Skin of my teeth

Well, all last weekend, I had slated off to write the
three songs for Madcap... Here's a metaphor that sums
up the first few days. It's kind of like when you are
lying in bed. You know you have something important
the next morning (and wouldn't you know it, it's EARLY
morning...) and all you need is a good nights sleep.
Yet you lay there and your mind won't shut up, and as
a result, you spend a solid 3 hours in bed staring at
the cieling. You try to force yourself to get tired,
so you can get the sleep you know you need, but
nothing works. SO, at that point, you have to ask
yourself: Do I stay here and continue what I know
hasn't worked yet, or do I just get up and get out of
bed, and figure that you might as well spend waking
time productively.

Hopefully you made it all the way through that
metaphor. Friday and Saturday were just like lying
awake in bed. I kept going to the studio, trying to
write, nothing came out of it. But I KNEW that what I
needed to do was use this time to complete the music.

Moral of the story? When it works, it works. Sunday
was a brand new day, and with it came a fresh
perspective. And with THAT, came music. And let me
tell you, when it works the way you want it to, the
songs practically write themselves. By Saturday I was
sweating finishing even two of the three tracks in
time. But Sunday night, I knew it was only a matter
of a few more hours. Monday night I finished the
third. Man I love inspiration.

I have also found out that the latest Ivan-I
collaboration (which I will be working on with Ivan in
about 8 minutes or so) is set to be submitted to the
label by the beginning of the year. What with our
holiday trip coming up in a week, that means CRUNCH
TIME.

So all I hope is for the lessons learned this weekend
to find themselves sitting in my lap as we work on
finishing this bugger.

BACK TO WORK!

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When it rains, it don't stop...

Got a whole slew of work from Ed at Madcap for this weekend. You know, this is where I realize how much I love what I'm doing right now. Outside of working around 55 hours at CNET this week, I will clock somewhere around another 20-25 over the course of this weekend to get some songs written for the Life, Love and Health shows slated for next January.

It's been a crazy busy week at CNET. I've had a 14 hour day this week (event coverage in Palo Alto), and a whole lot of fire-extinguishing at work. (No not literally) Today was a bit frustrating. One of those "IS technology better than the alternative" type days. 1 step forward, 2 steps back.

And no rest for the wicked. I come home tonight to a full evening of edits for the radio show. 2.5 songs to compose over the weekend. It's all totally doable, but it doesn't leave much in the ways of relax time.

But in it all, I love it. Otherwise, I wouldn't take it on. It's not like I NEED the extra work. But I love it. And I wouldn't turn it down. I guess that's why I chose what I do. I only hope that everyone else out there is following their hearts. Its hard work, but very rewarding.

Now, back to the grind.

Madcap ramp-up, Dub House madness

So it looks as if, starting in January, I will be
producing three original compositions for the Life
Love and Health radio show, up from two per month.
This is great. I enjoy writing these tunes so much,
and it really helps my overall ability to compose
music quickly. Not to mention, it's nice to know that
my writing warrants an increase in it's production!

Collaboration continues with Ivan-I of Dub Theory on
our second joint remix. It's coming along. We felt
like the track had a nice solid foundation, but lacked
a "hook" as it were. We ended up finding a running 2
minute Timbale solo, so we spent some time running it
through Beat Detective in Pro Tools 7 to get it locked
into the grid, and threw it about halfway through the
track. Wouldn't you know, suddenly the track is
coming alive! Really excited about it's progress.
This track is slated to appear on vinyl sometime
around the early part of next year, from what I
gather.

We've also been asked if we might be interested in
writing a tune for Care Recordings here in SF, which
of course we will!