Solo album guys, I need some advice.

[Soundlurker]

I'm trying to figure out what goals would be realistic for my solo project. I have a bunch of songs that are all different in some way and I can't seem to think of the best way to bundle them together.
skip to bottom for 'tl;dr' version

So far I've got 5 songs that are completely finished, i.e. I found people who wrote lyrics for them and whom I recorded. The problem with those is that they are all significantly different genres of music, recorded and mixed at different points in time.

I also have another 5 songs that sound like they'd go together well and are recorded and mixed the same way. The thing is ...only one of these has vocals and I've spent 3-4 months searching for and asking various people to do the vocals and so far I've gotten only promises at best. The guy who recorded vocals for one of the songs happened to have lyrics that suited the song and he was in the area but is now back to his home-town on the other side of the country and he doesn't have a place where he could record his ideas.

I don't necessarily want to make a full-length album. Some EP would be great, but the first batch of 5 songs would sound too random and the second batch I can't seem to find people for. I really wish I could have a finished CD of my music, that represents my musical taste and not the compromises we've made with some band but I also want it to be something that people would want to listen to. Unfortunately, people tend to avoid albums that don't have a specific genre or in the other case - instrumental albums.

Thankfully, I'm not looking to make any profit at all, so at least that's out of the equation. Still, something being cheap or free doesn't guarantee it would generate interest, so tips for that would be helpful, as well.

TL;DR
So, what would you do if you have 5 complete songs that don't really fit together and 5 songs that do but aren't 100% complete (and you can't come up with lyrics and vocals to complete them)?

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

First of all, rid yourself of the mindset that you have to release something. You're in love with the idea of having a solo release, not the release itself. If the material you have finished doesn't have integrity to consider a whole but you want people to hear it anyway, just upload them on your website as single songs or something.

Just give it time. Wait until you have enough finished material that sounds and feels coherent together, and then consider releasing an EP or an album. When you love the album and not just the idea of having one in your name, you're good to go

 

[Soundlurker]

That's a good point. To clarify a bit - I actually love the songs, not so much the idea of releasing something. However, it worries me that if I don't release them soon, they'll end up like the 40 or so almost finished songs that rot on my HDD. If I don't put a deadline on the whole thing, the people I ask to do vocals for me will postpone it forever until they forget about the whole thing.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

That's a good point. To clarify a bit - I actually love the songs, not so much the idea of releasing something. However, it worries me that if I don't release them soon, they'll end up like the 40 or so almost finished songs that rot on my HDD. If I don't put a deadline on the whole thing, the people I ask to do vocals for me will postpone it forever until they forget about the whole thing.

For what it's worth, I know exactly how you feel. I still have a rather coherent EP without vocals lying somewhere on my HD's, finished years ago but abandoned after several vocalists bailed out one after another

IMHO there's nothing wrong with just uploading the songs somewhere. Call them demos or whatever. If they're good songs, they're good songs and don't need to be forced into any context

 

[Soundlurker]

I've been tempted to just upload something and be done with it or to give up on the whole idea but at the end of the day I really want to do them justice. They are probably not the best songs ever written but they are my own songs and I want the best for them much like parents want the best for their offspring.

 

[Sloan]

Release the ones that can be put together as a whole album. I think the perfect album length is 30-45 mins, you don't have to fill up the whole disc, I actually don't like listening to 20 fucking songs in a row.


Save the rest, finish them and release them later on an album with songs they fit or use them as demos for entirely new recordings for the new album with or release them on a collection of unreleased material.

 

[Skadsson]

Just don't get caught up in perfection - that's my biggest problem.

 

[Soundlurker]

^Yeah, I know what you mean but what's the point of releasing your music if you're not really that happy with it?