Considering David Forrest Small...

Here is some writing a social networking site post prompted me to do about one of the artists on my record label; however, I've included the whole thread from David Forrest Small's profile:

 David Forrest Small  Posted a new song:  One Hand on the Gun

• •   Lemon Lady I like it more and more, didn't capture me right off like most of the others. Now is a fav. :)
    

    
    
  • Dave Smith hmm, much like your [David's] picture..... this reminds me tastefully of the stuff I grew up listening to, Crosby Stills and Nash and Young, Uriah Heep and so on.... I would have done it slower and darker perhaps haha but this works, nice job!!
    

    
    
  •   Lemon Lady Tks for listening to the song (I was just doing some RN maintenance and forgot the 'send every little thing you do everywhere' box was checked) and for the thoughtful comment, Dave (can't get used to calling you that, ANEK lol). I just spilled out a whole analysis of Dave's music that I've never quite been able to before. Probably trying too hard when writing bios and marketing material, which is a kind of 'forced writing'. What I wrote was too long, but I'll put the whole thing in my blog and point to it. Considerate of you to put "tasteful" in front of Uriah Heep, rotfl, esp when relating to Davel. I've found that their early (before mainstream popularity) material doesn't stand up to time well . But I guess it is a sideways compliment for Dave if you are referring to the short, hard rock mainstream success they eventually achieved, which was more polished, if less interesting to me than previous releases. :)
    

    
    

    
    Here is what I was inspired to write in all its first draftiness:

    
    

    Yep, CSN&Y are one of Dave's influences; his vocal work takes you there straight away.  Uriah Heep?  rotfl, I don't think so, that would be one of MY influences, I am MUCH more of a rocker than Dave, although he was when a teenager, I'm sure, just as I had a much narrower musical focus biased toward hard and prog rock (and still do, to an extent, mind is more open now).  Heavier rock is not in Daves's influences' list beyond Queen (and Bullett did rock out with Dave at the helm, plus the rest of the
    band, for sure).  

    Yep, he screamed it out with the best of them, esp when his voice was an octave higher (see Bullett Proof), but he has drawn from the whole panorama of music history, mostly 20th century, from what I've learned from our great music discussions (yes, he can be drawn into a long discussion, just bring up an interesting (to him) musical topic!).
    
    What sticks out about this song for me, is that Dave rarely writes a straightforward blues song (outside the blues' genesis for popular music).  Except maybe Long Way Back Home, a song about John Lennon's death (if you want to get very dark, that is), Rollin', and Freightrain, all of which have not been released yet but I've upload for your edification :).  Rollin' and Freightrain are both slated for his upcoming album right alongside some pop/fun ditties, as he would call them, as well as a gorgeous ballad,  a Beatle's influenced song, a harder rocker with a message, and his wonderful singer/songwriter tunes.  A multi-course feast, for sure.  I mention them in the spirit of this post, to illustrate his variation, but if it seems like shameless promotion, well, that's my job. lol
    
    
    Now that you've got me thinking...there ARE a few of his songs that are trying to crawl back into the pure blues genre but don't quite make it back to Clapton's projects of late.  Dave puts the usual rock frost on top, unless he is nodding to years far past, like Starlight does.   Will be interesting to hear what he says about this but he doesn't analyze like I do, he just hears them in his head (oooh, voices!) and there you have it.  

    One thing I can certainly say, tho, is that he is not of one pure genre and you never know what you are going to get. I unwrap each of his songs with the same anticipation and mystery I experience upon opening a gift.  On the marketing side, he is hard to pin down; however, for me, as a listener, that is a positive.  But on the pure biz side, he doesn't have one particular 'sound' that hits you in the face, like, say, a Pink Floyd or a Stones, for example.  But, even as a label owner, I don't believe so much in having a 'sound', or the same thing repeated over and over for years. Rather, I say go for it and if it does what art is to do, great!  Plus I think it shows great range (as in Bowie's various forays as well as a departure like Springsteen's Nebraska, whether you like them or not.  I respect the creative growth and that artists of such statue are willing to take such career risks). 
    
    
    August 2011
    
    
    

Cat Engineering

Hey, whatdaya know, I'm blogging!  Like I promised!  Miracles never cease... this overlaps a bit with the Lemon Lady Life blog, which many posts will, as music is an integral part of every day and visa versa.  I think?  Did that make sense?  Oh well.

I haven't checked the news today but now listening to CNN and it seems Liz Taylor has died?  Wow, it hit me harder than I thought.  The end of an era, I suppose.  I grew up with National Velvet (which fueled my inborn love of horses further) and remember when she was a star brighter than any that shined in Hollywood.  It's too bad that the current generation only remembers her as a drug addled celeb.  She was far from that in the 'old days', as we can see on the Turner Classic Movies channel and others, when we watch some of her great, old movies.  These days, in spite of her problems, she has done more for AIDS than almost any other (and certainly one of the first non-gay activists to do so), and brought the issue 'out' to Hollywood and the rest of us.  Her life was filled with tragedy and illness but she carried on when many others would not have.

Didn't mean to write about that but I just heard...

Oh my, challenging day engineering.  Ears and head not into it but somehow I made good progress, for the little I got to save.  First, one of my cats, Sasha, stepped on a function key and ruined my entire user interface in Sonar Producer,  the engineering software I was using at the time.  Luckily I had just saved the file and so I just closed and opened it without saving and got my interface back.  I worked for quite a while, had turned auto-save off due to what I was doing, and Sonar crashed.  Usually when it crashes, it is a conflict with my outboard mixer/sound card and Sonar (and I highly suspect Vista), so Sonar stills works enough to at least save my project before I close it, but this time I got a horrid, loud noise and had to jump out.  Couldn't even stop the audio engine, it had stopped responding.  Ouch on the ears!  So I had a 1 step forward, 5 steps back time today.  But since I did make progress, it's all good.  Learn from me, kiddies, don't play tricks with saving your project.

Got some good email feedback from Dave (the artist, David Forrest Small) after I sent him my first decent mix.  We've been having a good dialogue in email about engineering and production, not just of this song but in general.  He is learning to engineer and has done a great job (for a musician haha <- JUST JOKING, I know lots of great musicians who are great engineers).  I am a good engineer who is not a great musician.  I'm not playing music at the moment, just too busy, but I need to get back into it, I really love it and it is my dream to be a decent, anyway, musician.  I already play guitar better than piano, but I'm a lot more disciplined than I was as a kid forced to take piano lessons.  I think all I got out of that was learning to read music, which has served me well as an engineer and I've had to follow string charts to know when to punch in, etc.

Not to change the subject, but... I am so used to working in the studio, with one or more people giving feedback, which is sometimes a good thing, sometimes not, but working long distance is weird, even though I've been doing it for 5 years or so now.  Gives me a chance to hone my producer chops and Dave encourages me to, he doesn't tell me what to do unless it is very integral to the song, he turns me loose until I need some feedback and I also defer to him as he is the 'client'.  Things go slower, since he is not here with me, and it's a very different way of working.  I think, all in all, it's better.  I used to have so many 'producers' (guys with the money, the party goods, the connections, the friends, but no professional experience) over my shoulder; making a mess and puddles of drama, so I'll take this any day.  One of the people I enjoyed working with in the studio was Dave and his band and manager and sadly, they are all scattered to the four winds.  I'd rather only the bothersome ones were, of course!

Time to get on Second Life and take care of some business, have some fun and relaxation, then collapse for the day.   I really need to take care of the web pages but nope, too much wasted time today and I have a busy day tomorrow, running around.  Time to rest and get up early (well, early for me).

See ya soon!  She said hopefully...

S.

Good Intentions

Besides trying to get an album out since I wrote the last post, the last couple weeks have been crazy in my own life as well as the world being slightly overwhelming, I haven't done a thing here until today.  You can read about my life, and my view of the world in my other blog here, Lemon Lady Life, in a post called Inside the Vortex of Japan and Other Disasters.  I'm also pulling together other blog posts and articles to go here.


Read on and don't forget the Red Cross!

Cheers and check back soon,

S.

It's My Thing....

...before I get to how I got here (read about my career in the blog From the Earth to the Moon), I thought I should tell you what I'm doing now.  After concentrating only on studio engineering, I decided it would be a good thing to learn about the rest of the business and pull my head out of the studio for 5 minutes.  I've ended up peeking in and out for 5 years now, in the guise of Lemon Lady Records:

The name came from an old nickname of mine, which came from my favorite band, The Strawbs.  I used to play one of their albums over and over, competing with my house mate's favorite artist, Todd Rundgren.  She ended up calling me "Lovely Lemon Lady", after a song called "Lemon Pie".  I sort of chopped off the Lovely part (I'll leave that up to you!) and kept the rest.  And yes, I do have permission from the band to use it for the name of my label.  Permission is everything in this business!

Wow, did I have a lot to learn!  Music law, music publishing, album production, even graphics (besides wanting to do it all myself, it is way cheaper!).  Now I can take an artist from song to a manufactured and widely distributed album, provide A&R (Artists & Repertoire or, simplified, promotion and advice, in plain English), publishing advice (advice because I believe an artist should keep their music close to the vest, their vest, not mine!), even more promotion, and oh yeah, tea and good conversation, if we're lucky..

The best thing about having a label is the long term relationships you develop with some of your artists.  Instead of engineering their album, in a studio, maybe in a time slot, and each going your own ways, you find a great friend with mutual interests and a long and happy friendship filled with music and fun.  On the other hand, there are those that we won't talk about toooo much, who have been to several engineers or producers, unhappy with all, and eventually, wind up on my doorstep.  The results are usually not good, as usually nothing is going to make them happy.  Took me a while to catch onto that.  As soon as their list of complaints gets to 3 or 4 previous engineers/producers, I tend to back off, I know what is likely to come...a lot of headaches and drama.  Every now and then, you are THE ONE who makes them happy, but that is all too rare.  Very satisfying, though, to make someone like that happy!  But I'll take the satisfaction of the talented, respectful, future teammate, thank you very much!  I find the less talent the harder it is to make them happy.  So, uh...read between the lines. :)

I do my labor of love from home, with my DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), so I primarily mix and master, or remaster songs (from old and/or damaged, tape, usually).  Note, remastering is NOT remixing, but more about that later...  Anyway, the artist sends me a music project via Skype or YouSentIt (the files are pretty big if many tracks are involved!), with no processing added or everything that makes a final mix added, each instrument (usually) recorded on separate tracks.  Then I mix to combine all the separate tracks that have been recorded; applying effects, setting relative levels so the drums aren't louder than the vocal (I dunno, I laughed when I wrote that, your mileage may vary :) ), then I create a stereo file that will be mastered (or not).  Mastering is the last step before creating a stereo, 2 track mix, when you have one more chance to fix something, apply mastering effects to make sure you are getting the first impression you want (blasting or relaxing?) or buying into the latest production fad, and setting the final level so that the CD is consistent in volume throughout and not 'clipping' (distorting).  That is the file that will go on the CD. 

Note that I'm describing digital engineering here. I started life in the analog days of tape and huge amounts of hardware, which I'll go into later, but I figured it would be easier and less confusing to begin with current recording technology.  Wow, has it changed over the years!  Very much like computers have.

And that is what I do, in a nutshell.  Some of my posts (well, many), will be much more technical, and some will be like this one, kind of entry level so I don't scare people away.  And maybe you'll learn something along the way or just find out what this fascinating world is like!

Thanks for reading and may your day be artistic!

S.