The Process (now with more bees!)
When I started this blog, I truly intended to write in it a bit more frequently, but life keeps getting in the way of my social networking. How am I supposed to keep up with Myspace, Facebook, Vampire Freaks, and Live Journal when I have to leave the house? Not to mention all of the online geography games I like to play. And what about my drinking? Fortunately, there’s always time for whiskey. I am of Welsh and Irish descent, after all.
So between packing and moving and writing and recording we have been busy bees. Speaking of bees, I was stung by one yesterday. He got me right on my middle finger, which is now considerably larger than my other fingers and incredibly itchy. I don’t think I’ve had a bee sting since I was about eight, and at one point I was trying to decide if they really hurt as much as I remember, or if the pain was magnified by little kid glasses. Well, I can tell you now -it hurts like a mother. Steven said, “Well, if it’s any consolation, that bee is dead now.” But to me, all that means is that the bee is feeling no more pain (or whatever sort of suffering it is to be a bee), while I still am. But I can’t really be upset. He was just being a bee, doing his bee-y things. Viva la bee. And now I’m going to stop saying bee.
The new album is nearly done. It’s dark. Darker than I expected, darker than our previous material. But I trust our instincts and I trust our audience to be open to what we’ve done. It’s been a difficult labor in many ways, but well worth the pain. I recently had to come to terms with the fact that I do not like writing songs. I love performing them, and I love that they are ours. I love touring. I don’t even mind recording, though it’s not my favorite step in the process. But song writing turns me into a fire-spewing demon, and I pity my husband or anyone else that may ever have to work with me. It’s odd, since I enjoy writing just about anything else. But songs do not come easily to me, and that -in the past- has made me question if I’m doing the right thing.
Which of course, is a ridiculous way of looking at things. Steven pointed out that it would be silly to believe that you need to love every second of every step on your path in order to know you’re on the right one. I’m not sure why I didn’t see it that way before. I mean, I love touring. Just love it. I never questioned if it was a good use of my time and my life, because I knew in an instant that it was. That said, I do not love the napping-nights, as I call them. Those nights where you have just enough time at the hotel for a shower and a brief nap before the day starts all over again. I am a sad, pathetic creature at 5 AM, especially when we only got into the room two hours before. I do not love being exhausted and malnourished for weeks at a stretch. I do not love when our van starts making a noise I am unfamiliar with (and when you’ve driven one vehicle across the country eight times -I logged 50,000 miles last year alone- you know every single noise). I especially do not love it when that happens in the mountains or desert. I do not love driving through the Rockies or the Sierra Nevadas during blizzards, or through the Mojave in a dust storm, or through midwest ice storms and tornadoes, or southern tropical storms where the rain is coming in horizontally. I am a relatively skilled driver, but these were some terrifying moments.
Yet I wouldn’t trade them. And I wouldn’t trade the song writing either. I’m proud of the work we do, no matter how difficult it is to produce at times. But it’s all part of the process. Years ago I had a process cross tattooed on my shoulder to remind me of this very thing, well before I ever imagined myself traveling around the world performing songs that we wrote. Sometimes I forget it’s there, but most of the time it serves its purpose. I’m remembering to accept and enjoy the process more and more.
And speaking of bees touring:
Tour Dates- Autumn 2009
9.25-27 Steven Archer & Donna Lynch will be reading and vending books, art & music along with Raw Dog Screaming Press at HORRORFIND WEEKEND, Hunt Valley Marriott, Hunt Valley MD
9.30 Ego Likeness w/ NEW MODEL ARMY, The Rock n Roll Hotel, DC
BELLA MORTE w/EGO LIKENESS &
VERSAILLES
10.24 The 2nd Annual Vampire Ball, The Masonic Temple, Flint MI
(feat. Voltaire & The Hellblinki Sextet)
10.25 The Nite Light Cafe, Berwyn IL
10.26 The Darkroom, Chicago IL
10.28 Davey’s Uptown, Kansas City MO
10.29 Teatro Scarpino, Fayetteville AR
10.30 The Stafford, Bryan TX
10.31 Atomix, San Antonio TX
11.5 Uncle Paulie’s Pub, El Paso TX
11.6 Mardi Gras, Scottsdale AZ
11.7 Bar Sinister, Hollywood CA
11.10 Elysium, Austin TX
11.11 Rocbar, Houston TX
11.13 The Howlin Wolf, New Orleans LA
11.14 The Rutledge, Nashville TN
Which bee was it?
Do you want me to kick their ass?
Wait….were you stung by a bee?
I really like what you wrote about bees, I mean song writing. It is not easy. But afterwards, when I am done, I really like to listen to what I’ve written. Hehe, but sometimes, I have to give myself quite a bit of time to recover from the pain of writing. It’s a love hate relationship.
Hi Donna,
In 2008 you were on a panel at DragonCon and I asked if you would mind if I would record it. You said it was ok. I was wondering if you would allow me to post that recording on my podcast TaleChasing at http://www.talechasing.com
Thanks for taking a second to read this mail and get back to me.
Kimi
I can relate to that on a certain level – the songwriting thing, I mean. I enjoy writing lyrics, but sometimes I dread sitting down to Acid Pro to put together loops, tracks, and vocals because I have the godawful feeling that it’s going to suck. And sometimes it does – that mastering thing is really becoming more and more important as time goes by.
I love to sing. I love performing. I hate recording. There are too many choices and too many ways of doing things, and no one else can read my music because I keep my scores in my head rather than actually using my notation program to write the shit up.
Sometimes I wonder if and when I will be ready to tour, or whether it will happen at all. I wonder how up to the task I will be, especially since I become so out of sorts when I don’t sleep well or long enough. It affects everything I do, especially singing. I wonder how badly my joints will hurt when I’ve been lugging gear all day, or rocking out for 20 days straight on various stages. Will my ears be okay? Will I fall down and not get up for a week when I come home? I couldn’t say. But it’s something I want more than anything when I am ready for it, and the way you describe touring makes me want it more. “If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much space.” I like that phrase, and touring seems like a prime example of living on the edge of life. Things go by so quickly when you’re in motion, and yet they stick in your mind long after you’ve left them – faces, lights, landscapes and scenery and the emotions that only come at 4am when you’ve been up all night after some crazy thing.
I hope to see you guys somewhere ’round the East Coast over the next year.
Sure, Kimi. Thanks!
Hi Donna,
In 2008 you were on a panel at DragonCon and I asked if you would mind if I would record it. You said it was ok. I was wondering if you would allow me to post that recording on my podcast TaleChasing at http://www.talechasing.com
Thanks for taking a second to read this mail and get back to me.
Kimi
After reading this entry, I went out to dinner with my family, and found a cooked/dead honeybee in my food. That is an eerie (or just weird) coincidence. A friend says they have something to do with the cycle of life/death/rebirth though.
Anyway, can’t wait for the new album to come out! And I completely understand the demon wrath that can come with writing things.
Which bee was it?
Do you want me to kick their ass?
Wait….were you stung by a bee?
No, I was stung by a bee. You should see my finger. Have you seen it?
Did you get stung by a be?
Looking forward to the new album!
Viva la bee!
I really like what you wrote about bees, I mean song writing. It is not easy. But afterwards, when I am done, I really like to listen to what I’ve written. Hehe, but sometimes, I have to give myself quite a bit of time to recover from the pain of writing. It’s a love hate relationship.