Working on new material with Mackie Tracktion2
Hello again from the edge of the Great White North...
A lot has been going on since my last entry - let's start with the bad news. I've had to bow out of the Bearapalooza Nashville show I was to play in July. Unfortunately I'm just too bogged down (and from the looks of it will be all summer) to be able to take off for 4-5 days for the trip at this point. I hated to disappoint the event organizers, who were looking forward to my coming. I was looking forward to it as well, but I have to accept the fact that I'm not Superman and can only do so much with a finite amount of time. I do plan to take a raincheck and join them for a future Bearapalooza show, however, so it's not really cancelled - just postponed.
On to the good news. For a while now, a really amazing local singer with whom I played in a cover band a few years back has been talking to me about working together on original material. We met yesterday and are both enthusiastic about actually doing it now. For the past month, I had been mulling over options in regard to putting a live performing unit together to gig in support of my new CD, Reality Show. I'd been contemplating getting a guitarist and maybe a female backup singer, but then it occurred to me - why not hook up with Chad instead? He's a fantastic singer and a great frontman with tons of charisma; it would take the pressure of having to do all the lead vocals off my shoulders and let me concentrate moreso on playing bass and keyboards. I have to admit, it's really hard trying to be a solo artist and having to do everything yourself; it's a LOT of pressure. It's a lot easier to have at least one "partner in crime" so you can play off of one another's strengths and lean on each other when your resolve falters.
So, what we now plan to do is record 4 or 5 new songs for a new Project Vector EP with Chad doing most of the lead vocals, so we have a disc that represents us as a duo that we can release and sell at gigs along with the first Project Vector album. It would also give us more original material to draw from and decrease the amount of covers we would have to play. Once the EP is complete, we would then find a guitarist and hopefully also a drummer to hire for gigs (but most likely continue recording as a duo).
The first step, of course, is for me to put a song or two together, pass it on to Chad so he can work out his vocal parts, and see what comes out. The main thing is to arrive at a sound we can both get fired up about. The general guideline I have for myself is that I want to do something a little heavier and more rock-oriented than Reality Show but still retain a little bit of that techno edge and sophistication to keep it interesting and unique. To enable us to be a completely self-contained recording unit, I've started delving into playing guitar (after many years of playing only bass and keyboards), and while I won't be a world-class guitarist anytime soon, I'm finding that I can already play a lot of the kind of things I want to record. Continuing my newfound love affair with Steinbergers, I opted for a Steinberger GT, which is working out really well. I wish I'd done this sooner, actually - I'm finding that playing guitar is a hell of a lot of fun!
So that's what's new for now! Hopefully, in another month or so, I'll be able to report back on some tangible progress and maybe even share a sound clip from the new project if things go well. Meanwhile, warm weather is just around the corner and I'm looking forward to going on a short vacation downstate in a couple of weeks. Life is good....
