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!
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...
Looks like my last entry was nearly six months ago. I knew it had been awhile since my last blog but I hadn't realized it had been THAT long. So much has happened between now and then. Some of it important, some of it, not so much. Let me start out with the least important stuff first... updates on music placements...
I landed my second main title theme for the show It's A Brad, Brad World that is currently airing on Bravo. I've also had numerous placements in a variety of other shows such as Access Hollywood, Auction Kings, and Little Couple. And the movie that I wrote the score for, Decision, made it's television debut back in October. I've also been busy writing cues for a variety of other shows but have yet to find out how many have been used yet.
In November of last year I made my annual trip to L.A. for the TAXI Road Rally. This was my fourth time going and it might have been my favorite one. It was great getting to see friends and "family" while I was there though it's amazing how fast the time flies while you're there. This one seemed to go by really fast.
After the Rally I made a big change in my recording setup. I switched from Pro Tools 9 to Cubase 6. There were lots of reasons for the change and maybe one day I'll do a blog post just about that, but after making the switch to Cubase, I can honestly say I've got no regrets. I'm LOVING Cubase!
Now on to some of the important updates... The last couple of weeks have been a sobering reminder of just how fragile life really is. Almost two weeks ago, my papaw (mom's dad) passed away. Even though he had been in a nursing home for over eight years and had been battling Parkinson's Disease for sometime, his passing was a bit of a shock. While it's never easy to see someone you love pass away, we know he's in a much better place now and we have faith that we'll see him again someday. I was able to spend about a week up in KY to be with my family. I wish I could have stayed longer.
I was just about to get back to a bit of a normal life last week but this past Friday saw an outbreak of tornadoes across the Midwest and the South. We were fortunate here in that we didn't see any damage. But the area that I grew up in, Laurel County, Kentucky, was not as lucky. In East Bernstadt, at least five people lost their life and as many as 40 others were injured. It broke my heart to see the pictures and video footage of some of the damage. While I grew up in London, we went to church for many years in East Bernstadt and I have some friends and family that live there. I basically consider all of Laurel County as "home." And to be away from there right now is definitely tugging on my heart. My body may be in Tennessee, but my head and heart are in Kentucky right now.
I posted this on facebook and will do the same here. I'm trying to find 5 people who are willing to donate $20 to the United Way of Laurel County to help out the tornado victims in East Bernstadt. I will match those donations myself and will also buy you a drink or desert the next time I see you in person. If you're willing to help, here's the link to donate at:
https://volunteer.truist.com/cng-uwa/donate/?fdn=19100&_vm10302425432_=UWW_LUW
Until next time...
It's been a fun-filled couple of weeks or so since my last entry, time to get everyone caught up on what's been going on. Before I get into the music updates, I had a chance to go to my 20 year high school reunion at the end of August. I had such a great time getting to see so many old friends, many of which I hadn't seen since graduation day. I ended up getting the award for "Most Changed Male" while I was there. Needless to say, I look a bit different now than I did 20 years ago :-) Hard to believe it's been 20 years! On to the music...
I was sad to see both Proving Ground and Surprise Homecoming come to a close over the last couple of weeks. I ended up having 65 placements in Proving Ground and 9 in Surprise Homecoming. I'm not sure if either will be having a second season but I'm grateful for the opportunities that I got with both shows.
Since my last entry, I've signed three new deals with some music libraries. The first deal came as a result of a TAXI forward. The company signed 5 acoustic guitar tracks in the singer-songwriter style, kind of like Ryan Adams. You can hear them all by clicking this link. I heard from him yesterday and all 5 tracks were sent to MTV for possible use in the Teen Mom series. Not sure if they'll get used or not yet but he told me that if he hears good news, then I'll hear good news, which means you'll hear good news too :-)
It has been a rather eventful summer to say the least. A couple of days after my last blog post my parents came down to visit. It was a short visit but a great one filled with lots of laughter and food. In other words, a typical family visit :-)
A few days after that I had a chance to write some music for a new reality show about a pest control service. Not sure if I'm allowed to say more than that at this time. I ended up writing and signing some new tracks in a couple of genres that were new for me, classic rock and hip-hop.
A couple of days later I got an opportunity to write some tracks for a new show that recently debuted on TLC called Surprise Homecoming, hosted by Billy Ray Cyrus. The show is about soldiers returning home from war and surprising their loved ones. It was a very quick turnaround time for the new cues as the show was already being edited. I wrote a few cues and I also did some co-writing with a couple dear friends, Lydia Ashton and Cathleen Weinrich, both of whom are amazing musicians. Cathleen and I had two tracks signed and Lydia and I had four tracks signed.
I was having a conversation with my wife yesterday about how I've been feeling that I haven't been as productive this year, from the standpoint of music creation. It's not that I feel like I've been lazy or anything, quite the contrary. I know I've been working as hard but for some reason, in my mind, it feels like I'm "behind schedule" compared to last year. So I spent some time on the subject last night.
The title of this post doesn't mean what you may think it means but if you continue reading all will become clear. But before I do that, here are a couple of updates about some items from my last entry.
First off, the Fantasy Factory episode is now online. You can view it by clicking this link. My cue begins at around the 17:10 mark in the episode.
Second, the "Writer's Detour" that I was suffering from finally went away and I was able to meet my deadlines. Barely, but I met them. And now thanks to the detour, I've got a few new tracks to finish in some new styles for me. And now on to the new updates since my last entry...
I don't think I could have come up with a more appropriate title for this entry. As many of you know, I'm a huge Kentucky basketball fan and (most) every year during the month of March they compete in a little basketball tournament affectionately known as March Madness. Well, they're not the only ones dealing with madness this month. I'll get to that in a minute but first I've got a quite a few items to update everyone on.
Let's start with where I left off, and that's with the film score project. In spite of the fact that my main studio computer was down for over half of the project ( It was a power supply issue, and after a poor job by the 2nd service tech that HP sent, I was able to get the machine back up and running by myself later that night), I was able to meet my March 1st deadline.
I can share more about the film now as well. It's a faith-based movie called Decision and it stars Natalie Grant and Billy Dean. I'm not exactly sure when it's going to air but the latest I heard was they expected it to be on TV sometime near the mid/end of April. Once I know more, I'll be sure to let everyone know. It was a great experience working on the film. The production company is planning on shooting more films this year and I've already been told to expect a phone call from them in the upcoming months about scoring those as well. Needless to say, I'm pretty excited about that.
About 15 minutes after I found out that that every cue had been accepted and I was finished with the score, I got a postcard from our water company stating that our usage for the past month was higher than normal. This is where the madness begins...
It's hard for me to believe that 2010 ended over a month ago! What's the old saying, time flies when you're having fun? Last year was definitely a fun one as I was able to see my dream of having a career in music take several steps forward. I've still got a lot of hard work ahead of me but that light at the end of the tunnel is looking quite a bit brighter now.
The year started off with me participating in a social networking Blog contest sponsored by Ariel Hyatt. It was during the contest that I really began trying to figure out my musical identity. I was torn between trying to be "Big Blue Barry" the artist and "Barry French" the composer. At first I struggled with the decision but eventually decided to go with being the artist. Then near the end of the year, I re-visited my choice and began moving forward as "Big Blue Barry" the composer. Now I'm at total peace with my choice and it feels great.
During the spring I began signing some new deals with music libraries, both for myself and for Crushing Gray, all of which were results of direct forwards from TAXI. I also began getting some new placements outside of the daytime TV medical talk show that I wrote some tracks for the previous year.
Unfortunately, not everything in 2010 was great. In May, Nashville was hit with one of the worst natural disasters it's ever seen, simply known around here as "the flood." We were fortunate in that the only damage we had was with our driveway, but others were not as fortunate. The effects of the flood are still felt throughout the city.
The summer was spent cranking out as many tracks as I could for another daytime TV talk show, this one being focused more on home and lifestyle, produced by the same company that produces several of the largest daytime TV talk shows out there. I ended up signing 50 tracks with them at the end of the project. It was a very tiring project but well worth it in the end as I ended up with around 120 placements on the show during the last three months of the year.
Speaking of the last three months of 2010... I had a chance to take my annual trip up to the Big Blue Madness to see Kentucky start off the 2010-11 season, as well as my trip to the TAXI Road Rally. The week after the Road Rally I found out that I had landed the theme song for a new TV show that was debuting on a brand new network that debuted in 2011. Again, it's one of those deals that I'm not permitted to disclose the name of in public but you can probably guess which network I'm talking about. I'll give a hint about the show, it airs on Monday nights at 10pm, but that's all I can say :-)
Finally, in December I got a chance to become a "Go To Guy" for the library that had gotten me placements on a couple of TLC shows earlier in the year. I've already signed a handful of tracks with them and look forward to writing more.
I believe that covers the highlights of the past year. And from the looks of things so far, 2011 is going to be just as exciting!
I'm still in a bit of shock about this one! I had barely made it back from my trip to L.A. for the 2010 TAXI Road Rally when I got a phone call telling me the news.
As with my most recent placements, I'm not permitted to disclose the name of the show at the moment but I can say that it's scheduled to debut sometime next year on a new cable network. As of right now that's about all I can say. Once the show gets closer to airing and I'm permitted to do so, I'll provide more information.
Again, thank you to TAXI for the connection to this particular publisher which provided me with this opportunity.
- Big Blue
Got back last night from the Rally. WOW. What another great event! This was my third one and I'd say that it was the best one yet. I told my wife before I left for the trip that this year things felt just a little bit different. I wasn't sure why exactly. Looking back at it now, I think I have an idea. But before I get to that I wanted to touch on a few highlights of the trip.
I was looking through my ASCAP account online and noticed that I had a new cue sheet listed. Looks like it was for an episode of TLC's My First Home that aired just a few weeks ago.
I tried to find the clip online but wasn't able to do so yet. I'm sure it'll show up at some point, or I'll get the episode on my DVR.
Once again, this was a result of being forwarded by TAXI to a music library.
Another ASCAP statement, another placement on TLC. I can get used to this.
I tried to find a clip of the episode online but wasn't able to. I actually purchased the episode from iTunes for a buck. The track that they used was a pop-punk instrumental piece and it was used as "the reveal" at the end of the episode.
And yes, this was a result of a deal I signed with a company as a result of a TAXI forward.
Some of you know about my side project with Logan Rayne Pepper that we call Crushing Gray. But I also have another project with my buddy Joel that we call Big Blue Shoes. I'm happy to announce that we just signed our first deal for a Big Blue Shoes song.
The track is called "Our Place" and you can hear it at our ReverbNation profile. The company we signed with is the same one that I signed the 6 exclusive tracks with back in April.
I know this is probably starting to sound like a broken record but once again, this deal is thanks to TAXI. But there's a twist to this story!
I tried to find which listing that I submitted the song to but I couldn't locate it. In addition to the TAXI Submission history page on our account, I also keep very detailed records about every forward and return I get, and yes, I still get returns too.
But the reason I couldn't find the listing was because... I didn't submit it! I've heard Michael mention on more than one occasion that TAXI will often pitch the music from the members without the members ever knowing about it and apparently this is one of those cases!
So once again... THANK YOU TAXI!
I'm extremely excited to announce that Crushing Gray has just signed it's first deal with a music library!
The song is "Not With Me" and it's one that I co-wrote with my best friend Joel Shoemake a couple years ago. We'd had a couple of different vocalists on it but after I started collaborating with Logan Pepper on the other Crushing Gray tracks, Joel and I came up with the idea of having Logan sing on it, which we think was a brilliant idea :-)
The deal is with a high-end music library. Any guesses as to how we got the deal? If you keep up with my site in the slightest then you already know the answer. But if you don't, here it is. TAXI.
Hopefully I'll be able to report back that the song has been placed in a film or a TV show. Until then, you can hear the song here.
Once again, I have to thank TAXI for providing me with another deal. It's with an established library on the East coast.
I ended up writing 6 tracks for this deal. A couple of them were hard rock tracks that I typically write. One of them was more of a singer-songwriter track that I've recently started writing more of thanks to another deal that I have.
But the other three were brand new genres for me: Spy music and Sci-Fi. The spy track was an absolute blast to write. It was a bit challenging as I'm not accustomed to writing horn parts but I eventually got it down. And the sci-fi tracks were fun to write too. They felt more like writing sound design than actual 'music' in the traditional sense of the word.
Hope this turns into a great relationship with the library and opens the door to more placements down the road.
I knew it had been awhile since I last posted, but until I actually looked at my site, I didn't realize it had been almost a month! Yikes! Gotta say that the blog contest I participated in definitely helped me post on a more frequent basis.
One reason for my lack of posts is that March is the height of the college basketball season here in the States and I end up spending quite a bit of time following my favorite team, the Kentucky Wildcats. I really thought we were going to bring home Championship #8 this year but alas, that didn't happen. We had our worst shooting night of the season against a team that was having one of their best and in a one-and-done type tournament, that usually spells disaster for you. But regardless, I was very proud of our team this year. I can't remember when I ever had so much fun watching the team play but it was probably the '95-96 season, ie. Championship #6, and the first one that I could remember. I was only 4 when they won #5 so I don't remember that one. But I can tell you exactly where I was at when we won #6 (and #7) :-) Earlier tonight several of the players announced that they would be entering the NBA draft so it looks like next year's team is going to be a brand new group of players. Let the fun begin!
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