Bonus points goes to the reader/listener that knows what movie that today’s title comes from. I’d be surprised and happy. It comes from one of my favorites. There’s many reasons why I like that movie, but the best is the story and how well it’s laid out.
There’s no real segway to my next story from that movie thing, oh well. Yesterday I played at an industry function for the Harry Fox agency. You may not likely know who or what that is. The Harry Fox agency is a business that facilitates in making licensing music easier for bands and artists to record cover tunes and release them. I’m in the process right now of making my music available to their system. How did I get that gig yesterday? From my representative at SESAC. What’s SESAC? They are one of the three performance rights organizations here in the United States.
I figured coolio, I don’t mind playing an industry function, in fact I find it flattering that they’d ask me to play. Nothing like playing a show in the middle of the day. I showed up at noon which was when I was asked to be there. They had a nice little stage setup and a big project screen behind it for their presentations. I was to be first at 12:30 but there was no soundman. No problem, I can do sound without too much trouble. However there was an issue of one mic and no real mixer for a guitar input. Doh!
Then they decided to change the time on the performance. I was now pushed to 1:15. Ok. The second artist Bob showed up and was a little concerned about the mic and mixer situation. We finally figured out a makeshift way to get into the room speakers with this mic box they had. Fortunately I have an ES system on my Taylor which has an XLR cable. Thus with my cable was useful. I finally went on and played about 5 songs, then came Bob. Good thing his guitar worked with my cable. He also had a Taylor but it didn’t have the ES system. At that point I kinda became the impromtu soundman.
Then they ran another presentation before the final artist Kendal Payne. Kendal came up and tried my cable in her setup and it didn’t work. So we tried it directly into her guitar. It got sound but it wasn’t very good, so halfway through her first song she turned to me and asked if she could just use my guitar, I said sure. So she finished out her set on my guitar and it sounded great. Interestingly enough I had met Kendal Payne a few years ago when she had her record deal. I was brought in to audition for her band. I relayed the story to her, she didn’t remember any one of the people because she saw so many but she told me it ended up fizzling out within a matter of months. Oh well.
Gig’s like yesterday’s are the kind that always stick in my mind. I love to help out. I also appreciate that the people at Harry Fox were pleased with the artists and were apologizing for the setup – it wasn’t their fault. Even nicer was that they took care of me for being cool about the situation. I appreciate it when people take care of the artists when things aren’t as they should be. I won’t forget that.
What was even more memorable is that in a room full of publishers and bean counters I actually ended up selling a couple of CD’s. That’s so not normal at an industry function. Usually people figure because they might help you out in some way that you’ll just give them the music for free. So it was a nice surprise. Especially when one woman actually gave me her info and said she’d attempt to play it for people at her work (a major major publisher). That’s a nice thing.
As for Maroon 5, they’re already stars to most of the world. I won’t pretend that you haven’t likely heard of them. Cause if you haven’t, you’ve probably been hiding under a rock. Today’s Single of the Day isn’t one of the hits they had. But I really dig the song. I have mentioned them previously with the production value. I’m not particularly fond of how squished it is, it’s so squished its distorted in the name of the it-must-be-louder-than-everyone-else game. Which is sad. Fortunately the songwriting is so strong it can overcome that.
There are times when my music gets compared to them. Go figure. On a personal note, my hairdresser’s husband is a major trumpet player here in Los Angeles. Apparently he played on their new record. I was actually jealous when he told me the news. I asked, is the new stuff good?!? His reply was – it’s fucking amazing. I really look forward to their sophmore release. I hope it’s every bit as good as I’ve already been told it is. But alas its like a Secret.
Typing of secrets, have you figured out the movie yet? Did you read yesterday’s post? Boy there’s a movie about government secrets. Too many secrets.
Don’t have Songs About Jane yet? Why not? Buy it now! Don’t hesitate.
(** Disclaimer: If Maroon 5’s label decides to make me a secret, I’ll dump the audio to save myself the pain. The text will remain to make sure it’s a public notice instead. **)