Category: Uncategorized

I give some things that I’ve learned over the years after many trial and errors.

Happy Friday everyone!  Just wanted to do a quick, off the top of my head, post about changes that have been happening with me!

Another year of Barbershop is starting up!  It will be an interesting year and I’m hoping to improve my baritone singing ability so I can bring it into my recordings.

I have a design site, I’ve started a shop on SpreadShirt, I’m trying to raise money to get a better camera for doing overhead shots of the consoles.  I thought about started a Patreon account, but I don’t have a lot of offer for incentives.  Instead, I’m making my designs available for a variety of different things from clothing to bags.  Click here to take a look.

I’ve also updated the music section as I found more places that are streaming our songs.  Click here to see that.

Lastly, check out the YouTube channel!  I’m bring a new video every Monday!  I’m going to start work on another new song and get that moving too!  Click here to see the channel!

Thanks again for watching, listening and reading!

— Mike

Tis the season for not getting anything done.  I’ve joined a barbershop choir and the church choir.  Currently, the barbershop choir is getting ready to do a show on December 5th, so I need to work on those songs.  The church choir is also getting ready for a Christmas show on December 17th.

After listening to something that I’ve been recording forever, I decided to start over, problem is I have no time to start over.  I’m not happy with the project so, I am going to start over.

I’ve decided to start again in the new year.  Once all these other things are done, I should have time to start working again.

Talk to you soon!

Apple has released the iPhone X for the amazing price of $999, or if you are Canadian, $1300+.  Wow!  Now, you know there will be people who will purchase this item,  mainly because you’ll see all the celebrities touting it.  It’s sad that people will pay more than what they can afford because a celebrity can.  There was a point in time where people knew their spending limits and lived within them.  This is something which I know even I struggle with.  Recording and playing can get expensive and we all know this.

Once I got back into recording, I really saw this attitude come alive.  If you aren’t using the best, you’re recordings weren’t worth a listen.  This is such a false statement.  I’ve done recordings on 4-tracks that people were impressed with and didn’t believe it was a 4-track system that I used.

The recording is what you put into it, not how much money you spend on microphones, etc.

Please remember this the next time you read posts that state what you are doing isn’t good enough.  We are all made of money, and we need to remember that.

— Mike

At the beginning of summer, usually around June 1st, I get into my head that this summer, I’m going to get a massive amount of musically things done.  Write songs, record, and simply get things done.  As usually, it is September 5th, and I really didn’t get that much accomplished.

It is a never ending cycle of work, outside chores and music, they never cooperate.  I started off with great intensions, recording drum tracks and starting work on a cover.  I have most of that song completed now, I need to re-do the drum tracks because of changes I did with the guitar work and have a friend who I played the cover with to record their vocal tracks.

My guitar playing has improved immensely this summer, I have been working on Rocksmith with a goal of completing all the lead, rhythm and alternate guitar playing it offers.  Currently I’m finishing up on the alternate tracks, not sure how many are left, it isn’t easy to get a count on that.

The band is still going, we’ve been practicing a little less this year, but are still pushing forward.  Going to try and record the 4 song EP of B-songs that Dean & I wrote, along with one a friend’s band did.

I haven’t been able to practice  my drums as much as I wanted to.  I have been pushing more towards better guitar playing.  I’m going to need to sit down and get back at the drums.  Funny part is, I sat down at the drums the other day after weeks of not playing and I was showing improvement, maybe I needed to step back for a bit and start fresh again.

Hopefully, now that it’s the fall again, I will be able to get back on track and finish some stuff that I’ve put on the hold.

Things that I’m hoping will be released this fall:

• A cover of a country song that has been changed into a more rock / punk sounding song.
• A 4 song EP, 3 songs written when I was in Hollow Spirit, we did these ones live, but never did a proper recording.  You can hear them on SoundCloud.  The 4th song, was a song written by a friend in a different band, we are going to do our own take on the song.
• Going to be working with Dane (For My Dear Friend) and record another version of Picture Window, this one will be more in the style that we did at concerts.

Hope you all had a great summer, I should be able to start posting more again.

I’ve been sitting on this one for a while, but I was asked to include it recently.  At the moment, there are only “ArmsLength / For My Dear Friend” pictures.  I’m going to expand on it quickly.

Enjoy!

Click here

We’re close to finishing the CD, hoping for an early May release but starting to see it may become a late May, early June release.

I’ve decided to take my production / engineering skills to local bands for free and help them get a decent recording without having to pay for studio time.

If you know of any bands, tell them about this post, I’ve included a contact form below:

[contact-form][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Band Name’ type=’text’/][contact-field label=’A short description of your band, # of players, type of music’ type=’textarea’ required=’1’/][/contact-form]