Hayden Arp

So I’ve recently resolved to take a substantial walk each night this week. The idea (though walks are in no way foreign to my way of life as is) comes from a short article I read on Slate the other day. The article essentially looks into the fact that many famous composers (Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, and, my favorite, Erik Satie, among others) all took long walks fairly regularly (occasionally obsessively). I’ve long touted the benefits of walking for my own thinking, be it about music or otherwise, and, as I’ve hit a rather slow patch in my writing recently, I’m deciding to try walking as a remedy. These walks each have to be at least 30 minutes long, taken alone without music, texting, or other distractions, and, preferably, will take place late at night. I’m only two days in, but here are my results as of yet.

Sunday: Took a walk during the late afternoon, enthralled by an all-too-conscious comparison between myself and the other solitary-strollers of yore. Because of this, I begin to overthink the whole thing. “Wait a second, did Erik Satie actively think about his compositions while he took walks? Or was it more of a repose from the workings before the walk? I wonder how fast he walked.” Of course replicating the rhythmic patterns of his walking wouldn’t help me get any closer to capturing his sense of melody, but I digress. Walk overall went well, but was too self-aware and early in the day for any real breakthrough. Did come up with a line or two for the “All I Know” song (working title based on the phrase that seems to match the chorus best), so that’s good.

Monday: Took a walk much later in the evening (starting around 10) and had more success. It wasn’t super long, but I got a number of things sorted out about the narrative I want for the “All I Know” song. Also, it was crazy beautiful. Had just rained, and I’ve always been a sucker for street lamps with mist around them. The mist did make a man walking his dog seem pretty terrifying, though. Upon returning to the house I wrote about a page and a half of lyrics, so that’s pretty wonderful. They’ll need to be tuned up, of course, but at least so far, this walking thing is proving a pretty good idea.

More to come as the week progresses.

Also, I’m tired, and my writing may or may not be coming off as mega-pretentious and/or cryptic. I apologize. I may or may not delete this in the morning.

Also. Here’s a song I’ve been listening to recently. It’s crazy beautiful.

Night,

Hayden

Hello friends,

Hope all is well. I haven’t updated this blog in ages, and instead of a longwinded apology or explanation I will simply say that I am planning on posting something at least once a week from now on. If a week goes by and I don’t post any thing, shoot me a strongly worded email here: haydenarpmusic@gmail.com

Cool. So I’ve been writing a lot of music recently. Well, maybe “a lot” isn’t totally correct. I have been spending a lot of time writing music recently, and while this means fewer songs have been completed, I think they’re stronger for it. They go through iterations, and, theoretically, each new take is clearer and more affecting then the last. In my current english class, my teacher has hung a number of quotes on the wall. Elie Wiesel has one I quite like:

“There is a difference between a book of two hundred pages from the very beginning, and a book of two hundred pages which is the result of an original eight hundred pages. The six hundred are there. Only you don’t see them.”

Let’s hope the same thing applies for lyrics.

In other news, James Blake released his second album recently, and it’s pretty mind-blowing. His manages to take this electronic palette which is so easily associated with Dubstep and Techno music, and instead make something that is intimate, emotional, and definitively small. It’s both not an easy thing to do, or something that really has been done before, and that Blake has released two albums in such a unique plane of sound (I read an article that described it as post-dubstep) is truly remarkable. Below is the video for the title track, “Overgrown.” I’ve watched it a number of times over the past couple days, and I still can’t get over how unbelievably beautiful the final image is. Check it out, and let me know what you think in the comments section.

James Blake [overgrown] from nabil elderkin on Vimeo.

Hello all,

It’s been far too since I updated this blog, so here’s what’s been going on. I’ve recently realized that my father’s closet is actually a near-perfect dead room (meaning there is virtually no reverb) and have been trying to record like crazy in there the past couple days. The sound quality on my live-audio recordings has shot through the roof, which is making me super hyped for future recordings. I’ve been continuing to record some acoustic mellow stuff, as well as making progress on some club music. Unfortunately I’m currently out of the country and will be for quite a while, so further recording is going to have to take a hold, and songwriting will be the main focus for the next couple weeks.

I also have recently been interviewed on the lovely indie-music blog “Quiet Rebel.” The interview was super fun, and goes into a number of pretty cool areas of my songwriting process and how the CD’s been selling. Be sure to check it out here, and also do give the rest of the blog a look. There’s some pretty cool stuff hiding there.

Also, if you want to hear music, here’s a super-old demo I uploaded to soundcloud the other day.  Not the best singing, but I really like the guitar melody. It’s called “Home,”

Hope all is well in your lives,

Hayden

Hello all,

For the past two-and-a-half weeks, I’ve been in europe learning french, writing music, and drinking coffee. It was pretty freaking magical, and, if all has progressed as I had hoped, some very confused frenchmen are going to be finding tiny download cards all over Normandie (including in a castle’s innermost walls) for an album strangely titled “Of Pretty Girls and Nightmares.” I’m very excited to get recording some new stuff, as well as starting a lot more live shows. I’ve also been adding to the “Behind The Record” section, which now has four songs in it. Check it out.

Much love,

-Hayden

Hello friends,

So there’s an article about me in the Alexandria Gazette Packet, and it’s super cool! It includes quotes from an interview, and a photo, and a link to my website! It was written by Iva Quint, who did an excellent job at making me sound much cooler than I am, and includes some very kind words from my friend Maria Jones. You can check it out here: http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2012/jun/08/tc-student-releases-cd/

-Hayden