Out Of Time

You’re never done. You sweat and toil over your mixes for hours and hours. You listen, you hear something that bothers you and you go back. You keep listening, you find something else that bothers you and again you go back. You keep going back, you keep tweaking- FINAL mix, FINAL mix 2, FINAL FINAL FINAL mix, and still you go back. So how do you know when it’s time to let go? How do you finally let go?

Your songs and pieces are your babies, and once you call a mix you have to live with it forever. Of course you always have the option of revisiting a recording and doing a remix, but it gets costly and impractical to continue to tweak every recording you decide to release. In the final analysis you’re probably way over budget already, and this carries the most weight in learning to let go. Not to mention the fact that you’ve been writing new stuff, and you’re probably already there in terms of wanting to capture it and lay it down for everyone who follows your music.

In all my years of recording I only attained the “perfect track” once. Perfection is an illusion that doesn’t really exist, because you will always hear things you could have or would have done differently. They could be blatant noises or subtle shadings, but they’re there, gnawing at you every time they come around. I strive to make the music sound as best as I possibly can, but I’m only human, and the musicians I work with are only human too. We miss the mark sometimes, and we don’t always notice or pick up on something until it’s out the door and being downloaded into someone’s living room in the UK. Oh well, we can’t get everything back, try as we might- we learn to live with these CD’s and digital files and we move on. Chances are whatever it is will mostly bother us and not others, because we know it’s there, we created it after all.

I have had some of the most amazing experiences of my life in the studio. The studio is timeless, and many cherished moments and memories are inextricably woven into the fabric of my being. I have had the pleasure and privilege of working with many gifted musicians, these creative collaborations serve as my proudest contributions in music. Music is the driving force in my life, and it will continue to move me and inspire me like no other art form.

I’ve still got a long way to travel when it comes to my creative paths and pursuits. In fact, in many ways, I think I’m just getting started….