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.