I’ve moved my blog

I’ve transferred my blog including all the contents and posts here to my personal website now, so I won’t be posting here anymore.

Please update your links and blog feeds! Thanks.

www.jarome.com/blog/

Some old original Christmas songs

I was going to post these around a week before the holidays and yesterday I looked at the date and was like “Holy Christmas, it’s Dec 21st!” So here they are.

These songs were composed with the first successful artists I ever worked with, Emeline. We lost Emeline in 2001 after she spent many brave years battling breast cancer.
Rosie Owens is on backup vocals.

DISCLAIMER: These are very old songs. They were done over 16 years ago in 1991, back when I was still learning to compose, produce and engineer. They were commissioned by local radio station Z95.3 FM, who are the time were playing Emeline’s music frequently. You can hear evidence of this from the clips on Emeline’s memorial site. You can get more of her music here.
So these songs are a little embarrassing. But I’m trying to be humble and put them out there anyway. Hope you enjoy them.

Have a great holiday season visiting with family, good food and good friends.

The sweet serenity of snow

Earlier this week I went skiing for the first time this year, and it was great.
I realized two things:

• I love skiing for various reasons, but one of the main ones is how quiet it is
• I am really out of shape

I have been working so much this year that I have totally neglected physical activity so I was expecting to be in pain after skiing, but not on the second run, that is an all new low in being out of shape. So now I am exercising every day even though I loath it.

Have you ever noticed how quiet it is out when it snows? Especially when it is falling from the sky. This is because snow is an excellent sound absorber. I listen to sound all day every day, often the same thing over and over (I probably end up hearing the average song I am producing over 300 times by the time it is done), so it is nice to get up into the mountains where the snow is everywhere because it is so serene. Aside from the odd swish of a ski, or a chunk of snow falling from a tree, it is truly tranquil. A great break from the noise, which I also love, but you need a break once in a while, you know?

Next blog posting: my original Christmas songs.

The intricacies of modern music production

Most people have no idea how much is involved in producing music, and that includes the artists and musicians themselves. That’s right, most professional artists don’t really realize what goes on behind the scenes in producing their music. They leave it up to a professional like myself, a producer (if they want it done right), which is the right thing to do in order for them to focus on their creativity and performance. The idea of sculpting a bass sound on repeat for 4 hours is just beyond their comprehension, but that is the kind of thing that goes on amongst mixing together many competing elements so it somehow all blends perfectly.

Today was an example of that in recording the last of the Cello parts for Elika Mahony’s album which will be completed this month. I’ll tell you more about that 3 year project soon.
It was very cool to hear someone play something I composed on keyboard on the cello, but professional players aren’t fond of working with non professional composers (ie: composers that don’t write out scores for performers to play). Even though I had the parts professionally scored, the timing didn’t match up with the parts I composed because the piano wasn’t played strictly with a metronome. This means that when the parts are scored, it is very difficult to figure out the beats and bars. There are ways around this but they require a lot of work like creating tempo maps which I won’t get into now.

Basically what it comes down to is that since many artists don’t know what’s involved with these kinds of production details, it is hard for them to know how to prepare for them. Generally, if you want to add any instrumentation, music needs to be played perfectly to a click when it is first started, if it isn’t, it will require a lot more time and money.

It’s all part of the many intricacies of professional music production. It’s hard to believe how much goes into a song sometimes, even for myself. But when it’s done right, it sure sounds amazing. It can capture the heart and stir your very soul.

Massive changes in the music industry

I have been consulting a great deal with people and the artists I work with about the massive changes in the music industry lately. It is long overdue that I make an official blog post about it.
But how do you sum up what equates to declaring the death of gravity to a physicist in a short blog entry? It’s a challenge, however, now we know enough to confidently make some bold statements about where the music industry is going and I will very briefly summarize them here:

• The music industry is moving away from corporations and back to the artist/musician where it should be (this is a very good thing for you, the artist, but more rights and control means more work and responsibility)
• Giving music away for free and digital downloading doesn’t hurt music sales, it is in fact the only way music is purchased, and essentially has been for a long time. (The myth that downloading is hurting sales is propaganda that corporations have spread in attempt to retain control they are losing over the music industry – see first point)
• Music as an emotional commodity has become about building and selling relationships, NOT selling a product. Build a strong following and fans will support you in all your efforts. This will soon become a philosophy for all business in the near future in my opinion.
• The Internet now fully into it’s web 2.0 phase is the way that artists can independently build a strong business without corporations or other companies due to it’s many resources. (This is covered in detail in Andrew Dubbers’ free eBook which I blogged about here, and links to some of these can be found in my blogroll/links page
• Blogging and social networking is one of the most important ways to accomplish the above and embrace the new music industry and start building your audience.

So these are some pretty drastic changes, I mean, telling artists they need to give their music away in order to sell it when they have been told that is stealing and will cost them sales? Well, I have started to do it myself as mentioned here, and many professionals, industry experts and artists have proven these points to not only be true, but very successful, artists like Jonathan Coultan. He may not be famous enough for you to know him, but he’s an independent artist making a living from his music using these very techniques. There are articles about it all over the internet. Major artists like radiohead have been starting to make changes as well, selling their music by donation, and a lot of people not only think they’re crazy, fellow artists think they are ruining the music industry. But those people haven’t studied the proven facts about where music is going.

I have been researching this for some time now, particularly for a course I teach at a local college as part of the full time music program. I also offer artists consulting on effectively using these techniques. I don’t have all the answers because no one does yet, things are still changing and progressing. But I can see where things are going, and it is a good thing.

Fun facts about war and poverty

• Cost of war in Iraq to America, in its fifth year: More than $455 billion
  (of money borrowed from other countries, like China)
  http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,,-7017205,00.html
  
  
• Cost to cure hunger in Africa: $10 billion
  (One month budget of the Iraq war)

It’s a good day to start renouncing nationalism, America!

“… selfish souls, for the promotion of their own interests, have assigned boundaries and outlets and have, day by day, attached more importance to these, until this led to intense enmity, bloodshed and rapacity in subsequent centuries. In the same way this will continue indefinitely, and if this conception of patriotism remains limited within a certain circle, it will be the primary cause of the world’s destruction” - Abdu’l-Baha