I first met John Lennon when I was in college. Actually, we didn’t exactly meet face to face – just heart to heart.
I was on my way to lunch one day when I heard “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” on the radio. My life was changed that day forever.
As I sit here this morning high up on the 38th floor, I look out my window at New York City, 5:30 AM, just barely coming awake – the city that never sleeps. From my perch here high up over the city I have a spectacular view all the way south from 42nd street to the Statue of Liberty and beyond New York Harbor to Staten Island. If you’re gonna live in NYC, live above it all if at all possible.
I’ve been fortunate. I’ve watched the city grow and change from this perch for over 25 years. I love NY. It’s been a lifetime sittin’ on top of the world watchin’ 10 million people go by, but I’d leave now if I could. 40 years of concrete and glass can wear you out on certain levels and sometimes the Missus and I just want to take a walk in the woods.
But I can’t leave this wondrous city – at least not yet. Most of it I’ve seen now and certainly experienced, but there’s one thing that still keeps me here. (more…)
Part 2 — As a producer:
It’s a busy time. Spent the weekend in the studio working on two projects. Will spend today, the day after Valentines Day, celebrating 14 year anniversary with the Missus. I’ll actually take the day off.
The rest of the winter months and spring are loaded with music projects for Watchfire Music – so many that I must get better organized and get my arms around them all. Here’s a list: (more…)
Part 1 – As a company:
Life is good. One of my New Years resolutions was to rebalance my life and get back more to my creativity in the recording studio as a composer/producer. Funny how things just happen when you simply put it out there.
I was feeling like I was getting stuck in the daily excitement of Watchfire Music as an executive with the company and along came more studio projects than I can handle. All good. These problems I can live with. It’s what I live for.
When it rains; it pours.
Sketch by Max
The great thing about blogging about Inspirational music and beyond is that every day I sit down to write, there’s something that’s just happened to talk about.
As many of you already know, my wife, Julia Wade, has been soloist at the Christian Science Center, the World Headquarters of that church for the past 5 years. Since we live in New York City, that means that she leaves early every Saturday morning for rehearsals, takes the train to Boston and returns the same way very late each Sunday night.
It hasn’t meant exactly living the normal husband/wife weekends for these last years, but, hey, that’s show biz.
I’m in Los Angeles on Watchfire Music business, a wall-to-wall meeting blitz with my partner, Jim Birch and LA staff planning out the coming year. While on the plane coming out I once again considered the possibility of death – something that I don’t do with much regularity, but have certainly done a lot more of lately.
No, I’m not about to die, I’m healthy and productive, but the CD project I’m producing and writing now has got me pretty focused on the inevitabilities of life on Planet Earth. When I got on the plane, I had to chuckle at myself as I considered the danger of what I was about to do for a moment. I was about to fly through the air – for 3000 miles and then come down at just the right place – smoothly.
The CD project is called Goin’ Home, A Gospel Cantata — Reflections on Crossing Over and Beyond. It’s a joyous look at death and heaven through the eyes of a number of classic Gospel traditional songs and an equal number of originals.
As I sat on the plane as it taxied down the runway, I went through my usual protective prayers knowing with complete positivity that God was over, under around and throughout that airplane, my mind turned once again to my beloved project as I faced the same danger that millions of people face every day now. The question, “Could this be it?” came to mind for one fleeting instant and then was drowned out in a rash of denials and better focused positive thought.
New Beginnings - Inspirational Piano Music
To begin again. What a great opportunity we all have as human beings! To begin again… and again, and again. And even have a specially appointed time of year to do so. The New Year. This, to me, is the real Inspirational concept behind the whole idea of New Years Eve.
This past moment in time as the ball dropped and the Missus and I stood out on our terrace overlooking Times Square in the cold night air, it struck me, as the roar went up from the million or so below, that this was really a dumb thing to do and really meant nothing at all except, for most people, getting drunk and kissing your date at midnight. A pretty hollow holiday.
But since, as I have been preparing Watchfire Music’s new CD, New Beginnings, for January release, I’ve begun to get inside the idea of having a starting point each year at this appointed time to leave the bad stuff behind and move forward with new life and hope. (more…)
OK, so I’m going to talk a little bit today in generalities. OK, so there are still great songs being written, still great craftsmen out there who really know what they’re doing, still great records being made. I’ll allow you all this right from the get go, but I think our industry, besides the death of the record business, is in a serious creative low as well.
Sonically, we’re at an all-time high. The ability to capture the actual sound of the instruments in perfect, pristine quality has never been better. Those who still grumble about the “coldness” of digital just haven’t been really listening lately. The advancement of processing power and ram in computers has finally caught up and now the warmth of analog is back.
But much of the rest of the creative part of our industry is mired in mediocrity. I blame this on humanity and our penchant to always try to attain perfection the easy way. Nothing wrong with that except when it doesn’t work.
I just wrote a 7-part blog post (The IRA Awards) on great lyrics just to remind us of what could be, of the greatness of craft, of the delight of a well-lyricised song. I write “remind us” because I think we’re losing track of a great tradition – the well written lyric.
