In case you missed it yesterday: my game design group released the collab album we did for #FAWM back in February: PARANORMALL! It's a soundtrack for an imaginary horror game set in an abandoned shopping mall.
I worked on 9 of the 16 tracks. For several, my friend Johanna came up with basslines & I added drums & keys & things. & our friend Barbara recorded a bunch of voice acting clips as the Mall's haunted P.A. system, which we used in many of our tracks as well!
Today I attempted the Immersion Composition Society's challenge of writing 20 songs in 12 solid hours of work. (See Karl Coryat's excellent "The Frustrated Songwriter's Handbook" for all the details).
It was way more challenging than I expected. I didn't make twenty songs.
But I *did* get fourteen songs out of the day that I wouldn't have written otherwise. That's a major win for me - and the equivalent of doing #FAWM in a single day.
First proper session in my home studio since #FAWM today. I'm looking forward to getting back to making music.
Shout out to all the fawmers who created 13,500+ songs this FAWM, once again exceed "FAWM escape velocity!" 
It's also Bandcamp Friday — and while the "Ukulelecorn" shirt sold out quickly, you can still grab some stickers and other treasures over at the FAWM Bandcamp store. Today, 100% of the proceeds go to support FAWM. 
And be sure to explore the #fawm tag on Bandcamp to discover more FAWM-born releases by fellow fawmers!
So the February Album Writing Month ended this morning at 0600 because that when Feb ends for GMT time.
So I made one final push to get one more song. Can't believe i did it. I think I started at midnight and finished about 1:30am. It ain't pretty, it's a simple I-IV-V somg, it's one take into a couple of mics and rather unpolished BUT!... it made for a respectable #FAWM this year.
Tah dahhhh.
music / February Album Writing Month
music / February Album Writing Month
I think I've done all I'm going to do musically for #FAWM this year. I managed a double FAWM and wrote 28 songs in 28 days...
music / February Album Writing Month
I'm kinda surprised how well this turned out considering I recorded it in about five hours and I don't ever use such a distorted guitar. Also my voice sucks. I know. I was getting tired and it was feeling strained plus singing is hard. After recording, I spent another hour or so tweaking the mix.
I wish I had drums. Well i *have* drums I just don't have them at home. Arrrgh. Where's Carter Beauford when you need him.
Anyway... here it is! Tah dahhhh!!!
My fourth submission to the #FAWM songwriting challenge
Weekly challenge time: Write your PERSONAL SOUNDTRACK! 
Whether it's a life-defining anthem, day-in-the-life “montage” music, or a moment's vibe, capture a part of you in song. 
Think "Tapestry" (Carole King) or "Life is a Highway" (Tom Cochrane).
What's your theme song? 
Today wraps up the 3rd week of FAWM!
As we approach week 4, remember to keep writing, keep sharing, and never underestimate the power of collaboration! Let’s keep inspiring each other to make music, shall we? 
@reinderdijkhuis I'm a #FAWM mod, but I'm only speaking for myself here.
It was happening in 50/90 last summer. One newbie uploaded more than 150 songs to the site, all with an identical structure and rhyming scheme, with lyrics that regularly earned ">50% of this was generated by AI" scores from ZeroGPT, but who never admiited using AI at all.
Someone in the forums this week described hearing an AI song as like "discovering a turd in the swimming pool."
I can sympathise.
Over on the #FAWM forums, there are more threads about AI and the tone is very different even from last summer - AI within FAWM is always a contentious topic, but more people are expressing dismay at encountering generated songs, explaining how discouraging it is, and predicting that FAWM will be overrun with slop and become unusable in the next few years.
I'm not going to link any of the conversations, because it is in the nature of FAWM websites to disappear, but I will say a few things.
It's a nice sunny day today, so my #FAWM work is better than carbon neutral; even with all the studio gear switched on, right now I'm exporting 3.5 kW back to the Grid...
Yesterday I reached my target of writing fourteen songs for #FAWM (quite a bit ahead of schedule!) Kinda pleased with this one which riffs on W. H. Auden's "Woods":
I made a piece with samples. It's mostly cat purrs. https://write.fawm.org/songs/311410 It also has ambisonics (I still have only touched the surface of a very deep ocean), and I did all the postprocessing in ffmpeg.
Weekly songwriting challenge: PUBLIC DOMAIN! 
Incorporate something from the PUBLIC DOMAIN into a new song. Borrow a melody, twist a lyric, or flip a folk tune on its head.
Examples:
‘Greensleeves’ as a metal anthem. ‘Twinkle Twinkle’ as an existential crisis. ‘Scarborough Fair’ as a diss track.
What's your take? Post it to FAWM.ORG!
So I've been trying to participate in the annual songwriting challenge known as #FAWM despite all the chaos I've got going on in my life right now.
This one is rather appropriate for today cuz it's a sappy love song. 
And for some reason I regressed to using those Red Dirt songs I listened to in my youth as inspiration so you get to hear this little Wren Birdie sing with her accent *really* coming out strong.
Happy #ValentinesDay everyone!
It's National Guitar Day!
Your guitar is waiting patiently while you doomscroll... so stop pretending you're busy and pick it up! Write a song. Strum some chords. Pen some lyrics. It doesn't have to be a hit, but you might surprise yourself!
Who knows what could happen with a riff and some inspiration. Or just spend the next 2 hours tuning. Your call. 
FAWM ON, FRIENDS!
