2019 Update

I didn't realize I haven't updated here since last summer! How time flies!!

Well, this is what's been going on since last June. I did not complete the Christmas song (Christmas in the City [reprise]) I was working on. I'd say I'm probably 75-80% done. I still need to finish some small synth parts, guitar parts and the drum track. But since I'm making this song a reprise I have to have the counterpart it's based on. I need a full song called "Christmas in the City." That I have not written yet. So if I plan to release at the very least a single for the holiday season, I feel I should have two songs to do so. It's not necessary, I know. Nowadays you only need to release a single track. But it may be strange to release a reprise song without having the original non-reprise song. Make sense?

The last several months I have been working on an instrumental version of "Stormy" by Dennis Yost & The Classics IV. It's a song I have always loved and I even did a guitar cover of it on YouTube some years ago. I came into a really cool Hammond organ late last year and it's a fabulous instrument. I started getting all these thoughts of doing some organ versions of my favorite songs. I started with "Stormy" and it's not quite done yet either. I really want to finish it before moving onto something else. Otherwise, I will end up with a bunch of unfinished projects. A few other covers I am excited at the thought of doing include "Gimme Some Lovin'" and "I'll Be Your Shelter". This organ is so cool that I have tons of songs I would like to do but I need to also stay focused on doing my own original material.

It is now April as I write this. What will I be able to get done this year? Will I get an original Christmas album ready? Or one of holiday covers? Or one of non-holiday music? Maybe an EP or a couple of singles. Perhaps a holiday single and a non-holiday single. That might be the most likely thing. Not ideal but that may be what I have to settle for. This is the era of the single. Oh, I should mention that I did officially release my song "If I Told You" late in 2018 through CD Baby, so it can be found there, on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and other places. I did embellish the song a bit with a few extra things so it is not the same version that I uploaded to YouTube a while ago. This song has become one of my personal favorites.

What I really want to do is get back to my own music. As much as I may get excited about doing covers the truth is that most no one else would be interested and of course there can be no expectations of earning any money from it. It's almost like a TAXI type thing--you custom make music based on their listings and submit to them but they don't accept it. That's a lot of time and effort to spend that could otherwise be used towards making original music that you own the rights to. Problem is, I have not written much at all since the last post. A matter of distraction and discipline.

I am going to try to crank out something before it gets too hot in the studio. But even if it does get hot I will work through it. I remember the hot July recording sessions for "Tomorrow" that I toiled through. If necessary I'll do that again.

I have lots of ideas for things to record. Another consideration for this year is to release an album of instrumental recordings. I was entertaining the thought of calling it "The Soundtrack". There are some unreleased tracks would definitely fit in well on this. And I could easily make some more. Also there is still the possibility of recording a minimoog album. Had some ideas for some shoegazing or spaced out music that could make for something interesting. Or I may just merge this project with "the soundtrack" project if I start to lack in ideas or get pressed for time.

2016: Year End Goals

Around this time of year, I usually write about my end-of-year goals for Exit World music. This year is no different except that I don't really have any goals. Well, nothing crazy like the last few years. I would really love to get a Christmas album out there (read: a 10-song collection), but it's not going to happen in 2016. Technically there is enough time if I put together some simple covers. But I like to indulge in my music and doing things quickly is not how I like to work on it. Next year though is a very real possibility. Let's just say that things have fallen into place and I am more optimistic for the coming year than I was for the current one. And definitely more optimistic than the tone of some of my other posts this year.

Last year around this time I recorded a unique version of "We Three Kings." It didn't take me very long and I was pretty pleased with it. It was an instrumental and that has a lot to do with my having completed it rather quickly. Vocals are a weak spot for me and not having to record take after take of lines and phrases saves a ton of time. What I am considering for this year is recording another instrumental cover. I have not written any new holiday tunes nor do I anticipate being able to write and produce one in time. In all truth though the two original songs I did make the last few years were started around this time so I could still do it. I'm not going to place a lot of emphasis on that though and just focus on getting a cover done. I am leaning towards "O Little Town of Bethlehem," as it's a song I've been wanting to do for quite some time.

In my previous post I wrote that I was considering not renewing to have my music available on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, etc. At this point it looks like I will keep it up for at least another year. Recently I was with some people and I wanted to hear my music through a new piece of gear. Not having my iPod on me it was really really convenient to be able to have them find me on Spotify and play my music from there. That was pretty nice. It was also pretty cool to have my music playing there and most people around not knowing it was me. And then seeing how surprised they were to learn it was me. I took that as some small sign that I should continue on. So I'm going to keep my music up and available for streaming and purchase.

I did not do very much musically this year. I guess that's nothing really out of the ordinary for me. Just about two songs, possibly a third coming, and a half-minute rendition of "Happy Birthday to You" which has been played a lot. It's really hard to accomplish a lot when you're working this alone and you don't always have necessary time & space to do it. I could easily become an electronic musician and put out lots more music but I do not want to go that route.

One thing I did do recently was publish a new song on Soundcloud & YouTube called "If I Told You." I had been working on this song for several years. You can look back on some of my posts from some years ago when I first talked about it. Well, it's finally done and it's one of my favorite songs. The recording quality is so good IMHO and it shows how my production skills have really improved tenfold over the years. It is so good to see yourself grow, not old, but in ability, skill, knowledge and expertise.

I still want to remix the song and just tweak it a bit here and there, but I did make a video and uploaded it to YouTube:




This was my pièce de résistance for 2016. Surely this song (in slightly remixed format) will be on my next album of originals. 

In the meantime between now and the new year I will try to churn out a new recording of an old Christmas song. I know many of these tunes are tired and overdone but many people still love Christmas music as do I. I'll just come up with a unique take on it like I did with "We Three Kings."

Re-visiting Some Previously Recorded Tunes

What have I been up to lately? Well, revisiting some of my old tunes and re-working them so to speak. Last week I went back to "Another Morning (What a Drag)" and attempted to create a stripped-down mix of it for a special purpose. Recently the thought of going back to many of my older songs and just completely stripping them down to acoustic guitar and vocals has crossed my mind. I guess I feel like experimenting a bit. But even something like that can distract me from getting my album released as part of my springtime goal.  So in reality the reason I went back to "Another Morning" was for a very good reason and not just to kill time. Anyway, here is the mix that I came up with.




The last few days I have gone back to working on "Tomorrow." A music comrade had suggested I do a little more with the vocals so I added some extra layers of complimentary vocals. It was a great idea that I'm glad he suggested and I really like how the new version now sounds. I also took the liberty of moving around a few parts that for years I have left alone; reason being that I felt I had spent enough time on it already and needed to move on. So this new yet-unreleased version will sound different from the one I released on my EP in late 2011 which can be heard on Spotify if you look hard enough (or on my YouTube channel).

It was interesting going back to these recordings from 2009 and 2010. I realized I was quite reverb-happy during that time. I still love reverb but the amounts I used in these songs were pretty excessive. Additionally, I was using the built-in reverb which is very digital sounding. I exclusively now use reverb pedals or vocal pedals that have good-sounding reverb built into them. The reverb on these pedals don't sound so processed as does the one built into my 16 track Boss recorder.

So not only will "Tomorrow" sound different from the EP version but "Another Morning" will as well. Not as much however. But there will be reduced levels of reverb and I'm going to remix the drum track to mono. The current version features the drums really up front in the mix due to inadvertently recording the drums onto a stereo track. After having recorded the drums I played it back and noticed that the kick drum was panned all the way to one side while the rest of the drums were panned to the other. Needless to say that was not the effect I was going for. At the time I thought the only way to remedy that (without playing the drum part all over again) would be to double the drum track and pan it all the way left or right in order to balance out everything into the middle. But that resulted in a really in-your-face drum part. So I'm going to mix down that drum track into mono and take it from there.

In other news, I'm still working on the lyrics for the final song on the album. Stayed tuned.

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  :}

You Are So Good

I don't remembering having recorded any songs in 2003. I may have been still working on polishing up some of the other ones. Not completely sure. But the following year I made an 'epic' song. Titled "You Are So Good" it was really a work of art for me and the best thing I made up to that point. Actually it still stands as one of my best songs lyrically and musically and is the first song featuring my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar:

I don't have this guitar any longer either. This was my first really good electric guitar. And it smelled good! Or maybe it was the case. I don't know. But something about Gibson electric guitars/cases. They have this aroma that makes playing even more enjoyable. Anyway, this was the guitar used in the solos for this song.

As I mentioned this song was recorded in 2004. But in 2010 I came back to this song and and added one more thing to it. In the early part of that year I purchased a Korg Micro Sampler.

Around that time I had become interested in sampling as a result of much listening to the music of Sigur Ros. More on that in a future post. But with this Korg I recorded an electric guitar part for the pre-chorus of the song. Then with the help of audacity I added that part to the song and I also reversed the part and added it as a layer over the piano intro to the song. And it turned out pretty well. Unfortunately, when I released my EP I inadvertently did not include this new, updated 2010 version and instead released the original 2004 version. The original version is available on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, etc.

The instrumentation for this song includes: acoustic guitar; digital piano; electric bass; drums; several electric guitar tracks; tambourine; electronic keyboard (organ sound); and 2 vocal tracks. Here is the song:




This song also received an honorable mention in another Billboard songwriting contest. I don't have the exact details. I did perform this song twice at church with members of the youth group. To this day some of them can still sing the chorus.

The Moment of Truth

This next song has been the longest in the making. I started recording it in 2002 and only finished it in 2010. I was satisfied with the instrumentation and arrangement but the original vocals left much to be desired. Originally I had sung the main vocal an octave lower that what you will hear in this version. I didn't like it. It sounded too laid back and wasn't a good match for the subject matter of the lyrics.

I worked on the instrument tracks for much of 2002 and 2003. I was very pleased with the music itself and definitely felt it was my best work up to then. Even to this day it remains one of my favourite songs and I really love the semi-psychedelic folk rock sound I created on it. Even a fellow musician of the reggae/rap genre had shown some interest in sampling the instrumental version for his own music. As far as I know, that never came to pass however.

The drums on this song sound very good to me just as on the previous song. The overall balance of sound and instruments is also very good.

I recorded multiple takes of the vocal track but none every sounded right. So for years I left the song alone until 2010 when I decided to try something different with it. What I tried was to sing the whole song an octave higher than originally planned. To me, that gave the song a much better sound and a sense of urgency that complemented the lyrics. It also made it much more difficult to sing the chorus without going flat. Nonetheless, I think it sounds great. And I added a falsetto harmony track on the verses. Icing on the cake!

Instrumentation includes: acoustic guitar; several electric guitar tracks; electric bass; drums, electronic keyboard (organ sound); and digital piano. The electric guitar used in this song was my very first electric. It was an Epiphone Les Paul Special which I no longer have. I don't have any pictures of it either.

Here is the song:




Since this is one of my personal favourite songs and one of the best sounding ones, I included this song in my 5-song EP which I released in November of 2011. This song can be found on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and various other music websites.

I never entered this song in any contest mainly because I stopped entering songwriting contests in the mid 2000's and this one was completed in 2010.

On my next post, I will have another one of my favourite songs. It's a song that also took on a life of its own for a while and some people can even sing some lines from its chorus even to this day.