Bloompocket.com

For those of you who have noticed me rattling on since this past April about a tune I’m working on by the name of “All Around Us,” you may be asking yourself, “what type of a whack-job spends 7 months on the same song and is STILL working on it?! Who does this guy think he is - Brian Wilson?!?

Well, I’ve been called worse before! But seriously, due to the complexity of this type of track (think big funky-disco-orchestra), the process of putting this song together has been quite lengthy, but also extremely joyous! Believe it or not, this tune has actually been coming together more quickly and naturally than any other track I’ve ever worked on. While there has been a tremendous amount of time involved in composing the melody, writing the lyrics, creating sheet music for the live musicians, hiring and recording the live musicians, scheduling the sessions, editing the audio, and sequencing the parts, the actual work itself has been extremely easy and flowing. No back-and-forth between different musical ideas and no “oh no, back to the drawing board” moments. Due to my absolute refusal to work on this track except when sincerely inspired and joyful, this music has flowed out of me in a very natural and easy manner. Because this process has been so absolutely delicious, the track has simply flowed out of me is already a hit in my book- regardless of whether or not anyone ever hears it. In keeping with the natural flow of this music from my mind and into physical reality, the way this horn section recording came about was perfectly appropriate. I was wondering what to do about recording some funky JB’s-style live horns for this track, as I knew that it would be potentially costly to pay for professional musicians as well as studio time (since my own personal “recording studio” is limited to my MacBook Pro at the moment). As luck would have it, as I was in the middle of my planning, I got a call to play (sax) on as well as organize a horn section for a new teen-pop band. What ended up happening was that in exchange for contracting the horns for the pop tune, I was given free studio time with the horn players to record my own tune, so I ended up getting my horns recorded for $0.00! Goes to show what can happen when I begin to avail myself to the natural flow of things… At any rate, the session went extremely smoothly, thanks to my good friend Todd Resnick and his co-producer Jared who handled the recording of the horns, as well as my fantabulous horn players, Duane Benjamin (aka “Ben-Jammin”) on trombone and Charlie Peterson on trumpet. Between these two guys, they’ve performed with legends such as Aretha Franklin and on many TV shows, including American Idol.

I just finished digitally editing the horns this evening and getting ready for the final step in the process, which will be taking my completed composition to Threshold Sound + Vision in Santa Monica, CA where it will be mixed and mastered- but more on that in a future post.