September Update

What a crazy month it's been! I had a wonderful time hanging with my buddy Logan over the weekend and we made some great progress on the Crushing Gray album.

In addition to that weekend of awesomeness, I got to hear my music on TV for the first time ever. During the 2nd episode of a very popular daytime talk show one of my cues was played as they were cutting to commercial. It was only for a few seconds, but it felt great nonetheless!

In total, I landed 4 cues with this show and so far I've heard one of them used at least 3 times this week! Again, a great feeling!

Next month I'll be heading up to KY for some UK Basketball excitement. Can't wait to see what October holds!

Crushing Gray Update

I'm about to head to the airport to pick up my partner in crime, Logan Pepper, or as my wife and I call him, Dr. Pepper, for a weekend of writing and rocking in the studio.

This is going to be his first trip to Nashville but we're not going to have a lot of time to do any real sight-seeing while he's here.

We've got some ambitious goals for the weekend so we're going to hit the ground running tonight. Hopefully by the time he leaves on Sunday, we'll have made some significant progress on the Crushing Gray album.

August Update

This month saw a big change as I started working from my house. I still have the same day job but now I'm working from home instead. I'm very excited about the time I'm going to be saving from not having a commute, much less the money I'll save on gas!

I recently signed on as a composer with a new music library that is being started by an industry vet. He currently has a library that supplies music to a very popular daytime talk show. I met him at the TAXI Road Rally last year and gave him a CD. Fast forward about 9 months later and I got an email from him with an offer to join his new library.

That opportunity lead to me getting a chance to write some cues for an upcoming TV show. I'll post more about this in the next few weeks, once everything is finalized.

MTV Placements

Earlier today I had my first ever music placements on a TV show. I didn't know that the episode of the show with our music was airing so I didn't get to actually see it when it first aired. Maybe I'll catch a replay one day.

The show was Parental Control on MTV, Season 6 Episode 53. There were actually two songs used in the episode, "Everybody" and "Hidden Beauty", both of which were co-writes with my best friend Joel Shoemake. We're both pretty happy to say the least!

Scoring to Film, Part 2

I had a few moments so I thought I'd try and finish up the story on my first film scoring experience. The last post ended right as the scoring process was about to begin, so that's where we'll resume.

I was expecting it to be a challenging experience, and IT WAS. VERY MUCH SO. But as much as it was challenging, it was every bit as rewarding. In fact, I would even go so far to say that of all the projects I've been involved with, and all the music that I've written, I don't think I'm any prouder of any of them than I am of what I accomplished on this documentary.

You see, it's not just about the music. While I am very proud of how the music sounds and the parts that I wrote, I'm much more excited about how the music FEELS. That was probably the biggest challenge I faced throughout the project.

It's easy to write a piece of music, at least, I think it is. Now, that doesn't mean each piece is good. But I can sit down with a guitar and within 5-10 minutes, I can typically have the basic outline of a song started. I'm sure I'm not the only one who can do this. It comes with years of practice and dedication.

But to sit down and write a piece of music that:

a) Is high quality and performed well
b) Fits within the parameters that the producer has given you to work with
c) makes the listener FEEL something as they watch and listen

Well, that's a whole other ball of wax. For me, the first two were nowhere near as difficult as the third one.

I can remember a couple of nights where I spent probably 3 hours or more trying to write a piece of music that was around 30-45 seconds long. I would come up with something that met the first two criteria, but when I listened back to it while watching the scene, I would say to myself "That doesn't make me feel anything... ok, it makes me feel like crap 'cause I've spent over 3 hours on this and I'm nowhere close to what I want it to sound like!" Yeah, I occasionally talk to myself. :-)

Part of my struggle, especially early on in the process, was in the way that I typically write music. When I'm "riffing" on a guitar, I'm not really watching anything, so I'm not really concentrated on if the riff makes me feel anything for a visual cue. Continuing with that theme, from a physical standpoint, my actual recording setup made it difficult to record acoustic guitar while I was actually watching the scene. I eventually just settled on "writing" while watching the scene, then when it was time to record, I wasn't concerned about watching, as I had already "validated" that the music had the necessary emotion behind it before I began to record.

One thing that really helped me in dealing with the producer was drawing on the experiences I've had co-writing with my best friend Joel. I speak in numbers and he speaks in colors. Because of that, I've learned how to communicate better with people who deal more in generalities and less in specifics, stuff like "Can you make the song sound more orange?" Or in this case, "Can you make cue 10 sound like a Jewish song, but not really too Jewish?" Let me tell ya, THAT one was a challenge, but I think it may be one of my top two or three cues in the whole film.

We were on a pretty tight deadline. Even though I was only responsible for about 12 minutes worth of the film, I still only had about 2 weeks to get it completed. One thing that I wasn't sure how to anticipate would be the revisions process. Fortunately for me, nearly every piece, if not every piece, that I submitted was generally accepted for use in the film. There were usually a couple of tweaks here or there, but I don't recall any major re-writes taking place (thankfully!).

One thing that I learned throughout the process was that in my heart, I felt a feeling of completeness, a feeling that to me was saying, that I was/am doing EXACTLY what I was created and born to do. And by that I mean, working with music in general, not specifically scoring acoustic guitar music to film.

I guess that's it for now. Please feel free to leave me comments or questions and I'd be glad to answer them.

Until next time...
- Big Blue