Wisconsin Cheese Studios

So the studio build is almost done.  The room is done, wired, floored, sealed, painted, everything.  Everything except the window, a nice big 2 ft x 5 ft window in the wall.  The glass is in the shop, has been for a week or 2, but still am waiting on special glazing tape that goes in the frame before the glass can be installed.  Crap.  I already have a client that’s anxious to start a project, in fact, we started.  I had to fill the hole in the wall with cushions.  Lesson here?  Just patience.  Time to finish up the million little tiny details before the glass can be installed.  Time to figure out what needs to be figured out.  Like sealing the door a little better, painting the outside of the rooms, doing something more permanent with the carpet, figure out the lighting…

Oh, how I suffer first world problems – my computer will probably crash while writing this.

I might even have to play and write some music while waiting for the tape to arrive.  Novel thought.

I’m off to Denver tomorrow to play for a non-profit, Anya’s Friends.  It’s a backyard benefit, one night only, lots of food and drink and music and kids and parents and fun…  All of the money raised goes to an orphanage in Haiti.  Will bring a guitar and Chapman Stick.  Will rock relentlessly.

I’ve almost finished with adding a room to Wisconsin Cheese Studios. It’s one room that can serve several purposes. You can hang out and watch your pals record, or record yourself in the room, or I can quickly convert it to my control room. It’s nice and comfy, not very big, but could handle a drum set or a few people comfortably. Photos are coming soon, as I’m waiting on the glass to come in for the 2ft by 5ft window. The window, room treatment and some painting is all that’s left to do! It’s exciting, and amazing how many details there are to finish. Photos soon! SDG

In my experience, that is the hardest job of all.  You have to sit still, and do what you’re supposed to do.  Right now, I should be transcribing a tune with lyrics I wrote a year ago.  It’s time to put it in Sibelius, make a commitment to the notes and the words and the arrangement, get the singer lined up (it needs someone good, and that isn’t me), and get this one done.  But instead, I looked at Yahoo news, Craigslist, and am writing this new post.  Gotta go!

I have a friend whose dad would always say, “You have to have a plan”.

Kind of like a book I’ve been reading lately by Steven Stockman, “How to shoot video that doesn’t suck”.

In one chapter he talks about winging it – if you wing it, it will suck.  You can go into making a movie without a script, but don’t expect anything good to come out of making a movie without a plan.  Recording is the same.  Maybe you can substitute the word prepare for plan.  The more you prepare, the better the recording will be.

Another friend of mine, Peter Kienle, says that recording is like looking at yourself in a really big mirror, really close, with really bright lights.  It’s not always pretty, so you need to make sure you are ready for it.  Ready means practicing your parts, new guitar strings, guitar/any other instrument in good playable shape, your ideas for your songs are worked out as well as possible,  singing is in tune, arrangements are worked out or planned…  Clients rarely get better after a couple takes, it’s almost always the first or second take that is the best.

On the other hand, if it’s your first time recording, give yourself a break.  It’s hard enough to do without beating yourself up about things you didn’t do as well as planned.  Even Mozart sucked in the beginning, I’m sure of that.  I’m sure he had bad gigs every now and then.  He just covered it with a good stage show, poofy shirts and bad wigs.  He was a one man classical hair band from the 1700’s.

So what’s your plan?
End of sermon #437

Below is something I wrote to a client in the thick of a project.  He wrote to me, he’s feeling down about how the songs sound, it seemed to me like he was frustrated with the progress, kind of thinking about bagging it all,  and here’s what I wrote back to him.   Fortunately, it was perceived by the client that it was a positive message, that I was on his side, that the progress of a project is often hard to guage when you’re in the thick of it.

Don’t believe anyone.  Nothing well done was every easy.  In order to make a recording, you have to commit, you have to practice, you have to find the guy or gal that will accurately record your heart wrenched from your chest, then you have to perform as well as you expect of yourself.  There are many steps in all this where failure may seem probable.  But cheer up, after you commit yourself to recording your music, the things that are coming from your soul and out of your mouth and guitar or piano or drums or violin, or kazoo, (ok, maybe nothing soul-related to kazoos), it will happen.  It’s time, it’s effort, it’s money, it’s worth it, because anything worth doing will be hard.  But your commitment to actually doing something with those notes floating around in your soul is what will carry you through the recording process.

It’s exciting to get Wisconsin Cheese Studios up and running.  Our current clients include singer/songwriters, classical guitar players and classical piano players.  We are also preparing to score the music for 2 short films.

Feel free to contact Steve about rates, availability, about your project and dreams.

For a short time, Wisconsin Cheese is offering a special for singer/songwriters, $40 per song, from start to finish.  Please email Steve for more info, and to schedule a meeting.