It was an honor to perform “No Ordinary Daughter” at the Voices Shine A Light fundraiser at the Listening Room in Nashville last night. I got to meet CeCe Winans, Amy Grant, JP Morton (Maroon 5) and some other amazing artists. I was the least developed artist on the lineup, no question, and I was blown away by the talent. Definitely raised my bar and inspired me to continue honing my craft.
I’m on a several month sabbatical from my job to focus on making my first record. I’ve been relaxing (I did a spreadsheet of the daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly tasks, and came up with an average of 65 hrs a week) and doing a lot of writing, research (how to launch a kickstarter, things to do to get my musical act together, etc). I’m excited to get the ball rolling.
I’m getting ready to launch my Kickstarter and in doing research about who’s doing great work, I came across “The Ugly Club,” a New Jersey band that’s got their Kickstarter Act together, already doubling their (admittedly low) goal of $3,000 with some to spare. I loved how they hacked their photograph to align to the Kickstarter functionality so that when you land on their Kickstarter page, their graphic points to the Like button and Tweet and “Back this campaign.” from a visual marketing perspective, it rocks. I also noticed they’re doing pretty well with over 2100 likes on their FB page. (I currently have 52 – clearly needing to get my ass in gear). They also have a link to their kickstarter page in their “About” section of their Facebook page. Anyway, Wanted to give props to whomever is running their web/digital stuff. Looks good. https://www.facebook.com/theuglyclub
Since my last blog post:
– topsy-turvy year for managing a company
– took my first vacation in 8 years
– went to Burning Man
– recorded an EP (doing a horn track now, then final mixing and mastering, then poof!)
– co-organized another #designathon
– visited my sister in NC
– visited my Pop in CA
– meditated in an ancient mayan temple
– had a birthday
– a bunch of other stuff, too.
Today, I exercised, wrote music, did some planning, did some correspondence, ran a few meetings. It was a good day.
I’m super excited to have met with a producer here in Nashville, who’s going to be helping me put together an EP of songs to be released early next year. The EP is a quick detour from the project I moved to Nashville to do. It’s also another going to be another great learning experience in yet another totally different recording environment. This time, I’m going to use a straight-up Music Row demo producer with a band of union session players to bang out 4 songs in 5 hours.
This project came together really unexpectedly (isn’t life just like that?) when a new friend offered to help promote and distribute “Your Sugar” as part of a new chocolate venture he’s starting – Toffee Turtles – “Spreading love through candy.” Anyway, it’s kind of a lark, but one I’m joyfully pursuing. Life can’t ALWAYS be about “the mission” and purpose all the time. If there’s a time for stopping and smelling the roses, there’s a time for eating chocolate and listening to love songs.
The working title is “A Suite of Sweet Songs.” The working track listing (not nec in this order)
– Your Sugar
– My slowed down version of Prince’s “Kiss”
– Smile Like An Arrow
– Dice Donde Y Cuando
– Over and Over
I’m about to pay a bullshit parking ticket from San Francisco because it will cost me more to research the actual grade of the street I had parked. It was nearly level, but I got a >3% wheels not curbed $50 ticket. The amount of time it would take to a) find out where in the byzantine beauraracy that piece of data is actually kept, and b) then go deal with the DPT is extraordinary. Were it not for the fact that it was given to a rented van, I would simply ignore the ticket, but the rental agency has my credit card number and would charge it. I suppose I could have argued that it was the Department’s burden of proof to demonstrate that the street WAS actually >3% grade, but that didn’t occur to me in the 4 weeks of LIFE that has trounced all over me. It is such absolute desperate bullshit and yet I still have to pay it because if I don’t pay it now, I will pay it later on my credit card, and then later (and more still) in interest. See Ceelo Green’s new song for my sentiments on the matter.
The last couple of weeks have been really good in a lot of ways. I’m eating healthier, I’m exercising more regularly and in general being more conscious of my health. There are rough spots, no doubt. Anyway, lots of interesting things happening. The NCMA organization is actually putting together a coalition of organizations addressing missing persons. This is a good sign for the Missing Project, which has been warmly received by the NCMA. I’m planning to attend a formational meeting of the coalition in the southwest sometime in October. I think my goal will be to have the Missing Suite wrapped up by then. I’m two keyboard tracks short of a full tracking, and then it’s just a matter of mixing and mastering. And three, no, four years in the making? Man. I gotta get this wrapped.
I’ll tell you, it’s hard to balance CivicActions with music. For the last year, and especially the last 6 months, music has steadily become deprioritized over getting the company moving forward out of the bloodbath that was 2009. I’m still writing and trying to rehearse daily. I’m actually rehearsing 4-5 days a week, and by rehearsing I mean playing at least 3 songs with my full presence and expression. I’m excited about the possibility of actually having the EP done, and eventually the full length record.
So much to do! I need to re-order Generate Kindness stickers, I’m re-designing my website to be more of a blog (using WordPress), working on Sharedvoice.org, the Missing Project, wrapping up the case study for the Design-a-thon. Buggah!! (That’s the sound of an about-to-be-headless chicken.
Tonight, after about 8 hours of traveling from Seattle, where I MC’d and performed in a variety show for a wedding, I finally arrived home. I turned right around, though, to head to Trader Joe’s for provisions for the work-week ahead. After dinner, I installed some new virtual drummer software, which is going to give me a ton of support in my writing and music production. Unrelated, I started a new song tonight. I’m really liking this one, ’cause it feels like more of a platform for sharing my heart about the state of things. Still pretty nascent. Busted out the new stereo recorder to capture the writing session. I think with how cheap computer media is, I might just start recording all my rehearsals and writing sessions. Often, they blend. I like the idea of being totally comfortable with being recorded. I’m still prone to getting into a bit of a headtrip when I know I’m being recorded.
After the wedding performance, I had a number of people who were asking me for CD”s and wanting to know how to get my music. I was really flattered and also a bit frustrated, ’cause I’ve been choosing to prioritize my job over my music. (I happen to have a job that I love and feel is important in the world). Anyway, it was bittersweet. One woman pleaded with me, even. To be fair, it was well into the reception, and the Manhattans were strong… But it still inspired me that my music has some interest. I feel obliged (in a good way) to deliver.
I’m really going to make an effort to get some major progress made on both of my projects by the end of the year. I’m also feeling the desire/need to write more, too, so I’ve been giving into that creative urge with great (to me) results.
So anyway, tonight, I got my studio upgraded with this recent software addition, wrote two new songs, really. Practiced the guitar and piano (man, am I rusty) did a bunch of research on Worpdress themes for musicians, and took care of a few personal things.
I do have to say that there just don’t seem to be enough hours in the day to do all the things I want/need to do. Hence my crazy hours. I don’t want to say no to anything (though I constantly do).
Will have some stuff to post soon, I think.
Here’s “No Ordinary Daughter.” This song was/is inspired by a friend of mine who really duked it out with a bout of depression. Having some of that running through my family, I’m familiar with its effects, and can write from a pretty personal place about it. I wrote this as an encouragement to her and the millions of women like her who suffer from depression. I’m looking for a good cause to donate to for this track, so if you know of one, please let me know. Ideally, it would be an organization that’s focused on women’s depression. “cause the world needs less of those.
I forgot to mention that I’ve made some incremental progress on the Album. I’ll upload the demo tracks that I put together with my man, Andy Walker here in Nashville. He’s a talented engineer and editor and has been helping me get it done. My intention with posting the tracks is to share the process of making a record, step-by-step as much as possible. I’m a little reluctant, ’cause I’m a bit of a perfectionist and hesitate to release anything that doesn’t give me a strong sense of “Yup, that’s it.” Listening to these tracks feels good in the sense that they’re a step forward, but the vocals are scratch vocals, the drums are loops and in all, they’re still in a very early stage. And all that being said, I’m hoping to get them pushed out sooner than later.