Smoothie Vibes

The basic idea for this song came to me a couple of days ago while making a smoothie. I was really into it but then promptly forgot the melody when I had no opportunity to write it down. Fast forward a couple of days and the idea, substantially unmodified, came floating back to me.

Now, regardless of what an idea sounds like in my head, it rarely ends up sounding exactly like that, or even close. But having a song stuck in your head, that doesn't exist for anyone but you, is an experience that motivates putting digital pen to paper and making something happen, so I like to chase the moment when it does happen.

This was another single-evening song.

Getting that electric guitar to fit in the mix made me low-key crazy at the end there. I tried nearly every guitar patch on the INTEGRA, and even recorded multiple takes, until I settled on Warm Drive. I added a good bit of Hall 2 reverb and a short delay to soften the hit of the guitar, then turned it pretty far down in the mix. Some of the other guitar patches required me to scale down note velocity, but Warm Drive did alright on that front.

The resulting guitar sound came out really great, and overall the mix came out pretty good too.

I've been making smoothies for a long time. It amazes me the degree to which you can achieve consistent smoothie results with just guessing and throwing in whatever you have on hand.

In honor of this song's smoothie origins, I present to you my typical smoothie configuration. Specific amounts may vary, but the core ingredients have remained remarkably the same over time.

Get ready, this is really happening:

Random Berry Smoothie

Get out your nutri-whatever tiny blender, and begin filling the cup with ingredients:

• Add about 1 cup of frozen fruit, any kind with berries

• Add about 1/2 a cup of rolled oats

• Add 1 banana, hopefully before EOL

• Add 1ish scoop of vanilla protein powder, Market Pantry or bust

• Throw in random almonds for added grumpy smoothie chewing

• Fill up half-way (eyeball it!) with plain kefir (not the sugar added stuff!), or sub oat milk

• Fill up the remaining half (eyeball it!) with 100% cranberry juice (not the sugar added stuff!)

Let that blender blast for about 30 seconds, stopping every 10 seconds or so to bang the smoothie cup angrily against the counter. Show that smoothie who's in charge and make sure things are blending well. Feel free to also run away briefly while the blender loudly grinds.

When complete, you should have a beverage that both looks edible and smells like food. Can be consumed freezing cold, or kinda sadly room temperature if you get on a meeting and forget to drink it immediately. Drink it if it's a liquid, or eat with a spoon like ice cream if it becomes solid. Figuring out how to eat it is part of the fun.

Enjoy your smoothie!