So I have almost finished my time in the studio! Colin is working on some hard-core technical editing, and I can now sit back and wait a bit while the magic happens. ;)
Here is a preview clip from the album. I am very proud of it, and grateful to Colin for his collaborative spirit. This sounds very different than it ever has (and it's been around since 1996)!
I cannot express how great it is to be back in the studio and working on the album again after an almost two-week break!! Colin and I are going back through some stuff that we were just sketching out before and tweaking the last couple of things that were bugging us. We retooled the opening and ending of a few songs already today to make the songs stand more on their own and not sound "same-y" (my eloquent term, of course).
Colin still astounds me with his ear. I am so blessed to be working with someone who is such a natural musician and has spent a lot of time honing his technical craft as well! The care he puts into everything is enormous! He also has this crazy ability to hear me describe a vague concept and create something concrete to match it within just a short time; it blows me away.
As any of my regular readers know, I have launched an Indiegogo campaign for the album to fund its release, and we are at 46 days remaining, and have reached $225 in donations! I am praying and hopeful that people will still find it in themselves to donate to the project before the time lapses. I occasionally feel pangs of guilt about essentially asking friends and family for money in this way, but My Beautiful Wife reminded me that whomever invests in the project is simply paying for their copy of the finished product in advance! This is not simply donating- it is truly investing in something! I am going to keep including the link on these posts, as this is a big deal in my life right now, so why not? As always, a donation is one way you can help support this, but sending the campaign to others via email or social media and promoting it is a big one too!!
I am including the photo that will most likely be the cover art for the album! I took it myself at Westminster Abbey in London. Not bad, Jared... not bad. ;)
She was diagnosed with cancer just a couple of months ago, and was fighting mightily this last while just to stand up and walk normally or eat. My Mom couldn't stand to see her suffering like this any more, and took her in to the vet to go to sleep.
Suzie was a good dog.
She was a rescue from the SPCA about 9 years ago, and had been abused by her previous owners; she was therefore really grateful to have a loving family around her.
She turned my old-school Dad into a softie.
She was my Mom's constant companion.
She shed all over our home, but we didn't care.
Though I had already moved out when they got her, I have always thought of Suzie as "my dog", too. She was gentle and playful with me in a way the pet I grew up with never was, and she was one of the only dogs My Beautiful Wife has ever really expressed affection for.
I have just launched the new Indiegogo crowdfunding project so I can finish my first studio recording!!
Colin Richet and I have been slaving away in the studio at this (and enjoying ourselves IMMENSELY) for a couple of months now, but it is clear that more funds will be needed to really make sure this is everything it should be. I do not know if there will be any more albums after this one, but the idea is to make sure we do this one right! That means physical media- actual CDs and packaging! I could really use the support of everyone who reads this blog; family, friend, acquaintance, stranger danger, it matters not! ;)
I am posting the link straight to the project here, and will be keeping everyone updated about where we are with our goals and such as the days tick closer to the end of the campaign!
I am so excited to share my music with you- let's make it happen!! Just click on the project link below, donate a pittance, and please share with as many people as you can!!!
It appears this little blog has just gone over a thousand views!!!
I have come to terms with the fact that it is not JUST my close family members checking this thing 80 times a day to boost my self-esteem, sooo...
Thank you so much, all of you kind people, for reading and caring. It means a lot to me, and validates me in a way I do not care to dig deeper into. ;)
The grand experiment is over, and I have decided that I will continue with the blog indefinitely. I won't just be posting about my new musical endeavours, either- it just happens to be what is consuming me right now. I plan to keep mixing it up in the future, so stay tuned! You never know what might happen next.
As for what's happening to me right now? THIS is what is happening to me right now.
So... pretty...
My Mom gave me an iPad 32GB Wifi out of the blue a couple of years ago, and it has been my most Loyal and Staunch Companion (I am sorry, My Beautiful Wife, but I am just speaking the truth), and has never failed me. Even when I accidentally abused it, it forgave me, healed (for a nominal fee), and we moved on, stronger than before.
I saw my Mom, yesterday, and she told me she needed my Most Loyal and Staunch Companion back. I caught my breath, but I was not going to protest- I knew this day could come, and I was just happy that I got to know my iPad for the short time we had (That is a lie. I was actually very unhappy, and considering what the fallout would be if I annexed My Beautiful Wife's android tablet). Then she dropped the bomb- she wanted the 32 GB Wifi for my Dad, and she was going to replace it with a new 64 GB Ipad 4!!! I was flabbergasted. I still am. So I went down to the closest thing we have to an Apple store in this one-horse town , talked to a pleasant young man there (I even taught him a thing or two about impact-resistant cases), and left with the 64GB Ipad 4 with Retina Display, a Defender Otter Box (the one they just released for the new ones is muuuuch nicer than the last generation), and a big, smug, satisfied grin on my face!!!
Summary: My Mom is the Best.
That is all.
Update: I returned the Defender Otter Box because it is STILL a massive beast compared to the Reflex case, and I discovered my Reflex fit on the new iPad perfectly, despite online reviews to the contrary.
... And here we are again,
with part 2 of the history of my "musical journey" (props to Larry Mullen Jr.) so far. I gotta confess, I dropped an awful lot in part 1, so I am not going to be able to keep up the sheer volume of words I set as precedent!
I am with a new church family these days, and have been playing it cool a bit, as I had done a lot of "up-front" work at my last church, and felt a wee bit burnt out. I also had a lot to examine about why I was doing the things I was doing; was I on stage because I just enjoyed being on stage in front of people singing, or was it for a higher purpose? The music I have written and am still writing has always been about Christ and my relationship with Him; my struggles, my hopes, my failures. I also still have questions about why God keeps giving such a flawed guy like me music to write and songs to sing. After talking to an old acquaintance in the music program, I asked if they needed any voices to sing backup, and began!
Soon after, I met a singer/songwriter in the church who has been a bit of an inspiration to me, and who I have been able to work with in a couple of different capacities, namely: child-wrangling and music-playing. Her name is Julia Dawn. Check out her page! It has been fun watching a young and confident musician and singer with a STELLAR voice make her way, and it sort of rekindled a hopeful little fire that I had always had about making a real album of my material. Really soon after I met her, I got to see her open for one of my all-time favorite musicians, Derek Webb. That's right, I got to meet one of my all-time musical heroes and I did NOT blow it (for those of you who don't know me, I have a favourite saying: "Never meet your heroes. Only one of two things can happen: Either they disappoint you in some way, or you blow it."). I repeat, I did NOT blow it.
Around this time, I had an old friend named Colin come back into my life as well, and he and I got along amazingly right off the bat! He stopped by my work to talk business, and the subject of his current work came to the forefront- he runs a studio here in my beautiful hometown, and actually had just finished working on Julia Dawn's album!! We got to talking, and I told him about my music and what I had (and hadn't) done with it up 'til now.
A brief aside: Colin Richet is the owner and proprietor of Revelation Studios, and does sound engineering, mixing, producing, multi-instrument session work, composing, and mastering- all in-house. He specializes in taking a simple melody and turning it into a fully-orchestrated experience, as big as you want it! If you have some music in you that you need to get out there, Colin is just the amazing person to help you make it happen. I highly recommend that anyone who is interested check out the site and get in touch with him to talk.
When Colin left me that day, apparently the wheels started turning, and he got in touch with me the next day, and we started talking plans to record. Problem: I had no budget for it! His solution: let's just see what happens. This was around the end of November 2012. He said he was going to see when in the new year we could sit down and plan something out.
In the meantime, I was getting a bit more involved in the church programs, and was asked to sing for the Silverspring Spirit of Christmas event that the church hosts for the surrounding community each year. I asked my good friend "L" to play guitar for me, while I sang a song of mine called "Carol for A Child", and the response I received after was very affirming!
Fast forward to March: We started recording. It seems almost criminal to have this much fun while working. A couple times, Colin has hit PLAY, we listen through the most recent version of a song that has been with me for 15 years, and I have to hide the fact that I am tearing up at how amazing it sounds. That brings me to now! I have taken a band name- Whispered Words. I haven't named the album yet- I figure that will come after it is formed. I have started a Facebook band page under the name Whispered Words as well, and already have some fine people supporting me there!
I am going to be trying my hand at crowd-funding the project, as I do not have the resources available to come out of this with a finished product. I will be launching an Indiegogo project with perks for anyone who donates to a finished album, and I hope that this will help us get over the finish line! I will be starting the Indiegogo push soon, and will keep all well-informed via blog, Facebook, Twitter, carrier pigeon, etc.
I went and created a Youtube channel this week just so I could upload this: the first real sample of what the finished product will sound like!! The song is called "In Your Presence". If you like what you hear, please consider joining the others who will be donating to the finished CD! Enjoy!
My Beautiful Wife is one year older today, and has never been more vibrant!!! We are getting close to 14 years of marriage, and I still love her FIERCELY because:
she is kind,
is gentle,
is an amazing listener
is a voracious learner,
is driven to help people,
is a natural beauty,
has a rapier wit,
gives her time to friends,
challenges me to be better,
devours books,
gets my jokes,
tells me when my jokes are crap,
sits through stupid guy movies and doesn't complain,
likes quality music (except Adele),
forgives others their faults... and so much more.
It has been said that no one is just one thing; even an outwardly horrible criminal can be, oh, an opera enthusiast, or support a genuinely good cause! People are multi-faceted and often unpredictable.
Well, I want to spend every day of the rest of my life learning about every facet and hidden gem quality that makes up My Beautiful Wife. I am so blessed to share my life with her!
