My own place in music

Here is an inspiring quote I read in an article called How to 'Fix' the Music Industry, by Bob Baker.

"You can't control what happens to the overall music business, but there is something you can control directly: How you conduct yourself and your own place in music. Focus on pursuing a career on you your own terms -- not terms imposed by the industry."

Wow - this is pretty inspiring, especially coming several weeks before I go back to the studio to work on the Painted Smiles remake.

So what exactly is my own place in music? I hope that the songs I write and record will add colour to the tapestry of our musical culture. I am not so much trying to put together a band as I am trying to build a team of musicians to express my musical ideas. It's a sort of cross between Alan Parsons Project and Trans Siberian Orchestra, in the sense that they would use a vocalist that best suits a particular song, rather than having a single identifiable lead singer.

Mosquitoes declared an endangered species

Mosquitoes declared an endangered species.

What are the chances that any of us will ever see this headline in our lifetime?

Saving time for daylight

Thought for the day - let's set all the clocks at work ahead by 5 minutes. Do this every day - in two weeks you'll be able to go home an hour early.

High cost of gas

Gas is so expensive these days. I wonder how much it would cost to convert my car engine to run on coke and menthos?

Let's book some time

Steve S called me back this morning because I left him a message earlier this week about looking for a vocalist for the Painted Smiles project. He told me he's done lots of vocal work and would be willing to do add his voice to my project.

I didn't previously know about Steve's vocal background. I had originally hired him several years ago as a sound engineer for my first CD project, Cleverly Crafted. I had recorded all the instrument tracks for that project by composing MIDI sequences for each song and playing the sequences back through my PSR-620 keyboard. I recorded my vocal tracks at Steve's studio and he did all the mixing and mastering.

During that association I learned that he plays guitar. When I decided that I wanted to raise the bar on my next project, I remade two songs I had previously recorded on the Cleverly Crafted CD, Yesterday Seems So Far Away and Mirrors. Steve played guitar on those remakes and the resulting works sound miles better than the MIDI-recorded versions. I got him to play guitar on almost all the songs I did on my next CD project, Face of Shadows, and I learned the value of letting go of total control of my music.

So I booked some time in the studio; we'll put down the basic tracks, and give Steve's voice a workout.

Order of operations

I've been thinking about the Painted Smiles remake I want to do. A question of logistics comes up - should I start recording the instrumental tracks as soon as I have the funds available to pay the studio fees, or should I wait until I've found a vocalist first?

Normally what I do is record the instruments first, then add the vocal layers on top of that. That's how I normally work - so why should I consider changing my methodology this time? Because I might want to record the song in a different key signature based on the range of the vocalist I find, that's why.

So do I wait until I've chosen a vocalist and record the tracks in a key that works best for him? Or do I make it a requirement that the vocalist be able to perform the song in the key in which I've written it?

I don't know yet. What process will I use to decide? I don't know that yet either.