I know. It’s true, a transcript is generated with the video, but here’s a bit of writing to help with the finer points. Hopefully this sheds a little light on what I’ve learned in 2024. When I started posting last April 11, it’s staggering to think that I’m getting close to 100 written and recorded posts. Thanks again for tuning in.
Opening: Be Good to One Another
I shouldn’t have to tell anyone to behave themselves, but I will. Myself included. Willie said it best when he said, “Don’t start no shit, won’t be no shit.“ I’m a firm believer in Willie’s approach to a good life. We’ve got a good thing going & we’re lucky to be sharing it with each other. It’s important to understand how lucky we are to do what we do & have good people to share it with. In the water, on the mountain, on the street, just have fun. Bringing out the best in each other is a conscious choice. We’ll all be out in full force on the highways & airports together, LFG & be safe out there
Connecting With My Muse
A few years back we had an atmospheric river flowing through California, more snow than I’d ever seen in my life. The rain came, & it came on the heels of a 10 year drought. That year I began the tradition of singling out a few winter months to cut down the live shows & focus on recording. Ha, I guess I should just come clean & admit that I pissed off to the mountains and snowboarded my ass off. Or I could just say my muse lives up in the mountains, wouldn’t be far from the truth.
Watching the full moon rise out my bedroom window in Mammoth Lakes, CA.
It’s healthy to mix it up every couple months. I look at performing & recording as two complimentary sides of the same coin. The recording machine can be a bitch to get rolling, but once it’s moving you’d better get the hell out of the way. I look at performing as the fun you can indulge in once the work (recording/releasing) is complete. Playing live to an audience is also the best way to showcase new music to your local crew. This winter I need to catch up big time.
I have so much material in the backlog that needs to be taken care of. This winter, I hope to finish at least 2 of the albums that remain on my back burner. Complete the old so that I can write new material. Committing to finish something is usually the toughest part, taking the first step. The work is the easy part, especially if you commit to having fun.
I’ve found that spending 2 months out of the year tracking new material, & finishing old material is a healthy song-writing practice.
Visiting friends & family brings out the music & songs. Another tradition forged a few years ago was writing songs in the old family living room while home over Christmas. I come from a big family, & when we get together, stories flow. One winter I wrote a song every time I sat on those red couches by the front porch window. Lucky for me, my brother Tommy always left a guitar at the house for me while I’m visiting. Now I know all I have to do is sit down on that same couch with a guitar & hold onto my seat.
2024 in the Rearview Mirror
Hindsight isn’t always crystal clear. Quite the opposite for me, it’s at times a blur. This is one of the reasons I’ve embraced writing, it allows me to focus on what happened, what went right, what went wrong, & what I learned. 2024 went by way too fast, that much is true. There were times I was firing on all cylinders, other times spent daydreaming on the other side of the planet. I put more work into the music & videos than ever. 5 singles released with music videos & design libraries of rich collateral. A handful of live shows filmed & recorded to weigh our live sound with our recorded sound. A tremendous amount of work & a great learning experience.
Here are the singles:
Delegation was big part of these releases. I opened up my ears to peer feedback, to see where I could improve my art. I’ve always been open to music ideas, but visual art I’m more set in my opinions. I’m a stubborn SOB, so at first it wasn’t easy. There were 10 revisions of the Everything music video. I think the first version I did was best, I did 10 & was editing right up until the go live date. I’m glad I went through that with the first video, because it made all the other videos easy.
By late spring, the music for each release was completed, mixed/mastered, & scheduled in the distribution systems, and content management systems due to the fact that I was going to be gone traveling for the better part of the summer. All the collateral, the press, scheduled & automated. My job when traveling was only to take footage to be used in the next videos, to relax, & stay inspired.
A Format I Can Lean Into & Grow From
As previously mentioned, I’m blown away by how this Substack site came together this year. With a little elbow grease, this site is moving along nicely, & I think I can follow this format for a few years. Archiving live performances and releases has proved to be a valuable exercise. Just within this timeframe, I’ve seen growth, & feel that seeing and hearing each show helps me both improving live sound & each performance. The platform is both easy to use, and is well organized. I even think Substack looks good compared to most video archiving systems. Speaking as a designer, Substack is tight. It easily looks as good as, or better than Spotify, & unlike YouTube it’s ad free.
A screenshot of my Substack site, clean AF. I think it’s a spectacular way to archive live concert footage and release collateral.
If I look back to this time last year, I know for a fact that everything accross the board has improved. The recording process is getting faster. I know that the music videos are slowly getting better. I’ve made some bad ones over the years. I guess you could say I’ve learned from my mistakes, & I kept open ears. Some of the earliest feedback I got from early live concert footage I presented was you need at least 2 camera angles, at first I thought it was too much work, but next show, I had two cameras. Same thing goes for when I first started recording our live shows through the PA. All I do now is press the red record button, this was not without a huge amount of work and planning. Most importantly, the band’s shit hot, & we love playing together. Which brings me to the upcoming music in 2025.
I Am Nowhere, I Am Everywhere Coming in 2025
I’m working on a vinyl pressing of the singles I released this year. Also included will be 4 new singles. I spent a lot of time selecting songs that represent a cohesive snapshot of the band, and our live sound. I think you’re all are going to like what we’re throwing down. Where Side B is mainly a collection of 2024’s single releases Side A is from a single home studio recording session.
A sneak peek of the new vinyl album jacket. Album name taken from the chorus of Unbound, the cover from the Unbound music video, the graphics on the back, a still from the Everything video.
I am so stoked to share this new work with you. Especially the first song on Side A, Listen to the Cold. There’s a line in it that flashed me back to talking to my father in the dark-thirty hours when he was going to work and I was just coming home. Another line is me dreaming out the window looking at cars going by, imagining a way off the family farm. It’s the first time I’ve committed to making a vinyl pressing in 5 years. So much work left to completion, but I’m close. The hard work is done, I need to remind myself to have fun and not blow it in the final stretch of the project.
Love & Respect to You & Yours
- Ram
About the Ram
Mark "The Ram" O'Donnell is an independent American composer and visual artist based out of Carlsbad, California. He performs original, surf-inspired, West Coast rock-and-roll.
For more information about the Ram and his music, go to www.TheRamMusic.com
More Information
I currently use DistroKid to get everything out to the streaming platforms, Disco for all sync requests, Bands In Town to list live shows, and Substack for just about everything else.
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