I feel discouraged. I've put a lot of work and time into these songs. I hope to release them in August. I only have a few more people to record. They feel so close.

They don't sound professional, but I can't say they sound particularly amateur either. They kind-of fit in the middle, in the uncanny valley of modern recorded music. They aren't good enough for college radio, but they're not primitive enough to sound like mere demos.

I don't know what to do to fix them. I don't have the technical expertise to know what to do or how to make them sound more real. They sound like professional recordings in the same way that Christian Contemporary Music sounds like mainstream rock and roll, sort of. They feel like an attempt at emulation that misses the mark.

So I've been listening to Gonzales' Soft Power ever since I first heard "C Major" on Q, probably back in 2008. I knew he'd worked with Feist. I knew he had a sense of humor. I knew he was an excellent pianist. I've never looked the guy up, however.

Apparently he's got a bigger following than I imagined.