Time To Get Serious

Things have become much more serious for me in the music world and I have grabbed some attention locally and throughout the country. My booking agency is back in swing and I am trying out some new types of shows which I hope will innovate the collective local scenes in my area. What I mean by this is that I have found each music genre has its own scene with few people jumping from scene to scene, even though they would like the music. As well there are art scenes, comedy scenes, dancing scenes, and other artistic/entertainment scenes with decent crowds.

These new style shows will feature musicians, artists, comedians, and other entertainers of all styles. This will meld the different scenes and allow people to be exposed to new things they may like but would have never otherwise seen. We already have two of these shows setup, one in April and another in May, and will be getting more setup soon. I have a good amount on the line here but have also found ways to innovate my cash flow from these shows. As most promotors know, especially in todays scenes, it is very easy to lose money and being able to make money gives me more ability to help the scene as a whole.

As well as booking I am doing much more musically. I am now teaching guitar and have 2 students, both of whom seem to really enjoy and take in what I teach them. I still haven't written a new song in a while in hopes of finding inspiration but I may need to stop waiting and start getting to it. With my current band I am trying to expand my drumming and we have a new song and new cover which both push me a little in different ways. I am getting much better as a drummer and felt quite flattered at my last show when I noticed a good amount of the crowd air drumming along to our songs. Makes me feel like my hard work may begin to really pay-off.

What a Life

As usual, things haven't moved along much. The band I drum for decided not to become anything more than local, so I began picking up my indie project again and finally have more connections. Thanks to booking again and doing stuff with my band I have much more to work with in terms of local connections. As well, I feel like I now understand the basic steps for a band to really get out there in a big way. Hopefully I can pull together a group to get this indie project ready and then let it take off.

Equipment

I finally have the equipment I need to start recording and getting music projects really started. Unfortunately I ran into a snag...with everything. I got an Axiom25 (2nd gen) but something is wrong with the keyboard so I have to get it exchanged. I also have an audio-interface to start getting instruments recorded, but the firewire that came with it is a 6-bit to 6-bit and my mac has a 4-bit firewire port, so I need to get a convertor or a wire. While both these things aren't really much of a problem it is just annoying that I couldn't plug in really play around with anything.

It will be nice to record because it will make starting a band easier and it will help with promotion. It's pretty hard to get heard when you don't have anything recorded...although that isn't quite as apparent when you're focused on playing live shows. That is one of the reasons why my current band got on its feet so quickly, the lead singer already had all the songs written and recorded. We just needed to learn them and then give our own little tweaks. The downside is we don't have the money to re-record the songs so they truly reflect how we sound now. Listening to our recordings it almost sounds like a different band.

Hopefully I can get this stuff up and running quickly...but I have to put it on pause for a trip I leave for in two days (technically tomorrow since it's past midnight). Once I'm back though, it's on.