The Thirteenth Hour Podcast

Originally aired on May 8, 2023. This week, I'm working on the coverart for the track that I was working on in episode 402 .  The track itself is now done, and you can actually listen to it at the end of this episode or on Bandcamp.    However, the picture to go with the track was not.  I wanted it to be pixelart and decided to give a nod to some of the 80s and 90s films that influenced the st...

Originally aired on April 24, 2023. This week, I'm starting work on another music track that I've been meaning to make for a long time.  There's this section of The Thirteenth Hour where the main character, Logan, who is shipwrecked and bereft of anything to help him on his mission, encounters a magical flying hoverboard he calls Lightning that he can communicate with that can play als...

Originally April 17, 2023. This week, I'm finishing the battle theme I started in episode 399 .  When that episode was done, I tweaked the theme a bit more but it just didn't feel finished.  However, I couldn't put my finger on what it needed.  I experimented with a few ideas, some in my mind, some digitally or on the keyboard ... but it never quite worked.  Shortly before I recorded t...

Originally aired on April 10, 2023. https://13thhr.wordpress.com/2023/04/10/the-thirteenth-hour-podcast-400-episode-400-retrospective-and-celebration/ This week is the 400th episode of this podcast!  It's a special one, and perhaps the biggest one yet, as we hear from guests over the show's nine year run.  The range of topics covered pretty much touch on many of the things this podcast he...

Originally aired on April 3, 2023. This week, I'm starting the process of creating a battle theme for the next Thirteenth Hour soundtrack LP.  It will also serve as one of the pieces of music playing when there is a fight during the Thirteenth Hour mini DnD campaigns over on Patreon.  During this episode, I experiment with a number of voicings as well as melodic parts added to an underlying dr...

Originally aired on March 27, 2023. This week, I'm starting to make a few last tracks for the next Thirteenth Hour soundtrack LP - just when I think it's done, I realize there are things I wanted to stick in there but forgot to.  They're all quite short but since realizing that I can incorporate music in the the mini DnD Thirteenth Hour campaigns over on Patreon, these tracks will also...

Originally aired on November 7, 2022. This past week, I worked on finishing a track started back in Episode 364 accompanying a short segment from  The Thirteenth Hour where Logan meets his crewmates again in a dream.  When I finished the episode, I put it aside since it didn't quite feel done, but I couldn't put my finger on what it needed.  I tossed around a number of ideas for a time, bu...

Originally aired on August 15, 2022. This week, we’re doing two things - adding to a track we started in episode 364 and reading another segment from Dragon Fall by Lee J. Hindle.  The track I'll be adding to is for the next Thirteenth Hour soundtrack album.  It's an additional layer to complement what we did before.  I also came up with a variation of it for another part of the book that...

Originally aired on August 1, 2022. This week, I'm making one last track for the next Thirteenth Hour soundtrack album.  Just when I think it's done, I think of another track I want to make.  I think that's because I really do think of all these tracks as accompaniments to various sections in the books.  The nice thing about that is once you find a central theme (e.g. elements of The T...

Originally aired on March 28, 2022. This week, I'm working on the last piece in the upcoming second Thirteenth Hour soundtrack.  The track, called "Homecoming" is an incidental piece of music I made back in the summer but wasn't sure how to finish.  But today, I'm wrapping it up by adding two additional layers - a short melody for the "verses" using a xylophone soun...

Originally aired on March 7, 2022. This week, I'm working on two music pieces - one of the last tracks from the upcoming second Thirteenth Hour soundtrack.  The song, called "No Hero (The Future is Here)" is basically the equivalent of the soundtrack's ending track (like a song that would play over the ending credits).   Some previews: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CakaktDhREt/?...

Originally aired on July 19, 2021. Awhile back, I ordered some lenticular 3D cards from the French company, Pops, which did the lenticular wiggle cards for the resin figurines I made.  They now have smaller form 3D cards that will serve as contest rewards.  What's the contest, you ask?  It's a review contest.  If you can help the show get more Apple Podcasts reviews and are the 5th or 10th...

Originally aired on May 10, 2021. https://13thhr.wordpress.com/2021/05/10/the-thirteenth-hour-podcast-300-special-anniversary-podcast-edition-and-like-a-hood-ornament-27-watching-the-rocketeer-cartoon-episode-8-with-my-daughter/ Welcome to episode 300!  This show has been going in some fashion since 2014 and continuously since early 2015 so in commemoration, I've gathered together a few clips...

Originally aired on March 1, 2021 This week's show piggybacks off last week's episode and the Patreon exclusive episode that came out last week.  We're making the slow, meditative Thirteenth Hour theme that was playing in the background of last week's episode and then creating a visual for it in Adobe Premiere.  I always thought that cloudscape scenes were peaceful and naturally me...

Originally aired February 22, 2021. This week's episode comes at a time of increasing national and global anxiety about the future, and as inhabitants on this rock orbiting a star on the edge of the Milky Way, we're subject to the milieu of the environment, and unfortunately, there's a lot of angst in the soup.  And as anyone who's ever had a muscle cramp can attest, the way around...

Originally aired on October 5, 2020. This week, there was so much "housekeeping" business to take care of, I made it a whole episode.  Here's the lineup: -I am just about done the title track, "Once Upon a Dream," for the next Thirteenth Hour soundtrack LP.  I finally figured out what was missing from the backing part.  More synth (there's a surprise).  Then it all fit...

Originally aired on September 21, 2020. This week, I'm wrapping up "Once Upon a Dream" and discussing more on the idea of creating a creative arts collective.  Last week, I created a private Facebook group called Thirteenth Hour Arts - For Creators, Not Haters.   Many thanks to all who joined! This week, I'm launching a Patreon of the same name and idea - a place to share in the...

Originally aired on September 20, 2014. This week, I'm adding vocals to "Once Upon a Dream" and discussing more on the idea of creating a creative arts collective.  To start, I ended up creating a private Facebook group called Thirteenth Hour Arts - For Creators, Not Haters . Here's the premise I've copied from my inaugural post there: Welcome to The Thirteenth Hour Arts Coll...

Originally aired on September 7, 2020. This week, I'm continuing to record the backing tracks for "Once Upon a Dream" - the solo, the chorus, and so forth.  Next will be the vocals, the outro riffs, and maybe a few electric guitar accents here and there. Speaking of which, I thought it might be a nice thing to add some of the magnet dolls I talked about recently as part of the specia...

Originally aired on August 31, 2020. This week, I'm working up and wrapping up few concurrent projects - starting the recording of the backing track for "Once Upon a Dream" discussed last on episode 261 and finishing up a little "kitbashed" minifigure of Aurora from The Thirteenth Hour discussed a bit last episode. The magnet dolls discussed last episode are in the editing...

Originally aired on August 10, 2020. This week, I'm working on the title track from the next Thirteenth Hour soundtrack LP, Once Upon a Dream .  I have the keyboard riffs and the lyrics mostly done and am now trying to figure out how they go together.  I've recorded a bare bones version here with just the vocals and the piano chords, which is how many of these songs start.  In the coming w...

Originally aired on July 13, 2020. On this week's show, I'm continuing the recording process to a song I started a number of months ago, "The Last Dance," last discussed on episodes 223 , 224 , 225 , and 256 . We're discussing the recording of the vocals as well as additional synth tracks, like a simple instrumental solo. Speaking of which, I added a voiceover to a track that...

Originally aired on July 6, 2020. On this week's show, I'm starting the formal recording process to a song I started a number of months ago, "The Last Dance," last discussed on episodes 223 , 224 , and 225 . I got stuck for awhile since the original way I'd conceptualized the song was much slower.  It took awhile for it to evolve in my mind and to work out how to play certain...

Originally aired on December 2, 2019. This week, I continue work on a ballad written from the perspective of Aurora from The Thirteenth Hour from a passage in the book where our young protagonists are starting to realize that there might be more to their relationship than just friendship.  I've been fiddling with adding a beat to the song and was listening to two examples - one by Debbie Gibso...

Originally aired on November 25, 2019. This week, I continue work on a ballad written from the perspective of Aurora from The Thirteenth Hour from a passage in the book where our young protagonists are starting to realize that there might be more to their relationship than just friendship.  Last week I had a rough draft of the lyrics.  This week, I'm singing the second draft and playing the ch...