Update: End of May

The past month, I have been substitute teaching a lot. It has been an amazing experience working with children of different age groups on a regular basis. I substituted for a Kindergarten teacher, that was the most challenging yet most productive day I had all month. I was with the same students all day. We had a very strict schedule of story-time, recess, lunch, and other activities. I was shocked to find there was no nap time. It was also the longest schedule I've seen. Another interesting experience was being the safety officer for the middle school. As luck would have it, there was a Code 1 drill that day. This is an intruder alert drill. There are no other schools in Vermont that drill such a thing. I had no idea what I was supposed to do as the safety officer because I was a sub and there was no briefing about such a thing. This was great for the school because now they know there should be some type of orientation packet that will give a security sub all the info he or she needs.

As far as the ShamRockin' Records front goes, it's been a big recharging month. I am looking into getting the MOTU fixed (there's a mike cable stuck in it). I did get a music set up going for a pig roast last week. My father cooked the pig. It was for a friend of ours Dy Robbins. She just graduated from Westfield State College and got her master's degree. A few people jammed out or played songs (including myself, a new original). I also got my myspace homepage pimped out (here's the link).

The debt side is settling nicely. I have one card paid off completely. The Bank of America card is at $700. I hope to be debt free in a month or two. Once that is done, I want to switch to a new bank because BoA is ridiculous with fees and the like.

I have applied for a few summer jobs in the area. The ideal one is at Six Flags New England as a light and sound technician. I also applied to be a DJ in CT, NY, and MA with a company based in CT. A job I would love to land for the fall is Church Audio Technician in a Pentecostal Church in Cambridge. I would teach a couple people to run the sound as well as run sound for events, services, and rehearsals. I would also be responsible for the wiring of the building.

Looking forward to a big month. School's almost out. I will be attending a lot more open mikes. Basically, I have three goals this summer: Secure a job that is related to my field, Expose ShamRockin' Records to people in the area, and play music.

Resolution

All is well with the bad blood. After a few e-mails back and forth explaining our positions on the matter, we reached a resolution. Basically, I will not sell any of the CDs and I will post the songs for free download on a website (http://www.stage.fm/srr04_21_2007). It was one of the most relieving feelings I've ever had when it was over.

New policies of ShamRockin' Records because of this incident:
-No more verbal agreements
-Have artists sign a 3x5 card with a checklist of what they do and do not want to happen from recordings
-No more "out-of-the-goodness-of-my-heart" recording sessions with people I don't know personally

This was probably the most stressful thing I've faced in all of my experiences with recording. I was afraid of legal action and the loss of a good reputation in a musical community.


On another front, my debt problems are nearly over. I was given $5,000 from my grandmother to make it possible and rather easy for me to eliminate my debt. She has explained her gift as an educational expense in the area of credit cards. I have learned to never charge something I cannot pay in that billing cycle. I've also learned the danger of maxing out cards. It is impossible to make any progress making minimum payments on a card. It also choked up most of my income just paying the intrest. I will not be purchasing anything to improve the suitcase studio until both of my cards are at a $0.00 balance. I am contemplating a couple things that I would get done with this money before that point, they are as follows: incorperate ShamRockin' Records and purchase a portable record player in order to transfer vinyl to digital formats. The latter is because I have been planning on doing that to some old records my grandfather cut in his college frat. barbershop quartet group.


I will be meeting a new contact sometime next week. His name is Irwin Steinberg. He used to be the CEO of Polygram Records. One of my father's teachers, Michel Moyese, knows him personally and recommended to both Irwin and myself that we meet. He is interested in talking about a paid internship at some point and I also have a boatload of questions I'm preparing for the meeting.

First Bad Blood.

Last Saturday, I recorded the Dead Dogs, You Need New Glasses, and the Goosepimp Orchestra. I talked to all of the bands before-hand and they all signed off on my recording, verbally. I made an agreement with the lead guy from Goosepimp that if I record, he gets a copy of what I get. I got a great recording. Goosepimp asked me if I wanted to go record them last night - so i figured it would be a great way to spread the music if i got a CD ready to sell at the show. So I busted my ass with a friend of mine to get 14 CDs done up. When the band finally showed up (2 hours after me), he demanded that I give him the CDs at no charge because his music is on there. I explained to him that there's 2 other bands on it, but he didn't budge. He asked me before he went up if we could figure this out through non-monetary means and i said yes, we'll figure it out. He threw two beers down in front of me because he thought that's what I meant - when i had to drive home soon after so I shouldn't have had any beer anyways. During the show I decided to give him 5 CDs for the two beers and the remaining 8 CDs (minus one for my records) would be figured out at a later date.

He said that I was breaking my word and I had no right, etc... I did not handle the situation well. I got angry. I ended up getting angry with the friend who helped me all day. I regret going to Boston last night. I called out on four days of subbing because I didn't get home until 4:50 AM and I would have to leave at 6:30. They gave the shifts to another person so there would be continuity of teachers.

I'm disappointed that I did not behave professionally. The night was going great up until then. I made $26 from recording the other bands and burning a CD for them right there. We ended up agreeing to disagree. He has 5, i have 9. I'm not going to do anything with the CDs besides give them to people in the other bands on it - if that.

I learned that I need to have contracts written up before hand. Money needs to be talked about and needs to be an issue that isn't brushed off by broke musicians. If a band can't pay me, I shouldn't do anything for them. If they're not going to pay me and I still want to record them, the recording goes no further than my own personal collection. No more verbal agreements. No more "hey i got the mikes up, why not record you guys." I also need to learn about the music industry more. I am a fish out of water when it comes to the business side of this crap. I hate the business. I just want to record music; however, I also want to get out of debt so I can focus on my music and my degree (hell, my life).

Bands that I have recorded this month: Death by Fame, The Garrison Delight, Dead Dogs, You Need New Glasses, and Goosepimp Orchestra. Venues: The Cantab Lounge and Copperfields. Attended an open mike at Bishop's Lounge in Northampton, MA - plan to return to record the open mike in a couple weeks. I know i just said I don't want to record anything for free, but I'm seeing this as a publicity stunt.

Learning is hard!

I was told about this article by Andrew Goldschmidt. I wrote this response in their forum for letters to the editor.

February's Done!

Not a moment too soon either. I finished the artwork and mastering for the live at the Sons of Erin Cd. It has been sent out but due to business/committee crap, it may not be going as planned. What the backup plan is is that my dad will pay for the replication and we'll sell the CDs ourselves and donate 10% of all proceeds to the Sons.

I also finished my album in time to submit it to the RPM Challenge. You can listen to the songs at http://www.stage.fm/sylvanenigma . I ended up getting help from Andrew Goldschmidt on piano, Peter Anderson on bass, and Stephen Selman on the dobro and backup vocals. This was a great experience that took a lot out of me. I'll be using all that I learned to make a real album. Not that this wasn't but I do want to put a lot more work into these songs and release an album that I wouldn't feel guilty charging money for.

I got my wisdom teeth out March 1st, so I've been resting the past couple days. I've got a show to record on March 10th. A friend of mine fronts a band called "Subject to Change."

Update

I ended up recording one more show last sunday. The band is called the Healys. They played a song that the executive producer of the album, Pat Murphy, really wants to be on the CD called "The Old Man." Don Healy flubbed the lyrics at the end and he doesn't want it to go on. Luckily, they are playing again this Sunday, so I will record one set to get that song. This is not much of a hassle because Sunday is the day I have to discuss the financial and logistical ends of this project with the board of the club. I have made a list of all the songs that were recorded well. I will have the suitcase studio with me if they would like to hear samples of the recordings.

I have been organizing and mixing recordings that I have done over the past year or so. I had to send copies of the files to the artists after finding their contact info in piles of paper.

I also recorded and posted 12 songs that may go on the RPM challenge CD. I have contacted my friends in Boston and all of them are excited to record with me. I'm hoping to sign out the Shillman Studio for as much time as possible. Ideally, I'd be able to use it over night, but I'm waiting to see if that's possible.

The running plan is that I will be coming in thursday, friday, and saturday next week. In this time, I will get missing files that I am pretty sure are stored on computers in the tech lab; record as much as possible; mix as much as possible; and possibly use programs in the lab to master the Sons of Erin files.

P.S.

The Dead Dogs show flopped in the recording. I forgot the power cable for the laptop. Also, the drivers were acting funky. We got enough for two songs that he recorded on video. The third was really bad...thanks to computer error. However, the show was great. They played well and had a good time.

Last Sons of Erin recording today

I've had a rough week.

I signed up for something called the RPM Challenge. This is a call to record that is heard all around the world. I heard of it through my mother when she heard a segment about it on NPR. Basically, the challenge is to record an album in the month of February. I thought it would be a great oppourtunity to use the suitcase studio and gear up for having a band in the coming months. I have four click tracks done. I was having loads of trouble all week. The output of the MOTU was not working at sample rates below 192 kHz. I couldn't heard the metronome, so i couldn't record. I was called in to be a substitute teacher on friday, but I said i couldn't do it in order to fix the sound card. The reason i did this was friday night was the Cabey's performance at the sons.

This was an amazing experience that was soured by the technology at the end. I spent all day talking to various technical support people. I was unable to contact the people at MOTU (phone was busy all day, e-mail was responded to after I left to record). I thought that it was recording fine and it was just the output. So i got there, set up everything and monitored the mix from before the DAW. Turns out it was recording as if it were a skipping CD. Tragic, because it sounds amazing in between the skips.

The best part of the experience, however, had nothing to do with the suitcase studio at all. During the first set, I saw the Cabey's were nervous because I was there. They're a brother/sister combo from the area. I got the impression that they never touched their mixing board and it's settings were really out of wack. I took notes about what I would like to change to it. When they took a break in between sets, I went and talked to Tom Cabey about it. He told me that he doesn't know anything about it and would appreciate some help. I went through the list of things I had noticed and explained to him what I was doing and why. He was very receptive, and seemed to understand everything I was saying. His sister, Kathy, appeared to be the kind of person who needs to loosen up with the help of laughs and Guiness. Turned out to be true. By the third set, I had made a bunch of fine tuning changes to their mixing board, and they had gotten all of the nervousness out. They played very well and had a great time doing it. The changes I made in the sound really helped the performer/audience dynamic. The feedback that I got from people after the second set (without telling them anything of what I had done) was great. "Oh, they started singing in the second set" "The fiddle player must have gotten more confident during the break" "So they are singing harmony!" etc...

My father and I talked a lot about the evening's events. We determined that the most important part of what I am doing is to form interpersonal relationships and skills. Before I even knew the technology had fucked everything up, we were talking about the secondary role technology has in the process. The most important thing is knowing what you're expecting out of the people being recorded. It is imperative to communicate this to them in a way that makes them comfortable and excited to play. Even more importantly, it is necessary to listen to the needs of the artists and respond in kind.

When i came home, I found the e-mail that was sent to me 10 minutes after I left. The suggestions in the e-mail resolved the issue. Today, at 2 PM, the Healey's are perfoming. This is a show we were unaware of until last week. A real blessing after what happened to the recording on Friday.

On a seperate note, I may be running a class for adults starting in March. One of my father's teachers, who works in a recording studio seperate from his teaching position, said I should teach adults the ins and outs of recording music and sound. The program could go through my dad's school. I am very excited to pursue this. I would really be able to stretch my wings and give knowledge to people. I will update this when I hear news about it.