Debut Album Released!

I would like to recap on my progress regarding the goals I wrote about in my last post.

First and foremost, I am very pleased to say that I have released my debut full-length album titled "Milestone." I was having a very difficult time uploading the tracks to the Record Union website. Thus, I contacted them and they assisted by uploading the tracks for me. I officially released the album this past Tuesday which coincides with the day of the week that the music industry releases new material. I did not plan it that way. My original intentions were to release it by Thanksgiving, but due to the lack of success I had in uploading to Record Union it was pushed back. The good news is that it is finally out which means that 3 out of 5 of my goals have been met.

The other 2 goals included recording a cover of a traditional Christmas song and recording an original Christmas song. I thought the former would be the easier task but it turns out that lyric ideas were flowing rather nicely. So for about the last week I've been working on recording this brand new Christmas song called "Christmastime." Making Christmas music just feels so good. I really enjoy it. You can keep it so simple. The real importance of it is in the lyrics and in an easy yet memorable melody. A lot of new Christmas music that I hear tends to be overproduced, schmaltzy and sad. To each his own but I can't go for that. I like the songs "White Christmas" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." I realize those songs are more reflective in nature and as such are more slow-tempo. But some artists just make those songs sound so depressing that I cannot listen. Nowadays it seems that Christmas music in general has become nothing more than a vocal showcase for many popular recording artists, providing the public with uninspired, contractually-obligated holiday music. I much prefer to hear original Christmas tunes, such as Coldplay's "Christmas Lights," as long as it's not schmaltz.

As far as when my new song will be finished--all I can say is sometime next week. You don't have a lot of time to spend on a Christmas song when the big day is only 12 days away. And of course I want to have it on rotation at ChristmasSongsRadio.com so I have to give it to them early enough. Currently I'm working on some piano parts for the song. Planning on some electric guitar. Probably add some sleigh/jingle bells. Also considering the possibility of some bells sounds and harpsichord. One of the main issues will be drums. Will I actually play drums or will I use the drum sounds from my Yamaha S90? Its drum sounds are very authentic-sounding. But it's so hard to get a perfectly timed beat in sync with the song. Much better playing actual drums but, as I've ranted so much about before, it's so hard to get a good snare drum sound. So I don't know what I'll do as of yet.

So when I'm done with "Christmastime" I may have enough time to do a cover of a traditional x-mas song. I have been strongly leaning towards doing a cover of "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" with the lead melody played on a mini-moog.

Until next time.