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yam655

@yam655
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Songs

89

Joined

2011

Pronouns: he/they. The gender binary is like Newtonian color theory: two scientifically unsound ideas that just won't go away.

At this point, I am more agender than male, but presenting as male is convenient and I just don't care enough to make a fuss about it.

In 2018, I did FAWM Squared, Fourteen 14-track improvised albums. When I completed my 14th, I celebrated with a 15th. Then to help the community hit a song-count milestone, I did two more albums on the last day.

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Interested in doing a collaboration? Have I earwormed you enough you want to cover one of them? Free free.

Pretty much all of my stuff is released Creative Commons Attribution, which is similar to Public Domain in nearly every aspect except that you need to credit me.

You can make derivatives. You can use traditional copyright on your stuff. You make all the money, etc. You _just_ need to credit me.

I'm also giving explicit permission to feel free to post without waiting for me to approve it. You already have permission.

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After FAWM, how do you want to attribute me?

My bandname is "yam655".
My website is https://yam655.com
My legal (and anonymous) name is: Steven Black

I don't care how you attribute me, as long as you attribute me. When in doubt, "Steven Black (https://yam655.com/)" is always good.

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This year, I've bought a house and am actively moving during February. My style of improvisational acapella allows me to sing while packing, unpacking, and driving, though, so... I'm going to try to beat my previous record while exclusively multitasking with my move!

My previous record is 298 songs or ~14.9 hours, so I want 300 songs or 15 hours.

Transcribing all these songs is problematic at best. Particularly when I don't want to spend any time on it... I do have the legacy Otter.AI subscription, though, so I have more than enough hours available there -- however even though it is acapella, it does sometimes have issues with singing. I apologize.

Songs

Soundboard

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@brisk
Very interesting what you say about writing. I'm not sure I could outrun my inner critic like you can, but I would like to try! I'm not a superficial thinker, but I find it hard to develop a sustained idea over 50000 words or whatever - I feel much more suited to the ~100 words of a song.

I like coming up with ideas for stories - I have several that I think could be really interesting if explored properly. In fact, I had one in the shops yesterday that got me quite excited. However, I haven't figured out a "process" for storywriting like I have for songwriting. I suspect you have to keep doing it and failing, like with songwriting.

I went through a phase about ten years ago of writing 300-500 words a day of a novel that caught my imagination, but the annoying thing was that nothing was a fixed point - I just kept imagining stuff, changing stuff, writing new stuff. It was constant kaleidoscopic churn, and in the end I ran out of steam. I want to find a way of getting past that.

Fascinating about the second draft change due to word processors. I can see how that attachment to the first draft could actually be a bit of a millstone.
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@brisk
Thanks for listening to Moonless Night, glad you liked it. I think that's my personal high water mark from this FAWM, so maybe no need to listen to any others! Thanks for sharing your thoughts on fungal doom too! I think taking an approach that treats an disease like it has it's own agenda first and foremost (well, it's not sentient so agenda is a terrible word, what I mean is that has it's own internal logic rather), rather than treating it as though it is motivated by what you think is cool for a story, is going to often yield dividends. I've never tried NaNoWriMo (or whatever it is called) but there are a couple of books I'd love to try to bash out. It's funny - I say to myself that it is impossible to do such an ambitious thing as to write a novel that long in a month... and then I write a fat album's worth of songs in Feb... all I need to do is apply a similar level of editorial quality suspension to November and I'd be away...
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@fuzzy
Good, I'm glad you liked it!
It was fun to assemble!
Your analysis of the track is spot on and made me laugh!
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Your process reminds of the process they used to create the scary voices in the Black Lodge on the show Twin Peaks.
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Ha!!! "Pantsing with my mouth" needs to be a song title 😀
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For some reason, I’m having a hard time getting your songs to play. I looked at several, but the only one I can remember is “West pathetic farm”?
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Oh, I'm sorry, I must have misread your liner notes for the song! Yes, transcribing using A.I. definitely makes sense.
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@cowex
The more you know! Gotta look at more animated cat butts.
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@fuzzy
Congrats on the super-win!
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@fuzzy
I know you said in your Bio to use anything as long as you get credit, but I still always like to ask first.
I have a friend who tells me that I don't need to knock and to just walk into his house, but I feel funny doing that, so I still knock every time. 😀
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@clioem
How are you curbing all these out? Wonderment! 😅❤️
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@cts
Just asking - are you a fold the boxes flat guy or stack 'em neatly (or something close to it)?
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So glad you're here! Your output goals in the midst of moving are inspiring, and making me think that perhaps this will be possible around my own personal chaos. :) Happy FAWMing!
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@clioem
Happy FAWMing!
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I hope you have a great FAWM too! Perhaps we'll do another collab!
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Wow, you are a goal setter, but what's more you usually accomplish what you set out to do! Enjoy your FAWM!
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@chroes
Heyyy, hello fellow weirder earthling! Wishing you a great FAWM!
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@max
FAWMseason greetings. Have a funFAWM Steven.
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I am pretty sure you are the one who clued me in to Hookpad. If so, I wanted to thank you. It's been really, really helpful. I still have a lot more to learn from it but it pushed me to start writing my own chords, and understanding how the heck chords work better.

So, all this to say, may your FAWM be excellent. Yay!
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Happy FAWM, Steven!
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300 songs = a truly amazing goal. Go for it!
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Hey there Steven, great to see you again, your attitude to FAWM always gets me unstuck and I love you for it.
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yay! here we are again. Good luck with the move/multitasking!
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@gm7
Your back...have a great FAWM.
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@beacon
Great to see you here as always. I wouldn't be here without you!
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@fuzzy
I really am looking forward to hearing more of your tracks this February, and maybe I will be able to come up with another collab!
Congrats on the new house!
[FAWM]