It’s been some time since I wanted to go back to a recording studio and produce new songs. More than 10 years had passed from my previous album, The Midnight Sun, and I knew that getting a music project out every 10 years would mean I would have to live to be 100 years old to be able to do what I wanted to do. The math can be ruthless at times but necessary because time is not always on our side, no matter what the Rolling Stones may say! I guess, you only truly understand the value of time, the less time you have and the older you get.
So waiting and procrastinating is no longer an option for me. And besides… why wait? Wait for what? After all, when you have something to say, say it. When you have something to write, write it. When you have something to share, share it!
Simple enough, but not always easy to do and especially not in music! It’s not that straightforward! It’s not like writing an article or a blog where you do a couple of edits, some rereads, and press “submit”.
In music, before “submitting” a song, you have to record it first. And if you want your songs to be heard and played on professional radios and platforms you need to produce them, promote them, invest in them with a lot of love, sweat and tears while knowing that you will face countless surprises along the way. The whole process is highly unpredictable in its final outcome. You know when, where and how you start but you never know exactly when, where and how it ends.
This is because music production is not a “behind the desk” exercise that you do on your own. The creative writing, yes, can fall under the cliche of the “lone writer absorbed in the creative process” but when you are ready to take your songs from your living room to the next destination and shift gears from “ideation” to “production” this opens up a whole different ball game.
You need to find the next “new home” for the songs: this means the right studio and the right working partners that are going to make the songs come alive in ways you would never be able to do on your own. And all of this within a budget you set for yourself.
This has always been my approach to music and this is what I did with my two previous albums. Once I have the right songs, the right concept and my own money to finance it, I look for the studio and the team to produce it. For me creative freedom can only be guaranteed through financial freedom. The two go hand in hand especially if you want to get your work out there. I could never imagine to be the “candy flavor of the month” and having to depend on the whims of a music business and market. I couldn’t imagine this when I had my first encounter with an A&R agent at EMI Music in my twenties and I certainly cannot imagine this now!
Hence my core business was never music. It was business and it was pursuing a business career so that I was able not only to grow professionally and personally but also to finance my creative work with my own voice. And that is priceless!
So the thrill of going back to a studio is more than the thrill of just “recording”! It is the thrill of knowing that you’re producing songs you believe in and that you trust will develop and become so much more powerful than you had ever imagined they could be. It is the thrill of knowing that you will still keep the creative freedom to say “yes” to an idea or “no” and even to walk away if the project is not going the way it’s intended to go.
This is actually what I did 3 years ago when I stopped the production of a musical project because the producer/arranger managed to completely destroy the very essence of the songs and morph them into something they were not! I’ll leave that story though for another time as these unpredictable outcomes are just part of the game so you move on and look towards the next project as the next adventure!
And this is where I’m at!
The preproduction of the new songs started in February 2020, then we had a pandemic break of 4 months, went back to the studio with the musicians in May, and finished lead vocals and back up vocals a couple of weeks ago in July.
All that’s missing now is editing, mixing, mastering! Should be finished in a couple of months! It’s a long process but worth every step of the way when we can make magic happen!
In the meantime here are some clips of our session in May with the team!
