Key Of Grey

Photo courtesy of Simon J. Campbell February 7, 2011 - As you may have noticed, my posting hasn't been as regular as usual. In fact, I haven't even had a chance to check out the changes that were completed last week on the collaboration project! There are some pretty big changes happening in my life right now, and some of it is music related. Even though I'm easing back into a music schedule, it's hard to find time to actually write. Finding an appropriate ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Simon J. Campbell December 29th, 2010 - Hey everyone, hope your holidays are going well. With all the hubbub these past few weeks, I haven't had much time to write music. The other day however, I got to record a bit with some friends which was a refreshing change from my normal work week. Yesterday, I sat down to polish a couple of my own songs, and it got me thinking about the phrase "Don't bore us, get to the ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Lollyman December 9, 2010 - Ok, we are a go! Participation for this project is closed, and I've sent out invitations to the Dropbox account to everyone who showed interest. If you missed out on this project, we'll get you on the next one. Hopefully this will all work out awesome, and will be the start of a cool collaborative community. First off, I want to really thank you guys for your enthusiasm. I started this site a couple years ago, ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Dave Conner November 18th, 2010 - So several of you have expressed interest in the collaboration project, and those that I have contact info for through your comments have been added to the shared DropBox folder. If anyone else wants to be part of the project, please comment on this post and enter your contact info in the form (email addresses won't be shown publicly). Also, please tell everyone about this project as the more people we have, the better ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Dave Conner October 28, 2010 - Sorry for the post hiatus, I was quite busy getting engaged (yay!). Today I want to talk a bit about songwriting with other songwriters. A couple nights ago, I had the opportunity to attend a small songwriting session with two likeminded individuals. As a guy who mostly sits in his studio, writing solo, it was inspiring. Joe Gilder has talked about just getting the song done, but I'm a super procrastinator and it's pretty ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Oliver Chesler September 26th, 2010 - You may have noticed that I haven't written in a week. I probably should have posted up a "on vacation" notice...oh well. I just got back from San Francisco/LA and I picked up a Native Instruments Maschine so check back for a review on that soon. I also chose this week to install the Seagate Momentus XT I posted about a while back. I decided to do a clean install of my operating system which ... Read More

September 15th, 2010 - I am not a professional skateboader, snowboarder, or mountain biker, however living in Vancouver, I come to know and hang out with a few athletes. I have never been in contention for pro-level status but even I can tell when an athlete has good flow. Have you ever watched videos of athletes that seem really smooth and link everything they do into one continuous stream of talent? It's pretty obvious when watching a snowboarder ride powder, but even ... Read More

September 1st, 2010 - You may not be able to live out your childhood dream of being aboard a spaceship (at least not for a few more years), but you can at least get your music played on a spaceship. It's at least something right? NASA is holding a contest (only available to US citizens I'm afraid), to get your song played during the final missions of the Space Shuttle. Listeners vote up your original music and the top two songs will ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Kimble Young August 8th, 2010 - If you've been on the internet for any amount of time (which I assume you have been since you're reading this), you'll no doubt be familiar with the phenomenon of rickrolling. Internet meme aside, I just read a Sound on Sound article on the creation of that song, from the songwriting, to the production, and finally to the engineering stage. It's a good read. Also, although I love the song, I hate being rickrolled. Classic ... Read More

Photo courtesy of Dan Machold August 6th, 2010 - I love TED presentations; I could waste all day watching them (and have). The talk below by Matt Ridley is about "idea sex". While the sexification of the subject matter is a little iffy, I do agree with collaboration being a key factor in our personal evolution. For musician/songwriter/producers, collaboration is an important part of expanding your own abilities. This may seem like an oxymoron, but working with someone else who has different skills and ... Read More