What have I been up to?
I haven't been blogging lately, so what have I been doing, you may ask?
Well, this past week was a whirlwind but a lot of the work I've been doing is fun work, so it's all good.
First, my band is finishing the final touches on our new EP, "Sidesaddle Sweet Talk" which will be released at LA Pride (June 10th). There are some cool remixes, a new version of "Mustache Rides" (which would be the third studio recording of it) and two new songs that I'm really proud of and excited about. Both of these new songs were sort of just throw-aways to me, things I had done on the Korg a very long time ago that I didn't suspect would ever see the light of day. Luckily for me, I have two very talented bandmates who took these tracks, and wrote amazing lyrics and musical parts for and took them to a new level. One of the tracks, "Delay", was further enchanced by our producer, Hoagie, who elevated that song to completely new territory for us - and I couldn't be happier with it.
Now that the music is all in the technical/post-production phase, my job duties shift over into the packaging/artwork/business side of things, as I've been busy putting together the design of the CD jacket and getting everything set up with the various companies involved (CD plant, web distribution company, etc). I like that part of the process and I'm glad I have familiarized myself with it so well. Everytime I get down on myself because Brandon has so much more technical knowledge about sound, recording technology and producing, I remember that I have chosen to handle this side of things and I believe it works very well this way.
Luckily, the music video associated with this released, for the song "Mustache Rides", has been completely handled by our good friends Von and Jessica, and I have not even had to stress about it at all. It's such a great feeling to have talented, creative people lending their talents to a project like this.
Meanwhile, though, I still want to continue my own aspirations of video directing and editing so I have been messing around with a video for "Be Not Afraid" which is a song I co-wrote with my grandma (she is in a nursing home but I took one of her poems and wrote this song around it). It's completely just for fun and for my own experience, but it is really fun and fulfilling to be working on a project that is 100% me, and seeing my own face so much in this video (yes, I'm vain, I'll admit it!) I shot the footage by myself, of myself, in my living room and it's pretty cheesy but I just wanted to see what I could come up with left to my own devices (and liberal use of the effects built in to iMovie!).
Last but not least I have been working on some music for the Coco Ono Show, a (very) short skit that our friends Melodie and Rick wrote and produced for Dylan's drag character. I did some music last week and then on Friday night when a bunch of friends were over, I had Brandon, Amy, Bun and Carrie all sing vocals for it. It's really fun!
So, that's what I've been up to. Now you know!
Well, this past week was a whirlwind but a lot of the work I've been doing is fun work, so it's all good.
First, my band is finishing the final touches on our new EP, "Sidesaddle Sweet Talk" which will be released at LA Pride (June 10th). There are some cool remixes, a new version of "Mustache Rides" (which would be the third studio recording of it) and two new songs that I'm really proud of and excited about. Both of these new songs were sort of just throw-aways to me, things I had done on the Korg a very long time ago that I didn't suspect would ever see the light of day. Luckily for me, I have two very talented bandmates who took these tracks, and wrote amazing lyrics and musical parts for and took them to a new level. One of the tracks, "Delay", was further enchanced by our producer, Hoagie, who elevated that song to completely new territory for us - and I couldn't be happier with it.
Now that the music is all in the technical/post-production phase, my job duties shift over into the packaging/artwork/business side of things, as I've been busy putting together the design of the CD jacket and getting everything set up with the various companies involved (CD plant, web distribution company, etc). I like that part of the process and I'm glad I have familiarized myself with it so well. Everytime I get down on myself because Brandon has so much more technical knowledge about sound, recording technology and producing, I remember that I have chosen to handle this side of things and I believe it works very well this way.
Luckily, the music video associated with this released, for the song "Mustache Rides", has been completely handled by our good friends Von and Jessica, and I have not even had to stress about it at all. It's such a great feeling to have talented, creative people lending their talents to a project like this.
Meanwhile, though, I still want to continue my own aspirations of video directing and editing so I have been messing around with a video for "Be Not Afraid" which is a song I co-wrote with my grandma (she is in a nursing home but I took one of her poems and wrote this song around it). It's completely just for fun and for my own experience, but it is really fun and fulfilling to be working on a project that is 100% me, and seeing my own face so much in this video (yes, I'm vain, I'll admit it!) I shot the footage by myself, of myself, in my living room and it's pretty cheesy but I just wanted to see what I could come up with left to my own devices (and liberal use of the effects built in to iMovie!).
Last but not least I have been working on some music for the Coco Ono Show, a (very) short skit that our friends Melodie and Rick wrote and produced for Dylan's drag character. I did some music last week and then on Friday night when a bunch of friends were over, I had Brandon, Amy, Bun and Carrie all sing vocals for it. It's really fun!
So, that's what I've been up to. Now you know!
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