Greetings from the rain soaked Mecca that is the west coast.
Perhaps it is just me but is this not the most uninspiring time of year? A younger version of myself would have probably disagreed, but at this point in life I find a morning full of sunshine and an evening full of warmth a whole lot more conducive to the creative process than the incessant beating of rain and wind upon the walls and windows of my little studio. This is my long winded way of saying I have hit some sort of creative gutter. Slightly larger than a rut, but still smaller than a ditch. But then again, I go through this at the same time every year, and then turn around and produce some of my best music moving forward into Christmas and the new year.
So what have I been doing? Well, I recently finished a tiny 15 second ad being used as a pitch to gain a new client for the producers I often work for. Very strange working on a piece that is so short. I don’t think I’ve ever zoomed in so close to the fraction of a frame to get synchronised timing just right. But when you only have 15 seconds to get your point across it better be good. And of course it’s always fun to get creative with sound sources to achieve the final result. And, as always, I’m the only one who knows the original sounds. One of the little pleasures of the sound designer 
And I believe there was some room tone from a French hotel room used in there somewhere too.
In other news, I am waiting on a final cut of a commercial for a business on Vancouver Island. And as I am the end person in the production chain I’m always at the liberty of the production process. Let’s hope it comes through soon!
In news much more interesting to myself at least, I sit and type this post to you from the comfort of my couch and the convenience of my spanking new iPhone. Now, for fear of embarrassing myself more than I already have I will not recount the 11 hour overnight marathon I endured to acquire said phone. But let me tell you this: if you are buying a phone under contract, don’t sit and freeze your nether regions off all night in a mall parking lot when you can walk into the store the next day unencumbered and pick your phone off the shelf.
And why are we still calling these things phones? I mean really, NOBODY has come up with a better name yet? And don’t give me smartphone.
My point for bringing up my new phone is that I have found it to be an amazing little device that is turning into an extension of my studio. When producing the country song I wrote over the summer (see post below) I obviously needed guitar and as I don’t play or even own one I had to carefully edit and manipulate loops to get even a small sense of realism. NOW, however, I am looking forward to using the iGarageband app to kinda sorta play guitar into new projects. It is a very simple interface to be sure, but I usually write fairly simple songs so it should be a fairly decent fit. If you are at all musically inclined and you get a chance to try this app do it and do it often. Strumming those little virtual strings is oh so cool.
And lastly, while I have not produced a full, finished song in too long now, I have been voraciously writing new material. I accepted a challenge of sorts from Deane Ogden, a fantastic composer and creative firebrand whom I have mentioned before. The challenge is to constantly write. Anything. 3 minutes, everyday, all the time. So, since September 8 I have composed 64 unique pieces of music and have carefully catalogued each piece in terms of its mood and chord structure. Now, the ultimate goal of this challenge is not necessarily to create a ton of music, some of which inevitably is of a quite dubious nature, but instead to make the time every day, no excuses, to practice the craft of composing. To force into your day this small piece of structure, indeed, make this challenge part of your daily structure. Now with my fancy pants new phone I really should not have any excuses to not meet this challenge everyday, but let me tell you, like any change in daily behavior, it ain’t easy.
Did I mention the unrelenting buffets of rain and wind against the exterior walls of my humble abode? Yeah, must be November.
So, while Mother Nature unleashes her wrath upon the sealant of my windows, I have 3 minutes of music to write.
Till next time,
David (of the reeeeeeally short hair cut)
PS Grey Cup in 5 days and the aforementioned woeful Lions are in the big game. How the sports Gods work will forever amaze me.
