Suns 'n' Beaches
After I contacted Stu Epps about producing "Everyone Needs A Hero", we quickly came up with 5 more songs to produce. Each song was put on Spotify using the title, "Surfando Pensacola Beach".
I ripped the title off of an album called "Surfando Tingley Beach" created by Dem Bones of Albuquerque. I caught Dem Bones in concert and bought a copy of the album because they were a great band. And Tingley Beach, for those who know about it, ain't much of a beach. It's more like a river bank where Canadian Geese hang out and pollute the water. And at the time, I was interested in blending Blues with Latin. I quickly moved on from this because, as I said, I didn't sing well.
Anyway, I didn't do any singing on Surfando. Stu and Lisa Marie did it all. The extended play (EP) didn't do very well on Spotify. And it's not on sale on my website either. I'm sure one day it will be.
Each song is published by Eddie Caldwell of "Music of The Sea". So, it kind of fit where I wanted to go (back to the beach).
Click the link and hear the quality Stu adds to production. The Love Isn't There
After listening to what Stu could do, the very next thing I did was contact Ken Tamplin. I tried other vocal instructors, who really couldn't communicate the kind of muscle control that's needed to flatten the tongue and open the soft pallet. Ken really teaches the subject. Check out this video.
Awesome job, right? Ken backs up what he teaches by doing it himself.
Ken's the reason why my vocals have improved over the last two years. I still wouldn't consider myself a singer. But now, I can compete. And I don't need to hire a singer to do work I can do for myself now. If you get your free downloads, you'll hear a cover of "Fox On The Run", which was my first recording after taking Ken's lessons. I won't share with you what I sounded like before Ken's lessons.
Lesson learned. Spending a few hundred bucks on vocal training saves thousands of dollars in production costs.
Though it's still hard to make a living at it, thanks to you, CD's are selling without the need for MIPs. That said, if you support my art, I can put out better quality CD's with MIPs than without them. There are much better music producers out there than me. Stu Epps is definitely one of them. I'd like to work with him again on my next album, "Man Over Bored".