Recently in Recording Project Category

We are heading into a big music weekend. It starts Saturday morning, I've got a morning rehearsal for Sunday's worship. Hopefully, my dad will be there for the rehearsal. We've got a massive band with 2 keys, 2 guitars, drums, bass, perc. and 8 singers (I love working for the church!) We'll be doing a lot of my dad's music Sunday, so it should be a fun service.

Saturday night the jam continues. We've got the International Worship and Prayer Service. The should be a fun time with a really open feel. We're going in sans-rehearsal. A rehearsal wouldn't be worth it anyway since 3/4ths of the music will be provided by various groups of immigrants and refugees from our church and those of us in the band will just be playing by ear. Good times! I'm excited about being able to play with Mike Ramsey and Jules Gikundiro from our South City worship site and being able to hear some music from our Nepalese folks.

Sunday we have our 2 worship services of course. J-dub sitting in.

Then Sunday night, Dad and I will be at Covenant Presbyterian leading the worship music there. We'll be doing a few of his classic tunes like "Rock of Ages" and "Morning Sun" but we'll also be doing a few more of his unique tunes so come on out and worship with us.

The music doesn't stop Sunday! On Monday, we will hopefully be completing the last session for my new CD. I'll be meeting with Michelle Higgins at Jacob Detering's studio to cut some back ground vocals (BGVs). With my dad being in town, we might have him replace some of my tenor parts too if time permits.

Speaking of the recording, I've been interacting a lot this week with my graphic designer, Ken to get the layout ready. We are getting very close to a finished product ready for the holiday shopping season.

After much careful deliberation, my aesthetic side overcame my practical side and I concluded that horns must be on the CD. Jacob was out of town but he arrange for Chris to sub for him as engineer. Jacob's presence was there in spirit as we worked in his room and were constantly saying, "Let's do another pass because that's Jacob would do."

Jim Stevens was the sax player. He played both alto and tenor sax. Jim has a great sound and he really nailed the parts. Dawn Weber was the trumpet player, and she also brought a great sound. Jim and Dawn work together a lot and so they had good chemistry and were able to lock into the parts quickly. Dawn is a character, sporting neon pink hair and a few facial piercings. I wish that I had more that 4 tunes to put horns on because Jim and Dawn were fun and easy to work with.

Arrangements were done by myself. I felt pretty insecure about my arrangements. I get the job done for Sunday mornings, but having my parts played by pros and recording them for historical posterity was a little frightening. We made a few changes on the fly mostly in phrasing. I can't wait to hear the final mixes! Horns will be featured on My Refuge (Stax sound), New Creation (African/Paul Simon sound), Before I Knew (more Stax) and Rejoice In The Lord (Steely Dan/George Benson sound).

I have parts that we use in church for on other songs on the recording (Jesus My Great High Priest and Search Me) but I prioritized the stuff that was more soulful. Also the tracks for those tunes are good as is and don't need anymore junk messing with the vibe. Ya' dig?

We only have one session left and then it's mix, master, manufacture.

Yesterday, I met with graphic designer, Kenneth Zarecki to talk about the CD design. He gave me a lot of good ideas for marketing the CD and he took a lot of notes about what I want to communicate with the CD design. I am so glad to be working with pros in all the various aspects of this recording. It's so good to know that the money and work will not be wasted because of one weak link in the process. I am also glad to be working with local talent. I can talk face to face and give them a clear idea of what I want, and I'm building professional relationships that are laying a foundation for future projects.

I got to see the pictures that I had the legendary, Edward Crim take for the CD artwork. I'll post a few some time soon.

I am independently producing my CD. This image shows where the money goes when you buy a CD from a big chain store. I know you can't read it, but you can check out the original here. Independent releases mean that more money ends up in the pocket of the artist. That means that the artist is supported to be able to continue to do their art without having to get a "day job". Fortunately, I have a day job (I love my job), and so I will not have to rely directly on my art to survive.

Being signed on a label has it's advantages. I would seriously consider signing to a label if the opportunity presented itself. The label does a lot of work for the artist. The big service they provide is marketing. I am not looking forward to marketing myself.

My wife is taking a big risk to allow me to spend so much of our personal money on this project. She has shown a deep level of trust in me and the gifts God has given to me. God is working in amazing ways in this process. It's been exciting to see his hand working as I have stepped out in faith. Please continue to pray for this CD.

"World War III" on maple ave.

tracking the last of the background vocals (except for some alto stuff).

the fog of war

Last week, I set up a Nimbit online merch table in order to sell mp3s, CDs, and other merch should I go into the T-shirt business. (Maybe I can offer some Little Knots gear, too.) If you can't see the store directly under the header, you might not have a current version of flash installed. Also, if you subscribe to my blog in a reader, you need to come to the actual site to see it.

The only product in the store right now is my 2002 CD, "Only One" but having the store up and running before the release of the new CD later this year will mean that as soon as I have something, you can go online and buy mp3s. Play around with the store and let me know what you think. Buttons on the top left side are store, bio, mailing list, and shopping cart. You can play full-length samples of all the songs. If you are in St Louis and you like the samples, come by the New City Fellowship office sometime and buy a CD for only $10. As always, it's cheaper to buy downloads, but isn't it more satisfying to own the real deal?

You can find the same store widget on my facebook fan page as well as my myspace page.

Friday morning, I got to hang out with Jacob at Sawhorse Studios. We were able to spend several hours building stuff onto a tune called "I Am My Beloved's". It's a tune that goes from being extremely delicate and ephemeral at the start to being a cranked up groove at the end. We only had acoustic guitar, Rhodes (by James Ward), and drums to start. We added bass, a few electric guitar layers, and a synth pad. It took forever to find a good pad that didn't sound like crap. I was playing one patch and Scott commented that it sounded "too St Louis Science Center." I am very pleased with how the song is developing, especially as I've listen to it more over the weekend. It has some really cool sounds that capture the spirit of the song.

Jacob gave me "semi-final" mixes for 3 tunes. I think there's probably 3 more tunes that are ready for mixing, so we are in good shape.