Tag: Camera Obscura

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trying to catch up

You know, I honestly thought that when I quit my job I would have free time. I suppose I should be glad to have genuine things making me busy, but very little of it is anything that is making me money, so in that sense it’s not good. While I had the job the mentality it put me in made it difficult to get other things done. So now I have a 3 month backlog of things to go through and try to get reorganized. Plus I have been getting press kits together and out to book for September around the release of the CD. The house is a mess, including all of my work stuff (and now, when I say work stuff, I mean my stuff, music and design) and so I am spending a lot of time trying to put things in some sort of order so I can feel like I know where I am and what I’m doing.

A little obsessive compulsive? Yeah, I’ve started to realize that. But I don’t feel like I can straighten out my head until everything around me is at least somewhat organized. Somewhere in all that I also need to get more work booked, before my cushion of money dries up.

Anyway, the highlights right now:

I went out to Ryan’s studio to do three songs. Just very basic me-and-the-acoustic-guitar versions so that I have something I can send to acoustic clubs rather than the full-blown versions. The studio he’s put together is really amazing; I honestly don’t know how he’s managed to cram that much amazing equipment into one place. Got it done in short order and once again feel the need to express my gratitude for fitting me in to get it done. I had been listening to board tapes from old Eddie’s Attic shows and just couldn’t find anything I wanted going out in a press kit. So he was a lifesaver, and all is well.

I signed the contract. I am now officially a Daemon recording artist, or more specifically, my CD is now officially licensed by Daemon Records for release in the US and overseas (they just recently signed a deal for European and Australian distribution). They still seem very excited about things. Late at night, when I’m really tired, I allow myself to hope they’re right.

The current list of cities I’m trying to book is: Athens, GA; Knoxville, TN; Nashville, TN; Asheville, NC; and Charlotte, NC. Another batch will probably go out in the next week or so, expanding the area. I’ll keep the out-of-towners updated.

I’m not gone. Not even a little. Actually, I’m suffering from the opposite, I feel like I’m too many places at once, and it’s very difficult to focus and get things done, even though it seems I’m working and doing all the time. Every day I make a list of things to do. Every day I mark a bunch off, and remember another batch. So every day my list seems to get longer rather than shorter. Somewhere along the way I know I’ll get above water. If anyone is feeling neglected please bear with me. My life is in a very odd place, and it’s not a place I have ever been in many ways. So it’s taking some getting used to, and it’s taking a lot more time than I thought just to try to get ahold of it.

Still to come (this is just the big list, not the infinite list of details):
– settling the issue of a band that will tour.
– International Pop Overthrow on July 27 (and I get to see Scott, plus any other west-coasters with time on their hands)
– start calling in support of the kits I’m sending out now
– finding freelance work
– living life at a normal speed
– poster design is due next week for the CD
– new website
– rehearse the Million Box and figure out the plan for the CD release party
– release the CD in September

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updates

Yesterday I went by the label to pick up the bio they made out of what I sent them. Amy happened to be there, and they were in the middle of a meeting so they told me to go ahead and join the meeting. Amy said a bunch of nice things about the CD (she actually hasn’t heard the final mix, she’s only heard the 8 or so rough mixes I gave them a few weeks ago when this all started). She said she really liked “Sherman,” and was very complimentary about the song, the metaphor, the whole story being told. Coming from her that felt pretty good. She gave me the draft of the contract to have looked over, and mentioned a couple of things that had been added, involving a buyout clause for the label, in case someone else comes along wanting to sign me and/or re-release the CD. She said she doesn’t normally have anything like that because she rarely has the feeling that she has an artist who is likely to get snapped up. True or not it was a nice thing to say.

There’s a store in town, one of the main indie record stores, in Little Five Points, called Wax and Facts. They have a large window display for new releases, about 4’x6′, and usually it’ll either feature a large, weather proof poster, or a painted display. Very prominent. Apparently I’ll be on it, probably in October.

That’s pretty cool.

Anyway, so now I have the contract, and it was made clear it’s just a draft, and that everything is negotiable right now if something makes me uneasy. Amy gave me her cell number and Russell’s number to ask any questions.

This weekend I start putting together press kits to begin planning out the first few jaunts out of town in September.

Meanwhile, it looks like I now have a four-piece band for IPO, which makes me feel infinitely more confident about the show. I was feeling very unsure about covering all the guitar stuff myself, and having it sound full. But now we have a second guitarist. I feel good about this whole setup now.

I heard this quote today, and it has nothing to do with anything, other than making me laugh out loud…
“He couldn’t pour urine out of a boot if it had directions on the bottom.”

How true. I think.

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c’est fin

On October 29, 2000, I started working at Rob’s studio.

It’s June 20, 2002, and the CD is done.

I never intended to spend this much time on the CD. The stretch of time alone is misleading; it’s been under 200 hours total, including the mastering, so less than a month of normal days, all told. Just spread out over almost two years.

Thursday I spent the whole day mastering the CD at Southern Living At It’s Finest. Rob was there, too, something he usually charges for, but I think after this much time (and the rush at the end to finish it) he wanted to make sure it survived intact.

There aren’t any useful details to really bore you with. Alex Lowe, who did the mastering, did a great job, particularly at working in the extra little incidental bits, and tweaking the sound occasionally when the mix suffered a bit from the aforementioned rush.

The process itself was pretty light-hearted, a lot of joking going on. A good lunch from some French sandwich shop. The studio is a high-class affair, Shawn Mullins does work there, and it’s right next to the studio where Outkast work, so a lot of work flows between the two. It’s all very swank.

When we got to the point where we started burning the CDs, I had a really stupid grin on my face. You know how it felt, when you were a kid, and you spent all of December waiting for Christmas, and everything you did; school, being at home, playing with friends, good or bad; couldn’t escape from the association with what month it was and what was coming. The gnawing of waiting for that morning to finally come.

Imagine that feeling stretched out over a year and a half, and then add it to the feeling you had once you woke up Christmas morning and first saw the tree and the gifts. That should give you some idea.

When I left I still had the same stupid grin. Not so much from the result of the effort, but just from the effort finally ending. I still hadn’t really listened to it from start to finish yet, I mean, I heard each song multiple times during mastering, but never finally laid out, in order, with everything in place. But I felt good.

And, since sometimes days are just good to you, I put my hand in my pocket and my keys were gone. I looked in the car and they were in the ignition. I knew I was screwed. But for the hell of it, I tried the passenger door. It was, of course, unlocked. Something I NEVER do.

Which would make a fine literary ending to a good day. But this is reality, and there is more, of course. I finally listened. Start to finish, for the first time, late last night. The shine has worn off and I feel slightly less confident. There are a few things I need to listen to again later today; things that I’m not sure might be problems. It’s hard to tell with my stereo, which has one speaker slowly going out.

Plus, I’m still in a vacuum, I have the finished CD, but no way of knowing if it works, if it does what I want it to, if it will translate for everyone else the way I wanted it to. There are odd little things going on, that could be seen as good or bad, depending on how they strike someone.

For three months, I won’t have a clue, really, whether it worked. I still feel good, but the goofiness is gone. Bear with me while I wait. And wait.