The RPM Challenge - February 2008

Do you need something to get you over some writer's block or general procrastination?

If so, you may want to try The RPM Challenge.

Here's the rundown of the particulars from RPM's website:

• This will be fun!

• Ten songs or 35 minutes of recorded material, on a CD, postmarked or hand-delivered by noon on March 1 to:

RPM HQ
10 Vaughan Mall, Suite 1
Portsmouth, NH 03801
USA

• Recording can only be done in the month of February – no prerecorded songs.

• All material must be previously unreleased, and we encourage you to write the material during February too.

• Participating bands get their own page on the site, which you can blog to as much as you want. You also get access to the band-only discussion board, where you can swap ideas, resources, etc., and the ability to e-mail and private message with the other participants.

• All the completed albums may be put up in the jukebox on the website, if you so choose, so people can check it out; conversely, if you’d rather not share your work with the public, then no one needs to hear it but us.

Write some instrumentals, split up the songwriting duties amongst band members, form an RPM side project, write songs on the piano or clarinet instead of your primary instrument, make that metal album you’ve always wanted to - buy a ukulele! Just do your best to make the best album you can. Be unafraid.

I'm not a musician in any manner so I have no idea how big of a task this is but I'm guessing it would be a good way to get your creative juices flowing. However, I did chuckle to myself when I thought of The Capstan Shafts trying this challenge. The guy could probably record an entire box set in a month. Challenging him to write just ten songs in a month would be like asking Stephen King to write a short story over the next year.

By the way, for any folks down towards Portsmouth, I noticed that there'll be a kick-off party at The Press Room in Portsmouth on Thursday, January 31st (7pm).