July 29th, 2010

Well, as expected, we mixed until 1 this morning and I didn't get to sleep until about 2:30 A.M. I think music charges me up and it takes me a while to get settled after mixing and listening all night. It was a very productive night and we finished Ghostly Writer. We automated the vocal lines and tweaked the EQ on the whole thing. Casey and I are both very pleased and Ghostly is pretty much ready for mastering. For the record, Casey says that on average, a song takes about two to three hours to mix.......Ghostly Writer.......10 hours and still counting. It is an incredible production with some serious instrumentation.

Ghostly Writer is the most RAW, IN YOUR FACE, song that I have ever written. My purpose was to write it that way and to paint the darkest picture to follow the text. I am very happy with it. After listening to it through last night, Casey used the term Epic to describe it.

Tonight, we are on to the next songs and Time will probably be first since we have already mixed on it. I love this song because the rhythms and instrumentation make it so tasteful. I am most pleased with the production of it. Time is written where Time is the person and I am speaking to him by saying......when I was young.....you were so slow.....but now you've run away and left me all alone..... The thought here is of how time changes throughout our lives and as we grow older we chase what was always right in front of us.......Time!!!

After being up late last night mixing, I attended a workshop early this morning in Livingston Parish where I am now Band Directing again at my new school (Juban Parc) in Denham Springs.....back to my first love....music. I was tired this morning but I made it through the workshop without dozing off. I ran errands in Baton Rouge all afternoon and I am hoping to catch a small power nap before getting ready to head back to the studio for another night of intense mixing.

We are on a mission to finish all of the songs by next week. It is going to take a lot of hours but we are definitely going to get it done. I will keep you posted.

Have a wonderful day!

Gregory

Wednesday, July 28th

As expected, we mixed until 2 O'clock this morning. It was a long night, but a very productive one. We worked Ghostly Writer, a dry, dark ballad that I wrote four months ago and it truly evolved into one of the most intriguing entries on this project. I actually ditched two acoustic ballads that I originally thought would be on this project for this one. Casey and I love the song because it breaks convention and artistically speaking, is a homerun. It started out as a simple, dark folk tune and 30 tracks later grew into a truly remarkable piece of work full with a violin trio and at least a dozen finger picking acoustic lines. Absolutely beautiful!

Our mixing sessions are sort of serve and volley where we bounce things off of each other and Casey presents options and choices for us to make. We have a good chemistry working together and last night we went back and forth on tweaking the vocals for Ghostly until we could find the perfect sounds.

I took a copy of Ghostly Writer home last night and made a list of detailed notes for us to go by in our mixing session tonight. This is absolutely the most important phase of the entire project. I listen to every word of every song for mistakes, intonation issues, pronunciation problems and more. We hope to finish Ghostly tonight, go back and re-track some vocals on Time and maybe jump into mixing either The Hill or Wouldn't Change A Thing.

I approved the final Proofs of the Artwork today and my art designer uploaded the files this afternoon. From here, I will receive a final set of proofs from Discmakers to approve. Once this happens, we will be a go with pressing as soon as the master is done and shipped.

One thing occurs to me each night that I work and drive away at 2 in the morning........When this project is done, people will pop the cd in a player or hit the mp3s and say....."Hmm Nice Music". It is just not possible for anyone to even begin to know about the amount of work that goes into something like this. But, isn't that always the story when something is written or created, the real story is always a mystery and the only ones who ever realize the work are the ones who wrote or created it. Kind of interesting!

Ok, another long night ahead, I will update you tomorrow on our progress.

Have a great day!

The Home Stretch

We are almost home! After three months of late night/early morning recording sessions, we are finally mixing down and mastering. Last night, we worked three hours on Time (the first song on the cd) and I watched Casey Campbell, (My Engineer) take it a part note by note to perfect it. Mixing is the absolute MOST important part of an album's production. You could have the finest musicians in the world playing on your album but if the mix is bad, then the album will be bad and all will notice. As I watched Casey work his magic last night, I thought about me mixing my first project (Directions) and how glad I was to have someone else mixing this one. It is brutal to try to mix a project that you write/record and produce yourself. I made the absolute best decision by hiring Casey and while I will always be involved in the mixes of my albums, I will never try to mix solo again. There are just too many advantages to having someone else mix your creation.

An engineer's mix is a lot like a painter's canvas where there are many choices to be made through-out the entire process. There are literally thousands of tools and techniques which ultimately transform the over all impression of the songs. So, the best engineers (Like Casey)are just like the best artist where they have ultimate command over the direction that they want to take with each individual song and they do it brilliantly. I have enjoyed watching the process and hearing my songs come to life. It's awesome!!!

We are set to work late nights through-out the week to make our deadline of Aug 2nd. After mixing and mastering, the project will head to New Jersey for pressing and production and then return to us around Aug 23rd, just in time for the launch. I will keep you posted through-out the week on how the mixes are going!

It has been a long road to get here, but I am more than thrilled to see the end in sight. Weightless features songs that I have written as recent as four months ago along with songs that I wrote three years ago. The varying styles of the songs will tell the tale of how my writing has evolved since my first album was produced. I can't wait to share it with the world and to put this busy summer behind me.

Have a Great Day!!!

Macy's Dream

I never considered myself a "Dog Lover", especially not one inside of my house. But, then came Macy, our two year old black Maltipoo who is now officially a member of the Hayden family. I am not a fan of animals being inside and I only agreed to getting Macy when I realized that she doesn't shed. Since Macy joined the family, I have noticed that my perceptions of dogs have really changed. She is such a part of the family and her playfulness and spirit have become part of our home. She is always present and always loving and kind to every person she meets.

Macy spends the majority of her time sitting in our bay window in the breakfast room at our house. She spends countless hours watching the street, the yard and the passers by from her spot in the window. Of course, Macy takes long walks in the evenings and sees all of her friends along the way. Nothing makes her happier than a nice walk early in the morning or late in the evening.

Macy is also the happiest dog in the world when any of us leave and return. Actually, I could drive down the road, turn around and come back, and you would think that I had just returned from a month long vacation. She jumps, barks and loves you everyday no matter what the weather or the mood is.....kind of makes me think about lessons that I could learn from Macy. I am sure that many of you who read this blog either have now, or have had dogs in the past that have played very important roles in your lives.

Having said all of that, I didn't blog today about Macy just for the sake of telling you about her, but instead to tell you about the new song that I wrote called "Macy's Dream". I finished the demo version in my studio yesterday and I loaded it on to my website, (www.greghaydenmusic.com) . I was going to wait but I liked it so much that I just wanted to share it with all of my friends.

The song is written from Macy's perspective as she sits in the "Window for Hours" dreaming of running and being free. I guess we all dream of something and for Macy and millions of other dogs in the world, it's just freedom, plain and simple. When I wrote the song, I just thought about how dogs love their homes, yet all of them, given the chance, would take off and never look back. So, the chorus says "It's not that I don't like it here, It's just something in me". How many of us have stories of having to go chase our favorite dogs when they were running away? As much as she loves us, if the gates were open and the time was right, she would run for days.

I hope you enjoy the song and if you have a puppy or a dog, I hope it makes you think of them and what their lives must be like each day as they "Sit By The Window and Dream"

Have a Wonderful Day!

Alexander's Feast

So, it's Friday, and we worked last night and into this morning and finished about 1 a.m. We had a very productive session with finishing details on Louisiana, Time and Ghostly Writer. This now brings the total of the finished songs (minus vocals) to six. We have finishing touches to still do on Wouldn't Change A Thing, The Hill, Hey Babe and Weightless. We hope to get Ben Manuel in for a session to do some electric guitar and mandolin work, then we just have vocals left. We will hopefully get really close to wrapping up tracking on the project next week.

One of the most intriguing songs on this project actually came to life right at the beginning of this production. Casey, my producer, told me that some of the best songs that he has seen artists write are often written during the production of an album. Maybe it is the inspiration of being in the studio and hearing your music come to life. I don't know, but Ghostly Writer was written right at the beginning of this whole production. I liked it so much, that I ditched other songs for it and it made the cut for Weightless. I had 17 songs written and ready to record but I only intended to use 10. Today, it no longer serves a purpose for an artist to jam 15 songs on a cd because people are buying songs one at a time on digital distribution sites like Itunes, Rhapsody and such. So, I settled with ten and Ghostly Writer slipped in right at the end. I liked including it on the project because I believe that it shows my range as a songwriter and it provides a stark contrast to many of the songs on Weightless.

Last night, as I was adding parts to Ghostly Writer and listening to Jivka's violin trio in my ear, I was suddenly brought back on stage to the Ralph Pottle Music Auditorium at SLU Music School where I was singing a solo in Handel's Alexander's Feast while the legendary, Bob Weatherly conducted the pit orchestra. Isn't it funny how our influences and experiences end up surfacing down the road in our writings and creativity. The string movements in this song really bring a Baroque feel to this dry, dark, folk song. Of course, when I sat down with my Taylor to write this song, I never had any intentions of making it Baroquish, but that is the beauty of production in music.

One of the things that make me so fond of Ghostly Writer is that I wrote it in an hour. A lot of my songs are written sometimes over days or weeks as I progress through ideas. Ghostly Writer came quickly and I went with my first instincts and stuck with it. The lyrics are hard hitting, raw and in your face.

Verse 1 - There's No Love, When You're In The Darkness,
Just a Side of Fries and a Long Slim Jim
There's No Morning, And No Tomorrow,
Just The Circus That I'm Living In

When people ask me about the deep meaning in the lyrics, I will probably laugh (inside) and make up some philosophical reason all the while knowing that I just went with my instincts on what the words should be and I stuck with them. Directions featured no songs like this but this is where my musical taste and style in writing has changed and I can't wait to share it.

Have a great day!!!
Gregory

Florida Parishes TV

Hey Friends,

I met yesterday with Florida Parishes Television to plan a five episode series on my music, my studio, my new project, my songwriting and my life in music. The series will air this summer leading up to the Weightless release. Each episode will last for 30 minutes and each one will be filmed on different locations. The show will be seen in Tangipahoa and Livingston Parishes and will be accessible online daily from FPTV's website. This is an incredible promotional opportunity for me to push the new songs out. I am really looking forward to it. We begin shooting episode one next week.

We tracked Accordion and Violin Tuesday and we worked until 2 in the morning. Those late nights/early mornings have become common as we draw near to the end of this project. As I said earlier in one of my previous blogs, I am generally an Early In the Morning type of person so the two and three in the morning sessions have been rough, but all part of getting the job done.

This week, we track electric guitar, piano fills and we will finish with vocals all next week. Needless to say, I will constantly be close to water and lemons next week in an effort to keep the pipes clean and free. After that, Weightless is off to editing, mixing and mastering and then off to New Jersey for about four weeks for pressing before returning in Aug for the big release. We are close to the end.

I should have the new song loaded onto my new site in the next day or so. Of course, it has no name and that is where I will need your help in NAMING THE SONG. Stay Tuned!!! Have a great day!!!

Name The Song

Hey folks! Today's entry will be on the shortish side as I am pressed for minutes today preparing for a recording session this evening. Tonight, we track Jivka Jeleva, who will play violin/viola on the project. I have planned for Jivka to record on three songs and her playing should absolutely put the icing on the cake in each song. Jivka is a very talented player and she teaches violin at Southeastern's Music School. The great thing about Jivka is that she is an award winning fiddler as well as a skilled classical violinist. My songs will require both styles as Louisiana will feature fiddle playing and Ghostly Writer and Time will feature a classical style of playing.

Tonight, we will also track a very talented musician that I had the pleasure of meeting recently while playing at one of the festivals with my band. Ernie Wilkinson will track accordion parts tonight at the session. Ernie is the leader of an authentic cajun band known as Hot Sauce. They play a busy schedule across South Louisiana. Ernie will bring a real Louisiana flavor to my song Louisiana.

Lastly, I spent 12 hours this weekend in my studio, (not where I am recording Weightless) and I finished a demo copy of a new song. I have not named it. I recorded all of the parts myself and created an atmosphere on the recording that I think most will find very interesting. My plan is to get back in my studio tomorrow to do some editing and then to load it on to my new website where I will ask my fans to listen to it and name it. This should be a cool experience and one that I am looking forward to. I will keep you posted on the progress but I hope to have it up in the next day or so.

People who frequent my site at www.greghaydenmusic.com will notice that I will be loading new songs very often from now on. As I write them and complete them in my studio, I will be loading them up on the site and putting them up for sale as MP3s. In the future, I will combine the ones that got the best reviews for future projects. The days of waiting two years for a cd to be completed are coming to an end. Welcome to the new world in music sales.