Clara Raubertas // Freelance Web Design, Web Development, and Web Consulting // Cambridge and Boston, Massachusetts clara raubertas design. development. consulting.

Some of you may be aware that some friends and I started a band this year, and so far, it is awesome!

Well, actually, several of the same people had a previous incarnation of the band last year, but it never really went anywhere. The version we (re-)started in January has accomplished much more, for a handful of reasons:

• I have a real electronic drumset, rather than just a bucket to bang on!
• Meeting on Sunday afternoons rather than on weekday evenings gives us more time to practice
• Meeting on the same day every week rather than “when people are free” makes sure we’re rehearsing together regularly and frequently
• Not breaking out the beer at the beginning of practice keeps us focused :)
• Keeping our playing-together practice and writing-music sessions separate also improves our focus (in our previous incarnation, we often spent the whole practice thinking about a song idea someone had had instead of playing together; this time, we’re restricting our Sunday practices to songs that are ready to play, and scheduling optional weekday meetings to work on turning song ideas into playable songs)
• We’ve also tried recording some of our songs as we practice — most of the recordings aren’t fit for public consumption, but they’re helpful to practice to and to listen and critique to see what we need to improve

This has been a really fun project so far! We’re so put-together that we even have a name (The Moral Hazards), a website (themoralhazards.com), and a myspace, where you can hear a jam session we had last weekend based on one of the original songs we’re working on.