Happy Halloween!

Rah Rah

It's my song...honest!

Days flying by over here, sessions with Melissa and an emergency session with AG to get vocals and gtr parts finished for his album. Lots of guitar teching and web-site production (www.melissaendean.com - in a few days), getting over the lingering cough and learning how to knit mittens. (Really, I actually did).

Tomorrow is Keith Bennett and more tech work and hopefully solidifying the CBC set list.

Oh and the the biggest task of the week, trying to prove to the manufacturing plant that 3 of the Christmas album artists are who they say they are, and actually wrote their own song...DNA samples anyone? Anti piracy to an extreme I'd say. I sure hope they put as much effort into the actual manufacture of the CD, especially now that it will be nearly a week delayed.

Busy fall days....

Busy as usual - nice to see something come of it - good work Johnny! Talk about instant gratification!


Ok everyone - go get yourself a website!

And the days go by...

I'm not sure where exactly they go, but when I look up a few have gone by....


The Christmas Cd is done and gone to manufacture as of today. Thank you Sonja for your help!


Busy booking events and planning fun things for next year...while I slowly go out of my mind with all the construction noise from next door.

Lots of recording backed up while we were finishing up Christmas so lots to do now.

See mom sing - see mom and Uncle Gerry and Lois at their jam...mom, where are your red cowboy boots?

The Cover.

We made it! The November issue - way to go Gina!

www.eSession.com

Now if I could only get out from under this pile of paperwork I would gladly do a little jig....

The mail...

Sometimes getting the mail can pull you out of a hard day and make it seem like Christmas. Today we rcvd a copy of Keith Bennett's new CD 'Jumpin' at the Yale' and a copy of Wallace and Gromit, 'The Curse of the Were-Rabbit'.

A hard day can't get much better than that.

In The Hands Of The Master.

Ok everything is off to Master - it's in the hands of the Zen master. We worked until 5 in the morning tracking and then scrapped all our work, and went with the original tracks...sometimes the more you put into something, the more it takes away: case and point, track 12 - Bobby's Christmas Lullaby.

I've posted up some of the tunes: www.myspace.com/veryvancouverchristmas and will hopefully have the website updated soon.

We're tired, but now the big work has begun - marketing, event planning and prepping for Melissa's CBC concert.

Oh and three other albums on the go, oh make that four..

I've never had Red Bull, but it's starting to sound mighty interesting.

Very nearly done....

Jerry just sent over Scotty and Melissa's tune, very well done! Mixing today and working on the One Sheet, writing down marketing ideas and booking the benefit venues. I'll have to find someone to be me at these things.

Sleep now, hockey tomorrow and then more mixing.

Very nearly there....

It's almost the weekend!

Well for us anyway, the weekend officially starts around 4am. But no rest for the weary - we have three songs to finish and mix in three days.

Tonight wrote two articles and finished up Gina's interview (Nov issue www.bcmusicianmag.com), just going to mix one short song and then shut it down for the night.

We had our belated Thanksgiving supper tonight, and we were all thankful that we had more than 5 minutes in which to eat it.

Christmas album

Nearly there, cover is done - next year I'll have a contest at the local school or something to make it more interesting.

Came up with a track listing, great songs this year, very traditional, you can tell the artists are older this year. It's such an interesting project when viewed from a sociological perspective - what Christmas and the holidays and religion mean to the different generations.

As always we are in a last minute rush, I thought it would be different this year, having so many artists giving pre-produced songs, but we are still mixing two, and haven't begun on one and we have one person just going into the studio on Tuesday (uhm, did I mention master is Thursday?)....nothing like an impending deadline to light a fire under your feet;-)

It's turned cold and wet - very appropriate for Canadian Thanksgiving, which for me means winter is here and I am in the thick of the Christmas album.

Obama for Prime Minister?

I would have to agree with Thomas's blogmates...there is no other choice.

Saturday night - again!

Whirlwind week - Christmas album goes to master in 5 days, Bobby has agreed to let us use the lullaby as 'A Christmas Lullaby' - so happy ~ but I've just added another task for myself!

Working on Juno nominations (still), and going through hours (it seems) of video footage for the Christmas video, I hope there is enough, it's a long song! Suddenly a 20 second clip seems so long and lovely!

I haven't even begun articles, also due in 5 days...here's hoping nobody in an editorial position keeps up with this blog...a long weekend indeed!

Happy about the new hockey song, I like the Celtic bits.

Back to work...

My first front cover(-ish)

Well sort of - but good for Barry - he says things are going really well since the press release!

www.hevydmusic.com

Read the interview at:

www.bcmusicianmag.com

Now everyone ~ go buy Barry's popcorn!

The Rocket

Having grown up in the 60's and 70's I developed a sort of fear of Canadian content, be it literary, in television or film. Although I know better now, I do still get a luke warm shiver of that old fear up my spine when C brings something 'Made In Canada' home from the library.

It happened again last night when he pulled out 'The Rocket' (ahem)~ The Maurice Richard Story. Of course I am the biggest hockey fan and grew up, literally, in the rink, but I did audibly groan at the suggestion. I know who Maurice is and was, and respect his talent, but I am a west coast girl and a Canuck die hard.

Ok well, I was proven wrong yet again, with my fear of Can Con - the movie was brilliant and I had no idea of the politics of the time, so I even came away feeling educated (albeit from one perspective anyway).

I also realized that unless people speak out, change does not happen. So, in my next post, I'm cutting loose.

Tone quest continues....

Today C looked at tubes for the Marshall, lots of tube info out there! It was interesting to learn what all the letters meant - and also that tubes used to be encased in metal, not glass - (and that NOS tubes now cost a small fortune!) Funny though, not many distributors in the Lower Mainland, I guess everyone buys on-line.

The BCCMA nominations are nearly over - good luck everyone! I'm still working on the Juno nominations.

It was a down day of of chores and cleaning; the day went quickly, but happily there was time enough to walk the dog.

Well...

As the Zen master doesn't have time to update his own blog, I'll steal from my email today and update you here:

"Just back from the AES show in SF..All of the the retro-analogue companies were in one aisle and it was like walking through a Moroccan bazaar!

Many cool things and many people (heavyweights) predicting the end of the major record labels within 2-3 years.

Viva la Indie Production (I guess)"


It WILL be interesting to see how music production and sales etc continue to change over the next few years...kind of exciting - so many opportunities....

It's Only Rain

Its Only Rain-Melissa ReaAnne from leo hoorn on Vimeo.

Saturday Night Live

Today worked on Christmas MySpace(www.myspace.com/veryvancouverchristmas), trying to get caught up on Christmas bits other than recording, booking benefits (Roxy in December come out and see your favorite artists!), and collecting files and trying to set up video shoots. With any luck the CD will also include 2 Videos this year - I hope we can make it happen - it all depends on how my calculation for stretching time works out.

Also Spoke to France on Skype today. Thought I would include Guy's photo of Piquey(bonjour Guy!), he did so much great work on the house this year! And look at that sky! it is definately a French sky. It reminds me so much of the colours in TinTin and Asterix. Heyyy - We're also in the middle of the French Connection...and I just listened to Rheal Poirier's song for the Christmas album...what a very French day!

Where does the time go?

Have been working on Christmas tunes, Melissa's videos as well as Juno submissions and a cold.

Leo sent the HD down and the Rain video and clips for the next video look great! What an eye he has! We had thought to use these for the Christmas video, but they don't really match the mood of the song I'm thinking, so may save for next album...we'll see.

Barry emailed and is getting excited about press release on the 6th. The article should be out now and posted online tonight or tomorrow. Have to start on next month's batch this week - Gina sent over a great photo, can't wait for her interview to run - what an amazing woman and so rare to hear about women in this industry period - not to mention highly successful, groundbreaking ones! So fortunate to have interviewed her - she's lovely.

Ok nearly 3am, going to try and get some sleep...cough/hack/drip