First things first, you need your track. Picking the actual track gave me the enjoyment to hear all kinds of music and concentrate on what style I would like to focus on. It’s better for you, the artist, to be involved as much as possible in this process so you can be comfortable and really treasure your work. After I picked the music, I took a few days to come up with the lyrics, drawing from my relationships and experiences in the past.  I picked which part of the song was going to be the verse, the chorus, and the bridge. The next step was rehearsing and rehearsing with my producer to get a feel for the song as well as have the chance to switch things up if need be; this  helps you spend less money and time in the actual studio. Now off we go to the studio!!!

I could not possibly sleep the night before because I didn’t know what to expect; it is said that you should get a good night sleep, but clearly I could not. The day finally approaches with 6:00pm at hand. I get to the studio located  in Long Beach, California and from the outside it looked like a quiet residential neighborhood.  The gentleman escorted me through the house back to a garage that had been completely remodeled into a studio. WOW!  I thought to myself, here we go.

I give the track to the man and he plays it. Meanwhile, I am so nervous because the room is full of my producers,  artists, and  friends. There has to be a level of concentration and confidence in one’s self to be able to  go through this process. Well, it’s time for me to step into the booth and start singing. We laid down the whole song and I thought that would be it, but little did I know I would be there for another 3 hours that day, leaving with only the hook completely done. We decided to work specifically on the chorus, and I had to sing that about a thousand times until we picked the one that sounded the best. When that is done, it was time to do ad libs, harmony,  and add special effects to the track. This was still only the chorus, and I still  had two verses and the middle of the song to complete. It is important to keep your energy up so you won’t sound tired on the song, so bring plenty of water and healthy snacks.

On the last day, I knew I had to finish the song because I only had a few days left in California before I returned back to the East coast. When my producer and I entered the studio, the recording man played back what we did the other day, and it sounded good. I stepped back in the booth and went through the whole process for each verse and the bridge of the song. Luckily for the bridge, a talented rapper came in and completed it quickly. By the time it was over, I had spent about 5 hours in the studio. Okay, now we are done, I thought to myself, but it was  now time for the mixing and mastering process. I wanted to scream!!! Only because it was after midnight and I had to get up for work the next morning.  Even though I wanted to scream, I still had fun and enjoyed the final product. I received a good deal on the price and spent no more than $200 for this song.

I believe that creating your own music is nurturing for your soul. As an artist, it is importnat that we have these experinces to build and grow on. I look forward to completing an album and letting you hear my music.

If you live in Long Beach and you need a good studio call 562-999-6099 for the Chamber Music Group.

As I sit here and think about the technology of distributing music, I can’t help but to hark back to my younger days. I loved music as much then as I do now, but the medium was a little different. I remember getting my first LP. For those of you who are too young to remember LPs, I’m speaking of vinyl records…twelve inch circular discs of varying dark-colored rings, plus a label and a little, tiny hole in the middle so it would fit snugly on your record player. I think the technical term was phonograph, but I could never quite figure out how this piece of equipment ever got a goofy name like that. No matter what it was called, it was magic to me. I would drop the needle into the groove and a couple of crackles and pops later, my favorite tune was cranking out of bad speakers. Awesome! How could this get any better? Even having to tape a penny or two to the record player arm never bothered me. Musical bliss!

A few years later, it did get better. I bought my first 8-track tape machine. It was glorious! No more skipping. No more scratches. I never had to clean the tapes and they took up much less room. And the sound was great. There was one major flaw with 8-track tapes though …the dreaded fade-out between programs. Oh yeah, the song would literally fade out, and then a loud click, and the song would fade back in. It was years before I realized there was a Michael Schenker guitar solo in the middle of my favorite UFO song!! Ah, but you can’t put a lid on technology. And soon enough we had the cassette tapes come out. No more fading in and out! And, man, these little buggers were mobile. You could listen to them on the home stereo, take them with you in the car and before you knew it, Sony made it possible to walk around and listen to your favorite tape. Is this world great, or what?

Almost looks like vinyl, huh? Note from the editor: Cassettes are awesome.

I thought we had hit the technological pinnacle of music until the compact disc revolutionized the music industry forever. And, now music is damn-near flawlessly reproduced via MP3s and we can download any song we want off the web.

This sort of brings us back full circle to the satellite floating over us allowing us to enjoy all the music we can stand to listen to.

I do love the satellite stations, but I have a couple of suggestions. What? Did you think I wasn’t going to get at least one jag in here? I’m way too cynical for that. Okay, here goes: when you satellite radio people select a song from a group that has a huge catalog of music, please don’t select a cover song! The other day, I was driving in my car and I see Van Halen is coming on the Boneyard. I limber up my fingers for some fierce air guitar fun when out of my speakers comes ‘Dancing in the Streets’. Are you kidding me? Have you seen the catalog of VH music available? And you go for ‘Dancing in the Streets’?! Another one that chafes my butt is Dire Straits. Do the satellite program managers know that they made a ton of other music besides ‘Sultans of Swing’?

Dire Straits, in concert, playing "Sultans of Swing" over and over again

And finally, one of the main reasons I subscribe to satellite radio is because I don’t want to hear the inane, meaningless ramblings of the brainless disc jockeys I had to endure on terrestrial radio. I have noticed of late, ever since the merger, many of the jocks on the satellite stations have taken to chatting it up between songs. Except for a select few (mentioned earlier), please, do us all a favor and don’t speak, just put on more glorious music.

Here’s Vodes’ second article for meandthestereo!  Here’s the source for the Dire Straits image! Here’s the source for the record player image! Stay tuned for Saturday’s first Artist of the Week post and then prepare for more new articles from some new columnists starting next week! Tell Vodes how much you love hearing “Sultans of Swing” in the comments below!