How To Record An Album

Right now I am putting the finishing touches on a full length album called “Cowboy In The Sunshine”. I checked the timestamp on the first recording file I created. It said I started working on it about forty five days ago.

That sounded like a long time to me. So I thought about how many days I’d actually worked on it since I began. That number looks more like about two weeks.

So – how do you spend a month and a half working on an album for two weeks? Well… I’m about to tell you. Here’s a look at the process of making an album.

How To Record An Album

1. Get stoned and play guitar for a few months with no plans to make an album
2. Start recording ideas onto your iPhone
3. Write out the lyrics and finish the ideas
4. Forget most of the lyrics and ideas
5. Stare at the wall contemplating the pointlessness of human existence
6. Decide there is no point in ever releasing another album
7. Watch Netflix and YouTube for a week or two
8. Sit down in the studio and record a song in two hours
9. Finish the song in one hour the next day
10. Get stoned, listen to the song on repeat and cry for two days
11. Lose interest in the album
12. Repeat steps 8-11 until eight to twelve songs are done
13. Start writing songs in a completely different music genre
14. Vow to never release the songs you’ve recorded
15. Stare at the wall contemplating the pointlessness of human existence
16. Get stoned and listen to the album you’ve been working on
17. Decide it’s the best thing you’ve ever done
18. Mix the songs for a week
19. Decide the album sounds terrible and vow to never release it
20. Play around with the order of songs
21. Come up with a title and start working on album artwork
22. Consider selling all your music gear
23. Finish album artwork and mixes
24. Start the mastering phase
25. Share the album artwork online
26. Finish the mastering phase
27. Upload the songs to streaming services
28. Consider deleting the album and doing something in a different music genre
29. Release the album
30. Sell some copies, get some streams and make a video
31. Decide releasing music is pointless
32. Get stoned and play guitar for a few months with no plans to make an album
33. Start recording ideas onto your iPhone

As you can see, the last two steps are the process starting over again.

It sounds funny and at this point I hope you are laughing. But this isn’t a joke. This is the real process I go through when I release anything.

Whether it’s an album, a blog post, a YouTube video or a damned coffee cup it’s a roller coaster of excitement and doubt from beginning to end. But at the end of the day – the thing gets released.

This album will come out. And very soon.

So if you’re ever working on something and you feel like it’s pointless and you want to quit before anyone ever sees it… please know that myself and a million other artists are right there with you. It’s called the creative process and it’s not easy.

In fact – I think I’ll just delete this blog post right now.

PS – I didn’t delete the blog post. But I did make it into a video.