Challenges of February Album Writing Month

February Album Writing Month is a challenge to write and record 14 songs in 28 days.  This is quite a feat in itself, however the collective of artists with whom I have joined live hundreds of miles apart!  The solution is a (so far) effective integration of web technology, project management, discussion, collaboration.  Somehow, we have found enough time to cram some creativity in there.

Discussion and Collaboration:
E-mail is the main form of communication however many of the members meet in a group chat session to discuss various topics ranging from media about material to management techniques.  These are assisted by the use of a private Google Group, which we use to group e-mail topics and discussions together, an also to store web pages to jot down notes, lyrics, and other information about songs, and other information.


Project Management:
The Google Group is a very important tool to keep ideas flowing together smoothly, however key bits of information can get easily lost in this massive amount of flowing thoughts; especially if a member misses a message, or cannot keep up to date with every discussion.  A more specific collaborative table of information was created using a Google Docs spreadsheet to track the process of individual songs that are in various stages of being created.  Take a look below:



Web Technology:
Many thanks are given to Google for providing such power and effective tools, however there's still more to this endeavor.  The nature of internet recording projects introduces a problem of sending content (numerous large .wav files).  We have been using a private FTP site to house the final cuts of each contributing part of a song to be mixed at the end of the month, however drop.io is used to post intermediate audio tracks (loops, samples, ideas, grooves, individual cuts, etc.) to quickly reference for writing and recording sessions:



In addition, several members are posting thoughts and musings about the process in our blog: TheseGnarlyBeasts.tumblr.com.  As the recording for each song is completed, we intend to post minute-long raw mixdown samples here.  The final album will be released free of charge via bandcamp (also see TheseGnarlyBeasts.bandcamp.com):



I have been streaming my recording sessions live on the web via justin.tv/justinberke.  Each time I start a session, I post a link to my friends via Twitter & Facebook, and justin.tv automatically posts a bulletin on MySpace.  This allows any of my friends, or other fellow Beasts to tune in and check out how each drum track or other portion of recording/mixing is progressing.

These Gnarly Beasts draw upon a plethora of technological advancements to assist in making this daunting challenge possible.  A combined management effort from all members ensures that these various tools work effectively to facilitate a continuous flow of creativity and collaboration all month long.  Look for an additional link to the full album in the first week of March.