So I said I’d talk about that RPM Challenge I mentioned in another post. (If you’re reading this first and wonder what that “other” post is, you can find it here.)
RPMChallenge is an album-writing challenge that started in 2006 in New Hampshire, and its offered in February of every year. The rules are simple: 10 songs or 35 minutes of music, all written, recorded, and produced during the month of February (the shortest month of the year). Since it isn’t a contest, there isn’t any monitoring or enforcing the “rules,” except for the deadline, which is March 1st.
I heard about it from a friend and colleague at work, and I decided to participate in my first one in 2015. And then in 2016, and 2017. I took a couple of years off, and then decided to participate again this year.
Glad I did; I was able to get all the tracks (and then some extra ones) written, recorded, and produced (finally) for the third installment in my M-Theory sci-fi television and film series, M-Theory: Red Dwarf.
I highly recommend the challenge. For me, it provides the motivation to make at least an album every year. Plus, I always learn something about myself from each one. This year, I was having a terrible time trying to complete one of the tracks, you know, the old “writer’s block” thing. I just kept banging my head on how to put together this one particular track; I had the hook, but I couldn’t figure out how to put it together into a logical flow with a good energy curve. But I just kept trying different things, and after a couple of hours, it slowly started to take shape. Yeah it took awhile, but it was worth it.