CPR 3

The latest Christian Progressive Rock compilation album, CPR Volume 3, is now officially released. This is really a great disc! Below is the track list:


Unitopia - Lives Go Round
Ted Leonard - The Name of God
Phil Keaggy - Passport
Mike Florio - The Wise Man
Apple Pie - Solution
Greg Wollan - Deep Calls 2 Deep
Mike Lockett - The Dust
Pursuit - Quest
Ad Astra - Angle of Repose
Time Horizon - Life Fantastic
Everlasting Arms - The Mirror

The Wise Man is a new song, that will appear on my next album (whenever that may be...). You can read about it (and download it :-) at ThunderSongs.

I am grateful to be a part of the CPR community, and honored to be associated with all the wonderful people that comprise it!

The cd can be ordered from my website. So get one before they're all gone!

Japan

I'll be going to Japan again soon, so I thought I might say a few words about it. I have no idea how to spin this into a music-related post, but I'll try...

I just love Japan and many things Japanese. I've had the good fortune of being able to visit a number of times and experience quite a bit of the culture. I studied the language for a couple of years too. Japan is a marvelous place to behold. There's an inherent clash of the older traditional and modern westernized cultures side by side and literally on top of each other. But the Japanese transcend all that and make it work so well.

I've always thought it would be a great place to live - at least for a short time - if I were there as a musician (I'm way too foreign-looking to fit in any 'normal' way). In fact, one of the most brilliant and talented musicians (and longtime friend) I've ever worked with is from Japan (I won't give his name out of respect for the fact that he's not publicly making music anymore).

But at least Arisen has made the business trip, if I haven't:

A couple of years ago the nice folks at CDJam agreed to stock my album - even though it's the only rock CD they sell (they cater to the New Age and Jazz crowd mainly). Arisen also got a glowing review from a Japanese fellow who actually purchased it the day it was released! He was nice enough to allow his comments to be reprinted on my page at CDJam. Of course, if you can't read Japanese - sorry, you're out of luck!

Another Japanese site that sells Arisen is Disk Union, and I know Garden Shed had it for a short time. Both sites posted very favorable comments. I've gotten some very nice feedback from listeners in Japan.

Progressive rock seems much more accepted there as part of the various mainstream music options - as opposed to how it's accepted here in the States. You can open a Japanese music magazine and you might find an article on Yes, or even a transcription of an Eddie Jobson solo in a musicians magazine. On one trip, I remember browsing record shops and finding lots of hard to get and even "collectible" (let the reader understand!) cds and videos that I just couldn't get anywhere back home (this was pre-internet).

So, maybe someday I can go there in a musical capacity, as an active participant, and not just as a casual observer...

(Footnote: Related to the previous blog post on film scoring... Keith Emerson wrote lots of great electronic music for the last Godzilla movie - 'Final Wars'. In case you are not from planet Earth (!), ....Godzilla is a Japanese creation)

Confessions of a wanna-be film composer

Yep, I'm a wanna-be film composer. Trouble is I have no time for it (or I'd rather work on my album projects, really). Here's a copy of the ad I posted to Craig's List a while back:

Composer Available for Independent Films

Highly skilled and experienced composer/recording artist looking to build relationships with talented filmmakers in the Westchester/Putnam area. No budget? No problem. I will gladly work on deferment for the right project.

Whether you are looking for powerful themes, cinematic ambience, high-impact grooves or anything else you can imagine, I'll work hard to create the music you envision - the one that best enhances your production. I believe you'll find I'm easy to work with, and genuinely enthusiastic about helping you get exactly what you want in your music.

Contact me for a captivating, expressive musical score spanning the full range from subtle to bombastic, light to dark...

Share your vision today!

Listen to my work at:
http://www.massdream.com

Thanks!

Now who wouldn't want to hire a self-promoting idiot like that?

Truth be told, I have scored a couple of small things, but am not sure I have the clearance to post samples so I won't. You'll have to take my word for it. But I really got into the game too late. I should have made the switch in the late 1990's when I was at my wits end with the rock band thing. But I opted to continue living as a frustrated rockstar, because scoring films seemed like rocket science to me back then. Nowadays, it's just too easy for anyone to get into it - thanks to the technology of course. And sure enough, there are lots of really, really talented people doing it too (and all younger than me, it seems). So the timing thing is what gets me. I want to work with filmmakers who are at least as experienced at making films as I am making music. But starting at the bottom now is not my idea of 'paying dues'. Now I'm too old to 'cut my teeth' on corny student vampire flicks (and these guys probably refer to their cues as "songs" too - Aaaaaaghh!!). I mean I can't even relate to these kids half my age coming out of film school, can I? You know, I remember when I was in my 20's looking for musicians and a 40-something guy would answer my ad.. "Man, he's old," I thought. "Give it up - you look ridiculous!". So I shudder to think that's how I would look now.

Anyway, in keeping with the previous blog post on Arisen, here's a bit I used to display on my site (and other cyberspace places that I've purged myself from recently):

In addition to writing and recording songs, Mike also composes and produces a wide variety of electronic music, and is currently compiling a production music library.

So is it obvious I like electronic scores? I just love those old John Carpenter films with his own music, or the scores by Tangerine Dream. How about The Terminator (Brad Fiedel)? Or 2010 (David Shire)? That score is simply brilliant. Seems the 80's was the big decade for that, really. Hollywood was discovering the synthesizer. In the 90's things tilted back to big and orchestral for the most part (or wimpy alternative rock - yuck!). Now the synths support the orchestra more and it's a truly great sound! But I couldn't write an orchestral score without hiring an orchestrator, and no filmmaker I'm bound to work with is going to have a budget for that. Or an orchestra itself. Or a conductor. Or a music copyist. Or a music contractor. Or a music editor. Or a scoring stage/studio. Or a mixing engineer. You get the point. Of course, there are sample libraries - but I would still need the orchestrator and the samples. Anyway, a filmmaker who has the budget for that stuff is going to make sure they hire a composer who's done it before. Many times. Well.

You know, I really would love to be given an opportunity to score a well-made (well-funded?), film with a visionary filmmaker someday. The best I can do is just keep making music and keep my eyes open I guess.

on the songs on Arisen

As I state on my website, "Arisen contains songs written over a period spanning many years, dating back to my earliest musical influences and creative inspirations." I used to provide the following blurbs about each song to potential reviewers:

Bells for 1827 was originally written while I was a college student. I remember coming up with the chords for the chorus while in a computer programming class, and quickly writing them down in my notebook. The song has undergone some changes since then, but in essence remains the same. The 1827 reference is to the year the great composer Beethoven died, and while the song is not necessarily about him, it is more about an era gone by. Beethoven supposedly said "music mediates the intellectual and sensuous life", and I have always felt a kinship to him.

Binary World was born in a flash of inspiration when I threw my hands down on my old Korg M1 synth and the opening riff came forth. I remember writing the lyrics during a lonely, introspective walk to South Street seaport in Manhattan, where I was living at the time. The song poses a few circumstances and questions about the technological milieu we exist in.

Fractured was the last song written for the album. It’s basically a song about the corruption of youth in our society. The line about children being the oppressors is from the biblical prophet Isaiah. Constructing a basic hard rock song (with a 12-chord chorus?) around some strict 2-part Baroque writing seemed like a fun thing to try.

Pretending was completely written in one sitting at the piano back at college - where I used to sneak into the practice rooms at all hours of the night and invent neat chord changes. I believe it's wise to look at life from the perspective of death, which is what this song does.

Media Ride was written during a particularly frustrating time period when I was trying to put together a band out of the seemingly endless procession of musicians that came through my basement. A couple of years later the futility would overcome me and the rehearsal space was turned back into a grungy laundry room. This song takes a fair shot at the ubiquitous news media and its effect on our lives.

Paradise of Stone was completed shortly after I started work on the album, although the primary musical themes had been conceived of a few years before. I remember working out the middle instrumental section during lunch breaks from work; sitting in the backseat of my car and banging away on the battery-operated toy keyboard I kept there. The song is a lament from the perspective of the natural man, who is described by the apostle Paul in 1st Corinthians.

Violent Moods was one of the first songs I ever wrote - back when I was just discovering the joy of writing my own material as opposed to learning things off records. I had the family piano in my bedroom during my high school years, and I remember waking up extra early before school one morning and coming up with the the basis of the song. I decided to include it on the album after the terrorist attacks on 9/11, as it seemed appropriate at the time.

So there you have it - a little glimpse behind each song!

A Running Start

Let's see... I'll start with a couple of recent purchases. Both happen to be live concert recordings of longtime favorite bands of mine:

Kansas - Two for the Show : 30th Anniversary (CD 2 discs)

This is a superb release!! Essentially, it contains all the songs on the original double LP, plus an extra disc of additional songs recorded during the same 77-78 tour. Definitely not to be missed if you are a Kansas fan. Kudos (I really hate that word, but it fits) to Sony for releasing (and remastering) this.

Genesis - When in Rome 2007 (DVD 3 discs)

I saw the concert portion of this release in the theater the day before it was released, on large screen with great surround sound. I was so impressed, that I sought out the DVD right away (which has a nice documentary along with the concert footage). I say 'sought' because apparently it was only being sold by Wal-Mart. Which was ok by me, but my local Wal-Mart never had it, even though their computers said they did. After a couple of weeks of that, I just mail ordered it from them - which took about 3 more weeks of waiting before it finally arrived. But I'm glad to have this finally.

Ok, what the heck... let's keep going....

CPR Volume 3 is out. Anybody who wants one can buy it from my site. My song on it is 'The Wise Man' - which is going to be on my next album. Right now, I'm at the part of the recording process that I just can't stand - the dreaded EDITING (basically comping together all the takes into coherent tracks). Looking back on Arisen, that's probably the main reason it took so long to finish. Not that the editing itself takes a long time. Not at all. It's just that it's not fun. So, I procrastinate.... I've had lots of guitar and drum tracks to go through now for many months, but haven't touched them. But I'm going to. I've got a bass player just itching to record his parts, so that helps me actually. So yeah, that's how I make my music (at least the music that involves other musicians). The cat's out of the bag (not that I would ever put a cat in a bag, as I'm the biggest puddy cat lover I know). Everyone comes in and does their part separately, then I put it all together. The alternative is getting the whole band together often enough to rehearse the material to satisfaction, then booking studio time to record together. Doing that would just be a logistical and financial impossibility for me.

Let's see... Maybe I'll recap some recent stuff that I would have written about had I had a blog...

Earlier in the year I finished writing the last song for the new album. 'So what' you say? Well, if you knew how long it takes me to finish songs you might not say so! Basically, I needed one more song for the album and really didn't want to tap any older material, like I did for much of Arisen (The Arisen song breakdown pretty much falls into 3 categories: the 80's : "Bells for 1827", "Pretending", "Violent Moods"; the 90's : "Binary World", "Media Ride"; and the 00's (is there a spoken term yet for this decade???? the 'two-thousands'? 'the zeroes'?) : "Fractured", "Paradise of Stone"). I figure I've written only 30-35 songs (Charlie Lang, I can hear you laughing at that!) in my life (and by "songs" I mean music with lyrics that are sung. I just hate it when amateur filmmakers refer to musical underscore cues as "songs" UGH!!! Or lots of other things about amateur filmmakers that I hate [RANT TRUNCATED]).

Oh yeah, I saw Original ASIA with my buddy Eddie Jerlin back in April. They sounded great! Perhaps the best part was that they were playing 15 minutes from my home, and no opening band either! Their new album, Phoenix, sounds a lot like 1982 all over again...

In May, I went to a piano recital by Mino Kabasawa, who was visiting from Japan... Made me realize how much of a complete hack I am.... I mean she can really play.

On the collaboration front, I'm still working with Peter Jorgensen. Pete is Vertical Alignment. I just love singing Pete's songs, and I'm very grateful he has given me the opportunity to do so. The album project we are working on is called 'The Trail of Tears Suite'. It's the story of the Cherokee nation. Pete thinks BIG, and as such, this project has become HUGE and daunting. Hopefully it will be finished one day so people can actually hear it! Pete's the kind of collaborator I've always yearned for. He's supportive, committed, prolific, mature, and most importantly, gets excited about what he's doing and allows it to consume him. That's extremely inspirational to me. I've always been a sort of follower kind of guy. Just put me in the right situation, with a task I'm excited about and I'll give 100%. Unfortunately, Pete lives in South Carolina, so we've yet to get together face to face. Strange, but it feels like we have because we're very comfortable with each other.

In the past, I've had only a couple of other musical situations where I felt I was in the right "role" (Eric Goodman, you're certainly one of them). But I'll leave that backstory for another day.

There are other musical projects I've got going on too (at least on verbal agreement, since there's no music to show for it yet), but I'll wait until they develop more (ie: until there's at least one audio file on the DAW) before I spill my guts about them.

One thing I have been doing is playing through some of my older songs singer/songwriter style - just vocal and piano. It's fun and refreshing to just make music like this, without going through the whole painful production process. (Kind of reminds me of what I did in college for 4 years). I've also put together a little 15-minute ELP (Emerson, Lake and Palmer, my favorite band ever) medley, consisting of bits of 'Tarkus' and 'Take a Pebble'! Not that I'm planning on playing any coffee houses (or bookstores!). But you never know... It's nice to have some material I can perform on a moment's notice.

Ok... that's about it for now :-)

A fresh start....

Ok, so now I've got this blog site to tend to... I've got lots of musical things going on, but I'm going to try and implement a few policies here:

1. I won't post any information about any project until I have something tangible to show for it (like an mp3 or press release even). From my experience, you just never know how long things might take, and unfortunately, sometimes nothing ever comes of good intentions or great ideas.

2. I will only post about items relating to my musical activity, or music-related in general. There are plenty of other topics I could write about (some extremely tempting too), but this is "Massdream Musicworks" after all. However, I think by writing about my music, you can guage how I feel about the topics my music is about. So, that suffices in my estimation.

3. I reserve the right to break rules 1 and 2 if I want to! But don't expect it.