I encourage you to listen to The Willow Tree if you have the time. I have changed since then, but the essence of it is the same – it’s a rock concept album about despair, contemplation, and maybe some hope at the end. It got me through that rough time in my life.

Listen to The Willow Tree here

A part of me wishes I could revisit every single one of those songs, but I think it would be more interesting to really zoom in and focus on one. And though there are plenty of good songs in my opinion, the best were White Noise, 2045, Villain, and Masquerade. White Noise is essentially a pop song, so I couldn’t be bothered to redo that one. 2045 is like So Wide Awake in a lot of ways, and I think it would be quite boring to do. Villain is by far the best song I’ve written from a theoretical standpoint – I use polyrhythms, modal harmonies, and I even changed time signatures. However, the vocals are in the lower baritone range, and what I’ve discovered through writing a song a day is, I don’t like singing in that range. It doesn’t excite me, and I feel like my voice is quite dull. Moreover, I don’t think I can hold lower pitches well enough live yet, compared to the higher, pushing tenor range. If you don’t have time to listen to the whole album, listen to Villain (even over Masquerade in my opinion) – it’s the best showcase of my songwriting ability.

However, my favourite song by far is Masquerade.

Why I Love Masquerade

Masquerade came about because I was in a dark place – such a dark place that I had essentially dropped out of school – so my music teacher reached out to me and tried to get me to write a song. He told me to write a song to a brief, the brief being: write a Pearl Jam-style song combined with a concerto grosso. A concerto grosso is essentially a Baroque composition where a few solo musicians go back and forth with an orchestra, and in this case, he was thinking of the solo musicians being the rock band.

So I wrote a riff – it sounds like Even Flow. They use the same interval – and then he sent me back a cool chromatic violin part.

Anyways, a year later, I revisited this song.

I ditched the entire concerto grosso idea (though I did keep the chromatic part – it’s in the bridge),

And I made this song into an homage to my two statistically favourite albums – Ten by Pearl Jam and Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissette.

I love how the riff moves between octaves based on the section. In the introduction, it’s high up; then in the verse, it drops down to a grungy level, kind of like the riff does in Even Flow. And then in the guitar solo, it shifts to the octave in the middle of those two. Awesome.

I often talk about my favourite chord progression (I–V–♭VII–IV). The reason it’s my favourite is this song.

I love the bridge and the imagery the backing vocals evoke for me – I picture marching marionettes.

I could go on and on about how much I love this song, but the last thing I’ll say is: the song sounds great acoustically, and that’s really important for me, because that tells me the song has good harmony and a good melody. I love playing it acoustically – in fact, as it currently stands, the live acoustic version is far superior to the studio version, in my opinion.

What Needs Changing

So, if I love it so much, why do I need to change it?

As I’ve said, the songwriting is solid, and it sounds great acoustically, so no need for change there.

However, the other two aspects of producing a song could be improved:

• The performance

• The arrangement

• The mixing

The vocal performance specifically is very rough – and you can hear that evidently. Compare that to the acoustic version, which is laid-back, and it’s night and day. I also think the pronunciation of some words is a little harsh. Yes, I do lean into a bit of the Alanis Morissette, but that doesn’t mean the performance has to be overly harsh. I could do with some pitch correction, and I just need to relax – that’s the overarching theme of the changes.

I also think the song is just a little bit generally rushed – not just the vocals, but the entire song. The drums are very tight and really drive this song forward in a pushing manner, which I want to keep, but I think I could reduce the BPM a little bit just to get that more ’90s laid-back feeling.

You can hear this most at the end of the bridge - on the belt, it clearly feels rushed.

Moreover, the last chorus shows the deficiencies of the song - the vocals sound too saturated and compressed, and the electric guitars are too driving. I think arrangement-wise I will switch to an acoustic guitar for that bit. And in the guitar solo, I would like to add some more vocalisations - which may be difficult as the texture is already thick with some counterpoint and some strings, but I thing I can make it work.

In terms of the mix, the guitars are quite raw. That was the style I went for at the time, but now I’ve developed, and I would like it to be a bit more polished.

One thing that will be difficult is re-creating the guitar solo. If you listen to the solo at the end, I use three different tone settings on my guitar. The first bit is my Les Paul neck pickup, then it goes to the bridge pickup, and finally the bridge pickup on the PRS – and you can hear that in the solo as it goes from quite round to brighter and brighter by the end. I like that progression a lot, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do it with the same essence, if that makes sense. I’m not sure if I’ll recapture the magic.

I think I tend to rely too much on external plug-ins to enhance my mix – for instance, Fresh Air. I want to make sure that in this iteration, I’m not using any external plug-ins as a crutch. The song should sound good unmixed, and brilliant when mixed – not average when unmixed and good when mixed. And I think my experience doing this for 100 days now – you can see what I mean with songs like Where Are You Going, Hot Coffee, and So Wide Awake. The quality of the 100 Songs version is good, and the quality of the mix is great.

Finally, I will not change the lyrics in any significant way. I may change some words for flow purposes, but I’m not rewriting any bits, most notably in the outro where I may sing "we masquerade all night". I am in a different place to when I wrote them, but I feel singing them now from a better place will give them the laid-back optimism I want. I want this song to still be inspired by Ten and Jagged Little Pill, but maybe different songs. Rather than All I Really Want, I want it to be more like You Learn. Rather than Even Flow, I want it to be more like Release. Less angst, more polished – and still a friggin’ great song.

Why I Want to Redo It

The simple answer – I love the song, and I want to play it live and tell people to go listen to it on Spotify.

Moreover, Masquerade is rife with nuance – something I feel my songwriting lacks when writing on a constrained timeframe. I want this song to be a showcase of what I can do when I have time to write a song, rather than a deadline. I think my Waste EP is fantastic, don’t get me wrong, but no song hits me the same way as Masquerade. I can’t explain it. And I so badly want to do the song justice – to what it could be.

I understand how much you can love a creation now, I see why people love their kids so much, and want the best for them (yes I am comparing a song I wrote to my child). I still don't get how I love my cat though.

Why I Want to Redo It Again

A year from now, I am going to be a better musician than I am now.

I’m studying Music and Sound Recording (Tonmeister) at university next year, and will improve – of course – as a musician, but more importantly, as a mixing engineer. I can’t tell you the difference between a FET and VCA compressor, I don’t even think I can hear the difference between a compressed and uncompressed track unless it’s blatantly obvious. I don’t know how sound waves work. There is so much left to learn, and I fully expect to laugh at the mixes I’ve made today.

The Willow Tree is all about time – the present, the future, and the past. What better way to show the progression of time than to take snippets of me living the life I wanted at the end of The Willow Tree – playing and singing my songs till the very end.

The Waste EP

Overall in my opinion, my releases have been a resounding success. No they haven't blown up, No I haven't made any profit, no it hasn't lead me to any other opportunity i would otherwise not have had. BUT I put my music out there, and people liked it - at the end of the day, when people message you congratulating you on a great release, you have done something right. I enjoyed imvolving people in the name of the EP, song order, artwork, and how I should perform it at my gigs - and I really enjoyed the community aspect of it. This newsletter is going to be a ramble. I am not going to edit it multiple times before releasing, and after releasing. It just is what it is.

About the songs itself

I decided to release the exact hundred songs version of Waste without any studio work like I did with the others. Why? I'm Lazy. But also it is the best representation of where I am. I still use Logic drummer for the drums - not a live session player like I should. Everything was recorded while being filmed, and itg wasn't perfect. It is a home studio rock release. That's what I wanted to convey. The artwork (like the music video) was a photo from the garden outside my house.

In comparison, the other songs are extremely polished. I spent hours upon hours of particular mixing, editing and mastering - and yes So Wide Awake is a better song than Waste is. Ghost Linkz helped with the artwork, and it was phenomenal. But at the end of the day, I am an independent musician doing everything in a studio that used to be his bedroom - yes Billie Eilish and Finneas did it, but the reality is, I simply cannot get a perfect rock sound using MIDI drums - I can get close, and anyone who listens to mysongs can tell me how close I got - but this EP serves as a showcase. I want to use it as a business card - here is my EP, I did it at home on Logic, Imagine what i could do with a proper studio.

Where are you going and Hot Coffee serve as me telling people I am a rock musician, but I am also a songwriter who spans multiple genres - but they are still rock songs. Why? Because I say so.

Midnight Memories is the only song that I feel uncomfortable releasing - recording it was extremely draining. I couldn't record the vocals with a full mix. I recorded them with just the synth track playing so that I could get the delivery right. and My god it worked. However, i think the snare drum could be mixed better.

And yes. So Wide Awake is the best song. The guitar solo was recorded on a whim 2 days before the song dropped on Spotify, and enhanced it massively. I was so nitpick-y with the vocal performance, and ensured everything was perfect. And yet I used MIDI piano (from the logic keyboard player) and Logic Dummer. Imagine if I could hire a piano player for that song.

If I had 10 more days like this I would be the happiest man Alive

Last Sunday I had a gig in the morning, and it was literally my best ever performance. I sang very well, made no mistakes, and most importantly felt good after.

I then met a songwriter - first time ever meeting him, serendipity kicked in and I got offered another gig. I said yes - asked the guy if he wanted to perform, then had the idea to write a song together and perform it. so we prepared 3 songs. One of mine, One of his, and one together

On arriving to the venue, turns out we could play 4 songs, so before i started I was like "let's just play this song - circles these are the chords and just chime in with the occasional oohs and ahs" and we performed, it was great.

After this, we were walking back to the car and saw in Camden Jazz cafe that Guthrie Govan was playing - literally the best guitarist in the world - and he was plaing jazz fusion with an indian classical inspired bassist called Shez Raja - Holy shit I love that fusion.

Anyways mind was blown, got home at 11.30 and boom next 30 minutes EP was released.

That is pretty much the perfect day you could ask for as a musician. I started the day with a rehearsed set - as In i went through it 3 times with my parents to perfect it. I then met a songwriter and collaborated on an impromptu song, we then improvised another song while performing, then we saw the master of improv himself.

Like the title of this section, if every day could be like that I would be so fulfilled. Unfortunately it's not and you have to face the reality of life and get stuck in "midnight memories"

AI (Again (Again))

This is just a teenager complaining. feel free to skip

I feel quite down today, because I got reprimanded for saying that AI music was a funny concept. I also found out that Logic session players use AI, and felt annoyed that was the case "after all I programmed everything and changed a ton of stuff in MIDI afterwards"

Now apart from that showing I have a fragile ego and zero emotional maturity, it made me realize something. I always maintain that if something is ai generated, they should and have to declare it. But in instances of ai being used for convenience is this the case? I could very easily map out a midi drum part, but that's annoying, time consuming, and a computer can do it better than me. You could also then argue, that making music could sometimes be seen as annoying, time consuming - and a computer can do it better than me. So what's the point?

Funnily enough, I think Waste answers this question. Music doesn't mean shit unless you write it, share it, experience it, listen to it. Just because I use computer generated MIDI drums doesn't make my music less valuable - it just is the best way for me to communicate my song - what's the the point in writing songs fretting on every word, every instrument? I use music creation as a vessel to execute whatever is in my brain. If an AI can read my mind, and communicate my message better than me should I use it?

Again this is all with the stipulation that AI is used ethically and does not destroy people's careers. In my example, there's no way I could afford studio time and a professional drummer to record my songs for me for this release - hence I am not using it as an alternative, rather a stop gap. Similarly what if somebody wants to make a piece with 150 instruments all of which they cannot play, and cannot afford to hire, and cannot conceivably make with MIDI?

AI should be used to make people's lives easier not harder.

What next

Gigs, Collaboration, Content, University, Next EP, Collaboration, Gigs, Gigs, Another EP maybe for fun, content, Gigs, Content, Gigs, Content, Exams, maybe an album Gigs.........5 years down the line 1000 fans.

I expect to release my next EP - drifting like a particle sometime in September, I would like to record it in a studio, and have applied to a Studio residency, but i doubt I will get it - this may be something I can use crowdfund for - hiring a studio and at least a session drummer to record 5 songs.

The goal is to make a living income off my music. I do want a manager at some point soon (mostly to get all these gigs), but I am in no rush, I have all the time in the world. Yes we see all these pop stars who are just 3-4 years older than me - but that's luck and money, mostly luck. What I can control is ensuring I am the best musician I can be. Non-musicians are under the impression the goal is to be famous. No the goal is to be Fulfilled. Yes I still am Web3's first Rockstar tho - I ain't letting anyone ever forget that.

Shout out to Ghost Linkz for the Artwork, and Matt Lee for the release on Tortoise

What I hope for this release

For this release, I wanted to use the concept of A-sides and B-sides. I did this because I believe NFTs are the digital vinyl. When vinyls used to be released, they often included bonus tracks or B-sides – and this felt like the perfect opportunity to try it out.

On Warpcast/Farcaster, I’m running a special deal – the first ten people to mint Side A will receive Side B for free.

On this blog and on my website, you can access the song using the code caffeine on the landing page for the release – comment how many times I mention that word throughout this article 😆

Rock music, but not boxed in

Another thing I want to establish with this release: yes, I want to be “Web3’s first rockstar”, but rock music shouldn’t put me in a box. Side A is a Soul/R&B-style song, while Side B is funk – but they both still have elements of rock. I think when people hear “rock”, they think of loud, distorted guitars and screaming. I’ll definitely be doing that in the future, but I wanted to start by showing the less intense side of rock. Both my singles are piano-driven – but I’d still say there’s some rock ’n’ roll in them!

Side A – Where Are You Going

Where Are You Going is song 16 of my hundred-day challenge, and conveniently, the release date is 16 May.

I stumbled across a snippet of this song while scrolling through my notes app (Google Keep). I found this:

hello,
let me dream about tomorrow
about the power-ridden crossroads
hidden in the words I borrow

If you listen to the melody, you’ll see why I had to change the word hello – the chorus wouldn’t work otherwise.

I knew I had to release this one because when I performed it live during my challenge, random people started filming me, and I really felt good on stage. I posted a clip on my socials and got a great response.

In the demo, I used Logic’s built-in bassist and piano, and I loved the bassline it came up with. Both made it into the final version – with some tweaks.

So yes, the piano, bass guitar and drums in this song are all MIDI – but I think I’ve done a decent job of making them sound real. Of course, they’re not a substitute for the real thing. That said, I saw Bryan Adams yesterday and, during a lot of his set, the bass was done on a keyboard – still sounded great!

The main difference between the demo and the released version is that the final version is more polished and 3 BPM slower, so it grooves better. I also redid the vocals, backing vocals and electric guitars. Plus, there’s no intro and no fade-out in the outro.

Side B – Hot Coffee

This was a fun song to write, a fun song to film, fun lyrics – and most of all, it was the only song I had that stylistically complemented Where Are You Going 😅

I wrote it while chatting to a friend who was visiting me, just noodling on my guitar until I came up with the riff.

I’m really happy with how it turned out – the funky guitar works, the guitar solo is much improved, the vocals sit nicely and are well performed.

The song is a satire on caffeine addiction and has a strong ’70s vibe. I loved adding tremolo in the B section to give it that extra psychedelic feel.

I also think the exclusivity around this track is handled well – not too hard to access. It’ll go on streaming platforms once the music video is released.

What else I did

Half of my time on this release went into mixing – the other half was spent endlessly working on an NFT player for my website.

This taught me a lot about Web3 – and its flaws. Everything is incredibly fragmented right now. If I upload to Zora, Sound, Tortoise, my own site, Catalog and everything else, then there’s no longer one address on the blockchain for this NFT – which is odd. Every platform seems to want to be a centralised hub for an inherently decentralised experience.

So, I chose to use Tortoise. After chatting with Matt, I managed to figure out how to get my songs (using their Tortoise address) onto my site. Once you figure out how to get the IPFS, it’s pretty straightforward – but it’s still not easy for the average person. I hope that changes.

The website, in my opinion, looks good. It has an embedded version of this blog, a page dedicated to my hundred songs, and a page focused on Web3. I figured out how to find the IPFS files for my NFTs and used Pinata’s URL to pin and play them on the site. (Note: to make the tracks downloadable, I had to upload the audio and image files directly to my site – but the NFT mint pages use IPFS/Pinata for metadata.)

It was a lot of work – using a combination of AskGina.ai and GitHub’s Copilot – and given that I’ve got no HTML experience, I think it’s pretty neat that I figured out how people can mint NFTs directly on my site.

I created a custom page for the song link so I could include an NFT mint button and embed the coded B-side (code is caffeine, in case I didn’t mention that!).

I think I’ve almost nailed the code and admin side of this process now – so future releases should be far less time-consuming.

I hope you enjoy the song – looking forward to releasing the next one too!

Desh Saxena on Warpcast

The Release is here - collect Where are you going on /tortoise The first 10 to collect will also receive the Bonus track hot coffee for free https://nfeed-frame.vercel.app?id=ce9ab7c2-5314-417e-9c4d-f96cf189e9c7&img=bafybeihfewgh2ohpq4bnjurlezz6qwf7nkqlphan5gaxmn634qvbkpo2cm

Farcaster

Why I Want This to be a Single

This song was my favourite to write and perform, and it captured the essence of my hundred-day challenge: keep writing, and writing, and you might just hit gold. If you look at the songs before and after, you'll see songs like "I Have a Cat" and "I'm Not Ready", which aren't great. Generally, my songwriting was all over the place at that time, and I wasn't feeling that great. My songwriting did seem to suffer, but this song was me trying to tell myself that it's alright. However, this one is a gem.

When I initially thought of the song, I believed the lyrics were profound yet meaningless, and my short-form video discusses that. In hindsight, I was wrong. Yes, they are a bit cheesy, and I've never thought of myself as a great lyricist, but whenever I feel down, I find myself thinking of this song and the lyrics, "it's the little things in life that won't let you go". It's already my go-to set closer when performing live, as it's a song that reflects where I am.

I think it contrasts well with my other single, which is more fun. While this is introspective, based on what (admittedly little) feedback I've received, people have told me that they feel similarly: that it's a song that inspires hope.

It also includes the word "May", and talks about what I'll be when I hit May, which provides a nice coda to this chapter of my life.

What I Like About the Song

The chord progression in the verse is simply a movement from I to IV in D major – I use this quite often in my songwriting. However, the added 7th as a transition chord makes this sound more sophisticated than previous works that utilise a similar progression. The chorus's chord progression also makes use of cadences to build tension and then resolve: something I actively tried to do in this song after watching the Robbie Williams biopic Better Man, where there is a scene with esteemed songwriter Guy Chambers about the technique of extending the chorus to build tension and resolution.

I love the build-up in intensity throughout the song, with the addition of instruments one by one as I enter different sections. For me, it reminds me a bit of "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey, though that builds up much faster. The title of the song is an homage to the Audioslave track "Wide Awake".

I also think the song sounds great acoustically, and it doesn't matter how I play it. I've performed the song live twice, in two different keys, and I enjoyed it both times. This must be because the song has a solid melody and solid harmony backing it up.

What Needs Changing

Attached is a screenshot of what needs changing (in red):

The song is too slow; it is six and a half minutes, so I have to increase the tempo by at least 10 bpm. This inevitably means I will have to re-record all of the audio tracks. I could use Flex time to negate this. However, The guitars are a bit out of tune, and I need to anyways change some lyrics, so there's no point.

but the bottom four tracks are MIDI – so why do I need to re-record them? Simple: all of it was automated based on a chord progression I plugged in, and I have access to both a piano and bass, so I have no reason to use MIDI for those instruments. For drums, it's alright, but it's not nuanced; again, it's just thrown together by Logic Drummer. That is why all the tracks are red. But that shouldn't be surprising.

Though I love my vocal performance, some of the lyrics don't make sense. For instance, the line in the title of this blog post, "What I'll be in May to take me out of this pain", is a question I am asked, and should really be "What will I be in May to take me out of this pain?". The lyrics in verse two will also be changed. I may consider changing keys, but as I said above, this song will most likely sound good in any key, and I like the key of D.

The most important thing, though, in my opinion, is the overly fattened structure. I don't need two chord progression cycles as an intro, and I definitely don't need a guitar solo that is 50 seconds long. Moreover, I use the pre-chorus four times in the song, which makes sense as it is both the outro and the bridge, but I need to do something more melodically and harmonically interesting during the bridge, so I may write an entirely new bridge – stay tuned for that!

Production-wise, I will use reference tracks to mix and produce the song – which I neglected during the challenge due to time pressure. Therefore, I the vocals were too harsh, and too loud. I will take recommendations for my reference tracks, since I am not as experienced mixing when including a piano. However, it is important to note that I am still doing this in a home studio setup, so it will still have elements of that, which, in my opinion, adds to the charm of my music.

The B-side

For both single releases, I will be working on B-sides. I am yet to decide how they will be released, but my current thinking is that they will be released when I post the music videos for the main track. I could also potentially release them on the Tuesday before or after the main release.

The B-side for this song is "96 - Midnight Memories". I chose this after some deliberation because it's another song that speaks to me, and its message contrasts with "So Wide Awake", though themes of being up and having racing thoughts are heavily present. In some ways, this song is how I really feel, and "So Wide Awake" is what I need to tell myself to help me out of it, or to cope with it.

I also think there's a lot of work to do with this song – most notably changing the key to suit my vocal range, and removing that weird octave double. I think this will enhance the song greatly, as I believe that, like "So Wide Awake", the melody and harmony in this song speak for themselves.

What else have I been up to

I spent the weekend working on making my website nicer: deshsaxena.com

Please check out the 100 songs gallery page, and let me know what else I should add.

Over the next few weeks, I will be documenting my progress on releasing these songs, via this newsletter and short-form videos.

I am also working with @ghostlinkz for the artwork as well as guidance with how to release on web3, and he has been lovely, special thank you to him!

Of my 100 day Challenge, I released 84 songs that were completed after January 1st 2025.

Here's the breakdown:

• 3 songs were written in December as practice for the challenge ("Countryman," "Journey Before Destination," "Lazy Day,").

• 8 songs were written before the challenge ("Parachute," "Invincible," "Anything Possible," "Down by the Willow tree," "Live and Let Live," "Volcano," and "Victim"), plus 2/3 of my classical pieces

• I also included 3 covers and 1 parody ("Good Gracious Miss Polly"), albeit all the covers required additional work

Out of these, only the 2 classical pieces were less than an hour of work.

That's a total of 16 songs that didn't include brand new creations during the challenge period. Beyond the 100 posted songs, I actually wrote several others that never made it to publication, as well as a lot of unfinished ideas.

There's a song called "Entropy" which I think of as a prologue to my challenge. I wrote and released it in December, but I consider it an honorary part of the journey—setting the stage for what was to come, I also reference it in several songs. One of the things I plan on doing in the future is turning this song into a fully fledged mix and music video.

The challenge wasn't just about quantity; it was about developing a sustainable creative practice that could withstand the pressures of daily output.

Songwriting: Inspiration vs. Consistency

In this challenge I was testing two competing theories of creativity: does great work require inspiration or consistency?

What I discovered surprised me - it's both!

Some of my most inspired work came on days when I felt completely uninspired. This suggests that creativity functions equally like a muscle as magic—something that responds to regular exercise rather as well as lightning strikes of inspiration.

In my opinion these songs are equally as good, if not better than my pre written tracks which I talked about before. Out of the prewritten tracks, only 3 made my album shortlist (which is about 35 songs long at the moment - will explore more in another article)

Making a song every day meant I had to get real about what mattered. I couldn't perfect everything, so I had to pick my battles. The daily routine became almost like a ritual. Even when I really didn't feel like it, just showing up at my desk with my guitar became this anchor in my day.

I found that inspiration rarely shows up before you start working. Starting was always the toughest part—staring at that blank project file or empty notebook. But once I forced myself to just play something, anything, the ideas would usually start flowing.

An example of a song that came out of nowhere is song 42: So wide awake

This wasn't the case for day 99, though. The stress of the challenge really got to me then. Nothing flowed, nothing seemed good enough. I just had to push through and keep playing and writing for hours until I found something worthwhile. I think this song has some of the best I've written, and the melody is something that keeps getting stuck in my head.

I think this proves that there is no one set way to go about writing a song.

Growth as a songwriter

My growth as a songwriter wasn't linear. Looking back at day 1 versus day 100, I can see how my approach matured over time, becoming more natural and comfortable. The songs didn't necessarily improve day by day, but my relationship with the process deepened.

The biggest revelation was simple: a song is just a song. Not every piece needs to change the world or be profound. Once I accepted this, my writing actually improved because I removed the pressure of trying to create masterpieces.

My strongest songs emerged when I stopped overthinking. Just focusing on crafting a good melody with lyrics I liked yielded better results than chasing perfection or complexity.

For instance, song 98 "Hot coffee" is a fave of mine. The lyrics: "hot coffee, hot coffee smooth, hot coffee, hot coffee for me and you." The verse was "I'm balancing a tightrope, Hoping I don't fall down." and finally the bridge: "What would life be if we didn't have hot coffee" - Very profound lyrics(!)

One crucial element I missed throughout most of the challenge was editing. I skipped this step for 99 songs, only editing the final one. For my album, this will be essential to elevate the work from good to great.

Finding My Voice

Daily practice definitely improved my singing, but the real growth wasn't technical—it was psychological. I learned to embrace imperfection. Recording in one take means accepting flaws, and that's okay. It's perfectly fine to use autotune occasionally rather than feeling like I need to nail those power screams in every track.

Another revelation was about mixing. Early on, I cranked my vocals too loud with heavy distortion, using a plugin called fresh air like a crutch. By the end, I found balance—letting the vocals sit naturally in the mix rather than forcing them to dominate.

This challenge taught me that vocal maturity isn't just about range or technique—it's about knowing when to pull back and when to push forward. True vocal growth comes from understanding your instrument, not just training it.

My worst vocal performance in my opinion was song 40 - Lost in a Shadow world. I refused to use autotune, and only took one pass, unnecessarily straining when I didn't have to:

Whereas, my best vocal performance in my opinion, was song 92 - Hold me close. I wasn't scared of using autotune, and I took my time warming up my vocals, and did 3 passes through. Moreover, I believe the vocal production is better all around, though It shines on other tracks like "Hot Coffee" and "Waste".

Guitar playing

I often used guitar solos as stop-gaps for bridges or middle eights due to daily deadlines. I relied on "shreddy" techniques to impress, using the same two patterns repeatedly. But my best solos were the ones where I took my time, focused on melody, and didn't try to be flashy. Less became more.

That being said, I am really happy with this guitar solo(2:09):

But still, that's only 1 out 100 solos, of which most are not great. For the album, I'll properly develop these sections rather than defaulting to solos. The pressure of recording in one or two takes limited what I could do. For an album, I'll have the freedom to craft more thoughtful solos that serve each song.

This experience reinforced that restraint often creates more impact than technical showing off—a lesson that applies well beyond guitar playing. This is evident in my final song "waste" where I make the guitar solo really simple, but change the chord progression underneath - I think it was one of my best solos.

All that being said, I am very comfortable with my guitar playing, and I learnt a few things as a producer:

• You don't need excessive distortion to produce a big sound

• You can stack the same recording on multiple tracks with different settings to produce a fatter sound

• using bass amps does thicken the sound

• you don't need excessive reverb and delay, unless you need it for stylistic reasons.

Production

Apart from guitar and vocals, my production speed improved substantially throughout the challenge. What I think would have taken 10 hours at the beginning now takes just 2. I spent a similar amount of time producing song 1 as I did 100 - and feel free to listen to the production difference yourself. In my opinion it is night and day.

Song 1:

Song 100:

Daily deadlines forced me to make quick decisions rather than endlessly tweaking. Back in the day production was limited to how much tape and money you had. Modern technology makes it surprisingly easy to create decent-sounding demos. Perfect EQ and effects matter less than capturing the essence of the song.

Now that I have the barebones mix of each song, I can revisit the strongest ones with fresh ears and develop them into fully realized productions.

I would say that my bass and drums production didn't evolve much throughout the challenge - so maybe that is something I can further explore.

The limitation of an 11pm deadline became my greatest teacher in the studio, forcing me to develop efficient workflows and make decisive creative choices.

Video editing and filming

This challenge pushed me into completely unfamiliar territory—video production. I started knowing nothing about lighting, 4K footage, captions, or color correction. Finding the right filming setup was a journey of trial and error. I started with just my phone, then discovered OBS software with Droidcam, which let me use my phone as a USB webcam.

Lighting became my unexpected nemesis. As days grew longer, window glare became an issue. Through experimentation with angles and lamp placement, I eventually achieved a decent look in both daylight and nighttime conditions.

The learning curve was steep, but by the end, concepts that seemed foreign became second nature. Diving in unprepared forced me to learn quickly and develop practical solutions rather than getting lost in theory.

I think you can see the evolution in video quality throughout my challenge the most evidently, towards the last 20 or-so songs, the quality became more consistent (except 89, as I was visiting relatives).

I still however have a lot to learn, as I believe I can be even more consistent.

As a Content creator

Content creation was not my main focus, but I am happy to report, a 200% growth on instagram, an 8900% growth on Tiktok, a 5400% growth on Youtube, and a 50% reduction of followers on warpcast (albeit, my tunecaster has grown). My top commenters were my mother, father and sister across all platforms.

This is all to say I wasn't really focussed on social media growth, rather building a community, which I have done, the people on tunecaster.xyz have been so supportive, and I couldn't ask for a better outcome from my challenge.

I don't plan on trying to pump out clickbait-y content for my challenge, or filming 70 promo videos for each of my songs, but unfortunately my most viewed videos are the short 60s clips I did on songs, which is to be expected. So will make platform appropriate short form videos, but I want to get to a point where the music speaks for itself. If I wasn't making content every day, I believe I could have continued this for longer, as I genuinely love writing songs, and I will continue to write songs regardless if the cameras are on.

However, modern artists need versatility. The ability to handle multiple aspects of creation gives you control over your artistic vision in ways that weren't possible for previous generations of musicians. Therefore, the good news is that I have control over what I want to release and show to the world. I don't want or need to go viral, I just want to keep making better music, and improve my content creation skills.

My Approach to AI

I want to clarify my stance on using AI in this creative process. I did not use AI for any songwriting aspects—no AI-generated lyrics, chord progressions, melodies, or samples. My mixing was also done without AI assistance, though I did use Logic's mastering assistant on some tracks.

I did experiment with AI in one instance—for my music video "Snow," where I tried using Krea AI to generate some visual elements. I talked about this experiment openly in that video, exploring the potential and limitations of the technology.

Where I did employ AI regularly was for practical support: generating auto captions for videos, creating descriptions, and helping compose scripts and blog posts like this one. Even then, I provided substantial input, with AI primarily helping me organize thoughts and improve grammar and spelling.

This reflects how I see AI fitting into my creative process—as a tool to handle tasks I'm not as good at, allowing me to focus on the creative elements that require human expression and emotion. AI helps me compose my thoughts and communicate more effectively, but the artistic vision and musical creation remain entirely mine.

This challenge has fundamentally changed how I approach music and creativity. While I won't be writing a song every day going forward, the lessons from this intensive period will shape everything I create in the future.

This article was written with assistance from askgina.ai to help organize my thoughts and experiences, though I had a lot of input, and edited it a ton, passing through the post 4 or 5 times and editing entire sections before posting.

Going forwards

• I will be making short form content about what I learnt, with this article serving as my beta script

• I will make another article soon(marrying it with my website) about each individual song, and what I liked/ disliked etc

• Will start the process of making my 100 songs into an album, but I don't want to limit myself to just these 100, so if I write a new song, or if old stuff like entropy fits in, I'll be happy. (I want to try something interesting)

• Again, please reach out if you are interested in collaborating

My journey has just started, and I would love any feedback or advice.

Vertical(Zora)

WAV Audio(tortoise)

About the song

I thought this song was a perfect ending to my challenge, because it talks about what it has been like writing all these songs. The music video is not usually how the songwriting process goes (except 99), and I filmed it in various locations in my usual 1-2 takes per item. It is a rock song, as rock is my bread and butter

Mixing the song took longer than I thought it would, and I used a references track - monkey wrench by the Foo fighters. The song itself was inspired by a band I was only recently introduced to : Collective soul The tuning was inspired by Shine, while the melody was inspired by December. This song also has the same chord progression as a song I released a while ago called stormy sunshine

I am very happy with my vocal performance(3rd take), and the filming and editing of the video, there are a few mistakes, but as usual, given the timeframe I am happy with it. The guitar solo's filming was me trying to recreate November rain in a park near me. With more time, I would have done more colour correction, and ensuring everything was more tight - both video and audio.

One thing I experimented with today was using keyframes to adjust the vertical video, as the shots were filmed horizontally in 4k. both versions, and only the audio are linked above.

Going Forward

1. Create an album using my best songs from this.

2. Have a series of articles of discussing what I learnt, and could improve upon from the challenge.

3. Generally keeping the songwriting, and starting to gig and collaborate with more people

4. Build my portfolio website deshsaxena.com

   
   

This song came out of nowhere, and I put sunglasses on for the lols. I really enjoyed my use of keyboard in this song, it really gave me that 70's feeling. I was inspired by deep purple for the instrumentation, Mark Knopfler for the vocals, and I tried to make the guitar solo's tone sound like "Owner of a lonely heart" by yes. You tell me if I achieved that.

The lyrics are about a guy who falls in love with a certain film star after watching something about boats (hint, Jack Sparrow). I just thought it was funny.

This was a really fun song to write

94 - Clay

This song really exemplifies how for I've come. When i started this challenge, I had to do multiple takes of my acoustic songs to pick the best. This song was recorded on first attempt while an a call with my sister. I just told her (kindly) to shut up for 3 minutes, and after I finished, she clapped(I think).

I enjoyed the process of writing lyrics - I did my first doodle. I like how I wrote about how people are like clay, they are moulded, but then they harden and crack.

95 - King of Rock and roll

As you can tell from the title of this article. I claimed on day 95 that I would be web3's first rockstar. I don't have that in the bag yet, but this song is proof that I am the king of rock and roll. Need I say more?

96 - Midnight memories

I love this song, I think I produced it well, I think it's catchy, and it does something that's rare for me - there's and actual bridge! The only issue I had was lighting, I talked about lighting in another article, and I've found since then, that It's not bright enough. I also discovered that the white balance and exposure were not locked on my camera.

This song really spoke to me, I think I really wrote from my heart with the lyrics. I enjoyed using the phrase "darkest timeline" - references my favourite show Community. I think vocal performance could be improved , and well as production, but I was going for a kind of modern rock sound, and I think I achieved that well.

97 - Show me what you're made of

The chorus of the song, I've had in my mind for I don't even know how long, I remember thinking about it on a school bus, when I lived in India - which was over 8 years ago.

I still have no idea why the lyrics "show me what you're made of" are remotely linked to love, I'm just assuming they are.

Moreover, I do not know how to write a love song - my past love songs have been meme songs about science. This one has a bit more to it, but essentially it is what I learnt about love from my cat - that it's unconditional. I was inspired by a line from the book I just read(Daisy Jones and the Six), but I changed it slightly. I don't want to go into details, because spoilers, but the lyrics I used were "Love should not be fire, it should be water that flows through you."

Finally on lighting. I record at sunset in the uk, which is a big issue as the sunset changes every day right now basically. So I closed my blinds, and added and extra light. I like how it has turned out.

Day 1: Song 91 - "They Don’t Know What You Will Do"

After being ill and listening to the audiobook of Daisy Jones & The Six all day, I had to rush to a play. Everything felt chaotic. I spent the afternoon trying to film a song, but nothing was working. Frustrated, I thought, "I’ll just do a quick acoustic song about my cat." While sorting out my passwords, I decided not to let the stress get to me. I started writing in Google Keep and ended up with a song I liked. In a frenzy, I completed it in about 30 minutes.

I had planned to use my acoustic guitar like an electric one, and I thought it sounded pretty good. Surprisingly, I wasn’t annoyed with my one-take guitar solo!

After the struggles of the previous day, I aimed to focus on my next song but ended up spending the entire day watching the Daisy Jones adaptation on Amazon, which left me feeling empty. It reminded me of Fleetwood Mac and the themes of fiery passion, hate, and drugs—none of which I can really relate to, aside from my experience with SSRIs.

I called my sister to vent, and she suggested I write from someone else’s perspective. So, I wrote this song from the viewpoint of Billy Dunne at the end of the book/show, talking to his wife in the chorus while she speaks to him in the verses. It also handily serves as a conclusion to my series on particles, as I include the word "entropy".

I don’t think I did the song justice; it felt like one that needed more time for the lyrics and vocals, which I didn’t have due to my procrastination. After uploading it, I discovered that the audio file was corrupted, which was frustrating. I think this song would suit vocals from someone like Adele, or John Legend.

Edit: after replying to @Ghostlinkz, I also wanted to add that this is a breakthrough for me as a songwriter - I think I can finally start writing songs for other people.

Desh Saxena on Warpcast

100 songs in 100 days Song 92/100 - "Hold Me Close". Sorry about the typo, I really need to get better at that. This one is a song that can't be done justice writing it in a day, and with my voice. It is perhaps the first song that I think could be written for someone else's catalogue, because I don't think, even with editing and a perfect vocal performance, I can do this one justice. I would love to know what you guys think. https://nfeed-frame.vercel.app?id=65c80f60-6380-4655-8436-d681b892c5db&img=bafybeielsbwwrkfdua5mxxdrpqewrdexr24typlxtdec3xudf4iejfwnma

Farcaster

Overall, though, both songs felt like they came out of nowhere, and that spontaneity is something I really enjoy.

I have decided to try out @mattlee's new platform tortoise , and will release the song as usual on Youtube, Instagram, TikTok and Rodeo. I recorded a short form video on top of this.

When I began this challenge, British weather meant it was dark by 4 PM, making my window useless as a light source. But as the weather improved, I found that using natural light made a noticeable difference in my videos

That said, I’m still a night owl, and my room is lit by yellow lights. One day, I discovered that turning off my main ceiling light and relying on just my two "camera" lights—a ring light and a desk lamp with adjustable modes—created a much better look.

Today, however, being ill and all, I forgot to do this. And, well… here’s how that turned out.

In my opinion, natural lighting is the best, followed by my night setup with no main light. Today’s video ranks last. But it's reassuring to see that my lighting experiments are actually making a difference.

I also tried something new with editing today. Usually, I use Final Cut’s multicam feature to switch between clips, or if it’s an acoustic song, I record everything in one take. But today, I recorded the acoustic guitar and vocals separately to incorporate backing vocals, using a picture-in-picture effect. Curious to see how it's received.

This one came together quickly, but I enlisted my poet sister’s help for the lyrics and had her sing backing vocals in the chorus. Then I realized the song sounds a bit like Cecilia—oh well.

Also, there's a typo in the title: inn should be in.

I have decided to try out @mattlee's new platform tortoise , and will release the song as usual as a video on Youtube, Instagram, TikTok and Rodeo as well as Zora.

Desh Saxena on Warpcast

Check out my new track "Song 90/100 - London was not built in a day" on Tortoise - I am aware it sounds a bit like a certain Simon and Gurfunkel song, but I am ill today, and my ears were ringing for a bit, so given that, I'm happy with it. https://nfeed-frame.vercel.app?id=09e9e554-90b7-480b-b0ca-cf98f7885464&img=bafybeif6v6lzutdcqvqqibioapn5pgzprjdql2qsbqi4qb57mltaokoama

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Throughout this challenge, I've had a couple of different series, but this one is my most absurd—and that’s saying something, considering I also have a series about two particles falling in love.

1: Mumbai Train
This song introduces the first of my main characters: Arjun “Cowboy” Sharma. He is a contract cow thief, hired by the Bangalore crown to steal cows from Mumbai, as both claim they have more holy cows. If that doesn’t sound silly enough, I encourage you to listen to the rest of the song (spoiler: he prays to a demon and gains powers, specifically to help transport cows). The vibe I aimed for was very much Country Rock, with inspiration from songs like “Can’t You See.”

2: Archana Devi
Archana Devi is my second outlaw, known as the “Dragon of Dalal Street” (initially, it was “Dog of Dalal Street,” but my friend suggested “Dragon,” which is much better for so many reasons). For those unaware, Dalal Street is the Indian equivalent of Wall Street. Archana siphons money from her wealthy clientele to give to the poor, quickly nearly bankrupting her bank, so she turns to supernatural powers. I opted for a call-and-response structure in this song, which I hadn’t done before, and I think it turned out quite well.

3: Yusuf Khan
Unlike the first two characters, Yusuf Khan becomes an outlaw through his actions rather than starting as one. He is the Sultan of the North and a benevolent ruler, but unfortunately, his land is ravaged by supernatural snow. He is then greeted by a mysterious man named Karan Gupta. I quite enjoyed the minor, snowy northern vibe I created.

4: The Heist of Centuries
In this song, the characters take part in a heist—what could go wrong? This was an enjoyable song to write, as I was able to use a chord progression I had for a while and finally figured out what to do with it. That said, the B, A, E (541) progression isn’t the most interesting, and I've already used it a couple of times during this challenge. However, the chorus incorporates suspended chords and sevenths.

5: We Are the Indian Outlaws
This song emerged because I realized I couldn't conceivably create a nine-minute epic tying together songs four and five, and I was traveling today and couldn't record. Consequently, I ended up with a song recorded using the first stock chord progression that Logic loads when you use the piano plugin, with vocals captured in one take. The result is a catchy tune that, if you don’t look too closely at the lyrics, could easily be a pop song you hear on the radio - especially because of the amount of autotune on the vocals! I managed to squeeze in some guitars before I left but didn’t have time to film. I edited the video on the train while also doing this write-up.

In the song, the Outlaws team up to defeat the Demon Ravana and save the world.

I have decided to post this last one on Zora rather than Rodeo, as Rodeo is stopping support for their web app, and I post exclusively from my computer/laptop, since I don't have airdrop, and need to post quickly given the one day timeframe. I will continue to post the videos on Zora, and the audio on tortoise until the end of the challenge.

The song is as usual on Youtube, Instagram and TikTok as well.

Desh Saxena on Warpcast

Check out my new track "Song 88/100 - We are the Indian Outlaws" on Tortoise. Paragraph will be up shortly https://nfeed-frame.vercel.app?id=72d90e6f-868d-4496-a35d-2b8416b9a245&img=bafybeiberewb4gdjxch4pcjccnrz6gd525uxm5lzeabrpsuhqnnf3ggtla

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I wrote two songs today. The first—Dumbo the Flying Elephant—was terrible. So, I went back and wrote another one. This one’s about two particles in a relationship, where one starts having second thoughts.

This isn’t actually part of my 100-day challenge—it’s a song I wrote in December to test whether the challenge was even feasible. It’s only available on my Instagram, but after performing it live (which you can find in my Instagram highlights), I’ve come to treasure it. To me, it marks the true beginning of this journey.

The song tells the story of Particle A, who is trapped in a vial and has fallen in love with Particle B, who exists outside. Desperate to escape and be with B, A endeavors to break free. Silly, but that’s expected.

This song shares a lot of similarities with Entropy and is where I officially introduced the names of the particles—A and B! Both use it/them pronouns.

Having finally escaped the vial, Particle A now finds itself lost in an unfamiliar world. In the confusion, A and B lose sight of each other, and A panics. But by the end of the song, they reunite.

here's a link to the song

This song takes a completely different turn. Though still acoustic, it’s no longer in an open tuning, and the vocal register and style have shifted—mirroring the tension growing in their relationship.

Here, Particle A begins to question whether the problem lies within its own mind or within their relationship itself. The melody is inspired by the Hindi song Ajeeb Dastan Hai Yeh. I like to be upfront about my influences, since with the nature of this challenge, accidental similarities are bound to happen.

The video of the song as usual on Youtube, Instagram, TikTok and Rodeo and the audio is on Tortoise

Desh Saxena on Warpcast

Check out my new track "Song 86/100 - Cloudy" on Tortoise https://nfeed-frame.vercel.app?id=4a2e78d9-b608-488b-a225-a43cc9ec721b&img=bafybeifqhyppjy7gj7avy5xuwrrab6zzy2ooda2mxqr34eygh4emadph3m

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This book is packed with references to real rock songs, like Great Balls of Fire and Stairway to Heaven (aptly renamed Pathway to Paradise). I decided to recreate Good Gracious Miss Polly, a song from the book - Based on Good Golly Miss Molly, but this came with a few challenges.

Firstly, Little Richard is widely considered the architect of rock ‘n’ roll, and his voice has the perfect mix of distortion and power. With modern effects, I could replicate some of this, but I also decided to take the vocals more seriously for once. Instead of relying on software, I actually stood up, warmed up my voice, and practiced singing the entire song three or four times. I’m happy with the result—this is a single vocal take with no autotune, flex pitch, or cuts between different takes. I found that by avoiding strain and focusing on hitting the notes without pushing too hard, my voice sounded much better—and I even managed to squeeze in a Little Richard-style scream at the end!

The other big challenge was the piano. I recorded it using a MIDI keyboard, expecting to make a ton of edits, but surprisingly, I barely had to tweak anything. I only quantized the section after the piano solo—yes, I did a piano solo! It’s not great, but some might call it jazzy. I only filmed one take of the piano, so I was pleasantly surprised by how well it turned out.

Finally, I decided to use lyrics referencing in world places in Pratchett's Discworld series - Such as Sto Lat, Djelibeybi, and Ankh Morpork.

For production, I aimed for a "polished '50s" vibe. I added some reverb and saturation to the master track and used Logic’s mastering tools to enhance the final sound. The picture below shows my mastering chain:

I have decided to try out @mattlee's new platform tortoise, and will release the song as usual on Youtube, Instagram, TikTok and Rodeo. I recorded a short form video, on top of this.

Desh Saxena on Warpcast

100 SOngs in 100 days Day 84 - "Good Gracious Miss Polly" on Tortoise https://nfeed-frame.vercel.app?id=00001521-3e04-4bf2-af65-657dad37432c&img=bafybeifo45ysmkrxp2tlh77eqvb622qmolz3dopedmui4qlnat7sm5hvyi

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Day 84/100 - Good gracious Miss Polly - Rodeo

The creative social network.

https://rodeo.club

What I’ve learned is that writing a song every day often means writing on autopilot. There’s no time to overthink, ruminate, or chase perfection in every note. As a result, the quality of my songwriting fluctuates from day to day—but sometimes, that spontaneity leads to something great. In fact, some of my favorite songs from this challenge were written in just five minutes, when I had no idea what I was doing. Yesterday, I wrote two songs. I’m thinking the first one might end up being my hundredth—it came together quickly, in about ten minutes, and I really liked it.

My typical process looks something like this: 10–20 minutes writing, 30–60 minutes filming, 30 minutes audio editing, and another 30 minutes on video editing (though that can stretch if I add fancy captions or VFX). It’s not enough time to create a radio-ready track, but with today’s technology, it’s more than enough to put together a solid demo. The best part is having the freedom to experiment with different recording and editing techniques whenever I want.

Today, I stumbled onto two new things. First, I turned off the main studio light and just used a ring light and a lamp—it created a much moodier vibe. Second, I broke my usual rule and spent an hour writing lyrics. One of the goals of this challenge has been to avoid getting too caught up in the words, but today I found myself deep in it. The lyrics ended up resembling those from my album The Willow Tree, with familiar themes of wanting to be happy. It’s a subject I’ve been consciously steering away from lately, as it can be mentally draining to write about.

The song itself is about performing on stage and wishing I could play my own songs instead of covers like Arctic Monkeys or Radiohead for the hundredth time. While I enjoy doing the occasional cover, I’d much rather be recognized for my original work than the covers I perform.

This was by far the most difficult song for me today. It feels emotionally raw, and recording it wasn’t easy. Honestly, I’m still hesitant to post it—but it reflects the journey so far, and I think that’s important.