|
|
|
| |
| Saturday, November 03, 2007 |
|
| |
Today, When Things Are Good
|
| |
 For the first time in quite awhile I'm actually...excited! Around the beginning of this decade an acquaintance of mine named Pete said, "Art, you're not in a band, you're not on the radio. What are you doing?" And I had to wonder, too. For the first time in my life I didn't have a project of some kind I was excited about.
Then just two or three years ago I had sent my pal Richard (see the link "Chilton" under Friends to the left) a pic of a new guitar I had bought. He said, "The reason you're buying this stuff is because you miss performing." I realized he was probably right: it was a way to be involved in music and creativity without actually doing anything but going to a cash register.
More recently our sometime-poster Scott said, "Maybe you should consider putting these toys to work?"
So I went to the edge, and there I stood and looked down (heh...David Lee Roth reference) and contemplated actually getting back into the music wading pool. It seemed my fire for forming rock bands had died out when Scott and I folded up our old band in 1993. The final flickers of motivation were doused when I realized there was no pot of gold at the end of the rock n' roll rainbow, and perhaps not even $10. Yet here I was reading music gear forums and surfing E-Bay for new toys! So...?
After getting a POD and Cakewalk Home Studio (more links at left) I recorded about 10 or 12 song ideas and contemplated putting my own voice to them in the style of Michael Gira. Tentative test runs revealed the addition of my slightly flat and sharp notes immediately imbued pretty polished home productions with a distinct flavor of amateurishness.
So it would be neccesary to bring other people into this project. Interface with...total strangers who may be...eccentric, to say the least. I held my nose and dived in (DIVE IN! DIVE IN!...inside joke).
To my surprise I've heard from three guys, and have actually heard the vocals and original compositions of at least one, and he sounds good! He reminds me of Tommy Tutone, the guy who sang "Jenny (867-5309)." He describes his original stuff as "pop/rock," so maybe the Cars-ish quality is what makes him sound like that. I'm wanting to do something more "out there," but he seems amenable. I wondered if when I sent him some of my stuff if he would go, "On second thought, never mind," but instead he said "send more if you got `em," so maybe this will go well. Or maybe one of these other two guys will sound like Chris Cornell and I'll be covered either way.
Even before conducting this singer search I had thought up a band name and moved to reserve it on a couple of music sites. Now I've gone wild and have it in hand everywhere from Garage Band.com to MP3.com. I've also found there are loads of new services springing up where you upload an MP3 and then they give you a code for a "widget," an interface that looks like a CD player with links to buy your tunes, and you can paste it anywhere and sell your stuff all over the Internet. I sign up for every one of those services I encounter just to "squat" on my band name idea. And so now there's me and Robert Plant, both selling our wares from the same little interface. Wow!
So I'm all around pretty excited about this. I know ultimately, when it's all ready, I'll send out an e-mail and post a link on a couple of forums and then get a couple of token, "Great stuff! Sounds nice!" comments, but ultimately no one will pay $.79 for a song or even return to the site again. But I don't care. It's so fun to be nearly 40 and yet still in the swing of things. This is what I've been missing in my life, whether it generates a penny or not.
So I'm pretty excited. |
| |
|
|
| |
Posted by Art | 12:27 PM EST |
2 comments
|  
2
Comments:
|
|
Previous Posts >>
|
|
|
-rankin' rob