Working hard or hardly working?

Well… I’ve been keeping busy at least.  Not much of what I do feels like work.  Even my day job - worship leader and youth worker at Killarney Park Church - doesn’t really feel like work because I love what I do.  So it’s hard to say if I’m working hard, but I am doing a lot of stuff.

- I’ve been playing a decent amount of gigs.

- I’ve done a couple photoshoots.  One with Tracy Zhang and one with Adam Loewen.

- I’ve been planning a Vancouver Island tour for late August.

- I’ve become the new host of weekly Live Music Wednesdays at Bean Around the World at the Lonsdale Quay.

- I’ve done the Grouse Grind (I finished in 80 minutes… I’m going to try to do it in an hour next time)

- I’ve been running almost daily.  I have a goal to be able to run the Stanley Park sea wall by the end of August.

- I’ve appeard on Drive TV.

- My album has been reviewed by Colin Rink.  Check out his podcast “On the Run”

- And I’ve been having fun hanging out with friends.

By the way, last night I tried Bud Light Lime and I must say… it was good.  I’m not a Bud fan at all, but this tasted like Corona with Lime.  It’s a nice Summer beer.  Give it a try (I wish I was getting paid to say that).

“Shame on Me” seems to be my most popular song, which makes sense because it’s up-beat and catchy. The lyrics are a bit cheeky and the song has a good rhythm to it. In fact, my mom said she played the song for her preschool class and the kids all started dancing. If a song makes kids dance, it’s got to be good, right? (Oh no - please tell me I’m not going to be the next Sharon, Lois and Bram!)  Well… I’ve also seen some adults dance to it, so that’s a good sign.

I wrote the song for my Dark Before Dawn album when I realized that my slow-to-fast-song ratio was out of whack.  So on a rainy mid-week afternoon, wearing nothing but boxers and a house-coat like any good hermit, bum, or artist, I picked up my guitar and just started playing.  The first thing that came out was the guitar part for the verses - that simple “G” to “Gsus9″ for all you guitar players out there.  I really liked it, but it almost sounded familiar.  I later found out that Ryan Adam’s song “English Girls Approximately” uses the same chords, but it’s quite a bit slower and has a different groove to it.

The original melody of “Shame on Me” was a bit fancier than it is today, but when it came time to record, I wasn’t a good enough singer to pull it off, so I simplified it.  I’ve realized recently that I should continue to try to push my skills to new levels when I practice, but when it comes time to perform, I should pull back a bit and make sure I stay within my skill level.  A simple melody sung well sounds much better than a fancy melody sung poorly.

Lyrically, “Shame on Me” is a story about a guy who is in love with a complicated girl.  She’s hard to read, she’s closed off, she’s wild, she’s dramatic, she’s demanding, and she takes control, but she’s beautiful, breathtaking, and mysteriously lovable.  I’ll leave it up to your imagination on how much this girl is based on a real person.

I had always dreamed of featuring a cello or violin on my album, but I had the hardest time getting a hold of strings players that I knew. I almost gave up on that idea, but I figured I could try Craigslist as a last resort. I was amazed to get about twelve responses to my add in the first couple days. Who knew there were so many strings players in Vancouver! I guess money is a good incentive for them to come out of their hiding places and introduce themselves. Unfortunately I received mostly replies from violinists and I had my heart set on a cellist.

Eventually I got an email from Catriona, a cello instructor with 25 years of experience. I didn’t even bother auditioning her. I thought, “If she can teach it, she must be able to play.” And I didn’t think my cello lines were that complicated either, except for being in an awkward key for the instrument. My ignorant trust actually paid off. She was very talented and easy to work with. She even wrote the cello lines for “Broken and Beautiful” right there on the spot. Quite impressive. (I wrote the cello line for “Numbed” myself though. I’m pretty proud of that actually. It made me want to try composing some classical music). Anyway, the moral of the story is that Craigslist is a great resource for musicians.

At the age of twelve I wrote my first song. Finally now – 10 years later – I’ve started to release my music to the public. I think there were four main things stopping me before:

1) I was convinced that I was unprepared

2) I was afraid of rejection (if I was unprepared, no one would listen to my music)

3) I lacked the finances to record

4) I was too lazy to put in the hard work

All of these obstacles continued to haunt me even through the recording of “Dark Before Dawn”, but I found ways around them. I think the ultimate reason I got off my lazy ass and decided to give my music a shot was because my friends and family challenged me and encouraged me. In fact, one of my friends confronted me with some tough love, saying, “If you don’t get started with your music now, you’re never going to do it.” Almost immediately after hearing this, I set some goals, made a plan, and started working – just to prove my friend wrong. I guess his reverse psychology worked on me.

Everything seemed to fall into place once I decided to just go for it. Somehow I had the finances. Somehow I became more motivated and more confident.

A saying comes to mind: “If you want something in life, you have to reach out and grab it.” This is cliché and lame, but I think it applies to my situation. I needed to stop dreaming about being a singer/songwriter and start doing what it takes to be one. It was a simple but profound lesson for me.

(1) On the first day of recording, we set up all the equipment, tuned up the guitars, and warmed up on a song or two… then when we tried to queue up the recording, the metronome* wouldn’t work. It took about an hour for Adam (my producer) to it figure out. Meanwhile, I was just sitting there silently, thinking, “I’ve made a terrible mistake….” (Arrested Development reference anyone?) Apparently Adam was thinking the same thing. So we weren’t exactly off to a good start, but things got much better quickly… until…

(2) I had recorded all of the guitar tracks for the original set list of the album and I wanted to record drums, percussion, piano and guitar for a new song all on the same day. We weren’t exactly set up properly for drums. I am a very rusty drummer – I was in my prime in high school (and in hindsight, I wasn’t even great back then). On top of that, we had a poor quality drum set and only two microphones. All of the drums and percussion we recorded that day was scrapped in the end. We didn’t get any piano done either. I did, however, record the rhythm guitar for “No One But You” that day. So at least I got something (other than a lesson well learned about recording drums) for my money.

(3) The first day of recording vocals, I experienced the harsh reality of my limited vocal range. All of my songs were too high. I could hit the notes, but they didn’t sound very good… or at least not professional. I was pissed off. I thought that I sucked and I seriously considered throwing in the towel and cutting my losses. I spent most of that day moping around the studio, feeling sorry for myself. Adam convinced me that I really do have talent and that I just need to find my sound and use my strengths. For the first time, I tried singing in my lower register. It felt weird at first, but I eventually started to love it.

(4) When the recording was finished and it came time to get the album professionally printed, I ran into a couple problems. First, the day before I was going to the printers, I tried playing the master copy of the CD in my computer. To my dismay, it did not work properly. We burned the CD in the wrong format. I almost panicked but Adam and I solved the problem the next day, just in time to get it to the printers. Then on the next day, the printers sent me a digital copy of what the artwork would look like and there was a new problem. My eye on the front cover got cut in half because of the bleed room**. This looked terrible, so I actually had to get Matt (my designer) to put a new photo in and re-send it to the printers. Thankfully, it all worked out in the end.

* A metronome, aka click track, is a constant beeping beat that keeps musicians in time (not slowing down or speeding up) when recording.

** Bleed room refers to the part of a picture that gets printed, but cut off in order to insure there is no unwanted white border.