I have an old webcam that outputs 15 frames per second (video is usually approaching 30 frames per second), and I found a free online screencasting site called screencast-o-matic.com, and I started making little “behind the scenes” videos to accompany the songs on the album.

I kind of like making these little screencasts for the songs.  It’s fun to talk about the songs, arrangements, and inspirations for the track.  But another part of me thinks that making these videos is pretentious and self-serving.  I have decided that I made the album, I arranged all the tracks, I played all the instruments, and I even designed the cover art, so why shouldn’t I make a series of videos about the songs?  As long as I’m already being outrageously DIY in my musical career, why not take it over the top?

The inspiration for these videos comes from an issue of Keyboard magazine that was published a few years ago that focused on “electrolounge”.   In the issue there were three profiles of up and coming electrolounge bands.  The article took it’s coverage one step further by printing a screenshot of a track for a song from each of the bands.  This was huge for my development as a musician, because it was the first time I saw what tracks looked like in a ‘real’ produced song.

I wish Keyboard or Electronic Musician would post more screenshots of songs from current artists’ catalogs.  I find them really interesting.

So, this is where I got the idea to do an in-depth video on each of the songs on the album and to show what it looks like when I’m mixing the tracks on my computer.

Unfortunately, because the computer I’m using isn’t up-to-date, it doesn’t have enough power to play the original song files, with all of the softsynths and plugin effects, and run the screen-grab software.  Instead of the original files, I’m using the mastering stem files that I used to do the final mixes for the songs.  So, instead of having 30-50 tracks and asking the computer to synthesize the entire song on-the-fly, while at the same time running a webcam and a screen-grab program, I’m only asking my computer to stream three or four tracks.  Computers are much more comfortable streaming already printed audio, than synthesizing it on the fly.

Along with my videos on each individual song, I made an ““Christmas and Glowsticks” history and concept ” video, in which I discuss the history of the project, and the general philosophy that governed the creation of the album.

First, the primary rule in all underscoring is that if you notice it, it’s wrong.  It’s called UNDERscoring for a reason.  The music goes under the action.  The best underscoring fits into the fabric of the drama so tightly, that all of the elements: blocking, dialogue, lighting, and music, create a single experience.  But the most important thing is the action on the stage, and everything else must necessarily be secondary.

I read a terrific article by a film composer in a book of interviews with film composers (I forget which composer, and which book), and he said that when you are watching a movie, ninety-three percent of your attention should be on the action of the movie, leaving seven percent of your attention for everything else: the temperature, your indigestion, the pretty girl two rows in front of you.  He said that the music has to make its statement within that last seven percent of the audience’s attention.  In my underscoring, I am always conscious that my role is supportive, not primary.

However, in my dealing with other theater people, actors, improvisers, and directors, I am frequently told to “play more”.  I think there are a few reasons for this common comment.

First, music makes drama better.  This is a mysterious occurrence, but it’s true.  Music can turn a blah scene into a blow-you-away scene (instead of a blah-you-away scene).  So, people overgeneralize this occurrence (music making drama better) and decide that if some music makes drama a little better, then a lot of music will make drama A LOT better.  Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case.  There is a threshold where music will interfere with the action on stage.  There is a threshold where there is just too much going on.  There are moments in drama that do not require music, and that should not have any musical accompaniment.

In my playing, I try to develop a sense of the rhythm of the actors on stage, and accompany their rhythm.  A little game I play is to craft melodies “between the words” during the pauses in the dialogue.  In addition, I tend to play a lot during transitional moments, like location changes and scene changes.  This is because nothing else is going on, and so there’s nothing to interrupt.

Another one of my rules of musical underscoring is that if the action on the stage already has music (and in this case, I mean, a music in the words), then anything I play will interfere with that already existing music.

A rule of improv is that if what’s happening on stage is interesting, then there is no need to enter.  This is true for musical improv also.

Another reason people ask me to “play more” is insecurity.  This can cause an actor to want as much support as he or she can get, which, consequently makes the actor want music all the time.  This is a musical version of “fear of silence”.  It’s common for immature improvisers to have a fear of silence on stage.  They fill the silence with words, and sometimes won’t shut up.  Additionally, younger improvisers tend to become nervous when they don’t get frequent reactions from the audience.  Music can’t rescue a scene.  There are times when music is inappropriate, even if the actor or director thinks he or she wants it.

Third, some directors think that they’re paying the musician by the note.  This causes the director to want more playing to justify the expense of hiring a musician.  What the director is actually paying for is the musician’s judgment and experience–to know when to play, and to know when not to play.  Inexperienced musical improvisers can usually figure out when to enter a scene.  It takes an experienced musical improviser to know when to exit a scene.

A wise friend of mine, who also happens to be a musical improviser, said “if you’re playing all the time, then you can never enter.”  This is another rule of musical improv that I keep in the back of my mind when playing shows.  Often, the entrance of music is the most important role of the music in a scene.  The entrance can be dramatic, sad, funny, referential.  But once the music starts, then it can’t enter again, it’s already going.  The tone of the music can shift.  The tempo can change.  The octave can jump higher or lower, but the music is already going, and cannot enter once it’s already going.  This is another reason why not playing all the time is important.

Another trick I frequently use in my underscoring is to build a huge layer of sound to accompany the drama of a scene, tangle up the chords with more and more tension, until the moment of climax, and then drop out entirely.  This creates the sensation of the floor being dropped from under the actor’s feet, and makes that moment much more tense.  I also do this during nostalgic or sentimental scenes, where I’ll make a character be all alone on stage, as though not even the music is that person’s friend.

Lastly, musical underscoring for drama or for comedy relies on anticipation and timing.  If some musical reference comes up and you miss the moment to play your clever little reference to accompany the joke on stage, then you’ve missed the moment.  I heard a musical improviser play “It’s Not Easy Being Green” a full minute after a reference to green was on stage.  The moment had passed, but in the musician’s head a synapse finally connected and the musician didn’t have the good sense to not play the now hopelessly out-of-context reference.  Dramatic and comedic timing is not something you can learn by reading or even viewing, you have to learn it by doing.

There have been times when I have been tempted to answer the request to “Play more” with obnoxious noise for the duration of the show.  But I never did this.  I have never purposefully sabotaged a scene.  I have always and without exception worked as hard as I could, in my role as musical improviser, to support the scenes as seriously and as skillfully as I possibly could.  Frequently, the most supportive thing I could do is to not play at all.

I also signed up with www.bandcamp.com and uploaded all of the “Christmas and Glowsticks” tracks for independent distribution.

I’ve done a lot of research, and believe that I have chosen wisely this year.

I chose www.catapultdistribution.com for digital delivery for three reasons:

1. They distribute to a ton of stores–all the main ones, plus all of the worldwide iTunes stores.
2. The fee is a flat rate of $25, with no yearly renewal.  They also take 9% of all sales, after the store itself takes its cut of the money.
3. I would have used www.cdbaby.com, but they’ve been getting a lot of negative buzz lately, and I decided to stay away.

Catapult Distribution’s web interface is easy to navigate, and easily figured out how to get my music in their hands.  One item I didn’t like is that I had to convert the times of the songs into seconds.  It seems like if I’m uploading my song to their site, their software should be able to figure out the length of the song on their end.

Last year I used www.e-junkie.com for my independent digital downloads.  I used them because they had a 45 day free trial with zero fees.  Also, I could do the “pay what you want” model using their system.  It worked very well.

This year, I’m using Bandcamp for my independent distribution.  The Bandcamp website is unbelievably easy to use.  Within minutes, I had a professional page, and music uploaded.  The upload speed I had with www.bandcamp.com was at least four times faster than the uploads to www.catapultdistribution.com.  So far, I have been very impressed with Bandcamp.

Bandcamp doesn’t take a cut of the profits made from selling music, but Paypal does have a fee for using their service.  Ordinarily, Paypal is set up for large-ish transactions, like over $10 dollars.  And for transactions over ten dollars, Paypal works very well.  But since Bandcamp makes it possible to sell single songs, the usual flat fee wouldn’t be very practical.  Here is what the Bandcamp website says:

PayPal’s standard transaction fee works out to about 33 cents for a $1 payment and 45 cents for a $5 payment (in U.S. dollars). Luckily, they provide an alternative designed for lower-priced items called the “micropayments rate.” Using micropayments, the fee is 10 cents for a $1 payment and 30 cents for a $5 payment.

So I signed up for micropayments on my paypal account, but now, if I sell anything big on ebay, then I’ll get hit with a higher rate.  This trade-off seems unnecessary.

—-

For context, last year, I used TuneCore to digitally distribute my first album “Babies Don’t Have Hands”.  Tunecore has a flat rate, but requires a yearly renewal.  What’s great about Tunecore is that they don’t take a percentage of your sales.  So, if you are a well-known artist, or even a medium well-known artist, and you know that you are going to sell a lot of digital downloads, then it makes sense to have a flat fee, and then no percentage taken out of sales.  But for beginners, with no fans and no marketing, this makes less sense because of the yearly fee that might be more than the amount you make from sales.  Also, Tunecore doesn’t really do physical distribution of CD’s.  They have a workaround, but it’s not integrated.

On the other hand, CD Baby does do physical distribution of CD’s.  CD Baby has a flat fee that you only have to pay once, and then they handle digital distribution and physical distribution FOREVER.  But, the trade-off is that CD Baby takes 9% of all digital sales.

So, I went with both.

I first went with Tunecore.  Tunecore seemed to be better for digital distribution.  Also, they had the cheapest UPC bar code I could find.  Later, I also signed on with CD Baby and sent them five CDs, but I didn’t sign up with their digital distribution (because I already had it with Tunecore).

Over the year, I had three or four album downloads through iTunes.  I got a few pennies from streaming.  I sold two CDs through CD Baby.  Altogether, I invested over a hundred dollars on distribution, and made a little over forty.

So, after a year, I didn’t renew with Tunecore, so presumably my album was removed from online distributors…

…I just checked in with Tunecore.  I have a balance of 27 cents from streaming off Rhapsody and Napster.

So this year I’m using Catapult Distribution for online distribution, and Bandcamp for independent sales.  I’ll let you know what I think of them after I start getting some traffic and downloads.

But I’m not just putting the original album on iTunes.  I’m remastering the album for the internet release. The original album is really good, but I’ve noticed a few things that need fixing, so I’ve gone back to the original files and have re-tooled every song.  There are details of the changes over at www.christmasandglowsticks.com.

Well, it’s a fraction of the amount of shows I used to do in Atlanta, at Dad’s Garage and with Laughing Matters.  I used to do between 10-18 shows a month.

I’ve become the resident sound designer for the Vermont Stage Company.  This is a terrific theater company and I feel very lucky to be associated with them.  So far I’ve done five shows with VSC, and it appears I’m going to be given more and more responsibility in future productions.

This past summer, I did the sound and live-house-mix for a big show called Dames at Sea with St. Michael’s Playhouse.

Also this past summer I musical directed a show with Lost Nation Theater in Montpelier, Vermont.  The show turned out to be very good and very successful.

I’ve also been doing quite a bit of work with a local Vermont playwright, Maura Campbell.  I’ve worked on a few productions with her, and am preparing another that will be going up in two weeks.

Almost exactly two years ago, Mary and I moved from Atlanta to Burlington, Vermont.  After moving to Vermont, there was this global economic meltdown and the job market dried up.  I tried to get teaching jobs, and there are way more teachers than jobs here in Burlington, so there are tons of applicants for every position.  And I haven’t had much luck.  Actually, I’ve been very unlucky regarding the acquisition of money.

So, I had some time on my hands, and decided to finally use all of those music making devices I’ve been collecting for the last twenty years.  So made an album.  It turned into “Babies Don’t Have Hands”.  I’ve listened to it recently, and it stands up.  Well, at least the first nine songs stand up.  The album is much more than a demo, and a little less than a commercial release.  It’s a good record of where I was at musically in 2008.  I printed a hundred copies of the album, and mostly gave them all away.  I sold a couple, and felt a bit guilty about it.  It was on iTunes for a year, and it sold three copies, which I assume were from family and friends.

About the title of the album, it’s become apparent since the album’s release, that older people really don’t like it, and younger people think it’s cool.  People seem to take it literally, like it’s about amputating children’s arms or something.  Actually, it’s a stupid punchline from a stupid joke from years ago.  Basically, I had a picture of a baby that had been cut out of a magazine, and whoever cut the picture out had accidentally cut off the baby’s hands.  So, one day someone asked why the baby in the picture didn’t have any hands, and I said, “babies don’t have hands.”

Later in 2008, I decided to make an electrop Christmas album.  I have a couple of reasons for doing this, and none of them were very strong.  First, I never really liked Christmas music, so I wanted to make an album of Christmas music that even I would like.  Second, I wanted to do something that didn’t require vocals.  Third, I’m married to a minister, so it sort of felt appropriate.

It took six months to make my second album, “Christmas and Glowsticks”.  This album has been really popular among immediate friends and family.  I finished it a bit too late to shop the album around to labels, so I decided to release it on my own, and do as much promotion as I could through Facebook and Myspace.  It did very well for a local release.  As an experiment I posted the album up as a pay-what-you-want download, and some people actually paid a bit for it, which was nice.

Then, I joined this online A&R company called Taxi.  Basically, they post listings of TV and movie music supervisor’s needs, and ask their members to write music to fill those needs.  It costs $300 a year to be a member, and it costs $5 for every song you upload.  Then, after you submit, they either “forward” your song or “reject” your song.  If you’re forwarded, then your music might reach the music supervisor who initially requested music for the listing, and might actually be used on their show or movie.

I have submitted twenty-five or so songs and have had more than 50% of them “forwarded”.  This is apparently a really good ratio, as I’ve read that the average is 7%.  Of these forwards, I had one song picked up by a large music library: Crucial Music.  That song is now available on their website waiting to be used in some context.  But you don’t get paid until it gets played.  So out of the $425 investment in www.taxi.com, I have made zero money.  Actually, Taxi feels more like a lottery than anything else.  It’s an imperfect analogy, but essentially, you keep buying lottery tickets, and hope that one of them hits.

I don’t seem to have the key to taxi, and my submissions have dropped off in recent months.

I changed the site to this format so that I, Joel, could occasionally write things besides The Go Ahead And news.  This is mostly because there hasn’t been much The Go Ahead And news lately, and I still feel like talking about things.

I even dumped all the previous posts.  Gone.  Brand new site.