Off the Stage: The Cloers

Crazy, busy weekend

Well, we rounded out the month of June with a visit to see a good friend of ours, Alan Barrington play a set at D'Vine Wine in Charlotte on Saturday night. Alan is a very talented vocalist as well as a great guitar player. His experience as a performer really shows when you see him on stage. It's definitely where he belongs! We met his lovely wife who is very supportive of his music career. It's really good to see that a full time working musician has the full support of his spouse. We have seen many an artist who do not have this support, and it makes a big difference as to whether they will continue to pursue their art, or not. We worked a full shift at our day jobs on Saturday, so we were already tired by the time we got home. But, we were really excited about seeing our songwriting buddy play. We got home from his gig at 1:30 am, and had to be up at 6:00 am for a photo shoot with an artist John is working with.

We did the photo shoot for A.M.'s website at the backside of an old building in Charlotte, NC. Charlotte is such a new, clean city, that it is really hard to find anything left of the buildings that we knew when we were kids growing up here. The photo shoot went well. We were really pleased with the results. Our artist friend, Angelo Melendez, who is usually critical of his photos even said that he liked a few of them (shock!). He did such a great job as a subject and was a natural. John and I had a great time just being creative for the morning.

Sunday night we had dinner with some songwriting friends, and ended up having a mini song circle. It's rare that we get to play in a relaxed setting like that, and we loved hearing the "behind the song" stories of our friends. We even got to share how several of our songs came about. We had a great time, and remember the value in just being with good friends who accept who you are and where you are in your journey through this life. 

June was a really productive month for us, and July is going to be even more exciting.  We begin the recording in 12 days!!! Can't wait to tell you about it!

An Update

This week has been filled with computer woes, putting the small sound system in the living room, registering and signing up for free classes on SongU, and listening to an audio program on music licensing as well as reading the accompanying e-book.

While we were recording the spoken word artist's album, the studio computer completely stalled out. We were in a panic because we were on a deadline with her project. It took 2 days of trying to coax it back to life before John finally diagnosed it with a failed hard drive. He took it down to the Apple store just to make sure, and it was confirmed by the specialist. So, he took his web design/office computer and set it up in the studio to be able to finish her project. We have learned a good lesson that hard drives FAIL 100% of the time, and that you should back up after EVERY session if possible. John backs up the studio computer frequently, but he had just transferred an entire mini disk of our song ideas over to Pro Tools. We think that we may have lost all of those song ideas and are sick about it. But at worst, we will have to pay a good chunk of change to get someone to recover the information from the failed disk.

Then, when he put the office computer back into the office, he realized that the ethernet port wasn't working. He is right in the middle of working on a web site for an artist friend, so we are frustrated to say the least. We made an appointment with the Apple specialist to take that computer down to the Apple Store, so that makes 2 trips in one week. In the meantime, John will have to load all of the website and design work onto my web design computer so that he is able to move forward with our friend's project.

Meanwhile, we realized at the Pineville Arts showcase that we played at last week, that performing on the small sound system sounds TOTALLY different than performing without amplification. It threw us off just a little bit because we have never practiced with that system. So, we decided that we would set it up permanently in the living room so that we can practice with it everyday. The living room is quite crowded now, but it is making a difference in the way we are performing our songs. The amplification shows up loose fingers hitting the pick guard, sloppy pick technique, and any strange vocal anomalies that we don't usually hear unless we are amplified. Setting up this system for daily practice is helping us clean up some of these little problems.

SongU is a pretty cool thing. I'm really enjoying reviewing the classes that I have signed up for. But, I don't think that we will join at this time because it has been a distraction from the re-writes we are supposed to be finishing right now. WE MUST STAY FOCUSED! However, I encourage any of our blog readers who are songwriters to check them out. It's a really cool concept, and we will most likely join in the fall.

The music licensing program is really interesting. I have been reading books about licensing this year, and I am excited about the possibilities that this can bring. We will get into this a lot more at the end of the year when our CD is finished when we will have more time to devote to it.  

Well, that's it for this week.  We will be doing computer stuff this week, and a bunch of household things that need to get done so that we can focus on the recording.

Pineville Arts Showcase

On Wednesday night of this week we played for a special event called, "Beyond the Curve". This art showcase celebrated the work of local female artists and was held at the Cultural & Civic Arts Center of Pineville.

Our local NSAI coordinator was contacted and asked if any of the performing songwriters in our group would be interested in playing for this event sponsored by the Arts & Science Council. We said yes, because we knew it would challenge us to begin performing in public and it would be a good chance to set up our sound system and practice with it.

Thanks to another artist friend, Pj Brunson, who had seen the gallery space, we were advised that we needed to bring our smaller sound system with us. We stayed up late on Tuesday night and made sure all of the equipment was working. We were really tired before we got there, having slept only 4 hours the night before and having to work all day at our "paying jobs". However, as soon as we got in the building and saw some of the people we would be performing for, we got our energy back, and did the sound set-up. I say we, but we all know it was really John doing the set up (he! he!).

Beyond the Curve was interesting because it matched up a musician with an artist on almost every night that the show ran. The featured artist on our night was Charlene Bregier, a sculptor based from Charlotte, NC. We enjoyed the show, because they kept all of the artists'' work who had participated in this month long show up in the gallery to view.

We began playing our hour set at 7:00 pm, and had a great time. The crowd was very positive about our music, and they are looking for places where they will be able to use us again. We had a few of our friends join us for the showcase, and it meant a lot to see them there. This was only the 3rd time we had performed in public as "The Cloers", so it was comforting to look out and see familiar faces. Also, we met a lot of new friends, and look forward to hanging out at the "Paint 'Til You Drop" event next week. In exchange for our performance, Gaye List, another featured artist and facilitator of this show, invited us to participate in the "Paint 'Til You Drop" program where all of the art supplies are provided, and you show up and paint. It's half paint, half party. Everyone we talked to said it is great fun.

Overall, we were pleased with how the show went. We still have lots of tweaking to do, and we have to figure out what kind of music to play for what event we are invited to. Some clients want a "show" where people sit around and listen. Some want background music that can be talked over, but they are still listening. And some want you to do mostly familiar songs, but add in your songs as well. But, that knowledge will come in time, and for now, we are doing what we can, where we can. That is one of our big themes for the year.

Our Monthly NSAI Meeting - June

Tonight was our monthly Nashville Songwriters Association meeting. One really cool feature about being a member of NSAI is that the Nashville chapter records many of their guest speakers, then makes the audio/video available to all members as an online archive. Our local chapter watched an archived webcast from Ralph Murphy, Vice President of ASCAP (a performing rights organization). He spoke about the business basics for songwriters, and went into great detail about the role of the performing rights organizations (PROs). He also talked about the difference between "Nashville" writing, and being a performing artist who is mainly concerned with their live show and film & TV placement. We fall in the second group.
He really inspired me, and made me refocus on being an artist and a publisher. I know that this is our place in the music business. Now, for anyone is a card-carrying member of NSAI, I highly recommend listening to the presentation that we listened to tonight when you get a chance. Also, I am linking to an interesting interview with Ralph as well as to his website where he posts tons of information for songwriters. He is best known for his "Murphy's Laws of Songwriting". 
We presented song #8 written for the album to our group tonight. It is called, "I'm Ready to Try". It went over pretty well, but we realized tonight that we are definitely not typical Nashville writers. We use more of an emotional perspective in our writing, and we tend to write about situations and conversations, rather than imagery. We may decide to do it differently at some point in our songwriting careers, but for now, we feel really comfortable being "pop rock, film and TV" music writers.
Also, just for the local folks, NSAI is holding their membership drive from June 1st - August 31st. Normally, all membership dues go directly to the NSAI Nashville chapter. The local chapters don't receive any of the membership fee. However, during this membership drive, $20.00 of each renewing or new member dues will go to their local chapter. If any of you happen to join during this time, let our coordinators, Steve Simpson (Charlotte, NC)/Butch Oneppo (Rock Hill, SC), know about it so that they can request that the $20.00 be credited to our local chapters.

Craig Carothers Workshop Weekend

This weekend, we attended a songwriting workshop led by Nashville songwriter, Craig Carothers. We had a great time, and learned some tips about how to write funny songs. On Saturday, we had the writing workshop where we did various creative writing exercises to get us thinking "funny", and on Sunday, we did song critiques with Craig. 

The biggest thing that we got out of this workshop was to stop being so hard on the initial words and thoughts that we have. We should write them down or record them WITHOUT passing judgment. One line that keeps coming to me that Craig said was, "Contribute more, edit less". This is a BIG lesson that we need to learn. 

I am a perfectionist, and I don't usually write a lyric down until I have a pretty good idea of what it should be, and where is should be going. Craig talked about how we miss SO much when we edit first, then write. Writing should be free flow thought, without deciding initially what is worthy to be written and kept. The point he was making was to write it ALL-the stupid ideas, the funny ideas, a couple of rhymes, interesting words, free association, or whatever comes to mind.

A few things he mentioned about how to write funny song were...

1.  Go to the most outrageous place that a song could go. Don't be afraid to write 

     things that are crazy. Then you can tone down the idea if necessary.

2.  Timing can be funny. Where you end a rhyme can be funny. Whenever a rhyme

      is expected, if you place the rhyme in a different part of the sentence, or don't 

      rhyme at all, it can make the audience laugh.

3.  Use a different musical genre than the words rely on. For example, you can 

      write a song about murdering someone, and if the music or singing is beautiful,

      then that can be funny.

4.  Write a title for the song, then write the strangest or funniest way to express that

     thought.

5.  When writing comedic songs, you must change the chorus more often than you

     do in mainstream songwriting. Once the audience has laughed at your joke, if you 

     tell that same joke again in the second chorus, then it loses some of its punch. 

6.  When writing a funny song, you must give your audience something 

     unexpected. The meter of your song can make it funny, or the character you use 

     to speak the words can be funny.

7.  Most, if not all funny writing is written from a "truth" perspective. The more your

     audience can relate to the humorous story, the funnier they will find it.

Spoken Word Project in the Studio

Last week I worked with an artist in the home studio. Her name is Kali Ferguson, and she is a storyteller, poet and a teaching artist. As a cultural educator, she celebrates and shares the cultures of the African Diaspora and Latin America in her interactive workshops on music, dance, story, and theater. And, some of you may have seen her emceeing at the recent Charlotte, NC FemmeFest as well.

It was a real honor to be involved with such a talented storyteller. Her voice is amazing. This project she did was for Arts for Life. They are a nonprofit arts organization dedicated to improving the lives and healthcare experiences of children and adolescents battling cancer and other serious illnesses.

The CDs shown below will be used to give the children activities to explore their creativity while they are in the hospital for their treatments.

This was my first time recording a voice only project. As it turns out, I even got in on the action by writing the music and sound effects, as well as doing the voice-over work. I was also glad to put my graphic design skills to use by doing the graphic design for both of these projects and the cover art for "Add Your Color to the World".

Check out these samples of what we did.......

This one is intended to guide older kids through the process of writing a poem about a color.

This one is to encourage younger kids to make-up a story using a Pourquoi tale as an example.

If you want to hear the whole story, here it is.  It is really quite entertaining.  It is the West African story of why bats only come out at night.