All-Important Pre-Production

The studio at Boy@Heart Media is pretty much defined in terms of what is planned and the next step is to start putting it all together. At the same time I feel it is also time to start production on the next Boy at Heart record.

What I am faced with right now are various dilemmas. Do I start tracking now or do I wait until I have the first stages of the new studio setup? I’m itching to get started, but I am also relishing the thought of exploiting the superior sonic benefits of the new system if I start with that from the beginning. Of course the reason there is an element of waiting is due to the availability of equipment where I am and having to find ways to get the various pieces of gear here in the smoothest possible fashion!

So I suppose the best thing to do is spend some time at least in pre-production. I need to decide on what songs I am going to develop for the album and the overall vibe I want to create. I’ll also see about refining the compositions that make the short list to make them as good as they can possibly be.

So this leads me to more difficult choices. Which songs do I choose for the album? Well that would be easier to decide if I had some feedback from people who are interested as to which songs they want to hear, but I’m well aware of the fact that not many people comment on this blog, so I’m not holding my breath. All the same, if you do feel compelled to contribute with your opinions and suggestions then please leave a comment on this post.

If you want to hear the potential songs you can visit The Weekly Songcast and have a listen. Be warned though, there are nearly one hundred songs over there, but I would really appreciate suggestions at least regarding the style or the feel of the album.

I am currently thinking a rock production influenced fairly heavy by Neil Young and Crazy Horse, but if there’s an overwhelming voice for something else, like my more acoustic or quieter songs then I’ll comply!

You can also listen to my debut, solo album as well as my second, mini album too, which you can download and share. You may find that gives you a taste for my music and you’ll be inspired to comment here and tell me what you want to hear next!

Album Review

Mike Skliar released his album Ship of State in 2009

It’s a really great listen containing 20 songs, which is a lot of music, but it passes by so quickly, which to me is a sign of a well-crafted album by someone who knows how to write songs.

The styles vary enough to make this album refreshing from start to finish without just disappearing into the background, but not so varied as to sound like a load of songs just thrown onto a CD, so that’s a strong point, but what about the music?

With a voice that is all his own, Mike draws from influences such as Bob Dylan and Loudon Wainwright III, the latter especially with regard to his witty and clever lyrics. It’s mostly guitars providing the instrumentation, which Mike plays very nicely. He has a lovely collection of guitars including the beautiful National steel guitar on the album’s cover and he coaxes sweet bluesy sounds from them all: Some slide, some finger-picking and some really tasteful electric guitar licks too. The overall mood conveyed by the sound of this album is upbeat and puts a smile on your face.

Lyrically Ship of State really entertains. There are some politics in there, but not exclusively and it’s not a political album. What Mike manages to do is cover political subjects with wit and observation rather than expressing a specific political view, more satirical I suppose. This is what really good songwriters do. They take a subject that everybody is familiar with (which often comes out of a political situation) and turn it into something fun that makes you nod and smile in agreement. There’s also a great ballad called Helen, which has some lovely slide guitar – Again it’s that National. I wish that was mine!

From the opening track "Money Blues" – An upbeat blues shuffle that pokes fun at our obsession with money and the current problems this has caused in recent times, to the dreamy and wonderful closing track "Paradise", complete with banjo and lap steel I can’t help smiling to this album. I live on a paradise island too, so the album for me ends perfectly. It’s the kind of album that continues to play in my head when it has finished.

It’s a toe-tapping, smile inducing record that showcases the many facets of Mike Skliars talents. Excellent job Mike!

If you like acoustic instruments, witty lyrics and and a sound that invites you in as a friend then I believe you will really enjoy Ship of State.

Check out Mike’s website where you can buy his album on CD or through itunes.

Improv to Improve

Improvisation. Regarding my songwriting, improvisation is something fairly new to me, but I have recently discovered how effective it is in a variety of ways.

This is always a busy, songwriting time of year for me and since becoming a father I am experiencing the pinch on available time to write, seeing as I am taking on the FAWM songwriting challenge again.

Having less time to spend with guitar over my shoulder and putting pen to paper I have found that I usually have a daily window from about 9 or 10pm until, well until I remember to look at the clock and tell myself I really should be in bed! On average though it gives me, say up to 4 hours each night to write a song, record a demo and post it up on the FAWM website to share with the songwriting community there.

Something I’d Like to Ad-Lib

With limited time and in an attempt to minimize the time taken twiddling my pen around my fingers, trying to come up with some good lyrics I have resorted to, within reason, making it up as I go along. I can always come up with melody and chord progressions, so laying down a guitar track and some guide drums takes no time at all. I then have a basic framework for a song; instrumentally a typical song structure – verses, choruses, bridge etc.

Then I just pick up the mic – my current choice is a hand-held Telefunken M80 (I love it) and start recording. So far it’s working. I’ve been pretty happy with the results so far and seeing as I am able to instantly share what I have written with a supportive songwriting crowd I can get feedback and pointers as to what can be improved or re-written. Winner!

So my conclusions from my experience is that improvisation is great for developing the ability to create more deliberate structure and I believe the secret to being able to deliver the goods via improvisation is having faith that you can do it. It’s not a big deal if your improvising by yourself in a recording environment because if your attempts sound a bit lame, nobody needs to hear it, so keep practicing and you will pull it off. I did, so anyone can.

Current demos for FAWM 2010 are in the multimedia box on the right, most of which came about with the help of improvisation.

I’m grateful for having less time for songwriting this year because it’s helped me grow as a songwriter.

Update: The very next day my songwriting session, using the principles discussed in this post gave rise to 3 songs, all recorded and posted on the FAWM website in about one and a half hours.

Will I Ever…

…Get focused enough on one thing at a time in order to build the required momentum? I’m sure I will, but I think I have been putting too much importance on staying focused for the last year or so. Well that is to say I think I have been misinterpreting what staying focused really entails.

I naturally don’t focus on only one thing until it has been successfully completed, but I still have plenty of achievements under my belt and I’m beginning to think that a lot of talk about focusing on your goals is a little off target. I mean if you put too much importance on such a thing then you could end up beating yourself up because you had an unfocused day; a day where you were just relaxing and enjoying the company of your family for instance and that sounds to me a lot like focusing on what you don’t want, which I know is pretty unhelpful.

So I’m not going to try and stop multitasking. From now on I’m putting my focus on the moment and trust that what I should be doing will I become obvious and natural to me.

All this waffle brings me to my point. The focus of this blog. I still wish to inspire people with my music, but from my own, selfish perspective I want to enjoy rocking out with my guitar and making a noise, so this blog is focused on the music and any updates, developments and reports on my adventures as Boy at Heart – the recording artist will go here.

Also, out of a desire to spend less time updating blogs and profiles etc. I’m integrating my other music related sites to compliment each other more. There’s no speedy time frame for this as I am also in the process of setting up my music production company, but the short story is that I’m recording a new album this year and I also need to invest in a new recording system so I can actually record it.

I’ll be begging here from time to time I’m sure for any generous contributions to funding the next album, which I have decided is going to be predominantly electric guitar driven and drawing heavily on the influence that Neil Young & Crazy Horse has on me.

Now it’s back to work!

My Decision to Leave the Office Life

This was not a new desire of mine, but was now a definite intention rather than a nice idea. I started a blog stating my desire to Leave the nine-to-five lifestyle behind, just as I was making plans to get a new job!

The success of this particular plan in my life has given me all the faith, evidence and confidence I need to know I am a free man. Free from the constraints of what people tell me I can or cannot do, but not in a bullish, pig-headed way. I mean that I choose the outcomes in my life, whether I am conscious of it or not, so I make a deliberate choice rather than a random, unconscious one now that I am aware of that choice.

I also learned that often, something is required along the way that will appear counter-intuitive or at odds with the direction you are trying to move and the reason it is required is because there are still personal areas in which you need to be ‘trained’, so you are ready to see and be able to handle what comes next. In this case my requirement was getting an office job, the opposite to what the vision for my new life looked like!

Everything starts with intent. You have to intend something to have a hope of seeing it realized. You have to intend something to gain the clarity and detail of what it is you are intending, so that is what I did. In a seemingly dark couple of days after returning home from a trip from an exotic land where I spent the most memorable 6 weeks with a woman I knew I wanted to share my life with I set to work in putting into motion what needed to be put into motion in order to create the reality of what I wanted.

During those couple of days I wrestled with feelings that were painful. I caught myself in a destructive mind loop where i was thinking about what I wanted to do, but kept coming up against thoughts about how it was not possible or any other reasons that would make it too difficult or unattainable. What I did in that moment changed everything:

I went for a walk and just allowed my mind’s chatter to continue whilst I made attempts to observe the internal conversation and interject with suggestions of ‘What if?’ and ‘How about?’. By the time I got back home knew what I had to do. I got clear about what I wanted to do regardless of how, just the end result and I gave myself a time limit. It wasn’t a strict time limit, but it was fairly finite: Between 12 and 18 months, in fact was the time scale I set.

My intention: To start a new life in Thailand, marry my girlfriend, have a family and enjoy a life of freedom, joy and fulfillment.With that set I just needed to put a few details in there, just a like a baseball player has to pass all the bases to complete a home run. I set my bases, but they weren’t set as milestones in time. They were just things I desired to achieve along the way to make the possibility of succeeding in what I wanted to do more feasible.

I decided that I needed to save a certain amount of money, so I set that. In order to do that in the time I had, with the resources I had I needed to get a job. I had no doubts about getting a job that would pay well enough. I would keep my outgoings down to a minimum, of course, but I would also require at least a certain amount of time off work to visit my girlfriend in THailand, so we could still maximize the time to get to know each other better, which I felt was essential. The time I required would be at least two 3 week holidays, more than is normally available to a full-time employee, especially when first starting a job.

After looking at my intention and its details it looked quite far fetched! A job providing me a with a full-time salary, but with the kind of free time that would only come with a part-time job! Well I had worked shift work before and I knew that some shift jobs are structured in a way that many of your hours are concentrated in a shorter period of time, so you have more days off, even though you work the same hours as you would working 9 to 5.

That was pretty much what I set in my mind. I would save as much of my salary as possible, get a job working night-shifts and spend as much of my time off focusing on my goal and making it a reality!

Five days later I saw a job advertised online and applied for it. I received a phone call from the agency about this job after about an hour and I was set up with an interview a few days later. The guy interviewing was an old friend from a past job and a week later I was starting my new job.

I was officially taking the first step on the path of my next, significant, personal success and there was an amazing twist just around the corner too.

Talking to You in Riddles

Every riddle contains the answers to the questions you have.

What’s to say about this song and it’s message? Well pretty self explanatory. If you learn to listen to the voice of your intuition – Your heart then you will be more likely to head in the direction that, not only will make you happiest, but where you want to go. Don’t put too much faith in your head because that’s where the root of indecision, worry and confusion can come from. Not that the mind isn’t essential, but remember that if you are not sure of the answer or what to do next then you are relying on your head, which can’t possibly have all the answers – It gets it’s awareness and knowledge from stuff as it happens. In times like that refer to your heart (which may take some practice) because it knows what is best for you and if you allow it to, it will guide you in exactly the right direction.

Stop fighting it!

My next live video was a bit overdue, especially after the song was chosen by readers of this blog. Thank you by the way. I seem to have so many projects on the go I have given up trying to drop projects and have instead opted for continuing to live an intensely, multi-tasking lifestyle for a while. I just don’t feel alive unless I have things to remember all the time. I guess that is how I learn my life lessons and how I become more self aware.

So in an efficiency-minded fashion I decided to combine this ad-hoc live performance into being the next Musical Pick-me-up too. Making quick videos, I have discovered is great. It is very satisfying when there is no editing needed and even more so when I can see the fruits of my labour published quickly and available for whoever passes by.

MPMU’s were on my list of plans as something to develop into a premium product, but it just kept coming back to ‘Trying to sell MP3s’, so I am following my intuition here and settling on MPMU’s as being my service to you, gratis: Sometimes rough and ready like this one, sometimes more fully produced, but always sincere and with a sense of purpose, to Pick You Up!

You can of course still buy MP3s. I don’t have a problem with that.

So Near, So Far, No Cigar

But what lessons I learned! I remember talking with a friend during 2004, just after the realization of our dream of going to the USA to be rock stars slipped from out of our hands. I remember saying ‘I feel like a broken man’. Phew! If I knew at that point just how dis-empowering words like that actually are I would never have chosen them. That kind of talk doesn’t even enter my head anymore let alone exit my mouth!

We had signed a deal with a Hollywood-based music manager with some impressive credentials. We had even been through a several-month-long, ‘5-set’ game of contractual tennis via our lawyers. It was a serious contract and the excitement and the energy on the day we sat in that lawyers’s office and signed those contracts was crazy. We were going to be rock stars and it just felt unbelievable, which was probably the catalyst for what happened over the next couple of months. We heard less and less from our manager on the other side of the world and eventually he called it quits, we backed out of our contract and sat in a heap with no idea what to do or where to go next.

I felt totally deflated. There’s not really any more detail than that without going into a personal story and to be honest I don’t have the energy to bother with that anymore. It happened, it’s gone and I was to learn that the outcome of that little dance with fame and fortune was one of the best things that could have happened to me.

So summer 2004 was quite tough for me. I had quit my job and sold nearly everything I owned for this big quest to the USA and found myself jobless and with no plan and a little bit, but not that much money in the bank. I treated myself to beautiful Fender Custom Shop guitar (You’ve no doubt seen it in the videos and heard it on the recordings) and then one thing led to another and I found myself deciding to take a break from the music and going traveling. The destination I chose was South East Asia and I would be traveling for 3 months between November 2004 and February 2005.

You can read all about my travels in my South East Asia Travelog (currently being serialized until the end of 2009 with additional video clips that I never published before) and originally published at Leave the Office in November 2006. I don’t like to dwell on details and make a big thing out of the major event of that period, which was the Tsunami on December 26th. I survived it and I am more grateful than I can put into words for that. Some people were not as lucky as me and I just don’t feel like detailing my ‘adventure’ over the few days surrounding that event. I have made mention of other things that transpired, including writing a song fairly recently about it and I may tell the story in more detail one day.

The main thing though is that if it hadn’t have happened I wouldn’t be sharing my life with the woman I know I was destined to be with and I wouldn’t have my beautiful, delightful daughter, so there is a reminder for me to see the jewel in any adverse situation. I believe I have lost the right to complain about pretty much anything now after surviving that episode and what I have ended up getting out of it.

During my travels in Thailand my songwriting friend also flew out and we met up for Christmas and New Year. Of course the events that happened changed our plans quite drastically and I ended my trip a month early because we both decided we should get home and record a brand-new album. This album would be totally self-produced and magnificent. I got myself a job working shifts as soon as I returned to the UK and I spent every waking moment that I was not at work recording and mixing this album, traveling to my friend’s house with my recording gear to record his singing and the rest of the time enduring this shift work whilst all the while having this excited feeling about being a rock star again, mixed with the rather incompatible feeling of wanting to go back and live in Thailand with the woman I had felt such a connection with.

The energy I had surviving the tsunami carried me through to completing that 11-track album by mid may. I had started it in February. By the end of the year I had lost touch with the lovely woman in Thailand, moved to a new town and a new job, was feeling pretty unfulfilled again planning a trip to the USA to see a friend there who wanted to help us with our music and was totally behind what he said was a truly great album. I very breifly got to meet Huey Lewis too, which was cool!

Also by the end of 2005 the beautiful woman in Thailand had surprised me by getting back in touch and we were regularly talking, mostly on MSN messenger, during my time at work, which would have been so boring if it weren’t for that. So after some planning and another decision to go for it I was quitting my job again in February 2006 and heading off to San Francisco to be a rock star again and… well it didn’t happen!

I returned to the UK after a month in the USA and felt right back where I was nearly 2 years before in 2004. I spent a few months in limbo, not able to face the prospect of going straight back to another day job in the same old industry I had been back to so many times before and I was kept marginally sane by the contact with my lovely acquaintance in Thailand, who was starting to feel to me like a girlfriend. I woke up one morning that summer and decided I was going to Thailand again to see if there was any future with this woman or not. I couldn’t see the point in a long-distance relationship like this and I knew that she would want to find out, just like me if there any point in the two of us investing any more of our energy in what was starting to feel like a relationship.

I’ll never forget it. We both definitely knew, for sure that this was it for the both of us. We wanted to share our life together and I got this amazing feeling that I can only assume was the feeling of falling in love, for real, no mistaking love for infatuation. It was real. I came home feeling both desperately sad and excited that despite not knowing how I could do it, that I knew I was going to go back and live my life with the love of my life.

I had a very real vision for how I wanted my life to be. I was no longer fearful of such ideas as getting married, starting a family, even in a completely different country and culture to my own. How would I get back? Would I be able to? What would I do? When would I get there? The answers to those questions would have to come later and I would have to trust that they would come as long as I just started taking action, whatever action that was.

From the song Your Brave Heart

An important thing to know with regard to your fears, worries and doubts. They are an illusion. They have power over you as long as you allow them to, but if you can step away from them and observe them for what they are then you will be able to see how natural it is to listen to your heart better than your head. Try Neural Recon Report – Mindset Tips: Reminders and suggestions for transforming your habitual thoughts and self-talk to work with you instead of against you.

Don’t buy into the fears you’re feeling. Its just false evidence appearing real. You have the power to transform them in an instant your heart will heal.

Take a look around my friend. Listen to that sound again. Your heart is crying ‘cause you chose to hide it away.

Listen to your brave heart. Without it you can’t go far. You insist on trying to go it alone when your heart has connections with everyone

Your Brave Heart.
From the ©2008 album All in a Life’s Work by Boy@Heart

An Impressive Display of Tech!

Did you see the live U2 webcast of their concert at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena California? I only found out about it an hour before it was due to start from a tweet I saw in my twitter stream and I’m glad I did.

Now before anyone rolls their eyes and starts saying "U2 are boring" or whatever, this is not about how great U2 are although I do like them. In my opinion it was not as impeccable a performance as their classic Boston gig from the Elevation tour, immortalized on DVD, but it was just as impressive for a completely different reason as far as I see it.

If you have seen U2 Elevation 2001 – Live from Boston (Amazon.com), (Amazon.co.uk), then you will know just what a premium job Hamish Hamilton did as director. That concert looked like a movie, which I guess it was really, but what Hamilton managed to draw out of the U2 performance was a tangible link between the images on screen and the space occupied by the viewer, making it feel like you were closer to being right there.

Now of course, if you don’t like U2 then none of this is going to make any difference to you and that’s OK, but hopefully this next bit will.

A Round of Applause for the Production Team

The live webcast contained all the factors that the Boston DVD had. It was obviously directed and produced, there was obviously an army of technicians, workers and ass kickers to keep everything in check so we, the viewers could experience what appeared to be an exhilarating show, effortlessly delivered from it’s origin to our computer screens. It did look pretty effortless didn’t it?

Producing a DVD is easy compared to this. If it’s a lack-lustre night or there is a technical hitch then the crew can have another go on the next night and the best gig gets edited, the music mixed to sound the best it possibly can and it’s all put onto disc.

The U2 webcast was live, which added another dimension to the experience. Although I was about 8,000 miles away it felt more like being there than watching the DVD regardless of the performance of the band.

I want to say that again because in our super fast, super-taken-for-granted world, we can forget this. IT WAS LIVE! No post production, no remixing of audio, true to the source, as it was captured and it still looked and sounded like a full-blown production. Did you notice the sound and picture quality? Even on my less than reliable internet connection it was an almost uninterrupted stream. Not only that, it was free!

I’m very interested to know exactly what systems and technology they were using to aggregate all that data because, as expensive as I’m sure it is right now, this is the technology that will in the not-too-distant future be accessible to you and I.

If we see more of this from other artists, including independent ones, like me then I’ll be pretty happy. I don’t like watching television and where I live it is vary rare to get the chance to go to a big gig, so this is something I love.

I’m impressed with this production because it was not really about U2 as far as I’m concerned. It showed a glimpse into some very exciting future possibilities for the internet and the way we experience the content. The concept of a live webcast may not be new, but at this level of quality I think it breaks new ground.

I would like to thank everyone who was involved with making the delivery of that experience possible because it made me feel good. You all did a great job that goes much further than simply putting on a show.

Thanks very much.

You can watch the Youtube video recording of the webcast in the box on the right. It’s 2 hours long. Enjoy!

From the song Repetition

I Wanted to share this message again, as I do from time to time. Especially as I also write about such things at the Neural Recon Report.

If you repeat a way of thinking enough times it becomes imprinted in your subconscious mind, re-wired in the brain and it becomes a habit – carried out on your behalf without the need to think about it.

The problem is that the mind does not distinguish between what you call ‘Good’ or ‘Bad’ and so will create habits you do not want unless you apply the discipline of choosing your thoughts:

The thoughts you want to create the life you want.

I suggest you choose the thoughts that make you feel good and repeat them, repeat them, repeat them!

Repetition.
From the ©2009 album Mind over Matter Heart over Mind by Boy@Heart