weeks thoughts

A slower than usual week. Had quite a bit of free time to get things in order and get back into a semi-regular schedule.

We finished up at Ocean Grounds today. Had a pretty good run, about 6 -7 months I believe. Was nice having something regular, hopefully in 2020 something similar will pop up too if I’m lucky. Truth is, I didn’t really think it was working. They wanted more of a background jazz kinda vibe, but I think if they went for a full band and make it into more of a show it would have worked a lot better.

…

Last year December was my busiest month, but this year it’s turning out to be pretty quiet. I think I made a mistake telling people I was in Hangzhou as they probably think that I moved there. Next time if I get something similar, I’m just going to say “I’m busy”. Some other musicians I spoke to last night were really busy, but others were oddly quiet too. I don’t know, these are strange times. You never know what to expect.

….

I had a gig at the Wooden Box last wed with Antonio. I thought we should try filming 1 set with all our phones, then edit a few songs out of it. Just an idea I’ve been having since I have too much time on my hands. Thinking about how much it is to record here in Shanghai, and then thinking about trying to use whatever I have to start making recordings or videos etc.

Anyway so I decided to film the 2nd set as Antonio was running a little late, and Guillaume took a while to set up the kit. It was probably the worst set that night, but I thought the filming came out pretty well. The light wasn’t that great, could have done with a bit more soft light.

I found out that you can edit video in Reaper (DAW). I’ve been using this for about 10 years on and off to record music. It’s pretty intuitive and when you get stuck somewhere, there are some YouTube content creators making videos about the stuff you need. So I tried editing these videos and it was pretty easy, with good results! I split the video up to try and show some of the interaction between the soloist and the band. It makes it highlight what is happening musically, that might often get missed by non musicians. I’d like to do a lot more of this, and hopefully over time it will get a lot faster and a bit more professional.

Although it’s not the most professional video, I think it goes a long way. Most people are on instagram, YouTube, Tik Tok etc for the quick and convenient content at your fingertips. Doesn’t need the absolute best quality audio or resolution, as long as they are up towards that area, I believe it’s good enough.

….

So now that it looks Sasha is moving out of the studio, I think I’m going to set it up more for this kind of thing. To record band videos that is. I need a bit of equipment, but not too much as I already have a lot. If the video’s start looking good, and with better editing, it might even be a side business and I will be able to afford not sharing it.

We’ll see…. I don’t think I’ll do anything about it until Feb as we go on holiday in Jan. Well… if I’m as quiet in Jan as I am now, maybe I’ll just take the risk and do it anyway. Get it happening so when things come back to life in March, might have some people wanting to film there.

….

As I mentioned earlier maybe I’ve had a bit too much free time, and I’ve been thinking a lot about recording, the cost of it, how I should go about it etc. I went to visit a studio on Tuesday. It’s not too far from my studio, a nice place. Big room, fully equipped and a large monitoring room looking over the main room. It’s kinda pricey…. Which is to be expected here. There was a band recording, some guys I knew. Learning the tracks on studio time…. I couldn’t believe it, but Shanghai is a strange world for the musicians living here. Some of the top guys are just too busy. Everyone wants to use them, so they keep getting more work, but they end up with less time to learn the material.

Which makes me think…. Do I want to use the top guys who I know will bring the level of music up a few notches, or do I want to use guys who have a bit more free time to learn and go deeper into the material??

I’m still undecided. The best would be to play a few gigs with the top musicians, who would then be very familiar with the material and the recording would go down a lot smoother. Problem with that is that, like I said earlier these are the top cats, and aren’t always available. I get the impression that they would drop a low paying original project for a ludicrous event.

So maybe the band situation is the best after all….

….

The other thing I’ve been thinking about are the number of projects I want to make. Right now with all the originals I’ve written, I can basically split them up into 3 groups.

1. An electric, fusiony, harmonically simple, loud and funky, with some interesting sounds. Electric bass, keys, drums, guitar, possibly a tenor sax and a vocalist. I know having a vocalist will increase the opportunities to get gigs here.
2. A jazz quintet: upright bass, piano, drums, and 2 horns. Modernish stuff, but with a bunch of swing too. This one would be the easiest to set up and get going.
3. A latin vibe horn and percussion group. Upright bass, keys, drums, percussion, and 3 horns.

There are a few other projects with pop and hip hop stuff been written, but I think I’ll keep them for recording individual songs with different people.

So…. How am I going to go about getting these projects up and running? Which is the best one to start with? Do I start one of the projects, get it off the ground, and then begin working on the next? Or do I start a record label and try to get them all off the ground at the same time?

I think if I can get the electric project off the ground, the jazz one should be easy to get going, but more difficult to find gigs…

Anyway…. These days I’m going to go through my songs and start simplifying the harmonic structure. 1 or 2 rehearsals, then 1 or 2 gigs and go record…. I need to be on to this one quick as people are going to start going on holidays soon and I want to make use of this free video recording + free studio time before Chinese New Year. The next 3-4 days want o have a bunch of tracks ready to go.

….

I’ve almost set up the desk in the studio to start recording the writing process. Still need to figure out OBS software though. I also started doing a bit of recording with all of Sasha’s ‘toys’ before he leaves. I just discovered he has this African instrument the Kalimba. Wow!!! So beautiful….

I like the process of recording. It really makes you work towards ‘perfection’. I hope I have time to record a few times a week.

…

I’ve been skimping on the sight-reading though… Just been getting up too late. Because I do the late set at JZ I got stuck in this time schedule. Go to be around 3-4, get up around 10-11… I’m still getting a lot of work done though. Getting a lot better on the drums too, starting to come together.

….

A Brazilian musician Juba had an accident this week. Still not sure what happened, but he’s in hospital about to undergo surgery. One of the nicest guys here, I hope he makes it through safely.