A Sneak Peek at Project #4, “The Lesson of I”

My previous feeble efforts at album releases have been to:

Put in a tremendous amount of focus and energy into making a great album
Once complete, blindly brainstorm poor ways to draw attention to said album

The field is incredibly crowded. Even children with no musical training can produce a professional-sounding track with a laptop and not much else. Furthermore, the pool of people who can actually discern and prefer the organic, human touch of mature musicianship dwindles each day.

Promotion and production needed equal roles.

With that fact in mind, I decided I was thinking of advertising all wrong. It could no longer be an afterthought. The promotion of my project needed to be just as important as the production of my project.

So, in response, I’ve decided to invite you in to watch the sausage be made.

I am very excited to announce I am producing a 12-part weekly series chronicling the making of The Lesson of I.

Each segment will be around 8-minutes long and focus on a different stage of production. Every topic will be discussed: songwriting, getting good tones, DAW processing, arranging, mixing, etc. The series will culminate in Part 12 – The Worldwide Release.

I have a permit for that selfie stick. It’s called the 2nd Amendment.

It’s been a little weird getting used to baring your soul to the camera, especially when talking about something as personal as your art. But, I feel I start to get a little more comfortable as the series progresses, so I hope you’ll bear with me through the beginning while I get my selfie sea legs.

I am not really creating this to be a “how-to” for music production, although I do believe there will be a wealth of knowledge to be gleaned. I think of it more as like a “Misfit Music Producer Bob Ross.” Even if you have no intention of ever painting, it’s still chill to just watch the guy ‘do what he do.’

Also adding intrigue to this project is the fact it is unlike anything I have attempted before. The cameras will be rolling through the triumphs and the setbacks. I will be feeling my way through on faith and intuition. That could be fun to watch! I mean, I’m not exactly Nik Wallenda out here without a safety net, but things could go horribly wrong! I could get to the end and realize it is all garbage. Similar things have happened before…

When might we start seeing this project?

Even before I conceived of the video production component of the project, I felt as if I scheduled an ambitious completion date for this summer.

Recently, I’ve tried to tie album release dates with easily-remembered dates. Just What the World Is Looking For was released on the numerically-friendly 11/12/13. Almost Alive was released New Year’s Day 2017.

My dream-come-true goal would be to release The Lesson of I on August 21, 2017, the date of the total eclipse across the United States. That date has been on my radar for over 4 years. I made my family promise years ago they would drop everything to see it when the day arrived. 🙂

Weather and circumstances permitting, I plan on loading the family up in a vehicle and spending the day in South Carolina with friends and strangers celebrating this rare celestial event – and hopefully a hugely-successful simultaneous album release!

In the meantime, add me to your Pandora station!