The Thirteenth Hour Podcast

Originally aired on August 10, 2020.

This week, I'm working on the title track from the next Thirteenth Hour soundtrack LP, Once Upon a Dream.  I have the keyboard riffs and the lyrics mostly done and am now trying to figure out how they go together.  I've recorded a bare bones version here with just the vocals and the piano chords, which is how many of these songs start.  In the coming week's, I'll be refining the skeleton of the song as I figure out how the different riffs work into the song, where the backing beat will come in, how the solo will sound, etc.

In the Like a Hood Ornament segment, I'm talking a bit about how my kids and I have been working on a costume paper mache rocketpack for my daughter for Halloween (she'd like to be Kit Secord from the cartoon, who you can see at the bottom of these images below).

Viewable at: https://13thhr.wordpress.com/2020/08/10/the-thirteenth-hour-podcast-261-musical-interlude-the-making-of-once-upon-a-dream-and-like-a-hood-ornament-16-the-last-rocketeer-and-kit-secord-rocketpack-updates/

We still have to figure out how to attach straps, and I'm wondering if it might be fun to figure out how to light up the engines and/or attach the little banks of purple LEDs on the bottom that this version of the pack has.  Maybe we'll make an electrical switch wired to the gloves, like in the movie.

Also, the next segment of the fanfic short story, "The Last Rocketeer," describing a team-up between Centauri from The Last Starfighter and a 71 year-old Cliff Secord who has long since given up being the Rocketeer (but secretly wants one last flight) is up.

You can read the first chapter on Wattpad here: https://www.wattpad.com/919346978-the-last-rocketeer-1-in-which-cliff-finds-a

Here's part 2: https://www.wattpad.com/926948946-the-last-rocketeer-2-nighttime-visitors

And here's the section I was reading from in episode 260: https://www.wattpad.com/930869004-the-last-rocketeer-3-into-the-depths-of-hell

The first part of Chapter 4 is here: https://www.wattpad.com/934519790-the-last-rocketeer-4-in-which-the-proverbial

More coming next week!

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•  Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast, a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour, and access to retro 80s soundtrack!
• Like what you see or hear? Consider supporting the show over at my virtual tip jar over at Ko-fi.
• Have this podcast conveniently delivered to you each week on Spotify,  iTunes, Stitcher, Player FM, Tunein, and Googleplay Music.
• Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
• Listen to Long Ago Not So Far Away, the Thirteenth Hour soundtrack online at: https://joshuablum.bandcamp.com/ or Spotify.  Join the mailing list for a digital free copy.  You can also get it on CD or tape.
• Website: https://13thhr.wordpress.com
• Book trailer: http://bit.ly/1VhJhXY
• Interested in reading and reviewing The Thirteenth Hour for a free book?  Just email me at [email protected] for more details!

Originally aired on July 13, 2020.

On this week's show, I'm continuing the recording process to a song I started a number of months ago, "The Last Dance," last discussed on episodes 223, 224, 225, and 256. We're discussing the recording of the vocals as well as additional synth tracks, like a simple instrumental solo. Speaking of which, I added a voiceover to a track that I recently finished, "The Land of Dreams" (see below for the video or here for the audio track) to make the animations match up with the part of the The Thirteenth Hour the track accompanies.

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There are now Thirteenth Hour toys!  If you'd like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.

If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQTPuv-cJQg&t=22s

Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.  

Stay tuned.  Follow along on Spotify!  There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.

Check it out!
[spotify id="spotify:user:jsblum:playlist:0UEHg7euO45dtmZTbH1akD" width="300" height="380" /]

As always, thanks for listening!

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

•  Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast, a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour, and access to retro 80s soundtrack!
• Like what you see or hear? Consider supporting the show over at my virtual tip jar over at Ko-fi.
• Have this podcast conveniently delivered to you each week on Spotify,  iTunes, Stitcher, Player FM, Tunein, and Googleplay Music.
• Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
• Listen to Long Ago Not So Far Away, the Thirteenth Hour soundtrack online at: https://joshuablum.bandcamp.com/ or Spotify.  Join the mailing list for a digital free copy.  You can also get it on CD or tape.
• Website: https://13thhr.wordpress.com
• Book trailer: http://bit.ly/1VhJhXY
• Interested in reading and reviewing The Thirteenth Hour for a free book?  Just email me at [email protected] for more details!

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CCh6wtpFHFG/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet https://13thhr.wordpress.com/2020/07/13/the-thirteenth-hour-podcast-257-musical-interlude-recording-vocals-and-layered-synths-for-the-last-dance/

Originally aired on July 6, 2020.

On this week's show, I'm starting the formal recording process to a song I started a number of months ago, "The Last Dance," last discussed on episodes 223, 224, and 225. I got stuck for awhile since the original way I'd conceptualized the song was much slower.  It took awhile for it to evolve in my mind and to work out how to play certain parts and sing some sections within my vocal range more comfortably. The song starts out without no accompanying beat, and although I knew I wanted to fold one in later in the song, the original tempo felt too slow, and I wasn't sure how to make it work.  I eventually stumbled on the right speed (120 beats/min), which in may ways felt right, as it fit the 80s new wave songs that I've always liked.  (E.g. "If You Leave" by OMD from the Pretty in Pink soundtrack is also 120 bpm.)   The original, stripped down, slower version I had originally envisioned may still work but probably not with my vocals or this arrangement.  This speed probably also fits better with the other songs on the upcoming album this one will be on. In the next few weeks, watch for the final iteration of this song once I record the vocals and a few other layers for the chorus and outro.  Once that's done, I think it'd be fun to add a pixelart visual for it since there are no pictures of this part of The Thirteenth Hour, and it'd be a fun illustration, with lots of fantastical creatures (faeries, elves, griffins, unicorns, a backflipping chimp, and many other dancing animals) besides our protagonists, Logan and Aurora, awkwardly trying to navigate the beginnings of young love, with all its stops and starts, trials and tribulations, and bittersweet awkward moments familiar to anyone who's been there and/or watched a teen movie. 

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

There are now Thirteenth Hour toys!  If you'd like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.

If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQTPuv-cJQg&t=22s

Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.  

Stay tuned.  Follow along on Spotify!  There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.

Check it out!
[spotify id="spotify:user:jsblum:playlist:0UEHg7euO45dtmZTbH1akD" width="300" height="380" /]

As always, thanks for listening!

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

•  Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast, a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour, and access to retro 80s soundtrack!
• Like what you see or hear? Consider supporting the show over at my virtual tip jar over at Ko-fi.
• Have this podcast conveniently delivered to you each week on Spotify,  iTunes, Stitcher, Player FM, Tunein, and Googleplay Music.
• Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
• Listen to Long Ago Not So Far Away, the Thirteenth Hour soundtrack online at: https://joshuablum.bandcamp.com/ or Spotify.  Join the mailing list for a digital free copy.  You can also get it on CD or tape.
• Website: https://13thhr.wordpress.com
• Book trailer: http://bit.ly/1VhJhXY
• Interested in reading and reviewing The Thirteenth Hour for a free book?  Just email me at [email protected] for more details!

https://13thhr.wordpress.com/2020/07/06/the-thirteenth-hour-podcast-256/