Compartmentalization…

Compartments:

Voice Over
Regrouping, started up coaching again last Wednesday.  Old coach has split from Edge Studio and does her own coaching at a few different studios.  Went in to Real Recording on 23rd Street and had an hour long session during which we worked on commercial reads, an area where my training was lacking.  I need to have a commercial demo produced this year so that's what I'm working towards.  Meanwhile, I'm revamping the web page and making a totally separate page to direct voice over clients to.  First establishing my expertise as a voice over narrator before trying to market both music and voice over.

Contemporary Music
Tania and I have a few more concerts slated for the upcoming months, at which we will either perform Moon, Tides, Cycles again or a new piece I have in the works.  We are also talking about collaborating on an album of my contemporary works to be released next year.  Possibly a live album.  Not just piano and electronics, the album will feature all electronic pieces, pieces for small ensembles and electronics and possibly one large chamber music piece.  A lot of it has not been written yet.

Rock Music
Lacy and I are back performing at open mics, we just played Freddy's and will probably do so again next month.  Her album, on which I have played several guitar tracks, is still in the works and when it's released, sometime around May, I will be performing with her at the CD release party in Philly and New York.   Really looking forward to both, even though they won't be for months.  Meanwhile, I'll be learning parts to all new songs!  Some of which I haven't even heard yet.

Film Music
I just finished up the theme music for George Perez' series "The Life," a short 1:30 rock piece featuring a slide guitar and some electric piano, soon to be posted.  So far I've seen the temporary visuals that were edited together to give the shooter an idea of what kind of footage they needed.  "The Life" is a crime drama series focusing on the growing child prostitution problem in the U.S.

In addition, I'm finishing a song for Mohammad Maaty's production reel, titled "One Day" and featuring the fantastic accordion stylings of the great Crystal Bright.  This one is taking up the bulk of my time at the moment because I'm in the final mixing stage and I really want to finish out the project by the end of next week.  Especially since there are other projects on the horizon.


And that is how my brain works these days.  I find the compartmentalizing is the best way to organize my to do lists and keep ahead of myself.  Although, the thought that keeps occurring to me, in some form or another, is that, after all this time, plugging away at all of my various pursuits, it's difficult to make significant headway on any one venture while my attention is so scattered.  Even setting clear goals and organizing my thoughts like this can only get me so far.  Because on top of it all, I still owe most of my time to a full time job that pays the bills and keeps me sheltered, fed and in good clothes.  Such is life.

I've considered, from time to time, diverting my focus to one venture at a time, possibly spending a few weeks on just voice over, just contemporary or rock music, or focusing wholly on my film music.  In fact, sometimes, that's what ends up happening by default.  When I get a film job that pays, for example, I pretty much have to sideline everything else, because it only makes sense to focus on what is going to more immediately generate income.  Voice Over tends to get thrown on the back burner more often than everything else.

All of this is not to say that I'm not making strides.  When I look up at where I was even just a year ago, it's obvious that I am making headway.  I just have to decide when to push forward with what.  And accept that I'm not going to meet all my career goals right away.   It's a long haul after all.