Monday, August 07, 2006

Almost Final Mix

Well, I’ve just looked at my past blogs and it seems that I’ve missed the entire month of July. Blogging, I mean. I realized that it must have been a while when I got a phone message from Mark Freiman, a fine musician who contributed to this recording (and was an original member of The Promised Band, my first band), who wanted to know how the recording was going and did I still intend to release it? He also mentioned that he checks this site periodically and hadn’t seen any new posts lately. Jeepers. Someone is still checking this site. Hearing that hurled me into action. Well, propelled. Alright, pushed. OK. Nudged.

We’ve been in the studio three or four times since they finished their editing and mixing. We’ve revamped, overhauled and tweaked , and we’re finally at a point where we think we might actually have THE FINAL MIX. Or, as David put it, “anything else we do to it won’t make it better – just different.” So, that being said, I’ve got one more possible little tweak I want to make to one song.

It’s like that quote from some famous artist – I thought it was Picasso but I couldn’t find the quote – about when the artist knows when he’s done working on a painting. Answer: when he dies. I’m sure the Picasso (or whomever) quote is much more eloquent, but you get the idea. I did find this Picasso quote which is similar and worth the read:

To finish a work? To finish a picture? What nonsense! To finish it means to be through with it, to kill it, to rid it of its soul, to give it its final blow the coup de grace for the painter as well as for the picture.

So, we’re almost ready for the next steps – mastering, writing liner notes, artwork, graphic design, duplication and packaging.

My artist and I have been trying to get together but schedules are proving difficult. He told me that he’s got some preliminary sketches and a few tiles (he’s a ceramic artist) to show me. He’ll do some firing, photograph them and send me jpegs this week. He hopes by Tuesday.

As for liner notes…I just have to get busy and write them. Good idea. I’m going to get started.