Initially my plan was to make the music only in my studio and all ‘in the box’ using only my DAW. I’ve made good progress and am into the third of the five pieces of music. As I was talking with my wife, Melissa Musante about the project she suggested doing an album release party. This sounded like a great idea but as I started thinking about it I realized that just playing my new music over a sound system while friends and fans socialize would be really boring. So I started working on the idea of performing the music live at the release party. This is where all hell broke lose.

As soon as I started thinking about a release party the issue of distribution and sales popped up. Online distro makes sense and the best system I know of for doing this is Bandcamp. But what about physical copies? Right around the time I started planning all of this I heard from a friend that Bandcamp can sell physical copies as well. Whether it’s a CD of the album, a shirt or coffee mug, Bandcamp can process the order and send an invoice to you so you know to ship product to your new customer. So I started working with my wife on what sort of art she could produce for a book insert and what sort of box could hold all of this. I searched for bulk pricing of CD replication, locally and nationally (happily ending up on a local firm) and started thinking about mastering of the final product. But why stop there?

When I brought up my progress with planning this album with my wife she asked about maybe doing something with original 2D art in the packaging, one artwork per song and printed to archival paper. This morphed into creating a rather boutiquey, limited release sort of box, hand-made, signed by both the artist and moi. What I didn’t realize until recently (not being a visual artist) is that the process of creative planning and sourcing of material for a project of this nature could take MONTHS not a few weeks. This pushed completing the album into the future, much further into the future than my proposed New Year’s Eve Eve Dec. 30th party idea.

But wait, THERE’S MORE!

Because of the nature of this album’s music it became clear that a rewrite was necessary so the material could be arranged, turned into sheet music and performed by actual human beings. So I put on the brakes, stepped back and started thinking about how to properly voice the ideas of these pieces of music with a view to ensemble instrumentation. This brings us to about 36 hours ago.

While attending a MARN event organized to help composers & bands do pre-production for album projects I was convinced, nay, proselytized by the MC of the event and the gentleman giving us sage wisdom on the art of composing with a view to crafting an album. After much soul-searching I’ve come to agree with them. My ‘solo’ album will be recorded at his studio, played by human beings across the room from microphones and not be generated by software only by me.

So where does all this lead to? My album will still be a very personal collection of music but will be created the way an album SHOULD be created: a record of people, playing music, together in a room, with scant overdubs. This feels good, less of an intellectual undertaking and more of an artistic collaboration among composer, performers, recording engineer/producer and visual artists. It will take a very long time to complete, maybe as long as a year. But in the end I’ll have something in my hands I can share with anyone who is interested, can say it was a true labor of love and was made by people I respect and admire.

I just took on a sound design project with Radio88.9 Milwaukee. I’ll be making some field recordings around town with a view to showing what Milwaukee sounds like. My approach to the content is interesting, but that’s a secret for now. But how will I record, edit and mix?

My plan is to record with my Marrantz field recorder and a shotgun mic and dump the audio files into my iPad to edit using DAW Multitrack. I want to avoid using my studio production system entirely and keep this project on mobile devices as much as possible. I’ll let on about the content of this project in a future post, after I’ve submitted the piece.

My next project will be to use my recently acquired Tascam 414mkII 4-track cassette recorder to begin producing music for the experimental digital cinema collaborative project my wife and I have started.

I read an article in TapeOp magazine last week that reminded me what is for many of us, our roots: recording songs on 4-track audio cassette tapes. What the article said that (re)interested me is the limiting and compression that comes about by squashing all that audio onto a 1/4″ analog tape. Plus, keeping things simple in four tracks or less forces a certain amount of focus.

Much of the percussion and synths for this project will be created on my iPad, played into the 4-track, mixed and then played back into the iPad to become music and sound designs that will drive what and how Melissa shoots. Then she’ll create short digital cinema pieces, 2-5 minutes long, entirely based on my musical interpretation of the pieces’ themes. The first theme: convex.

What does it mean for something or someone to be convex? Is it merely how something looks? Sounds? Behaves?

Deadline for the first piece isn’t yet set, I’m waiting until after my Radio88.9 project wraps next week.

My wife Melissa and I have both been experiencing creative block for some time. It would be easy to blame parenthood, but we know this isn’t the only thing keeping us from creating new work. Yesterday we both took the day off and visited Milwaukee Art Museum for some inspiration. While we walked through the Bradley Gallery we found part of the exhibit closed and the furniture that was in that space was in the open, central area of the modern wing of this gallery.

We sat for about an hour on an elegant, low-slung modernist sofa, brainstormed and came up with a couple of projects to collaborate on. We came up with a list of 12 words, each one will be the theme of a monthly experimental video project. Each of our 12 words has multiple meanings, often each word as nouns, verbs and adjectives. We’ll both start with our own disciplines, me music & sound design and her the visual elements, compare what we have and let the music drive what the visuals will be.

We’ll announce the first of these projects in a few days and give a fuzzy deadline for completion. My plan is to use my Soundcloud account to let you hear my sketches as I develop the sound designs and music for each piece. I don’t know if Melissa will do the same on Youtube or Vimeo.

We’ve also started pre-production on a large-scale installation series, themed to the four natural elements. These pieces will be full-room, multimedia installations. Lots of tech, sound, music and video elements, as well as 3-D art and paintings. Yes, pretty ambitious. But that’s how we roll whenever we work together.

Things people will do from now on, will stop doing, will or won’t say. I gave up on new year resolutions, just based on my track record. So instead of promises of (in)action I’m going to try looking at things differently instead.

In particular, I need to rethink why I make music and what my expectations are for it after it’s done. In 2010 the music I worked on was for specific purposes: movie, dance performance, stage play, etc. When I would sit down to work it was always purposeful. 2011 needs to be about lack of purpose.

It isn’t that I’m down on myself for doing bad work, I really like what I did and enjoyed doing it. But this year I need to explore what I’m capable of instead of on what others need from me.

This doesn’t mean I will shy away from collaboration or being hired. I’ve started the first 2011 project already and it might lead to something bigger with the same people (more on that in my next post). But I’m going to spend more me time this year when it comes composing. Let music flow instead of building dikes, locks and channels.

The dream started out with me sitting in a university class, something having to do with the music business, social media and tour management. Amanda Palmer was an obvious choice for teaching this sort of class. Just look at how effective she is at wrangling a fan base and keeping track of the many projects she’s always involved in.

I was sitting in this classroom with about a dozen other musicians and these are all people I’ve played in various bands with at different times of my life. It’s essentially a different take on my repeating dream of being back in high school or college on the first day of class, can’t find my way around, etc. But this twist included one of my favorite musicians. After class Amanda and I went for a walk around campus and eventually ended up at what today is the old rail yard of The Milwaukee Road in Milwaukee, where I live.

But the yard had been rebuilt for today’s locomotives and trains but was also running steam engines. We snuck in through an unguarded gate and walked around. At this point Amanda climbs on my back so I’m carrying her around but she doesn’t weigh anything. We’re chatting about her reunion and tour with Dresden Dolls and the project she just finished recording a high school student’s compositions.

It turns out though that Amanda is really very ill, she won’t talk about it and just wants to keep riding on my back as I walk through the Milwaukee Road yard talking music. Eventually a guard stops us and Amanda sweet-talks our way out a gate. We keep walking and begin to discuss projects we could work on together.

So does this mean I have a music crush on Amanda Palmer? Is it a prophecy of working together with her? Or did John Williams’ dark film score simply let my mind wander?

Roman’s song is inspiring, sad, hopeful and has mad hi-fi qualities. We talked about his process of recording these days and I talked about where I’m at and what I’ve been up to musically. In yet another incident of synchronicity I’ve been thinking lately that I need a kick in the ass creatively, something (or someone) to help me stay on target and focus on creating new music on a regular basis. So while chatting with Roman I told him my idea of writing a song a week and using social media to keep me on track. He said he thought that was pretty damned industrious of me. But why not?

I’m turning to you, my dedicated readers, to help me be more productive. I promise you and myself that starting this week, I’m going to produce a song a week. These might be pieces of music destined for someone’s film that hasn’t been shot yet, incidental sounds for a theatrical backdrop or even singer-songwriter bliss.

So my first deadline is Saturday, October 23rd. That morning I’ll submit what I have to my Soundcloud account and tweet either the link to the music or a blog entry here talking about it. Whatever the state of affairs of the work is, even if it still needs more work, I’m going to stick to the song-per-week deadline. My hope is a body of work that will lead to album releases, music library placements or simply having more of my work available.

You can learn more about my friend Roman at his site, Roman Rocks.

A local theater group has asked me to do a sound design for their latest production. The play is titled ‘A Rising Wind’ and is the story of the sinking of the steamer Lady Elgin. This passenger & cargo vessel left Chicago on its return trip to Milwaukee, WI but never made it back.

The production will take place at Best Place Tavern and run from September 8-11, 2010, show starting at 8:00pm. It will be presented in an interesting format, one that I’ve never experienced, much less taken part in. Actors will be costumed and lit dramatically in a small bar, the lighting moving the audience’s eyes from actor to actor, very intimate. My role is to provide a sound design that sits below the dialogue, unobtrusively supporting the emotional content of a handful of people telling their story and the eventual death of some of the play’s characters and how this event affected the future of Milwaukee’s Irish community.

There aren’t any reservations being accepted for any of the shows and a $10 suggested donation is all that’s being asked for. Come early, have a nosh and a drink and stay for the play. For more details see the show’s Facebook page.

I’ve created sound designs for stage and dance pieces but never one presented like this. I may even be able to run a discrete 4-channel sound system, which would be a wonderful challenge for building a sonic palette, creating motion, stillness and subtly transporting the audience back to 1860 on the deck of the Lady Elgin.

Other things coming up…

- a number of sound designs based on found-sound readings and my music/audio still in the works
- music to follow up my piece performed at the MARN Mentor show earlier this year, to be recorded by my ensemble Liquid In Plastic
- music composed for electric bass guitar and laptop-based looper; composing and still acquiring hardware and software
- the concert planned for October 2010 could still take place but not as grandiose as originally planned (maybe we’ll use Best Place Tavern instead of a concert hall)

Terrazzo+ will play at Transfer in Milwaukee’s Fifth Ward, Thursday night July 22nd from 7-9p. This gig isn’t actually being billed as a Terrazzo gig, Carlos put it together as one of his semi-regular Thursday night extravaganzas at Transfer. But since I’ll be playing the bass with him and a friend of his on keys, then as far as I’m concerned, it’s Terrazzo.

Also playing with us is a surprise guest (as in, I can’t recall his name and haven’t played with him in over a year) on violin!

The best part of playing at Transfer is they pay musicians pretty well and feed and water us. That’s a combo that can’t be beat.

Transfer is a fantastic place to catch live jazz, they serve GREAT pizza and have a wonderful selection of beer & wine. If you’re in Milwaukee Thursday night stop by Transfer for something to eat or just a drink and see what happens with this line-up of the band.

Over the last few years some of the music I’ve made was written on my primary instrument: electric bass guitar. When I look back on the experience of composing, arranging and recording a piece that comes from the bass I feel more satisfied than if I start out on piano or with a sound design of some sort. At the same time I’ve been frustrated with the logistics of managing even just three musicians in my jazz trio. How more simple could things be if the only person I had to worry about was me?

I’ve been following a few solo bassists on Twitter for some time. And my musical hero, Michael Manring, is just that. So I thought I’d look for ways for me to perform solo but still do things lyrically enough to hold an audience. While watching YouTube videos of Michael Manring perform I saw him using some sort of pedal board to use multiple looped samples. I guessed he was using a hardware solution but since my budget is limited I began looking for software solutions.

What I found was SooperLooper, a piece of Open Source software that works as a sampler that can be keyed by either other software or hardware controllers. I also found a community of SooperLooper users who use the Behringer FCB-1010 MIDI foot controller. And by using my M-Audio Firewire 410 interface I can get my bass into SooperLooper, record rhythm, bass and melody lines and queue them when needed after recording them live.

So there it is. Starting this week I’m going to begin composing using my first love, the bass. I’m going to sell my Roland Alpha Juno 1 synthesizer to finance buying a new or used FCB-1010 controller. If you’re interested in purchasing my Roland let me know what you’d like to offer for it. My hope is to have a small collection of my own music before the end of the summer and bring the rig out to a couple of open mic events or open for a local act.

It isn’t that I want to ditch my jazz trio or the format in general. But to do something that’s all me, just me.

If you find your way over to the Music page you’ll find a Soundcloud player with a few pieces of my music. These were written in the last few years for a number of digital cinema projects with Milwaukee filmmakers. I’m in the midst of a number of new pieces of music and as soon as I have parts of those to share and ask for comments I’ll let everyone know.

The MARN Mentor Show was a great success! I thought the visual artists presented amazing work and they all were excited about what they’d accomplished.

As for my music, I couldn’t be more pleased with how the ensemble performed. The crowd loved the music and we sounded much better in the Stevens Gallery than we ever would have in the Wehr Auditorium. Everyone said they enjoyed playing and would love to work on any other projects with me. I’ll be recording The Lost Traveler later this summer along with other pieces written for the same ensemble. When I pick up new orchestral libraries I’m going to re-arrange the piece digitally. So it may end up here before the session with my ensemble.

My last post here did a good job of covering where I’m headed with my work for the next year. I’m going to use Soundcloud to ask for musicians to comment on what I upload and I’d appreciate hearing what you have to say as well.