Music is People

recording and publishing TV music at The Guild

"Every month, I get an ASCAP check," Mike Egan told us last night at the Guild. "I never know how much it's going to be - sometimes I'm really happy, sometimes I'm really sad. But what's fascinating is to see where my music ends up."

Mike, who has worked a variety of music-industry jobs at places like Island Records, Smash Records and Palm Pictures, sets a goal of writing 25 new pieces of music a year. Some - like a recent submission to Oprah Winfrey - are created with a potential client's very specific needs in mind. Others have more general potential. Mike submits to online libraries and other agencies, often with no idea where they'll end up. That is, until the checks come.

"The songs you least expect to do anything will end up in places that are pretty big," Mike told us.

Don't believe him? Here are some of the resources Mike told us about last night - you be the judge.

Music Dealers

Pump Audio

Sound Exchange

Cut Digital (Mike Egan's site)

a documentary on the history of recording Mike's been working on

the "Legends of Jazz" series Mike worked on

Batavia Battle of the bands

Last night I had the awesome privilege to be one of the judges at the Battle of the Bands at the Eastside community center in Batavia.The event was sponsored by Hix Bros Music and Music Matters A lot of talent showed up and a lot of ear drums were shattered with hard rock, screeching guitars, and original music. Nine bands performed their best songs including Snackrats (3rd place), L.A. Drone (2nd Place) and the winner of the night of free recording time at Backthird Audio went to Plainfield locals One Twenty West with their well polished pop/rock originals. I'm looking forward to their trip into the studio coming up. More details on that later!

 

  

A full load of songwriters for 2010s final studio showcase

Tuesday brought a full complement of songwriters into the studio for our final Songwriter Showcase of 2010. Sarah Hammond sounded great as always, Rozanne Stoman treated to tunes in both English and Afrikaans, and Evan Konc intrigued us with a dark pop tune about - in his words - "lying in a hammock with a beautiful woman who would give you her whole heart if you had a better job."

Alex Lovely impressed us as a relative newcomer to songwriter - with pipes that prove she's been singing a long time. Steve Fiorito cracked us up with some smoking blues about alien abduction. And it was great to hear Wylie Shaffer, who took the crown at one of last year's Showcases, return to try out two songs he'd rewritten with advice garnered last season.

Our judges' favorite tune this month came from the pair pictured here - Karen Tlusty and John Rissman, whose song "Broken Hearted" was at once a groovy classsic-rock throwback and a timely commentary on some of the more painful disasters our world has experienced in recent years.

Thanks for a great season, songwriters! We're eager to hear your feedback so we can make things even better for the next time 'round.

Sarah Hammond Records at Backthird

 On Saturday we had an extended member of the Backthird family, Sarah Hammond, in the studio to record a few songs for her acoustic EP. Sarah is the Sister-in-law of our Studio Manager Anna Hammond. It's all one big happy family here! I'm looking forward to working more with Sarah in the future and maybe do some full production of her catchy pop driven tunes. Sarah also performed last night in our final songwriter's showcase of the season. 

Recording some piano today

 Today we had Mark Schmitt in the studio to record some pieces on the piano before he's off to Iowa University for College to study business and music. Mom wanted some recordings of his playing before he left for school. We are happy to oblige and always happy when our piano gets played! Nice work Mark!