I’m not sure if I ever told you how my friend Rick Heath got involved in helping me produce my album The Dream Highway. It’s a cool story!
Before I tell you, though, I have to let you know some very exciting news (if you haven’t heard already…)
The album is finished!
At least the music production and mastering. I still need to finalize artwork and a few other publishing details, but the music is done, and most importantly…
I’m really happy with it! (That’s hard for any creative type to say about their work.)
But enough about me and my album, let me tell you about Rick…
Rick is a friend that I’ve known for quite a while. He’s a great musician – can play drums, bass, guitar, sings, is a songwriter and does stand up comedy as well. He is a riot! We’ve worked together on several musical projects. He’s got an incredible ear and I really trust and value his opinion, which is why…
I called him up one day and asked him if he would be willing to just listen to my songs once I completed them and give me any feedback on the levels – or mix. It’s always great to have a second pair of eyes or ears (depending on what you’re creating) before you ship it out to the public. (I wonder what social media would be like if everyone had a trusted advisor read through their posts before they published them!)
Anyhow, he said he would be more than happy to help, so I sent him the first “rough draft” I had of a song – or maybe two. He had a lot of feedback to offer and a lot more insight into my songs that I was expecting, which I gladly welcomed.
One of the things that came up in our discussion was the drum part. I had been using drum loops – preprogrammed drum patterns – that didn’t exactly fit the songs. I told him that ideally what I thought would make the songs better would be if I had a real drummer.
Because of the drum software I have, I just needed somebody who had an electronic drum kit that could plug into my computer. The problem was, I didn’t know anybody who had an electronic drum kit.
You know what he said?
He actually had an electronic drum kit, and proceeded to offer to play drums for me on the album!
One of the reasons I’m so pleased with the album is because of the performance, insight and suggestions Rick has contributed to the project.
I had no idea that things would turn out this way, but it just goes to show that, when you set out to accomplish something – don’t worry about the how, just get clear on what you want to do and start taking action! Even if you don’t have the perfect plan in place, just take the next step and things will fall into place and become more clear as you progress…
Even if that next step is just getting out of bed in the morning!
Have a fantastic week!