Already I’ve had a chance to visit some really cool blogs by very creative people! I’m discovering new music that others are sharing,  found some other great bloggers to follow, annnd I have more ideas about what pages to add. So blah blah blah enough about me and Thank You WordPress! I’m ready to get blogging 🙂