Bob Lefsetz has a lot of important truths to share about the future of music, and this sums it up in a nutshell:

“This whole business is top-heavy. And these lumbering giants are trying to maintain their power, however ignorantly.

The key today is leaving some money on the table. Be willing to give the audience something for free, you’ll get paid back in spades, if you’re good.

That’s what it’s come down to again… Are you any good? Can you play your instruments? Can you write innovative material? Can you touch people’s souls? Can you change their lives? Can you infect them to the point where they’ll come to your show for years?

That’s the future of this business. Not dominant superstars, but tons of journeymen, super-serving their fan base.

This is the more difficult road. But since the usual suspects, attorneys and major labels, are not interested in this road, they’re leaving the journey open to entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs will inherit the landscape. A truly savvy one will roll up some acts to reach critical mass. The new entrepreneurs will not be chomping on cigars, going to lunch, but tapping their iPhones as they Skype contacts around the world, monitoring their business, giving those with the power to spread the word the tools they need to do so.

It’s not about less, but more. It’s not about drenching the public but starting with the trickle of one drop. It’s not about banging the audience over the head, but the sense of discovery and wonderment. It’s not about feeding the mainstream media, but the bloggers. It’s not about the deal, it’s about the music.”

Yesterday, I got a long overdue visit from a friend and professional musician Darryl Kromm from 80’s band Strange Advance who I worked with on Past Becomes Future and many other brilliant songs he has written that have not been released (yet). He came in to discuss future projects and Heather Dore’s current songs that I am working on. I wanted some background vocals for one of her songs, and despite not hearing the song much or knowing the words, he threw down an almost flawless recording in 15 minutes, as he has always done. When I asked him about it, he said “when your singing professionally for paid gigs, you can’t fool around, and that’s where I started”. Early in his career he performed/recorded with Bryan Adams, Bob Rock and Paul Dean of Loverboy, and released a number of hit recordings.

It was a great experience to work with such a pro in the studio and get such strong results so quickly. Looking forward to more of that Darryl!

[audio:http://www.prosoul.com/tracks/pbf/fame.mp3]
Darryl sings his rework of Bowie’s ‘Fame’ from the Past Becomes Future CD.

Read that headline and ponder, if your serious about music, how can you ignore Asia?

That’s what most labels and artists have done. “Bootlegging”, or “They don’t speak english” might be one of the excuses, but not anymore, and even if they don’t, that doesn’t mean they can’t memorize words to your song and sing along, it happens all the time.

When I went to Asia, I got bitten by some kind of bug. I didn’t get sick, I just got the fever – for Asia.
You could argue this is attributable to many things, and you would be right, but I think my instincts were sensing what this article is eluding to: That you can’t ignore Asia if your serious about music.

Asia Pacific Market Grows – radioandmusic.com

Oh, and if that article isn’t enough to boggle your mind, this WILL.
From my sources in China working in the industry: the Chinese internet base is the largest in the world with 221 million users. At 16% penetration, this still leaves huge room for growth. That’s right, that stat represents 16% of China. You do the math.

Keep your eye here for more about my plans for music in Asia through Pro Soul.

I’ve been going to a lot of fantastic concerts lately, Nightwish, Ladytron, and yesterday Rush. They were all great shows, unique and exciting to me in their own ways, and I’m not going to get into details because then I’d have to write a novel here, but yesterday I came to a realization at the Rush concert.
Nightwish put on an almost flawless show of intelligent, well written progressive rock, and although I am much newer to the band’s music, I knew many of their songs well. But the Rush show had far more emotional impact and was a far better to me for that reason. Why? Because I am emotionally invested in their music, I grew up with them, they influenced me in a big way both personally and musically as a producer with their technically challenging, jazz influenced, progressive style rock. Rush drummer Neil Peart‘s impersonal approach to lyrics and his propensity for addressing diverse subject matter including science fiction, fantasy, and philosophy, as well as secular, humanitarian and libertarian themes always seem to leave me wanting more with the lyrics to most songs I hear and work with.

The show reminded me that this emotional investment that comes from the fact that music affects you at specific times in your life based on what is happening and what your going through and gives the music and the artist even more impact to you personally.
That personal connection and relationship is what the new music industry is based on; It’s not about a physical product any more, it is ALL about that relationship between the artist and those they affect, their audience.

I’ve added a Rush song below for you ‘Subdivisions’, which according to Neil, is “an exploration of the background from which all of us (and probably most of our audience) have sprung.” I highly doubt the music will have the emotional impact for you that it does for me, but that’s what makes my relationship with the artist special. Now if only Rush had a blog!

I got back from Beijing China and Hong Kong recently, and I’ve been putting off this post for some time because honestly, I don’t know where to start. It’s an incredible place. Combine that with an unforgettable experience working with the talented Elika Mahony and some other Chinese musicians, and it gets more challenging to summarize, but here is my attempt.

I was working most of the time I was in Beijing, so I only saw so much. It was cool to work with some local chinese musicians, composers, singers for one project. At one point, none of them could understand what I was saying when Elika was out of the room and unable to translate, so I just hit the record button and things worked out! It was really great to work with Elika in person on some exciting new music and help with her studio setup.

I realised China is quite different than what I expected and the ideas about it many have. Sure, some things are more difficult, but otherwise, in many ways, people there can actually have it better than we do. It rained for a couple days and was windy so I got to see the clear sky, otherwise it is a haze. But the pollution isn’t as big a deal as some make it out to be depending on where you are. There are rows and rows of trees in the suburbs as far as the eye can see, just to help with the pollution though. And there are dogs and cats running around everywhere, and people have dogs as pets. Another thing I found unexpected here: Unlike India, There are not only a lot of Caucasians, but people of all races and backgrounds that speak english and a number of other languages. I’ve went to Italian, Indian, and middle eastern resteraunts that are actually better than Canada.

Another thing that is superior China is the service. For every one person serving you in retail or food industry, there are 4 in China waiting on you, and they do it with pride and sincerity unlike ‘the great west’, and the selection is massive and cheap. Quality, well that is another matter, but that is getting better as well… China is the land of the seemingly perfect knockoff. I was fooled. And yes, the great wall is incredible, photos can’t describe how massive it is. You basically have to climb a mountain to get to it as it is at the tops of the mountains, and when you are on it, it is wide enough for a car to drive on it. When you look out from it, it stretches across the mountain tops as far as the eye can see like a dragon across the mountains. China is beautiful in many ways. You can very likely have a higher quality of life there than in North America or even Europe. Yes, that’s right, in a communist country. Another sign of the collapse of the supposed ‘developed world’

And then there’s Hong Kong, the massive mecca, New York of Asia, of excess and the ultimate in selection and diversity from around the world. The buildings are 4 times the size of any you have seen. It is intense, and exhausting, but cool as well. over 7 million people and the streets are spotless. Thanks Ron for giving me a good taste of the ultimate modern city.

So I would go back again, and my view of the world is now forever changed. I have learned some valuable lessons, some that will undoubtedly affect the future of my career as a producer. But I wouldn’t change the experience as I have grown as a person because I no longer have to rely on certain misconceptions.
Now it’s back to my regular life, at least for the moment.

I’ve decided to create a widget to share my current fave songs because lately, I can barely contain myself about some of the music I have been listening to. (I’m not sure why really as no one I know or even work with really shares my eclectic and extreme range of taste in music…)

The first artist I have been really into lately is Finnish band Nightwish, which, if you listen to their older material with previous vocalist, have successfully married hard rock, opera and electronic music, no small feat. Their video for Amaranth puts to shame most north american music videos, never mind their music production. I was pleased to hear they are coming here on tour soon.

[myspace 15949066 Nightwish-Amaranth Video ]

And completely different, the other track I have been into lately is M.I.A ‘Baamboo Banga’
I have put this with other favorites in my box on the sidebar to the left.
When you come back to this blog next time, check it out for my latest favorite tracks!
You can even subscribe to my fave files widget using rss if you roll like that:
http://www.box.net/public/xqegzxngg0/rss.xml

Ever since I was a kid, i have loved the Cylons from the TV show Battlestar Galactica. I even made my very own super cool silver cylon mask out of paper mache for halloween once. When fan of the modern remake of BSG, and an artist I have produced, Laura Harley joked about listening to Depeche Mode’s ‘Enjoy The Silence’ and thinking ‘enjoy the cylons’, I had my fuel to create the ultimate cylon tribute video.

Over the last few months, this video has become quite a mash up. What I did is start with the remix of Enjoy The Silence by Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park. Then I edited it and re created parts so that Laura could sing over top. So that was the musical mash up, a remake of the remix of the original song.
Then for the video, I cut my favorite clips, chosen to work with the lyrics of the song, and give a good overview of the new and old cylons, and show some of the drama and conflict between the cylons themselves.

So enough reading already, check out the video!

Enjoy The Cylons: Battlestar Galactica vs Depeche Mode on Vimeo.

(I posted a high quality download of this in comments below, because the youtube video is not available anymore in it’s original form.)

Over the last 3 years I have been producing an album that is quite different than what I usually do by the very talented composer, pianist, and singer, Elika Mahony.
I have blogged last year about some of the challenges of producing an album like this, and about how intense a project like this can become.
With it’s combination of electronic elements with piano, live cello, guitar, and flute and other exotic live instruments such as Persian santur, nay flute, and Chinese erhu, I have to say that this album, called ‘Fire And Gold’ is not only the most diverse and elaborate production I have worked on, but one of the most expensive. But it has done extremely well, selling over a thousand copies shortly after release thanks to Elika’s innovative music promotion techniques worldwide. You can listen here.

For those who are familiar with the musical styles I usually produce, the classical and new age overtones of this spiritually inspired Baha’i album on the theme of tests and difficulties of life may not be your thing. But you will most likely still be able to appreciate Elika’s sweet voice and elegant melodies.

Elika is also using some of the latest online music promotion techniques such as selling electronic versions of her songs online by donation, and offering discounts for multiple CD orders. One of her fan’s have even created a music video for one of the songs, This Is Faith.

Actually I never dust off my old hardware synthesizers, there’s something about an old electronic thing like that with dust on it that is appealing… It isn’t so good for the hardware thought, the dust gets in the pots and sliders and you get all kind of crackles and noise when you turn the knobs and use it.

What I mean is I am working on a new 80’s inspired pop album for artist Heather Dore. She’s a real sweetie, she even wrote a blog entry about me without even knowing how much I love being appreciated.
The interesting thing about Heather coming along and requesting I rejuvenate her music career by helping her create her favorite kind of music is that I have spent the last decade telling myself “the 80’s are over, things have to sound modern now, 21st century” (which is interesting as a producer in a way, because the production values and attention to detail on a record in the 80’s have never been equalled).
And now that I have finally almost mastered that, I have to go back to my roots that I love and forget discipline from using dated sounds for Heather’s 80’s inspired music. But we will be combining modern elements too, so stay tuned for that, it will be very interesting.

Anyway, it is cool to fire up this old hardware for her music because I have really been into virtual instruments lately in the computer because they save so much time. They aren’t better, they just save time and money. But the old synths have all kinds of crackles and buzzes and stuff that keeps things interesting (and technically challenging from the spoiled computer use). Today one old synth, the Roland MKS-50 that I used (which is a keyless Alpha Juno) started outputting this weird low frequency feedback drone noise which would come and go by itself when I wasn’t using it. Not surprising when using a device that is creating sound using real current generated oscillations. That’s the beauty of old analog hardware, it’s alive.
Now I just have to get these old beasts to behave long enough to capture their essence.

ahhhh, dusty old synths…

I was going to post these around a week before the holidays and yesterday I looked at the date and was like “Holy Christmas, it’s Dec 21st!” Here they are anyway:

Under The Mistletoe:
[audio:Under_The_Mistletoe_Emeline.mp3]

The First Noel - Tekno mix:
[audio:The_First_Noel-Emeline.mp3]

These songs were composed with the first successful artists I ever worked with, Emeline. We lost Emeline in 2001 after she spent many brave years battling breast cancer.
Rosie Owens is on backup vocals.

DISCLAIMER: These are very old songs. They were done over 16 years ago in 1991, back when I was still learning to compose, produce and engineer. They were commissioned by local radio station Z95.3 FM, who are the time were playing Emeline’s music frequently. You can hear evidence of this from the clips on Emeline’s memorial site. You can get more of her music here.
So these songs are a little embarrassing. But I’m trying to be humble and put them out there anyway. Hope you enjoy them.

Have a great holiday season visiting with family, good food and good friends.