thecd

If I were to tell you it took me 5 years (99-04) to get t
this point, you would say, “yeah right buddy”. Well, go ahead
and say it cause, it did buddy. The short of the long of it is I
always wanted to complete this CD much faster but, never had
the time. You see, life lays you these big bricks of …well let’s
just call it stuff. Some of it is good and some is bad. You have
to deal with all you’ve been dealt and try to deliver your final blow.
There’s that gate of stuff you must walk through to get to the
other goals in your life. Enough said…
So, about four years after having my beautiful son, I realized
it was time to shoot from the hip once again. So, the first monument
I had to climb was to build a studio with which I could record all these wonderful tunes. Indeed
the studio to build was a huge obstacle/undertaking and at the end; a massive accomplishment
for me. Keep in mind, this is something I was doing after work (when I could manage!) and on
the weekends (when I could manage!). Most of the advancement occured during the summer
when I had more time off. Well, approximately 1 1/2 years (between 99 and into the summer
of 2001) later, the last dry wall screw was screwed and the last brush of paint was smeared all
across the big ass of someone named CD.
Now it was time to begin...mm,mmmh, hmmmwooo haahaaahaaa ohhhooohhhhhhhahaha
(laugh like one of those real bad guys in a horror flick), to put all those songs, ideas that were on
cassette, paper and zoom porta studio onto a hard drive. “God knows why” was inspired from a
zoom recording that had the same groove as the final on the CD. For some songs, I knew the feel
I wanted from the start and never had to take them to that next step. I just kept them on cassette,
tensely waiting to go to final record tracks.
So, the meticulous pain staking process of recording began. Being a solo artist, it was great to
play everything myself since, no one could tell me how, why or how loud. But, being a solo artist
requires much more time and dedication to get each part the way you want it. You can’t be a master
of all instruments so the ones you aren’t master of take more of your time. (see: “how do those solo guys do it”?)
So, almost all my instrumentation was completed prior to my 5/2003 move (that would be period
between 8/01 to 5/03). Yes, after all that hard work on building the studio, it was time to move and
leave it all behind. A move was essential due to unforseen circumstances. So, the last two months
before the move, there was a race to finish my tracks before the breakdown (mental and physical, hahaha).
I managed to complete the task. And then I packed it all up.
The house was sold, my studio was torn down by the next owner and I shed a tear for the one that
had fallen. I now moved into another house that had sported a separate room with which I could finish
my project. So, the next four months I would see myself completing all the vocals for the songs in this
rental house. Summer of 2003, was the summer of vocal ecstasy. I was able to send rough mixes on
a .wav file to Joe Kramer (his idea!) to play on. He loaded them up into his system (cool edit pro) and
was able to play me back and play to it and record his hot lead guitar sounds without me even being
there. Although, he said that he did see my spirit there.(see more about Joe under BIOs.)
My set up was short at the doomed rental, since the house was in active foreclosure. We decided to
move out for there was great fear in not knowing if we would be living there from week to week.
Once again, I pulled the wires, packed it up and moved again.(along with the rest of the house) in
mid august of 2003. So, that’s 2 full set-ups and tear downs! Keep count for there will be a test later.
Well, as moves go, you have to get settled. Not until a month ½ later (October 2003), was I able to
unpack in a side room and set up shop to mix all the tunes. So, I did. After hours of mental masturbation
I came up with what I have now. I can not describe to you the feeling of euphoria that came over me when
I finally new that I was on my way to completing and releasing my first CD. A huge weight was lifted off my
body and I felt like a floating juniper...HUH?

I had the CD mastered at DRT Mastering in New Hampshire. A little place I found through advertisements
that turned out to be quite a good find. David Torrey also turned me on to a great CD replication company,
frontporchCD, which turned out to be a wonderful place to work with.
Bill Heydolph did nothing but great things to make my project roll smoothly. Both of these operations
introduced no square wheels.
And so you have it; the little train that could and he finally did. Now go enjoy it!...

Drums are my main instrument and that was the easiest one to lay down. Yet, I would still need to practice
as any musician would have to. When you play you are writing as well. You actually come up with creations
that are only meant for that one song. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still plenty of room for improvisation and
surprise. This is what rocks about playing live and not sequencing and midi punching everything.
There’s much to be said about “keeping it real”. The other instruments (aside from rhythm guitar) required
a little more practice time to hone the part well. Once, I started playing the instrument on a regular basis, it
would then become easier ie., bass requires heavier pressing and you have to develop the calluses.
The cool thing is, having familiarity with the instruments and having played them off and on all my life,
I can pick it up and move with it pretty quickly.
So, if you are wondering how I did it here it is: I’m blowing the lid off of the solo artist‘s magic.
The cat is out of the box or is it bag?, the rabbit is out of the hat, the….aw, forget it!