Finley Fridays #3 - Sick and Doomy Edition

It's Jeff here with the third edition of the Finley Friday's newsletter. There's just not a whole lot to report because I've been recovering from a cold that sidelined me for the entire week.

I had to drop all my usual habits and I put all my goals on hold. My productivity was terrible. I didn't get much sleep due to all the discomfort and coughing. Had to focus on my physical body and taking care of myself the best I could. I'm on the upswing though. Looking forward to getting back at it.

I did start to put together a list of AI tools for music production based on a subscriber request (thanks Iana!). I'll post that once I've distilled my notes and tried some more things out.

What I've Been Into

So being sick in bed all week, I spent a lot of time listening to music. I've been really into doom metal lately and was listening to bands like Conan, Faetooth, Directional, and REZN to help me cope. Somehow I've slept (lol) on this genre most of life. I've always been more of an orgcore guy. But for some reason, in my 40s with I'm finally starting to appreciate it. Now I see what all the fuzz is about, heh.

So I've been tinkering around in FL Studio and playing drums and guitar here and there. I bought a plugin called Rewind that is basically an "always on" recording device that will remember anything I play (both audio and MIDI) and I can go back and save it or export it to my DAW. It's got me picking up the guitar again even though I feel I suck at it. It's just cool to make sounds and play with tones. Maybe a new song will emerge from it.

Here's a rough sketch of a song I was working on today.

Accepting new Freelance Work

In other news, I made a profile on this freelancing website called Contra. It looks pretty cool, but I'm not sure I'll get any business from it. I'd love to get back into designing merch again for bands.

Last year I designed a brand identity package for a retro synth-pop duo named After the Disco and another for indie/alt rock band Deskjobs. I really liked how they turned out.

My natural art style does seem to fit well into doom metal aesthetics so maybe there's a good fit there. We'll see!

That's about all. I'm going to keep resting and hydrating. Got some Christmas gatherings to attend soon! Being sick really makes me appreciate being healthy.

Talk soon and have a good weekend!

✌️

Jeff