Just where in hell have you been?

OK, I know....I've been gone for almost three years from this blog. And I really have no idea why I abandoned this, but for some reason I did. Life happens...which is what I'll explain in a few.

Picking up where I left off, the CD like a lighthouse gone mad from loneliness was released finally and I am really happy with how it turned out. I made a limited amount of copies since most people are buying digitally anyway, so I won't have a thousand copies lying around for years to come. Check it out anywhere you'd like...Amazon, iTunes, YouTube, any streaming site, CDBaby...you know, it's out there!

Now, to bring everything up to date. On July 15 2017, we had a major house fire caused by lightning.  It pretty much destroyed the house, so we had to find a place to live while the house was being rebuilt. We choose to live in The Barn (my wife's and my studios - stained glass and music.) So, we had to clear out everything that wasn't related to everyday living and put it in storage. For the last eight months (and counting), there has been no deep kimchee, no barn, no recording studio...nothing.

 Now, that doesn't mean that I haven't done anything musical during this time. I have been steadily writing new material and practicing most of it on guitar in my guitar classes at school. While everyone is practicing, so am I. I have ten new songs so far for the next CD, tentatively entitled Eel in the Sandal. I have also outlined a "best of" compilation of two sorts. I want to put together a CD of now that they're here songs that I think are the best examples of what I do and put that out. And I also want to cull all of the instrumental music and put it together. Both CD's will probably also include unreleased material, but I can make that decision when I'm back in the studio.

Which brings up one last thing. We have decided that when the house is rebuilt (as you can see, it's pretty much a total rebuild, so the house will be new), we are selling it and moving up to the Chattanooga, TN area. So, the next studio will be a new incarnation of The Barn. I might even end up in someone else's studio for a change and see how that goes. Who knows?

No, really…I'm almost finished!

The Barn, July 2015

Here we are at the end of summer…for me, anyway. School starts back up in two weeks and I am this close to finishing the master for "like a lighthouse gone mad from loneliness." I had the great fortune to  have Joe Hayes of the group Clatter become part of my listening panel to review my mixes. And review them he did! Joe came up with some great suggestions on how the project could be enhanced in his opinion. Many of his suggestions were instituted, so I'm ALMOST at the point where I'm ready to remaster the whole CD and send it off for duplication.

However, there are a few glitches. The CD cover isn't ready (read: not designed yet), the book of lyrics I wanted to make isn't done (read: I didn't do it), and my website is woefully outdated. There are only so many hours in a day and, more importantly, there is only so much energy I can devote to various activities that require time and creativity. So, yes…I'm almost finished…with a few caveats.

Continue to continue

Kevin Brislin at WASA/WHDG, Maryland, 1980

Here it is six months later and I could probably just copy my previous post and it would pretty much sum up what I've been up to lately. "like a lighthouse gone mad from loneliness" is a lot closer to being completed, but there are a few snags that I have to iron out before I feel like I can say it is done. First, I've asked Fred Nowicki (guitarist for the CD "Auschwitz Bound" by now that they're here…you know, my group?) to work on a few songs that I think are in serious need of a lead guitar line. If he can ever get his head above water, there are about three such songs I need him to work on.

Secondly, I need to get David Alvarez over to The Barn to record bass on a few songs also. I've used keyboard bass sounds before and most of time no one can tell the difference between a real bass and a keyboard, but there are times when a note slide really works well…and I can't do that on keyboard. Hopefully I can get Dave over in the next few weeks (although I'll be gone for the entire Spring Break, so there goes that opportunity.)

On other news, I had Tony Tartaglia over to The Barn to do voiceover work for movie theatre commercials he does for his restaurant Cluck U Chicken here in North Port, FL. Tony has a deep, sonorous voice that is perfect for commercial work. We are both hoping to do more projects together in the near future. It was a lot of fun and a great session.

As for the above picture, I was going through some old snapshots and found this one of me back when I was a radio announcer. I still have nightmares of working there and having all the news feeds die simultaneously as I realize I have ten seconds until airtime. I HATE those dreams.

A little bit of work

So, I'm still working on "like a lighthouse gone mad from loneliness" and...it's pretty much working out  the way I want. I still feel like I'm missing something in the songs, so I've been thinking about the density and texture of the vocals. I believe that I need a lot more harmonies, which just take a ton of time to do on your own. I'll just try to do a few songs and see whether I like the results.

I was asked to write a piece of music for a dance student at North Port High School. The choreography is based on a poem entitled "Balloon" and I am doing the background music. It ended up being kind of a strange piece; I played acoustic guitar through a reverb unit and doubled that track to make it repeat a few milliseconds after the initial sound. Then I added a woodwind/string sound as a complementary instrument. Very spacey. I may take it and incorporate it into "like a lighthouse...", but I haven't made a decision yet. But I like the piece.

The studio is running pretty well. I've added a second pair of monitors to get a better idea how a mix is working. As it stands, I usually listen to any mix with Sennheiser HD414 headphones (one of the best open air headphones ever made, in my humble opinion), a pair of Klipsch ear buds, Alesis Monitor 1 speakers, JBL Control 1 speakers, the surround system in my house (Sony), and then drive around in my Nissan truck. If a mix works in all of those, you are finished! Since I do my own mastering, I had to find a way to reference a mix. I've used this method for over twenty years. It works for me.

On a totally different subject, I miss painting. I haven't taken the time to do any watercolors in months and it is starting to eat at me. I have to take the time and just do it. Instead of doing other things, like watching movies, or The Gilmore Girls on Netflix. Or playing around on my iPad. Or enjoying a sunset in Key West.

OK, so Summer's over

The Barn

It always seems that Summer goes by so quickly, especially when you are a high school teacher. And the last ten weeks have been great. Lots of bicycling, a family reunion, some house projects here and there…and spending time in The Barn recording music…of course.

The next now that they're here project, "like a lighthouse gone mad from loneliness" is coming along pretty well. Most of the music has been written, basic tracks have essentially been completed on most songs, and now it's time to start fine-tuning everything. This is supposed to be the first project where I play acoustic guitar on some of the songs. Oddly, that has gone very well and I'm amazed at how much fun it has been to start a song on guitar, then build the rest of the song rather than starting with keyboards.

As you can probably ascertain, the Pro Tools issues that I had a few months ago are gone, but not without some pain. The MIDI router I usually use for all of my equipment died, so rather than replace it (it WAS 30 years old) I decided to just rewire my studio as a large daisy chain. Much to my surprise, it worked. So, for most of the Summer sessions I've had, I've been pretty productive.

I had David Alvarez, bassist from the band The Boogiemen, come over and help with a track for the next CD. We had fun getting it together and, hopefully, I didn't scare David off too much by how weird the track was. (For some stupid reason, I interchanged all of the Em chords to G, and vice versa, on the scratch chart we were using for a song. Made for some really confusing rehearsals until I figured out what I did. Duh.)

I also find that I have certain sounds I love using, like choir and mellotron sounds. They are on practically every release I've done and will be on this one also. I have been experimenting with the sound of my voice in trying to not put too many effects on it, but still have it distinctive. No success yet on a winning combination.

As for school, I will have two sections each of Digital Video Production, Electronic Music, and Guitar. REALLY nice schedule, if you ask me.

The Yearly Musical, the next CD, and other things

If you have perused this blog, you will notice that I am the Sound Director for the musical every year at North Port High School. This year the Drama Dept. did "Hairspray" and despite my initial reservations, they did a marvelous job. It was funny and fast-paced, very retro, and cool. For this show, I decided to run the sound board myself, using my intrepid crew of three for running script, comm, and sound effects. All in all, it went pretty well, but I still think we need a new board and cardioid microphones. Maybe next year.

As it stands right now, we are going to have Digital Video Production as a class at NPHS next year. We are supposed to get 20 Macintosh computers with Final Cut Pro X and Adobe Premier. We have been without a class like this for three years, so I'm really excited to have it back. Our goal is have third year students take the certification exam for both editing suites, which would be a first for high schools. More on that when we get started.

I am currently working on the next "now that they're here" music project, tentatively titled "like a lighthouse gone mad from loneliness". I have 8 songs written so far and plan on going into production in June (after school is out.) Looking forward to tracking…and playing rhythm guitar (for once) since I've been teaching myself to play for the past year. Not exactly Jimmy Page, but it works. Still plan on using others for bass and lead guitar.

As usual, I am having issues with Pro Tools. This is a constant in my studio...I have no idea why... but suffice it to say that I'll eventually work out the problems and we will go from there.

Wow, I'm actually updating my blog!

Where have I been? Well, right here, actually.

Back in October, the performance of Alice in Wonderland went pretty well. To me, in retrospect, director Dena Henderson and I should have worked more closely together on integrating the music with the play in the final rehearsals. Sometimes the music just either didn't work, or was too short, or too long. And having the sound crew just stop the music or replay a song didn't work. But, when all was said and done, I still liked the play and the music. I'm still deciding if I'm going to release it commercially on iTunes, just for the heck of it.

And, since then, I've done no music at all. I did produce and edit a ten-minute tribute video for one of our departing assistant principals at North Port High. However, when they played it for the staff at his farewell luncheon, the powers-that-be decided to NOT play it in the Performing Arts Center, but in the cafeteria. Worst acoustics ever. Couldn't hear a thing anyone said on the video. So, once again. another project sabotaged by how it was presented.

I also took a 10-week class on watercolor painting. Truth be told, I've been painting for years, but felt that my technique could use a little updating. I loved the instructor and painted some pretty good scenes (mostly landscapes and flowers.) The painting above is an example of what we did in the class.

There may be some good news on the resurrection of video production at NPHS...but I'm not going to announce that until it is absolutely a sure thing. So, for now, I'm just riding my motorcycle as much as I can and waiting out the winter.