Sound Decisions

Friday April 24th, 2009 - Milwaukee, WI

It’s all about taking action. That’s what I did today by driving up to Milwaukee to meet with my friend Donna who’s helping me edit my raw CD recordings. She’s really helping me because I absolutely HATE listening to myself. Hate is a very strong word and I rarely if ever use it but in this instance it fits. I couldn’t stand having to listen to hours of all me.

A lot of artists are that way I’m finding out so I’m glad it’s not only me. Donna was the person who produced Tom Green’s music CD projects and they sounded fantastic so I am thrilled she’s willing to work with me. Since Tom passed away two years ago she has not done much and this is a good way for her to get back in her own groove. She’s talented.

The best part is she’s talented in everything that I’m not. We were talking about that as we were laying out a battle plan for how to do this project right. She’s good at math and I never was. I’m good with words and she never was. She told me Tom and I are very alike in many ways and she can already see how my mind works. I’m glad SOMEBODY can.

We’ve got a lot of raw material to work with as I recorded a whole week of shows back in 2007 at Zanies in Chicago. Or was it ‘08? I don’t even remember anymore but I think it was ‘07. Either way there’s a lot of stuff there and she was having a difficult time sorting it out. She was worried that I’d be upset if she switched the order or edited out some of it.

Upset? I laughed out loud when she said that and she was totally relieved. I’m thrilled a person is willing to even consider doing it for me. She’s a fan of entertainment in general and one of mine personally so she knows my act as well as anyone. I totally trust her to be my ‘neutral ears’ and put it together so it flows well from a fan’s point of listening to it.

As far as I’m concerned I’m done with all those recordings. I entertained the audiences with it that week and they were satisfied. I laid down as many bits and variations of those bits that I could think of assuming my ex business partner would wallow through all these recordings and pull out something marketable. I have total faith Donna can do it better.

I’ll have to listen to the final cut for approval and to name the tracks but that won’t be a problem at all. The real torture for me is listening to the raw recordings and pulling it out from there. Donna will take care of that for me and we both agreed on what bits to search for so it can be stretched out into at least two if not three separate CD projects to release.

We’re going to do one first and use the money from that to pay for the next one (or two) and in the mean time keep working on other products to sell as well. Now that I’ve got an up and running website why not pack it full of as many products as I can? That’s the plan.

I’ll be learning a lot of entrepreneurial lessons in the next few months and probably the next few years. I’m willing and eager to learn and when I do succeed at something it’ll be that much sweeter when it actually hits. It’s even more fun knowing I started from scratch and built it up the hard way. Every dollar I make will be earned and that’s how I want it.