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.

Full Length Album Coming This Fall!!

I decided that I would release a full length album before the year is up. It's already mid to late September so that does not allow me much time. Especially since I plan on going back and remixing some of my existing songs. That shouldn't take an excessive amount of time as long as I dedicate enough hours to the task. Ideally I want it released no later than November. I already released a 6-song EP in late 2011 but it was a hurried effort and I ended up including an incorrect mix of one of the songs. Additionally, I created the EP without cover artwork so Record Union--the company I submitted the album with--used their own stock photo of a red dog. At the time it didn't matter because I just wanted my best music out there on Amazon and iTunes and Spotify. But this time around I will make sure to provide my own album artwork and the correct versions of my songs.

The reason I've waited so long to do this is due to the nature of my music. It's basically all over the place genre-wise. I have songs that sound pop, rock, jazz, r&b, indie, retro and some that are instrumental in different styles. The songs I ultimately end up including on this full-length album will in no way create a cohesive or thematic listening experience. It will be more like a compilation of an artist who has spent different phases of his career indulging in various styles of music. Perhaps someone like Beck. Or David Bowie. Or Brian Eno. Not sure. But I'm going to do this. And this album will include the best of what I've created between 2001 and 2012 and perhaps even a little something from 2013. I imagine my second full-length album will be more cohesive musically and will be comprised of material recorded over a much shorter period of time.

One of the songs that will be on this album is titled, "Where I Belong," and I just yesterday uploaded it to YouTube. Here it is:

By the way, the photo that accompanies the song in the video will most likely be the album artwork for this upcoming release. I think it looks cool. But getting back to this song--it's a song I recorded in 2007 so it's pretty old relatively speaking. The song opens with some low organ notes and and electric guitar. I was going for a dark feel there. The rest of the song features 6 and 12-string acoustic guitars, 2 electric guitars, electric bass and drums. This song also has the distinction of being the very first where I sang falsetto on. Falsetto is something I've been using a lot more since this song and will continue to do so. I really enjoy falsetto in the modern vein of Chris Martin of Coldplay and James Vincent McMorrow to mention a few.

This song may have a bit of a country feel to it. Maybe alt-country to be more precise. But that's really not the sound I was going for. I was going for a combination of an alternative and power pop and hard rock sound and I think I succeeded in that mission.

I feel the drums came out well-recorded in this song. Not 100% content with it but one of the better recordings I've managed. And as you know, I judge many of my recordings by the quality of the drum set sound. At this time I have no plans to re-work this song in any way for the album release to come. I'm going to leave it with its raw feel and energy. I must also confess that it is not one of my favourite tunes but it does have its moments of what in my world I would call 'perfection,' including that little guitar solo after the first chorus. It is a simple part but the tone of the guitar combined with the notes played over the other layers of instruments is really in my opinion one of my greatest musical moments.

I will try to get more tunes uploaded to my YouTube channel and as I do that I will share them here. Also I will continue to update on my progress of the album release and perhaps even schedule an album release party  :}