GatorBlog

It’s Sunday night in Gatorland, and I’m in the studio working on some old songs.  My wife asked me yesterday why I keep rehashing old ones instead of doing new ones…I guess perception is the reality!  Personally I’d much rather be writing and recording some new tunes (okay, I snuck in a new acoustic instrumental to get a fix).

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Here’s the scoop.  There’s a lot of new songs still in my head, and a fair number that have been born into the world in some form.  I’m working on my songwriting using Taxi as my main guide right now, and as the listings and critiques go, so goes me!  Taxi is certainly not the only way to get your tunes into the marketplace, but Taxi has more opportunities for me than I can handle at this time.  Every 2 weeks I pour through the listings, categorize the listings I’d like to go after, and prioritize them.  Most of them never get a submission, due to time contstraints of the ol’ day job and the ol’ night/weekend job here at Gator-Studios.com.  As time goes on, hopefully my catalog of songs will get bigger and I’ll be able to submit and write more.

Earlier in the year I submitted a few of my existing tunes to Taxi listings that had critiques.  They were pretty consistent in the places my songs needed work, but implied some of them were pretty close to getting over the bar.  They were also “on-target” for the listings I submitted for, giving me pretty good data points on where these ones fit.  Some new listings have come up that are similar, and I’ve been prioritizing these re-writes over new songs to both see if my re-writes work and ultimately to get them over the hump.

It sure feels sometimes like I’m going around in a circle, and those who are watching probably wonder (like my wife) why I seem to be living in the past.  First, this is a path measured in years, not days or months.  Second, there’s really not that many of ‘em, and once they are done they can sit on the shelf until another listing comes by that fits.  I’m not redoing them for the sake of it, if I think there’s something there and an opportunity presents itself then it’s worth the effort.  There’s only a couple left from the past I’d like to re-write when the opportunity arises anyway. 

There’s also the studio improvements to take advantage of.  Some of these were recorded with RiffWorks and a PODxt in an untreated room.  Some were mixed that way as well, and though they seem to be okay for broadcast (comments being “a little ragged but okay for broadcast”) that’s surely an issue I can take off the table these days.  The two I’m working on this week had all that, plus were sung by a then-7 year old who continues to get better.  With a Children’s listings staring me in the face I’ll take some of that Taxi critique guidance and work ‘em over again to see what happens.  And with another Children’s listing looming at the end of September, Keelin and I can work on her next new one.  As she told me, a few more and she can have an outdoor concert!  That part I can’t deny…

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