Last night I had a chance to hang out with some composer friends here in Nashville. We get together every other month or so and chat about what's going on in our lives and with our music, talk a little bit about TAXI (as that is the reason this group began in the first place), listen to some music and just really spend time enjoying each other's company.
After I got home from the hang I noticed that the latest issue of Recording Magazine (Apr 2013) had arrived. As I flipped through the pages a familiar face caught my attention. It was my own... while I knew that eventually that was going to happen, didn't know which month, it was still kind of a shock to see myself in the magazine. And then I saw they also included the first part of the transcript from the Road Rally Panel I was on as well. That I was not expecting, so that was a neat surprise!
I've tried to think of a clever segue into the Milestones topic but I'm not coming up with anything so I'll just make a cold transition... Milestones... :-) As I was updating my web site today with the latest placement news which you can see by clicking here I realized that I have now received over 700 cue sheets and my music has been used in over 100 different productions! And while I'm nowhere near where I want to be with my career, I know I'm heading in the right direction and I'm making forward progress each and every day.
Another milestone that I'm hitting this week is the one year mark of when I made the decision to take control of my personal health. It was March 15, 2012 when I went to go watch Kentucky play basketball in the opening round of the March Madness tournament. I'll never forget that day. I never would have imagined the impact on my life that one decision was going to have. I'm happy to report that after reaching my goals a little over four months ago, I've managed to maintain my goal weight. And while I'm very excited to have passed the 700 cue sheet mark, that pales in comparison to how proud I am about keeping the weight off for the past four months.
It was also eight years ago today that my grandfather passed away. That was a very pivotal moment in my life as it was on my way back home to Nashville after his funeral when I decided to get back into music. I wish he was here to see how things have gone for me.
Time to get back to the studio, I've got some new shows that I'm writing for at the moment and the deadlines are coming up soon!
When I first got into the world of digital recording the DAW I was using was called Cakewalk. I can't remember the version but I think it was either 1 or 2. At that time I really didn't know what I was doing. I only had two things that mattered to me at that time. The first was just recording my guitar riffs so that I wouldn't forget them. And then that eventually grew into doing demos for songs for the band I was in. But that was pretty much it.
When I decided to get serious about my music career I decided to upgrade my system. I ended up going with Pro Tools, version 7.3 at the time. Then there were some huge improvements with the MIDI aspects made in version 8 and I eventually upgraded to Pro Tools 9 and was happy with it, for the most part.
But as I began to grow and evolve as a composer and move towards doing more virtual instrument type compositions, I began to run into the limitations of Pro Tools being a 32-bit application. I was hoping very much that when Pro Tools 10 finally got released that it would be a 64-bit application. Instead, I found that it was still 32-bit, they introduced a new plug-in format, and my hardware interface was not going to be supported beyond PT 10, and the upgrade cost was $300, for an application that didn't seem to have, in my opinion, $300 worth of improvements over the software that they had just released less than a year before in PT 9. I was disappointed about that and decided to start looking around at other DAW software.
I use a PC and had no desire to switch to a Mac so that took out a few choices right away. I had a copy of Reaper 4 that I had tried for awhile but I just didn't like the GUI of it so that wasn't going to be the one for me. I reached out to a couple of people who were also frustrated with PT and had moved to Cubase. I ended up downloading the trial version of Cubase 6 and by the end of the weekend I was up and running and recording at nearly the speed/ease of use that I had with PT 9, mostly because Cubase lets you customize your shortcut keys so I spent a couple of hours trying to get it to emulate PT as close as possible. That made it really easy to hit the ground running.
One of the big appeals to me about Cubase 6 was that it was 64-bit. I created a test session in which I added 20 instances of Kontakt 4 with a violin ensemble patch, 15 instances of PLAY with a cello ensemble patch, 3 instances of Stylus RMX and 3 instances of Omnisphere each with one instrument loaded, and then an instance of Ivory with a grand piano loaded. I imported one midi track to all of the various instruments and then record enabled the piano track while using a buffer setting of 128. It played back and recorded flawlessly. I wanted to cry :-) That was just not possible with my Pro Tools setup. Not even close.
So in November 2011 I took the plunge and moved over to Cubase. The only real issue I had with Cubase was the mixer. It just wasn't as user-friendly to me as what I had in PT. I eventually got used to it though but I was always longing for it to be more like PT. Then late last year Cubase 7 was released with the brand new mixer they dubbed the Mix Console. When I saw the previews I felt like it was going to be the answer I was looking for.
So on the day it was released I got my copy. After a painless install I opened up an existing session. I was a bit disappointed to find that this software really didn't seem release-ready. There were some issues with VST performance as well as some audio drop-outs but the biggest disappointment was with the new mixer. Whenever I would try to view the new mixer, I would only be able to see portions of the faders. I wasn't able to see the track labels at all. Needless to say, this made the mixer unusable for me. I was very disappointed.
Then last month they released a service patch for it. Unfortunately, that didn't resolve my problems. So I thought I would try the trial version of PT 10 to see if I should have given it a try back in the day. I affirmed one thing and discovered another by doing this. What I affirmed was that even with the new extended disk cache feature in PT I still ran into the 32-bit limits when using a lot of VI tracks. And what I learned was that after using Cubase for over a year now, I actually PREFERRED it to Pro Tools now. Mostly because of how much work I do with MIDI. Cubase is just so much further ahead of PT in that department.
And now I'm happy to report that with the most recent patch (v7.0.2) that Cubase released this week I can finally use the new Mix Console window! There are still some bugs they need to get fixed but I'm at least able to use the software now. The new mixer is definitely an improvement over the old one. So it looks like I can finally say with certainty that I'm a Cubase guy :-)
Last night I wrapped up my latest music project. It was a for new client that I just started working with a couple of months ago. The project was titled Ultimate Aggression. You can probably guess by the title what the project sounds like. I had an absolute blast working on it. In fact, I'd say as a whole, it's one of the most satisfying projects I've worked on. Not just because I really enjoy writing heavy aggressive music, which I DO, but also because of the reaction I got from the client today when I submitted the last few tracks - " Thanks for the great work here. Fantastic job..." They also said to let them know whenever I'm ready to do another project for them which also made me smile. All in all, a good way to start the day.
It wasn't long after that when I heard from another music library that a composer friend/colleague of mine referred me to. After a quick email exchange I was offered a deal to be a composer for this library and my first gig is writing music for a couple of shows, one on VH1 and the other on A&E. More details to follow in the coming weeks :-)
And to top it all off today I found out that I had some new placements as well. There were a couple more episodes of Dr. Oz, another episode of Abandoned and then two new shows, both of which air on NBC. The first is the TODAY show and the other one is The Voice! Very excited to find out about that one! They used my cue "Tension In The Air" that I highlighted in my last entry. That's the seventh different production that has used that particular cue.
Until next time..
To say I'm a little bit behind on posting updates about my most recent placements on here would be a bit of an understatement. I'm also contemplating a slight redesign of my site, nothing major, but a slight change in focus of a couple sections. But in the meantime, I'll go ahead and use this post to get caught up.
So I'll start with the shows that cue sheets showed up for from November of last year until now that I've had previous placements in. Those would be Access Hollywood, All On The Line with Joe Zee, Barter Kings, Dr. Oz, Nate Berkus Show, Fatal Encounters, Style Special, Colbert Report, What Not To Wear, Toddlers and Tiaras, My Big Redneck Vacation, Oprah's Next Chapter, and Super Soul Sunday.
Now for the shows that were new for me that had cue sheets show up in November and December last year... That Metal Show, Abandoned, I Almost Got Away With It, Shannen Says, Texas Women, Total Blackout, Made, American Colony, Brooklyn 11223, Best of The Oprah Show and Cheer Perfection.
And finally for the new shows that I've learned about so far in 2013... Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, How Booze Built America, El Rostro De La Venganza, and Sand Masters.
Just a couple of notes about some of those shows... The episode of I Almost Got Away With It had the most placements in one single episode I've ever had with 8 placements that totaled over 4 minutes of air time! The Spanish soap opera El Rostro De La Venganza used my track, Tension In The Air (posted below) a total of 11 times over 8 episodes with one use totaling 1:45 long! So far 2013 is off to a good start :-)
I did a little bit of reflecting over the past year and thought I'd do a little wrap up of 2012 so I can start moving forward with 2013! Without a doubt, 2012 was one of the most rewarding years I've ever had, both personally and professionally. From signing deals and building new relationships to growing and strengthening existing relationships to even having to say goodbye to others, last year was a very significant year for me.
The year started off with the premiere of It's A Brad, Brad World on Bravo, my second main title theme. I was happy to find out a few weeks ago that the show got renewed for a second season.
The in March I was able to take some time to attend some Kentucky basketball games during the NCAA March Madness tournament. I had no idea that going to see them play in Louisville was going to completely change my life. See, it was the walk from the parking lot to the arena for the first game in which I finally got to the point concerning my health that I knew I had to make a change.
That change began one month later when I started the RevAbs program. My goal was to lose 100lbs in 6.5 months. By the time I stepped on the flight to head to L.A. in November for the TAXI Road Rally I wanted to be 100lbs lighter. That was my goal.
During the next 6.5 months I put most of my focus and attention on losing weight and getting healthy. And while I did some music during that time, it really did take a back seat in my life. But it was worth it as I was able to reach the goals that I set out to achieve with the weight loss. I'll never forget the moment after I boarded the plane and got in my seat of when I put my seat belt on. For the last 4 years that I attended the Rally, it was always a struggle to get it latched together. Not this time. I remember looking at all the slack that was left in the belt and then I became overwhelmed with emotion and tears began to flow. It was at that moment that I finally felt like my goal had been achieved.
The destination for the flight was the TAXI Road Rally. This was my 5th one and 2nd time as a guest panelist. And of all the Rally's I've been to, this was by far my favorite one. I'm sure it had something to do with the "Barry?!?!?!? Is that really you?!?!?!??" type moments, but I think it had just as much to do with me being able to give back to the community that's been so giving towards me over the past 5 years.
I finished out the rest of the year working on an alt rock project in the style of the Black Keys as well as trying to enjoy the holidays while trying to rest up and get recharged for the new year. If 2013 is anything like 2012 was then it's going to be an incredible year.
Until next time...
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| (L-R: Matt Hirt, John Mazzei, Michael Laskow, Dave Walton, Barry French, Dean Krippaehne) |
I got home last night from another incredible TAXI Road Rally and to say that this was the best Rally ever might be an understatement. I truly can't even begin to put into words just how incredible the past several days have been but I'll give it a shot.
This year I went to less panels in the main ballroom, less breakout driver's ed classes, didn't attend any mentor lunches, didn't sign up for a one-on-one mentor session, only talked about music for about 25% of the time, and I have no doubt that this was the best Rally I ever had.
For those of you who have been to the Rally before, then you probably understand what I'm talking about. For those of you who have never been to the Rally, you might be a bit confused as to what I'm saying. See, in years past I was very focused in on creating as many "transactions" as I could to help further MY music career but this year I was much more focused in on creating as many "relationships" as I could, but not necessarily to further my music career.
In fact, I'd say that the most meaningful conversations I had all weekend had absolutely nothing to do with music. There were some conversations with two people in particular that I had never met prior to arriving in L.A. that I will never forget for the rest of my life. It was bigger than music. SOOO much bigger than music.
I still can't believe I was on a panel. So humbled to be included with the four people that I've been modeling my career after for the past three years. The wisdom and guidance that they've provided to me has been something I'll never be able to repay. And a special thanks to Michael Laskow for inviting me to be a part of that panel. Extremely grateful to call all five of them my friends.
It was great to catch up with some old friends and to meet some new ones as well. I truly believe I made some new lifelong friends this weekend. That's one of the benefits of the Rally that you just can't put a price on.
I'll probably have some other thoughts about the Rally to share but for now I need to wrap this up.
Until next time...
I'm extremely excited, honored and humbled to announce that I've been added to a panel in the Main Ballroom at the upcoming TAXI Road Rally in LA next month! I'll be taking part in the "5 Year Plan" panel on Friday morning just after the main keynote interview with songwriter extraordinaire Diane Warren. If you don't know her name, I am certain you know her work ("Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now", "Because You Loved Me", "How Do I Live", "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing", "Un-Break My Heart", "Rhythm Of The Night" just to name a few). I'll be joining fellow composer/songwriters, Matt Hirt, John Mazzei, Dave Walton, and Dean Krippaehne, that are not only my colleagues, but friends as well.
Quite honestly, I look at those guys and I think to myself "Why did Michael ask me to be up there with them???" You can ask my wife, any time I mention someone in this business that I'm trying to model my career after, those names are the first four names that come out of my mouth. There's a book I've been reading by Dani Johnson in which she says, if you want to be successful, find someone who is doing what you want to do and do what they do. Well, those four are the ones that I've been modeling my career after for the past three years. So to be on that panel with them is extremely humbling to me. I honestly can't say enough how grateful and excited I am to be on that panel with them.
Last week was another good week of placements for me. I had a few new cue sheets show up for Access Hollywood, the Dr. Oz show and Monster Man, as well as a new series for me, Big Rich Texas. But the placements that I'm most excited about are Duck Dynasty! I absolutely love that show and would watch it even if they weren't using my music! But since they are using some of my music, I like the show that much more! In the two episodes that aired last week, I had 2 placements in the first episode and 7 placements in the second episode, granted a couple of them were VERY short but a placement is still a placement in my book!
Truck Commander - http://www.aetv.com/duck-dynasty/video/3591235578
My track "Pesky Beavers" was used starting at the 5:15 mark and the 10:08 mark.
Si-Yonara - http://www.aetv.com/duck-dynasty/video/#3411011514
My track "That's Right Jack" was used at the 0:24 mark and 0:40 mark. Then my track "Give Me An Offer" was used starting at the 3:15, 3:35, 5:27, 5:37 and 5:50 marks. That track was originally written for Auction Kings but made it's on way on to DD instead.
And finally, I'm very proud and excited to say that I have achieved my weight loss goal of losing 100lbs in under 6.5 months. I reached my goal with one week to spare. It still hasn't sunk in yet but I imagine it's just a matter of time before it does :-)
Well, that's it for now. Until next time...
It feels like the past month has been a blur! Sandwiched between my birthday and my wife's birthday, was my mom's birthday, my parent's 40th wedding anniversary, a photo shoot and a little thing called Big Blue Madness (pictures to follow below) and some new music placements!
Let's get the placements out of the way first. In the past month I've had some new placements in some old favorites such as Access Hollywood, America Now, Auction Kings, the Dr. Oz Show, the season 2 premiere of Duck Dynasty, the Nate Berkus Show, the Rosie Show, and What Not To Wear. And then I've also had my first placements in some new series for me including Barter Kings, Goldfathers and Bad Girls Club (they used a spy music cue). All in all it was over 30 placements for all the episodes combined. Not too shabby :-) Here's one of the cues that was used in Auction Kings, a hard rock track a la Disturbed.
And here's a link to the episode of Duck Dynasty, my music is the piece heard just as they come back from the first commercial break, around the 6:30 mark - http://www.aetv.com/duck-dynasty/video/the-grass-and-the-furious-1293379786?cmpid=MRSS_Hulu_AETV#1293379786
Now, here's more about the new deal... Last week I was approached by a music library owner who heard some of my music online. They offered me a deal to start supplying them with some new music for a couple of different projects. The contract arrived today and I'll be putting it in the mail tomorrow :-) VERY excited about this. Not just because it's a new deal, but because of the manner in which it happened. Just made my day!
And finally, Big Blue Madness... I had a chance to take one of my former college roommates with me to the event. We had a nice time catching up with each other. It was probably the longest we'd hung out together since we were back in school. Just wanted to share a few pictures of the event.
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| Whitaker Bank was giving away t-shirts to anyone who could make 2 out of 3 bank shots. |
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| I accepted their challenge. I was a bit nervous as it had been quite a while since I had shot a basketball. How did I do? See the next photo below... |
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| Dad holding up the free t-shirt that I won for him. I went 3 for 3 :-) |
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| One of the coolest things I've ever seen. They used the court as a video screen! |
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| Oh yeah, there was some actual basketball there too :-) |
And finally... it was 6 months ago today that I began my weight loss journey. As of today I've now lost 98.5lbs and I'm only 1.5lbs away from my goal of dropping 100lbs before the TAXI Road Rally. This has been without a doubt one of the best decisions I've ever made.
Until next time...
Just a quick update for everyone... I found out earlier this week that one of the shows that I wrote the title theme for, It's A Brad, Brad World, has been renewed for a second season. Seeing how late the renewal came, I wasn't optimistic that a second season would be happening. But it is and I believe they are going to keep using the same theme for the show as well. Woo hoo!
I've also had some new placements show up over the last couple of weeks as well. No new series debuts but quite a few cues in multiple episodes of returning shows showed up again. They include Access Hollywood, American Pickers, Auction Kings, The Dr. Oz Show, Fatal Encounters, Giuliana and Bill, Last Call With Carson Daly, My Big Redneck Vacation, Oprah's Next Chapter, Super Soul Sunday, and Toddlers and Tiaras.
Until next time...
Time for another weekly update of new music placements and last week was a good one! I'll start with some shows that my music has previously been in... one episode of The Dr. Oz Show (syndicate), three of Interior Therapy with Jeff Lewis (Bravo), and SIX episodes of Rajin' Cajuns (Discovery)! Then as for new shows... one episode of Guiliana and Bill (Style), four episodes of Saw Dogs (Velocity), two episodes of My Big Redneck Vacation (CMT), one episode of American Digger (Spike), three episodes of Hollywood Treasure (Syfy) and finally, two episodes of Monster Man (Syfy)!
The cues that were used on Monster Man, Hollywood Treasure, American Digger and Rajin' Cajuns were written specifically for those shows. It's always a nice feeling of accomplishment when the cues you write and pitch for a specific show end up actually getting used by the music editors. Great feeling actually.
This past week I've been writing some blues cues for the show Duck Dynasty on A&E. I only had a chance to write one cue for the first season and it got used twice in one episode so this time around I've tried to write a few more than that. Hope they find their way on to the show too! But I'll be watching the show regardless as it's one of the few reality TV shows that both me and my wife ACTUALLY enjoy. I've got all of season one still on my DVR and not just for music research purposes :-)
Until next time...
I had a chance this past weekend to spend some time with my family and some dear friends, one of which I hadn't seen in over 15 years and a few that I hadn't seen in over 20!!! It was wonderful to get spend some time with so many people that have been and continue to be near and dear to my heart for all these years. The weekend went by WAY too fast. While I'm glad to be home, I think I began to miss being in KY before I even got outside of the city limits.
During lunch on Saturday one of my friends asked me if I had any new placements to talk about and at the time I was like, well, none since last week's blog post. Had I checked my phone while I was there, I could have said "...well... actually looks like I just had 4 new cue sheets show up!" So Greg K., this update is for you my friend!
I had mentioned last week that I had some music used in the show American Pickers but I didn't know which cue or how many episodes. Well, now I do. It was one episode and they used a bluesy alt rock piece called "Swagger and Attitude" that I've included below for anyone curious to hear it.
I also had some placements in a couple more new shows. One of them is a show called Interior Therapy with Jeff Lewis. They used an upbeat, inspirational pop/rock cue in one episode. And the other new show is called Ludo Bites America. I had 2 cues used in 2 episodes of that show, both of them being dramedy cues.
Always fun to get new placements!
I've got some new placements to report for the past couple of weeks. I had a new episode of Last Call with Carson Daly as well as an episode of American Weed show up in my online cue sheet site last week. That makes six episodes of the Carson Daly show and 3 episodes of American Weed that my music has been used in.
Here's the cue that got used in the Carson Daly show. It's called "Delta Bluesberry Pie" and it played for 1:13. It's a bit of retro style slide guitar delta blues cue.
So far this week I had some cue sheets show up for some new shows that I've never been in before. The first was an episode of the Colbert Report show that aired back on February 13th on Comedy Central. They used 0:14 of a metal cue I wrote called "Death Blow." And the other debut series was for the show American Pickers. I'm not sure how many episodes or what cue was used in that one yet, just know that something was used.
Until next time...
Let me get the music placement updates out of the way before talking about the real exciting news. I had some placements in some shows that have used my music before, American Weed and The Nate Berkus Show, and then I also had some first time placements in a couple of shows, Fatal Encounters and The Doc Club with Rosie O'Donnell. The placement in Fatal Encounters used my clip "Tension In The Air" for 82 seconds. That cue has seen quite a bit of activity lately. Nice!
Now for the exciting news... Although I have another week left in my RevAbs 90-day challenge, today marked a huge accomplishment as I've reached another milestone. For the week I lost 5.4lbs for a grand total of 69.9lbs and I'm now a member of the 240s club! To say that I'm excited would be an understatement, but at the same time, I'm not finished yet. This is just goal #2 out of 3. But man does it feel good! I could put a bunch of motivational and inspirational catch phrases here, and I'd say all of them would probably apply, but I'll simply say this... anything is possible if you work hard and believe in yourself. I still have one more week left in this 90-day challenge so let's see just how much further beyond my goal I can get!
Until next time...
Last week ended up being a busy one and this one looks to be even more so so I'm going to keep this entry short and sweet. On the music front I had a couple of new placements to talk about. The first was a metal cue that was used in an episode of Secret Service Secrets. This is the second time that show has used my music. The other placement is in a show called American Weed. This is the first time my music has been in that show. Apparently it's about a company that grows medical marijuana. They used a dramedy cue (ie. Desperate Housewives type music) that I wrote called "Peeking Through The Curtains" that's actually been used in a few different shows now. I've embedded it at the bottom of the post for anyone that would like to hear it.
My RevAbs update for the week... I lost another 4.4lbs for a grand total so far of 64.5lbs. I'm 5.5 pounds away from reaching my goal and I've got two weeks left to get there! One other RevAbs related note, on Friday last week I officially became a Beachbody Coach. I'm not exactly sure where that road is going to go, I just know that I'm looking forward to helping others get healthy and fit. So on that note, I will be starting up a separate blog for that part of my life and will be making a clean break from posting about that aspect on this blog. I'll have another entry in a couple of weeks with more info about all of this. Excited to see what the future holds!
That's all for now. And here's the dramedy cue I mentioned above...
Hope everyone got to enjoy a little mid-week holiday last week on the 4th of July. I sure enjoyed having a day off in the middle of the week! I nominate that every Wednesday become a paid day off. Who's with me???
First thing to mention is that I've updated my credits page with images of the various productions that have used my music. I think a listing of images make the page look much better than a listing of just plain ole boring text.
While I was enjoying my day off last week I was excited to find some new cue sheets show up! They were mostly for some familiar faces such as Little Couple, Toddlers and Tiaras, The Dr. Oz Show and Last Call with Carson Daly. But I also had a new series show up, Teen Mom. It was for the second part of the Season 2 finale. I had 2 cues used in the episode, a tension cue ("Tension In The Air") which was the first piece of music played in the episode while they recapped the previous episode and it lasted for nearly a minute and a more inspirational pop-rock guitar cue ("Hope and Inspiration") that played for about 4 seconds. I was able to find the episode online and have embedded it below. It's kinda hard to hear the music in the beginning but it is there :-)
And then on Friday I learned of another new series that I had some music placed in, Ragin' Cajuns. I had 4 blues cues get used in an episode. I was able to find a clip that had one of them in it ("Don't Feed The Gators") and have embedded it below. My music starts at around the 1:10 mark and plays to the end of the clip.
And today I learned that the cue that was used in the Teen Mom episode above ("Tension In The Air") was also used as a promo for both NBC's Nightly News and the Today show!
And finally, my RevAbs progress report for the week. This past week was a bit more challenging simply because of the hamstring injury I incurred last week. I haven't been able to do a full exercise routine like normal but I have been doing a modified workout every day, ignoring my legs and just focusing on my upper body and core. So with that said, this week may be the week that I'm the most proud of. I ended up losing a total of 4.8 pounds for the week which brings the overall total lost up to 60.1 pounds!!!! I'll be very excited to return to doing the normal routines once my leg has completely healed.
Until next time...
It's Monday again, so time to check in with everyone and give some updates about what's been going on for the past week (or two)!
I had some new cue sheets show up this week for some shows I've already been in, Little Couple and The Dr. Oz Show, as well as a new show, Chef Roble and Co. I also had three cue sheets show up for Inside The PGA Tour for some tracks that I did with my "band" Crushing Gray. Never would have imagined we'd get some hard rock placements on a golf show :-)
On the RevAbs front, I finished up Phase 2 last week and I'm now in the home stretch of the program. As of today, I've dropped 55.3 pounds overall and I'm only 14.2 pounds away from hitting my goal with 4 weeks left to get there! Unfortunately, I tweaked my right hamstring muscle during my workout on Saturday so I'm having to rest it for a bit to avoid further injury. Today was the first time I've missed a workout since I began back on April 16th. I'm feeling a bit bummed about it too.
As for what I'm currently working on music wise, I finished up a Promo type cue last night that will be pitched to CBS. Then for this week I'll be working on a cue that I'll be pitching to one of the high end PMA libraries. I'm also going to be spending some time on the administration side of things as well as some networking follow ups.
Until next time...
Last week I started a new weekly post on Facebook, Music Monday, and decided that I should probably incorporate that into my blog. I'll also include a link to the track from last week at the end of the blog.
I've found out about quite a few new placements since my last blog entry that I wanted to update you on. They range in style from pop/rock to metal to tension to delta blues and they were for some old shows that I've had placements in before, like The Dr. Oz Show (29 new episodes) and NY Ink (6 new episodes), as well as a bunch of new shows such as Disappeared, Oprah's Next Chapter (4 episodes), Secret Service Secrets, Ultimate Armored Car, and finally, what has become one of my new favorite shows, Duck Dynasty!
I also had a track get used in a nomination video during last month's Webby Awards Show. I haven't been able to locate the video itself, but it appears that the nominee that my music was used for created a product that turns your iPhone into a stun gun!
A quick update on my RevAbs weight loss journey. I dropped another 3.4lbs this week for an overall total today of 48.1lbs! I've got 6 weeks left and 21.4lbs to lose to reach my goal for this 3.5 month program. It's going to be close but I think the goal is within reach! This week is going to be a challenge for me to eat healthy as I'm going to be at a small music conference from Thu - Sun. But I'm going to be planning things out ahead of time so that it won't be as big of a challenge as it could be otherwise. If you want to succeed in life, you have to plan for it.
And now for the new music. This is a track that I wrote last night for a pitch to a music library looking for hard, aggressive "sports rock" type music. I called it "Headbuster." Enjoy!
And for those of you who didn't see this on my Facebook page last week, here's the track that I posted. It's a co-write with Darin Martin and Juliet Lyons, with Juliet doing an awesome job on the vocals!
Until next time!
Thought it would be a good time to update the blog with some of the latest news about placements and deals and stuff. This is the time of year that my musical output tends to increase a bit as I find myself having more time to spend composing since the college basketball season is over, the NBA playoffs are nearly finished and most of my favorite TV shows are on summer hiatus (or cancelled!).
I had a chance to write some pop/rock cues in the style of Colbie Callait and Sheryl Crow for a new series that's about to debut on ABC Family called Beverly Hills Nanny. I wrote seven tracks for it and all seven were accepted and sent to the editors of the show. So I'll likely record that show to see if any of my cues get used.
Currently I'm writing some Hip-Hop cues for Fox Sports. It's been a stretch to say the least, but I've watched quite a few mix tapes of Kentucky basketball players to help me get a feel for the genre :-) I'm also co-writing with a couple of other people on these, one in particular who's VERY well versed in Hip-Hop. Thanks to most of their home games against lesser opponents being broadcast on the UK Basketball network via Fox Sports South, my dream of having my music played during a UK game broadcast is one step closer to reality!
On to some placement news... Since my last update, I've had placements show up in Clean House NY (4 episodes), The Rosie Show (14 episodes), NY Ink, It's A Brad, Brad World (8 episodes), and Last Call with Carson Daly (4 episodes). Now here is one of the rare times that I actually know in advance about an episode. The episode of What Not To Wear (episode title - "Desiree") that will be airing on Tuesday night, June 5th at 9pm Eastern / 8pm Central will feature 3 of my tracks in it. And since I know which tracks are being used, I can actually let you know which ones they are as well :-) So here they are, the first two are acoustic guitar based tracks and the third one is a driving pop/rock track:
Making Choices
Tough Decisions
Leave It All Behind
I'm not sure the exact moment when they will be used in the episodes, but it does appear that it will be in the back half of the episode, with the third clip being the next to last piece of music they use, and it gets played for 56 seconds. So it might be used during the final "reveal" scene based on the type of cue and placement in the episode.
And finally, an update on my progress with the RevAbs program that I started over 6 weeks ago. I'm VERY excited to announce that I just completed Phase 1 of the program and so far I've lost 37.1lbs, 4" off of my waist and about 18% of my body fat. I'm feeling great and can't wait to see the results at the end of Phase 2 later next month!
Until next time...
One week ago today I started on a new path. There were times that I didn't know if I could make it or not but I'm happy to report that I stuck with the plan, both the diet and exercise, every single day. I'm excited to announce that so far I've lost 16.5 pounds!!!
Now I know there will be some out there who are concerned about the pace at which I've lost this weight. I appreciate your concerns, but let me reassure you that you need not worry. For the past week, I've had around 1200 calories per day by eating 5 meals per day (3 meals and 2 snacks, and that's it) that consisted of all natural and organic foods, nothing processed (except a couple tablespoons of A-1 Sauce!), gave up diet sodas and replaced them with at least 80oz of water a day, and exercised 30-45 minutes a day for 6 days. If I got hungry again later in the evening, instead of grabbing another snack, I drank a 20oz bottle of water.
I can honestly say that I feel great! I have not experienced a single headache during this entire process. And every time I start to feel hungry, it's usually time to eat again anyways. I'm a bit sore from the exercise, but that's because I've done more exercise in the past 6 days than I've probably done in the past 6 years combined! I've also eaten more broccoli and asparagus during the past week than I've eaten in my entire life!
Sort of... I'll get to that in a moment. But first I wanted to share that this particular entry is going to be a bit more on the personal side as I'm going to open up a little bit about a new adventure that I'm about to embark upon. And while I do have some new music news and updates, I'm going to save that for a post later in the week. But for now, let's get to the name change...
I'm going to be changing from Big Blue Barry to "Not Nearly As Big" Blue Barry or "Medium Blue Barry" or something along those lines... Yes, I'm making a lifestyle change to lose weight and drop at least 100 pounds.
The idea for this journey that I'm about to tell you about has been percolating for awhile but my recent trips to Kentucky helped bring the idea from a possibility into actuality. There were a couple of nights while I was there that I couldn't sleep so I had the TV on and caught a couple infomercials, one of which was for P90x. So after seeing a couple of those, and then feeling winded after my walk from the parking lot to the arena in Louisville (it was about 6 or 7 blocks away), the wheels were set in motion.
Then after getting back to Nashville, I spent some time researching some different programs, trying to figure out which one I could commit to and still see some results from. I knew that there was no way I could commit to the P90x program. It was going to take up more time than I could commit to. If I wanted to put music completely on hold for the duration of the program, then I could find time for it, but that's just not realistic.
As fate, luck, or as I like to think, Divine Intervention, would have it... A few months ago, I got back in touch with a dear friend from college that I had not seen in over 15 years. This friend just happened to be a certified trainer and Coach in the BeachBody system (aka P90x). So after a nice chat on the phone, we decided what program would be the best fit for me, not only from the standpoint of the amount of weight I want to lose, but also from the standpoint of how much time I could commit to putting into this. And in my case, that program is known as RevAbs.
The reason I'm posting about this is because I want to take that extra step in being held accountable to sticking with this. I know I've got the support of my coach and my "inner circle" of friends and family, but I wanted to get as much support with this as I could. My long term goal as of now is to lose between 100-120 pounds and I'm expecting it will take three rounds of this program to do so.
In all honesty, I'm actually EXCITED about this. I know there are going to be some drastic changes, in particular with my diet, and especially over the next two weeks as I do the 14-day kick start program. No carbs and no sugars for 2 weeks and a total of about 1200 calories per day... So if I'm a bit grumpy during the next two weeks, you'll know why :-)
By the time this entry posts online, I should have completed my first day's workout. Hopefully I will be alive to talk about it when I'm done :-)
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