Nashville Summit Recap

Comments Off #


I just got back from attending a weekend conference of audio engineers and producers, in Nashville, TN, at Chris Mara’s studio Welcome to 1979. It was terrific fun… friendly and knowledgeable panelists, a welcoming environment, and good folks all around. And it was cheap and convenient… what’s not to like? The gathering looks to be an annual thing… hook up with Welcome to 1979 on Facebook so you don’t miss out.

Some of my favorite moments…
– bbq at a local place (Paradise Ridge) with my buddy Tony SanFilippo Friday eve…
– walking in while the New Belgravians were tracking sax + dueling toy pianos, in the unfinished factory space.. very cool first impression… (great band by the way!)
– a late night race across town to see Craig Alvin’s sweet mix studio.
– quality donuts. We only have dunkin and grocery store impostors up here. the donuts were fantastic.
– watching Mr. Randy Blevins making a champion entrance, complete with cowboy hat and western attire. confidence people, some people got it.
– the CLASP demo… the system worked flawlessly and sounded great.
– thai food and storytelling hour with Motown legend Bob Ohlsson. This alone would have been worth the trip.
– meeting Tommy Wiggins, and talking about what he’s doing in Cleveland with the Cuyahoga Community College music program and the Rock HOF.
– talking to so many audio folks, young and old, all stricken with the same magnificent obsession.

Thanks, Chris for a great weekend!

February is album writing month

Comments Off #

I’m a winner. 14 songs in 28 days… and some of them are good.

Here’s the best pirate song I’ve ever written.
Adventure

Writing quickly is always a good thing.

I’ll post more demos soon when I figure out how to embed audio in this new site template.

Tags: |

Gone quiet

Comments Off #

Things are going to be a little quiet for a while… too much going on to have time to post.

The big project right now is a mixing & production project… it’s going to be a giant of a record. Or records.

The good and the bad

0 #

It’s been a fast few months since First Words was released…  new baby #3, who joined the world around the same time the album did, is four months old now.  And she’s a sweetheart. 

My life, as you can imagine, is a little busy…  so I’m doing what I can to promote this record, enjoy the positives, and not dwell on what I can’t get done.   Did I mention baby #3 is a sweetheart..  prone to laughing incontrolably when she sees my face.

Sending the record out has led to some great reviews, and some not-so-great.  

American-UK loved the record.

… this is simple music for simple enjoyment. Nothing complicated or over done just a selection of fine songs that definitely reward repeated listens. It’s a little US college indie for sure, and no doubt there will be a few Converse wearing kids already claiming they found him first… Harmony and melody are cherished here, there is little room for abstraction or confrontation. Solid from start to finish treat these as individual little three minute nuggets and you may well fall under Garret’s charm too just as I have.

And from AbsolutePunk.net:

Tomorrow is Already Here makes songs that crib light feathering motions of strings, keyboards, horns, and guitars berth by cozy seaside bass rolls and drum beats. His blend of country folk textures and soft pop tempos is very relaxing. In a world that mostly stresses people out, Gengler’s product is a remedy for feeling burned out and weary

Nice… I’ll take that. 

The reviews by Delusions of Adequacy and Two Way Monologues… not so much.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about these words of wisdom from one of the all-time great audio engineers & producers, Terry Manning:

Once you write, perform, produce, or even engineer music for public release and consumption, you are opening yourself up to criticism. And the public is vast…the reactions will almost always vary from “great” to “abysmal” on the same piece of music. I learned long ago that you have to grow a thicker skin if you are going to read the reviews.Sometimes you will find one that touches your heart. “They actually got it!” Out there in that big wild world they understand what you’re trying to do or say. Then you will read a review that simply crushes you. You worked so hard, not to try to make something that will just sell, but something that is worthy of inclusion in the lexicon of modern music…something that came from your heart, from your soul, something on which you worked so very hard, with good intent. And someone out there disliked it so much that they went out of their way to let everyone know how bad you really were.This is all part and parcel of being in the public eye. You can’t really have one without the other.(Led Zeppelin 3) received many absolutely scathing, horrible reviews upon its release…the same for most LZ albums, by the way. Somehow, the bigger a thing you work on, the worse you can read about yourself.

JUST ANOTHER DAY AT THE OFFICE…

 

Tags: