Looking back and ahead

I'm about to resign myself to the fact that despite my best intentions, I'm good for about one blog entry a month. While I do enjoy it, there are just so many more things that take up my time, some of which you're about to read. So I thought I'd take a moment and catch everyone up from the past month and give you a head's up for what's down the pike.

I'll start off with a bit of sad news. I got an e-mail from Eowyn a few weeks ago in which she let everyone know that she is done as an artist. You can go to her site and read her latest blog entry to get all the details. The second single she released, "Life" never made it on to the Top 30 charts. It made me even more appreciative of the first single making the Top 20.

On the Big Blue Shoes front, Joel and I have finished a couple more songs ("Our Place" and "Everybody") that you can listen to on our myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/bigblueshoes. They're both very much Pop songs. So those of you expecting to hear the same kind of stuff I did with Eowyn are in for a surprise.

Last night I finished up the tracking for all of the instruments on the "special" project that I've been working on. More details about this one will follow later on once I'm able to talk about it. But in the meantime, I do have a story to share about one of the songs on it.

I can say that the project has 10 songs on it and I saved the one that I thought was going to be the easiest to record till the very end. The song is "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus." I had recorded the demo for the song back in May so it's been awhile since I had played the song. So I listened to the song and tried to follow along on my acoustic.

As I did, I was just taken aback by the beauty of the chorus. I'm not talking about my recording of it, but more along the lines of the melody and the words. At one point I was just overwhelmed by emotion and began to weep as I sang along with the song. It was a very spiritual moment.

Three hours later I was almost weeping again. No, not because of the beauty of the song. But because it had taken nearly three hours to record 1 rhythm acoustic guitar that played the chords for the song and one lead acoustic guitar that played the melody line of the chorus at two separate spots! Talk about your roller coaster ride! I was so frustrated by the time I finished I didn't want to listen to the song! LOL!

Tomorrow night I'm making my way back to KY to visit the parents, see a friend I haven't seen since last year at this time, see some friends I haven't seen since their wedding (nearly 10 years ago!), meet my new sister-in-law, see my grandmother that I hadn't seen in about 10 years, and oh yeah, take in a basketball practice up in Lexington at this little venue I like to call Rupp Arena. It's going to be a very exciting trip. My best friend in the whole wide world (other than my wife of course) Joel is gonna meet me up there and take in the Big Blue Madness with me.

Next month is going to be exciting too! I'm heading to L.A. for a few days! More on this one later!

Until next time...

What a way to start the week!

If the rest of the week goes as good as yesterday, then I'm in for a great week! It all started when I got home and checked the mail. I had a birthday card from one of my relatives which had a nice little gift inside. I also got a check from one of my client's for the latest music project that I'm working on. So far so good right?

Then when I made it to the top of the driveway I noticed a couple of packages sitting at the front door. It was my new pre-amp and new guitar! WOO HOO! For the curious ones out there, the pre-amp is the M-Audio Octane 8 Channel pre and the guitar is a Schecter C-1 Artist Limited Edition in a nice gloss black finish. I got one word for the stuff it's going to be used for... METAL!

Then after I got inside and checked my email I found out that three of my songs had been forwarded from TAXI for an Extreme Sports Instrumental listing a la Joe Satriani. It was a nice feeling. It had been awhile since I had gotten any forwards so it was nice to see that the "rush" I got from my first forward was still there when I got these.

A couple of hours later I finished up Phase 1 of the Easter Praise & Worship album last night. I handed my parts off to Joel and he finished up his early this morning and handed them off to the Arranger. In a few weeks we'll begin tracking the songs. If you enjoyed the Christmas album then we think you're gonna LOVE the Easter album.

As if all that wasn't enough... I got another exciting email late last night from a client that had received some of my music via TAXI. They decided to pass on all three songs. You may be asking yourself "Hey Big Blue, why are you excited about that when they PASSED on your music???" Here's why...

First, the fact that they even emailed me back to let me know that they passed is a BIG thing. As I've been finding, most of the companies don't take the time to contact you to let you know that they DON'T want your music. I don't sit around all day wondering why so-and-so hasn't contacted me yet even though I know they've got my music, but if I did, this would ease my mind.

Second, that group of songs were submitted back in April. Right after I submitted those, I took the next 3 months off from writing and focused strictly on improving my recording, mixing and mastering techniques. I know I still have a ways to go, but I feel like I'm closing the gap. Which leads me to...

The real reason why I'm so excited is that they left the door open for future submissions. They said they would welcome more material from me to review if I had any. WOO HOO!

So I've got my foot firmly entrenched in the doorway now, and I'm gonna see just how far inside I can go. Even if this relationship doesn't progress any further, I just wanted to take a minute to say thanks to TAXI for helping me make this connection. I know I wouldn't have done it on my own.

Now if only I didn't have this day job that requires so much of my time...

I'm still around

As much as I would like to blog on a more frequent basis I've found that I just can't find the time to do it as consistently as I would like to. I don't see that changing any time soon, especially with football season here and new episodes of my some of my favorite shows just around the corner, or in some cases, Monk & Psych, already on.

But the biggest thing that will be taking away from my blogging time will be music. I've got a lot of time and money invested into making the dreams of being a full-time musician becoming a reality. While I'm still a ways off, I'm getting closer every week.

Last week I got the finished version of the Fall On Your Knees project that I did with my co-writer Joel. That same night we began working on the Easter 2009 project. I never dreamed that I'd be writing music that would end up being used during a worship service. I guess I should say, that's just a path that I never thought I'd be on. But that's where I am at.

Here's some irony for you. When I made the decision to join TAXI earlier this year, I did so with the intention of trying to get some of my instrumental or "secular" songs signed so that I could get paid for them, which would then support my "Christian" songwriting efforts. As of this date, I've yet to receive a penny from any of my TAXI efforts, however, I've made a decent bit of money from my "Christian" songwriting efforts that has in turn, actually helped support my TAXI endeavors! I hadn't really thought about that until I started typing this blog. Funny.

On another note, I recently got back in touch with a dear old friend from my college days. I hadn't seen or talked to her in probably over ten years but we picked up where we left off and didn't miss a beat - a sign of a true friendship. The best part is that we've stayed in touch beyond the "ok, we're all caught up now, thanks for getting in touch" phase - another sign of a true friend.

I think that's it for now. Nothing new to report on Eowyn's second single "Life" as of yet, though I expect it's gonna debut in the Top 30 either this week or next. Her radio people are trying a different strategy this time, if it works, this one may go Top 10! Here's hoping!!!!!

Until next time...

Life

"...That's life. What's life? A magazine. How much? A dollar. Too much. That's life. What's life? A magazine. How much? A dollar. Too much. That's life. What's life? A magazine..." You get the picture. Although that dialog, or one similar to it, has appeared in multiple places over the years, I remember it vividly from watching an episode of Webster back in the day. Funny how some things like that will stick with you for YEARS yet other things like, oh I don't know, doing something your wife asked you to do 10 minutes ago seem to slip your mind so quickly...

So that story really has nothing to do with what I'm actually blogging about but there is a tie-in. Wait for it... Wait for it... OK... Remember how in my last post (I know, I know, I go 3 months without blogging and now I'm posting twice in the same week) I mentioned that there was a chance that for Éowyn's second single, it would be another one of my co-writes with her? Not only am I saying there's a chance... it's a definite! Which one is it you ask? That would be "Life." What's Life? The 2ND single off of Éowyn's current album Silent Screams, that's what!

It gets added to radio on July 21st. So if you live anywhere that has a Christian Rock station call them up and request the single. Let's see if we can get this one higher than "Silent Screams." And if we can't, oh well, that's life. What's life you ask? The song you need to be requesting starting next week!!!

Sorry for all the "what's life" jokes, I just couldn't resist. If you didn't find them as funny as me, oh well, that's life. What's.........

Until next time...

Time flies when you're having fun

Even though I knew I hadn't blogged in a LONG time, I got a friendly email reminder from a friend of mine today (thanks Nate!) telling me the same. So I figured I should probably try and catch everybody up on what has been a quite eventful three months.

I'll start off with an update on the song I wrote with Éowyn called "Silent Screams." It was released to radio back in March of this year. Three weeks after it was released to radio it debuted on the National R&R charts at #28 for Christian Rock. It eventually climbed up all the way to #17 a few weeks ago. The song stayed on the charts for 14 weeks until this past week where it dropped off. About a week ago, my wife and I ran into Éowyn and her husband at Wal-Mart. I'm not able to say for certain yet, but it looks like her second single may also be one of my co-writes with her! Once it's official, I'll let everyone know. If you haven't already heard the songs, you can check them out at her myspace page, http://www.myspace.com/eowynmusic. The four songs that I wrote with her are "Silent Screams," "Life," "To My Surprise," and "Goodbye."

Back in November of last year we started some home renovation projects. Everything finally got wrapped up in May. The majority of the work had been finished in April but it took the contractors WAY TOO LONG to finish the last few details. It was VERY frustrating. But overall, we're very pleased with how things turned out. I now have a dedicated area to work on my music and I couldn't be happier. I still have one more thing I want to do to it but for the time being, I'm up and running and it finally feels like a studio to me.

Man oh man, was May ever a busy month! I had been hired earlier in the year to write a Christmas Praise and Worship album, Fall On Your Knees, with my best friend Joel. I had to get all the tracks recorded so that the choir that was going to be singing on the album would be able to rehearse with them. Then later in the month I drove to Dallas with Joel to record the choir. It was my first trip to Big D and I had a great time, despite the fact that my back was all out of whack and I was hopped up on Advils the entire time.

A couple of days after I got back from Texas my parents came down to visit us and see all the work that we had done on our house. They were probably just as excited about it as we were. After that, I had a 3-day work week thanks to Memorial Day and my 12-year Anniversary :-)

It's hard to believe that I've been married for 12 years now! Other than being a student, musician and a UK fan, there aren't many other things I can think of that I've done for 12 years straight! Normally, we would try and leave the house and go somewhere just to get away. But not this year. We were both exhausted from getting the house cleaned up after the remodel projects were finished. While we gained more square footage for the house, we did so by giving up our "storage" space known as the garage. So after doing a purging of all the junk we had accumulated over the years, we finally got the house to a point where it's 95% clutter free!!! Only have a couple of closets to clean out then we'll be done! So after all that, we decided we would spend our anniversary at home this year and just relax. We did however keep our tradition of going to the Olive Garden on our anniversary alive.

While May was a busy month for me at home, June would turn out to be a busy one for me at the office. After months and months of searching, our office finally found a new location to call home and June was going to be our last month at the old location. While not everyone was happy about the choice of our new location, I was VERY happy with it. It's about 12 miles, or 15-20 minutes, closer to me than the old one was. We've been there 2 weeks now and I'm liking it much better than the old location, except now I'm in a cube as opposed to having my own office. But that's a sacrifice I don't mind making for the convenience of being closer to home and getting to avoid the majority of the traffic that I had to deal with before.

Since joining TAXI back in January, I've had 16 songs forwarded to prospective publishing companies, record labels, music supervisors, and artists. So far, I haven't signed any deals for any of the songs. The common theme in all of my critiques from the TAXI screeners were that while the songs were good, they weren't necessarily broadcast quality. Well, in May I was given an opportunity to submit of my songs directly to the head of an A&R department. I had a few weeks to get the songs finished so I thought I would spend some money on them and have mixed and mastered by a professional. You know, that whole first impressions thing.

So I did. I worked with Fett from Azalea Studios and could not have been happier with the whole process. He worked his butt off to get 7 songs mixed and mastered for me in a very short time span. Not to mention, we had to record vocals for two of the songs. Not only does Fett know his stuff, but he's just a cool guy to be around. Even though we were crunched for time, he was still able to help me learn a few things along the way. I would not hesitate to recommend him for any of your musical needs. He was able to get all of the songs finished in time for me to make my deadline. I don't really know what to expect as far as the A&R thing, but I do know that the person has received the songs and is going to get back to me within the next week or so. Who knows where it will lead.

After finishing up at Fett's studio, I had the chance to go another studio here in town a few days later to watch some vocals being recorded for the Christmas project that Joel and I did. That was a blast too! Speaking of that project, I got to hear the "almost" final mixes for the projects (we actually did 2 albums) and I was blown away. I just couldn't believe that he and I wrote those songs! I'll post some info on here later as to how you can get your copy of the songs. At the end of this month he and I are going to start writing another album for an Easter musical service.

Well, I guess that pretty much catches everybody up. Oh wait a sec... one more thing. I did something yesterday that I hadn't done in over 13 years. I got a hair cut... I've had the occasional trim throughout the years, but not an actual cut. It's still long to some degree, but nowhere near what it used to be. It just felt like it was time for a change.

OK, now I'm done :-)

Even though Yoda says "Do or do not, there is no try" - I will try very hard to not take so long to blog.

Until next time...