Here I am, in work avoidance mode again. I'm actually out of the publishing blitz so this is music time, but I've got a cold, I feel like shit and I just can't get motivated to send out promo packs to festivals that aren't going to hire me anyway.
I just came upon another reference to the Janis Ian site, www.janisian.com, and decided to stop what I was doing and finally check it out. Well in addition to her famous internet tirade, there is a very detailed diary on the recording of her last album. Fascinating. I've just spent the last couple of hours going through it and I'm sure picked up a few useful tips. Moreover, I felt a little sense of vindication for some of the battles that I've gone through on the making of my record. And continue to go through, we've still got to mix the sucker and I still hope and pray that one more tune will appear - maybe a solo guitar piece.
Just tonite we've been doing a major computer upgrade (upgrading to Panther for those who care about these things). It has no effect on my existing tracks because those still require the earlier system 9, but after this album is done, I'm into OSX and never looking back. I'm never the first to leap into a new system, but I recognize when it's time. Joel called me in to try the guitar synth with a new plug-in, a re-creation of the Mini-Moog. I was telling him how Robert Moog himself once came to Toronto in the late 60s and did a presentation for a bunch of ad-agency producers - showing us how great this new invention called the synthesizer could work great in commercials, I guess. At that time, the only synthesizer music I was aware of was the album Switched on Bach by Walter (later, Wendy) Carlos. I remember Moog played some tracks from an album that was to be called "Switched on Bacharach" but I don't know if it ever saw the light of day.