Hardcore Punk!!!!!!!!

Being trained as a metal guitarist before I discovered punk, I naturally have always loved hardcore punk among a lot of the other subgenres. After all, Dead Kennedys is one of the bands that really got me interested in punk (though my main gateway band was Green Day). But I never really tried to write hardcore punk songs, save for "Title Unrelated" that I wrote in FAWM 2012, and even then that was pretty much unintentional. At the time I was trying to write more of a Sex Pistols song but I came out with something a lot more fast, raw, and short. This month, it's FAWM 2014, my fifth FAWM, and the bands I had been absorbing myself with throughout December and January were Dead Kennedys (mainly In God We Trust, Inc.), Suicidal Tendencies, Rancid (mainly Rancid [2000]), early Descendents, Adolescents, Operation Ivy, Black Flag, and Misfits. So first thing when FAWM started, I wrote a hardcore punk song. Later I wrote another, and another, etc. I have to say, I don't know how I haven't done this before! It's fun to just let go and go batshit crazy playing quick fast songs. I thought some of my stuff was fast before! I don't know if this will bring the band in this new direction, but more than likely I'll maintain my usual style but have some hardcore punk songs thrown in. Along with these songs, I've also written some slow folk/acoustic songs, an experimental alternative song, and an a cappella song. It's like I've got a split personality!
I do hope that this FAWM will be the start of Last Year's Disaster having less of an overall pop-punk sound and more of a straight-up punk sound. This gets confusing, though, because this band is just overall experimental and also throws in lighter in between, so I don't want the transformation to being more "punk" to totally alienate the other stuff I write and make it sound out-of-place. Damn my diverse taste!!! Oh, well, either way, this band will still continue to purposely fuck up the listeners with odd mixes of songs put together! I don't see that changing anytime soon!

FAWM 2013

Well, would you look at that? Almost February this year, and I was getting extremely worried that the FAWM (February Album Writing Month) site wouldn't open up in time... Yikes! That was a close one, because just the day before February is when the site finally swung open its doors and welcomed the eager songwriters that look forward to the event anxiously for a whole year like yours truly. I'm excited for this FAWM, as I always am, and I really think I'm going to write some of my best stuff! My first FAWM was in 2010, where I met the 14 song deadline exactly. My second FAWM in 2011, I achieved 28 songs. Half of the songs didn't get demos recorded, though, just the lyrics written, and a lot of those lyrics have been thrown out since. Last FAWM in 2012, I wrote 18 wonderful songs, I don't believe there was one song written that I don't still play today. Last year was also the first time I did a collaboration for FAWM, my friend and I wrote a song for our band and posted it. So there was only one FAWM that I didn't do more songs than needed, so I hope I keep that up this year! (Knocks on wood) Alright, my game plan: Write some raw punk songs! I want to write some political stuff, some social messages in the lyrics, and just overall attitude that would make Johnny Rotten proud! I'll probably experiment with some lighter stuff, too. I also want to abandon my habit of recording the vocals before I have the melody fully written. I have a tendency to feel out the vocal melody during the recording of my FAWM demos because I'm trying to get the song done quick. This results in out of tune, out of time, and low-quality in overall sound vocals. I've got to learn to know my vocals and know the beat of the melody so that my vocals are stronger. I know they're just demos, but it's hard to demonstrate a good song when the vocals sound like someone just woke up and sang the lyrics without knowing the song well. I also need to preserve my voice during the day better. This is the only part about FAWM I hate: it's in the middle of winter. My throat gets all dry and makes my vocals sound raspy. Luckily, I finally got a humidifier in my room, so that should help out a bit. It's hard to preserve your voice in the winter, so I'm just hoping the humidifier is the answer (in case you're wondering, FAWM isn't the reason I got the humidifier, that was just a bonus. I got the humidifier because my nose gets dry in the winter as well, and many bloody noses occur because of this dryness, so I got sick of it and bought the humidifier to prevent that. So far, it works, knock on wood again.) So that's my blog post about FAWM, if you're a songwriter as well, I hope to see you there, too! The site is fawm.org. Don't go to fawm.com, trust me, I've made that mistake.
-Devin

FAWM 2012 over, now time for an EP

I participated last month in February Album Writing Month (fawm.org) and wrote a total of 18 new songs, a good many of them going to this band. Two of them will be put to a 5-song demo. This demo I speak of will be titled Disembodied Demos, for it is an EP of five songs that will later be rerecorded for the album Disembodied Voices Helped Me Write These Songs. The track list will be as follows:
1. Generator Of A Unique Pit
2. Vertigo Of A Dead Tale
3. As If The Stars Worked
4. This Song Is Not A Hallucination
5. My Supreme Unforgiven Note

That is, if I don't end up changing it later, but I feel pretty good about this track listing. When the recording of this demo is finished, I will post it up on bandcamp and maybe soundcloud. I have already drawn and colored the cover to the demo, which looks awesome if I don't say so myself ;) Stay tuned for the demo and have a wonderful life! - Devin

February Album Writing Month (fawm.org)

FAWM is upon us once more, 14 songs in 28 days, though since it is a leap year, it's 14 1/2 songs in 29 days. I have 7 songs, or 6 1/2 because I consider the song Remarkably Lazy my 1/2 song. I'm very excited, I'm really liking my songs so far. Generator Of A Unique Pit is my favorite so far, it's got a good, raw punk sound much like the stuff I wrote the most. What next will I write? We shall see!

Drawing

Yeah, so lately I've (Devin) been doing some drawing again after not drawn in a bit. The only thing is, though, the only images I've been illustrating are artworks for the LYD record. Front cover, back cover, back cover of lyric booklet, inside of the case, image on the cd itself, and a picture that looks like it should be a poster in the middle of the lyrics booklet or something. I just checked out one of my friend's blogs and they were posting up drawings and comics they've been drawing. After seeing the latest entry, it has come to my attention that I haven't drawn a comic in an EXTREMELY long time. The comic I just read included the artist's band as the main characters. I think I may have been inspired to take on an idea similar to that and draw a mini-comic. This brings me back to a concept I contemplated about a while ago. Quite a while ago, actually. The concept was to include comic strips all around the album's art; on the back cover, inside of the case, inside the booklet, etc. This may be a thought worth acting on when I get started on the inside of this record's lyric booklet. We shall see what awaits us...

As If The Stars Worked

LYRICS:
Some kind of question, a terrible disease
I wonder what you meant when you said "follow me"
Do I really think these words when you think about your time
This is the secret that we've locked inside the mind

CHORUS
But wait, I say, I hate to admit, but there's no confession
So far, they are, but if they're not, then I don't know anymore

Safer decisions stalk the table top of war
Study the hall and forget about the tour
As if I wanted to see you, but I couldn't wait to see you
You know what I meant, if I think I know, too

chorus

Rasalgethi and I surf the stars
And Jupiter jumps the moon
The earth has stopped all cars
And Saturn rises at noon
As if the stars worked, what if the stars stopped working?

chorus

Listen to the demo here: http://soundcloud.com/haunted-office-records/as-if-the-stars-worked

Song meaning: These lyrics were written solely for the interpretation of the listeners and to compliment the melody.

Rough drafts and ideas for LYD's first album's cover have now been made!