I’m going back into the studio this Thursday, December 10th with the great Joby Baker (www.bakerstudiosltd.com). Joby is a great producer and anyone interested and serious about recording their music should seriously consider working with him. He’s very fast at finding and hashing out your sound. He’ll take your home grown songs and turn them into radio hits.

There are a few things I take into consideration when I’m looking for a producer. One of them is money for obvious reasons. I’m not rich and going into a recording studio can easily end up costing anyone a small fortune. For what Joby does and how fast he works his rates are incredibly affordable and approachable.

Another thing i look out for is quality. If I’m going to be spending hard earned money on a recording i want the end result to match the effort it took me to make the money. Nobody wants to pay for crap. But what you get with Joby is not only a great price but an amazing end result exceeding way beyond my expectations.

Chemistry is another factor in the whole design. If you don’t have good chemistry with your producer then it might be hard to see eye to eye. I found when working with Joby that he always listened to my needs and wants while at the same time offering a different point of view in a very organic and welcoming process. I never felt threatened by his creative process or that my tunes were going to turn into something completely different from how i envisioned them.

So if you’re out looking for a great producer who’s patient, offers a rockin price with an amazing end result that’s Grammy quality then i highly suggest Joby Baker. I know i’ve blogged about him before but i simply can’t stress the importance to my fellow musicians of how easy it makes the recording process when you’ve found such a gem. If you don’t believe me then head on over to my Coming Soon page for a listen:

http://ericharpermusic.com/unity/erics-new-album-coming-soon/

Photo by Dean Kalyan. (www.deankalyan.com)

Lyrics. Now there’s a difficult subject for me. Something that alludes me. Confounds me and even stresses me out when it’s time to sit down and write them for my songs. It’s not that I’m a particular talented lyricist. Far from it. I lack the natural skill other lyricists bare and find myself spending weeks, even months just on one song.

But one tool has stumbled into my life and facilitated the process. That would be the inspiring and very easy to use website: www.rhymezone.com! It’s great! You can type in a word and not only find a rhyme but also find it’s synonym AND antonym! It’s definition and even relating sounding words. There’s plenty of options for the hobbyist and the pro lyricist.

Some people write the words first and then the music. Whereas I find my first tendency is to compose the music and then write the lyrics. (Even though secretly I think having the words first is much easier). But lyrics aren’t the first thing to pop into my head. Music is. So when the music comes I must abide and not argue with it, but merely acquiesce to its calling and accept what comes. Only after do I see that the lacking 50% is the half I have very little talent for.

But not having talent for something has never stopped me from learning about that subject. If I suck at something then I know it’s clear that I need to get better in that thing. Just like if I see my picado work is slow compared to my arpeggio work then it’s very obvious I need to focus on my picado. Same goes for ethics and humane qualities. If I lack patience and focus then it’s very easy to see that that is the direction I need to go in order to become a better human being.

So, I may not be good in writing lyrics but that doesn’t mean I just bow my head and accept my suckiness. But rather rise to the occasion and improve the suck!

It’s not every day that you find yourself living your dreams. I’ve been a musician ever since I remember. I’ve recorded many times and have played in many countries around the world. And every time I think I’ve felt as if I was always “close” to my dreams. But never quite hitting the nail on its head, so to speak. Well, I find myself in Victoria, BC, Canada recording my own songs with the magnificent producer Joby Baker (www.bakerstudiosltd.com) and more over-joyed than I can remember being.

It’s really truly amazing what a professional producer can do. Not only take your songs and bring them to life, but a great producer can take them to the next level. Higher than you could ever imagine. I sit here in awe at the mixing and producing capabilities of this man while my precious songs take on a life form I never thought they could have. Truly inventive.

What happens is that, say you have a song you wrote. You’ve finished the whole song with melody, chords and lyrics you’ve trudged over for weeks (or in my case, months!) Now it’s time to take it to the next level. You need to get it recorded. Where any kind of recording is ok. You can most certainly plop yourself on a chair and hit the record button on your nifty Mac Book Pro and then upload it to youtube. (Astounds me how many people become famous like this). However, I’m more of a fan of great “creative” production. The kind you’d hear on a Pink Floyd or Radiohead album. But i don’t necessarily have the knowhow to do it. That’s where a great producer comes in hand. Someone who knows just how to put the right mic with the right preamp in the most acoustic-friendly room in front of your favorite luthier-made nylon guitar. It could be a Neumann U47 combined with a M147 right around the soundhole and 12th fret combined with a lovely dripping Chandler pre. Or a good ol-fashioned  Shure tube mic with a harmonious Ridge Farm Gas Cooker  pre. (Not too common but great sound).

Needless to say, this is a language i am not fluent in. I’d be better striking up a conversation in some café with a Portuguese stranger than try and attempt my skill at producing. Just to make my point: If you have great songs you believe in, then please, find an amazing producer and get them properly recorded. Best place to start looking is find out who the producers are that produced the bands you love. Or, in my case, just go to Joby Baker!

I began my musical education around the age of 7 or 8. I started with piano and only after 3 months I was sick of it. I don’t think I was sick of the piano, per se, but simply didn’t feel a close bond to my teacher and as a young kid I got bored very easily. After those three months I told my mom I wanted to play the drums. Pretty easy to understand why, as my older brother was a drummer and I wanted to be just like him. So began my education in drumming. I must have taken marching band classes just about every year up until the 8th grade of school. I was never that good at it merely because, well, I never practiced. It wasn’t until the 7th grade, where I discovered the guitar that I fell in love. I became so enthralled in that instrument that I would stay home for 5-6 hours a days practicing. HA! Something was surely amuck when mom and dad had to eventually take my guitar away because my grades were faltering.

It wasn’t but 3 years after that when we packed our bags and moved to Portugal. I’ll never forget that day in Portugal when, at the age of 15 that my mom gave me two options. She said: “Do you want to go to a normal school or a music school?” WOW! I was so amazed. I mean, A MUSICAL HIGH SCHOOL! I had never heard of such a thing. I made reply: “ARE YOU KIDDING ME! I’M GOING TO THE MUSICAL HIGH SCHOOL!”

HAHA! I was so happy. Nothing could have been more enticing or awe-invoking than a musical high school (what they call in Europe a Conservatory). Back then I was a gangly, tall, pimple-faced, bad-posture walking, long-haired (almost down to my butt), only dressed in black, heavy metal guitar player. My favorite bands were Metallica, Rush, Iron Maiden and Megadeth.

When I arrived at my new MUSICAL HIGH SCHOOL! I obviously did’t speak the Portuguese language, but that was ok. All my peers there, for the most part, could speak some for of English. Whether it was a polite “HELLO!” Or some form of a structured phrase like “You have cold?” (Which took me a whole year to figure out that they were asking me “Are you cold?”)

So, I walk up to my new classmates and say: “So, this is a music school, huh?” (I’m on the heals of my feet, kinda rockin’ back and forth while my head bobs up and down from excitement.) They respond with a smile “Yes!” Then I ask: “Know any Megadeth?” To which they replied “Who?” I think: Oh right, this is Europe. Megadeth probably hasn’t made it over here yet. BUT THEY WILL!

Then I ask: “How about any Iron Maiden?” To which they reply, “Never heard of ‘em.” At this point I was starting to get a little nervous. If they didn’t know Iron Maiden, and Iron Maiden was from Europe, then what did they know? I knew there was only one last test so I asked. “Um…you guys obviously know Metallica then, right?” To which a quick, cold water-in-the-face reply was: “Nope!”

I stood there gaping a little before regaining composure enough to ask “But I thought this was a music school” To which they all smiled like the Von Trapp kids in the Sound of Music and said: “IT IS!!! It’s a CLASSICAL music school!”

“WHAT!” I was so put off. I was stunned. I mean, I didn’t mind classical music. There’s nothing wrong with it. My mom’s a classical musician and there’s nothing I love more than listening to her play. But there was NO WAY I was going to become a classical musician. My plans were set! I was going to become the next Steve Vai or Joe Satriani and write songs better than Metallica, Megadeth and Iron Maiden combined!

Well, I guess fate had something else in mind. So began the 5 years of classical music study in a little foreign country just on the boot end of Europe called Portugal.

Ok, so the simple truth is that I play with nails ONLY on my right hand. And because I hit my guitar so hard I actually use acrylics. That’s right boys, I schedule a bi-monthly appointment at a nail salon where I have a lovely Vietnamese lady paint on some unbreakable acrylic nails. Why? Simple. So that I don’t break them while playing.

But let’s back up a bit. Some of you may be wondering why I even use nails (on my right hand) in the first place. Well, you see, the technique I use (Classical and Flamenco) requires that yours truly use nails to play. Without them I can’t get the particular sound I’m looking for. Now, some of you out there might be guitar afficcionados, newbies or hobbyists wondering just how long or short to maintain those pearly white plastics. For me, I find that a balanced blend of nail and flesh is the best match for the sound I’m trying to create. What happens is that if you have too much nail plucking the strings then you might run into having a sound that is too bright and shrill. On the flip side, if your nails are too short and you’re using mostly flesh, then you’ll run into the opposite problem of having a sound that is too dark and muffled. So to balance everything out make sure your nails are properly manicured (yes, I said it…MANICURED) to where you have enough of a nail to flesh ratio.

Also, with my technique, the second (and equally as important feature) is that you’ll need to make sure your nails are manicured from southwest to northeast, at a slant. Look directly at your right hand, where your knuckles are facing you. When you look at your nails in this position you’ll see that my nails are manicured diagonally from left to right following the pattern of southwest to northeast. This way, when you go to play your nylon guitar you’ll have the proper nail shape to achieve the warm sound that I achieve when playing guitar. To polish off the final touch make sure you round off all the edges of every nail before playing. Oh, and ALWAYS make sure you stretch before playing. I’m the worst advocate of this rule but it’s incredibly important for longevity and for avoiding those tendon and arthritic annoyances.

Hope this helps all you nail fanatics.

What moves me to write songs? Many things, I guess. It might be a beautiful island view of some picturesque sunset against a calm ocean blue. It might be the latest hit by K’Naan off his latest record “Troubador”. (I particularly like “Take a minute” off this album. SOOO GOOD!)  It could be some movie I just saw in some dark theater that allowed my childish imagination awaken. It could come from anywhere. Inspiration is a funny thing. It comes when it comes. And all us artists know that we’re merely slaves to its designs. It might come at 3:41 in the morning or during your favorite late night tv show. It might come when you’re most incapacitated, sitting there on the toilet unable to reach for your instrument or recording device. (Which in my case has usually been my trusty cellphone. When I get a melody running through my head I’ll go into video mode and sing into my cell. Nifty!) Or it might even come when you’re actually sitting there strumming some nonsensical patterns on your guitar. The latter, I find, is the least typical way that inspiration decides to descend upon me. Most often times it’s the most inconvenient of ways deciding rather to visit me when i’m nowhere near my guitar and instead i’m in the dressing room of Le Chateau trying on a pair of jeans that caught my fancy.

People have asked me if music comes first or lyrics. I would have to say music. And in most cases in the form of melodies rather than rhythms or harmonies. I’m not much of a lyrics person. Even though I spend more time on my lyrics than on my music. Don’t get me wrong. I see lyrics as being just as important as the music. It’s just that, as opposed to music, I don’t have a natural ability to write lyrics. So, i’m stuck spending more time searching for the right word for every syllabic musical cadence. I’m the type of person who will listen to a song for months before taking the time to ever even notice the lyrics. I was once so in love with this one particular song from this one particular band (No, i’m not gonna say who so stop asking) and when i finally decided to hone in on the verbal content i lost all taste for the song. I mean, the lyrics were so awful and distasteful i just couldn’t listen to the music anymore. I guess the reason why i almost never pay that much attention to lyrics isn’t because i don’t enjoy them but  perhaps because i grew up with a mother who’s a concert pianist. And as she would, for obvious reasons, only play instrumental music, i was thus not really surrounded by an environment or tradition of verbal expression. So, as it is, when i ask for inspiration it almost always, with a 99% accuracy rate, comes in the form of music and almost never in the form of words. Thus, i stay up nights and spend hours upon days trying to find the right word to lock into my melodies. Go figure that i should be blogging. lol!