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Other than being involved in random banter here on the board, my only real communication with Forrest came just a few months before he went missing. After reading his adventures in song writing, I offered to put him in contact with as many people as I could that I had met along the way. Unfortunately I was never able to get those meetings set up for him.
I have been writing off and on since high school and wrote a lot of stuff between 2006 and 2009. Forrest and I talked about it quite a bit, our writing styles, shared some songs, and this got me motivated to try and get the few songs that I had recorded out to people I knew in the industry yet again. I only have 3 that are "recorded" and over the years, I've held many artists captive after their show at the bars I've ran and had them listen to my songs.
When Forrest went missing, I reached out to everyone I knew across the state to help spread his flyer, get the word out, keep an eye out for him, etc. One person in particular started asking how I knew Forrest. We got to talking about the songwriting deal and how I had been trying to help him with that. As it turned out, the guy was in a band in Cleburn and they were working on their first album and looking for material. I sent him the songs that I had as an introduction to my writing style and offered to help them out if they thought I was a fit. A few days later he reached out to me and said that they wanted to cut one of my songs and make it the first single off of their album.
It was a very surreal moment, 10 years I had been listening to this song, shopping it around everywhere I could, wanting to force myself to rewrite it to fit this artists style, or that guys voice. Finally, something was going to happen. They are are a no name band but they have high hopes. Once the engineer is finished with it, they are sending it to radio in their area.
This all started several months ago and I have been anxious ever since. They tried to play it for me one night over the phone and it just didn't work. They went into the studio about a month and a half ago and this would be the first track they laid down. I would get random updates, working on this instrument, or we are having trouble with this track, etc. Finally yesterday I got a rough cut. It hasn't been mixed and the levels are all jacked up but, I am quite pleased with the way that it sounds. Watching this thing go from words on a crumpled up piece of paper to a local musician putting music to it and getting a mono recording out of a cheap sound board. Now, it is a full song.
Unfortunately I don't have any audio I can share at the moment, all I have is a 10 meg MP3 in my e-mail. I just wanted to share my excitement.
I have been writing off and on since high school and wrote a lot of stuff between 2006 and 2009. Forrest and I talked about it quite a bit, our writing styles, shared some songs, and this got me motivated to try and get the few songs that I had recorded out to people I knew in the industry yet again. I only have 3 that are "recorded" and over the years, I've held many artists captive after their show at the bars I've ran and had them listen to my songs.
When Forrest went missing, I reached out to everyone I knew across the state to help spread his flyer, get the word out, keep an eye out for him, etc. One person in particular started asking how I knew Forrest. We got to talking about the songwriting deal and how I had been trying to help him with that. As it turned out, the guy was in a band in Cleburn and they were working on their first album and looking for material. I sent him the songs that I had as an introduction to my writing style and offered to help them out if they thought I was a fit. A few days later he reached out to me and said that they wanted to cut one of my songs and make it the first single off of their album.
It was a very surreal moment, 10 years I had been listening to this song, shopping it around everywhere I could, wanting to force myself to rewrite it to fit this artists style, or that guys voice. Finally, something was going to happen. They are are a no name band but they have high hopes. Once the engineer is finished with it, they are sending it to radio in their area.
This all started several months ago and I have been anxious ever since. They tried to play it for me one night over the phone and it just didn't work. They went into the studio about a month and a half ago and this would be the first track they laid down. I would get random updates, working on this instrument, or we are having trouble with this track, etc. Finally yesterday I got a rough cut. It hasn't been mixed and the levels are all jacked up but, I am quite pleased with the way that it sounds. Watching this thing go from words on a crumpled up piece of paper to a local musician putting music to it and getting a mono recording out of a cheap sound board. Now, it is a full song.
Unfortunately I don't have any audio I can share at the moment, all I have is a 10 meg MP3 in my e-mail. I just wanted to share my excitement.
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