Music

As the child of two professional musicians, it was inevitable that music would be an integral part of my life. These are all of my posts related to music: my own, other artists, production and studio technique, synthesizers and music tech, and more.

Love and Life Are Deep

Moving Pictures

I can’t overstate how influential Neil Peart has been on my life. He and his two cronies were with me for hours and hours of D&D, thousands of bus rides and car trips, hundreds of notebook doodles, and many deep discussions of life, politics, philosophy, religion, and what it means to be a free and independent human being. He lived an amazing yet often tragic life. Watching how he dealt with some of these things helped me deal with my own tragedies, even if not in the same way. He was a reluctant, even unwilling celebrity, but if you happened … Continue reading

The End of the Beginning

Since mid-2017, I have been working to build my creative skills into a self-sustaining, and ultimately profitable, business. I spent a lot of that initial time refreshing my knowledge of how to be self-employed. Regulations, taxes, legal structure, manufacturing costs, global distribution options, royalties, streaming, performing rights organizations, licensing opportunities, and a gazillion other things that musicians and creatives should know about running a business, but often don’t. My consulting practice, which I’ve had off-and-on since 2003, gives me a leg up in many ways, as does my MBA. Over the years, I’ve developed deep domain knowledge in IT and … Continue reading

Recuperation and Reflection

Another Song-A-Day challenge comes to a close, and again, it was a rewarding experience. I managed to post all 28 tracks, including two that were done on the road. The last few days were even more of a challenge as the effects of not getting enough sleep and walking dogs in Wisconsin-winter temperatures ganged up to give me a fantastic head and chest cold. A fairly typical pattern for Song-A-Day participants is that they hit week one with both guns blazing. After the initial flurry and release of pent-up ideas, week two is a little more difficult, but inertia carries … Continue reading

I’m Back (And I’m Backin’ It Up!)

In the summer of 1978, I was eleven years old. One of my most vivid memories of that time was the annual trip to Six Flags amusement park. I don’t remember much of the day, but there’s one indelible moment that would impact me for the rest of my life. It has nothing to do with food, or the rides or roller coasters, but rather with a band. I’m convinced that all eleven-year-olds are biologically driven to have some fad dance that they do. And as modern eleven-year-olds have dabbing and flossing and whatever else is currently happening, the kids … Continue reading

Nubivagant

Over the course of the day, several ideas came and went for my penultimate track of the month. I get these little snippets of melody all the time, most of them are enjoyed for a few moments and then lost to the dark corners of my memory. Occasionally they resurface, but most of the time, I suppose they just hang out together smoking clove cigarettes, bitching about the system, and wondering what could have been if they’d only gotten their shot. We were supposed to get three to five inches of snow between Tuesday and Thursday, but instead got a … Continue reading