What have you been up to since the iComp days? Me--I was very active on iComp from 2005 to about 2012. Extremely productive years solo and with The Longlines! Then I migrated to streaming sites like Soundcrud and Crapify, which were beyond disappointing and demotivating. In 2016 I had my first real studio session with Matt Granz out in Santa Rosa, California, where we recorded of few of his songs. Such a blast! In 2020, I decided to "go big or go home," and went to LA to record a 6-song album of my songs, "Start", with a seriously talented musician\producer, Fernando Perdomo. It turned out great--a wonderful experience. Monetarily it returned bubkis, but the experience overall was fantastic. In 2021/2022, during the pandemic, I hit GarageBand HARD, writing probably 50 songs in a year, almost entirely on my iPhone...vocals and guitar into the phone--everything! I then returned to LA and recorded 16 of those tracks in the studio for an, as of yet, unreleased album. Again--a fantastic experience. I've been using Smule karaoke app for a couple years to practice vocals (10 songs per day), and I've kept in touch with many iComp artists via Fadbook, so I'm looking forward to getting creative here on iBandstand!
this last half decade has been very productive... 1st I retired, so Im no longer running a business... this has freed me up. About 5 years ago I wrote a forum "I quit" I can't produce a song that sounds like it was done in a recording studio, I really wanted to be able to get the whole thing done in my studio, but I'm mixing inside the box... I came to the conclusion that it's impossible... Tom Hellsten (Toveco) answered my post, and just said "Scott download the free version of Mixbus"... my reply was "all DAWs are essentially the same, it all comes down to summing"... but he convinced me "what do you have to lose"... now at 63 years old I wasn't thrilled with the notion of learning a new DAW, I'd been on Logic for 20 years (pre-Apple)... Well only about 2 hours after downloading the Mixbus free trail, I turned around and downloaded the full version, it was just that different! I could go into the reasons, but Im already going too long. It was the right tool for me to learn what I had been doing wrong, and the beginning of a process, more or less, of going back to school... I say process because I certainly haven't graduated yet... but I've gotten more traction than the whole previous 20.. and it's fun again.. my writing and playing has suffered because of it. I spend way more time deep diving and realizing how much I don't know... my studio is me building ships in bottles in my retirement... my happy place... my goal is to work back thru my catalogue and get every mix to an acceptable level... another major obstacle was my room... it was such a liar that I had to mix on headphones... now there are excellent headphones out there, but I had recently purchased a hi end stereo system and it made me realize... "I'm mixing on headphones for headphones so I'm not even aiming at the target"... mixes that sounded great in my headphones didn't sound good at all on that great system... so I did the one thing that I was always too lazy to learn... how to tune a room and maximize my mixing space... it wasn't easy but it was worth it... It doubled my productive time, because headphones tend to fatigue me quicker... so now, when I learned that that we would finally have a place to interact musically again, I was excited! This has been missing from my life and it is the best place to test out a completely revamped studio and process.... OK I've gone on too long... let's make music
Hey Scott, that's an awesome narrative! Never be afraid to expound at length! The best part of living is learning. One recent example for me: I injured my left middle finger at work. Splinted for 3 months. I thought, "How am I ever going to play guitar like this?" I tried playing with the splint and it led me in different directions. My mind opened to new types of riffs and melodies. When it healed, I kept the results.
That is a great result… I like that… I do remember years ago, I had been touring in a band thru most of the 80s… newly married, I left the road having no idea what I would do… I found a job painting billboards… and when you were up on the scaffolding you hand to work the ropes by hand… big 3/4 inch rope and your life was literally in your hands… well my hands were so sore when I started out, my assumption was “my guitar playing days are over”… I was sad of course, but real life is relentless… and I didn’t really see any other option… but low and behold after several months on the job my hands were SO much stronger and by the end of the year my playing had improved like I had never seen… not exactly the same but your experience brought that episode to mind…
so cool to hear what people have been up to since we last hung out together on icomps. congrats on the prolific musical output babs! great to see you here again & can't wait to listen to your new music.
as for myself, so many musical things have happened since the end of icomps.
i did a track with my friend fear the priest that he released on his bishop's bloc label. that was my first release on a label. and it felt so official.
i did 2 albums with particledots. one album we officially released digitally. currently working on a third.
through a series of serendipitous circumstances, i ended up working with one of my idols, david morales. he let me remix one of his songs, and then he released it on his diridim label. through david i also met amazing artists in the electronic music scene, like francois k, eric kupper, gabriel & dresden, terry hunter, etc.
i recorded several conceptual EPs for the RPM challenge, which were so instrumental in helping me develop my style. i had a blast exploring new synths during these solo projects.
i started working with david morales, francois k and sydney blu on their social media platforms as a moderator, content creator, and social media manager. they've all been amazing resources, who have helped me navigate things like music licensing, publishing, etc.
if you had told me any of this would happen during the icomp days, i never would have believed you. life is wild like that.
