In a few hours my song will be playing on Private Practice!!  Tune in if you can.  I also set up a new site at www.aronwrightmusic.com where you can get a free download in exchange for a tweet on twitter. 
Even if you already have the song it'd be great if you'd do it just to spread the word.  Thanks to my friend Levi Kennedy for making the site he's a genius. 
love
aron

big news,
today i got excited that the weather outside was so cold the tap water was near freezing inside my warm house and i didn't need ice.

also, read emily dickinson poems. especially if you write songs.  the meter she wrote in makes it extremely easy to put music to.  she also had an interesting life.  i wrote some music to this one.

today is my younger brother's birthday, i'm so glad he was born.  easily one of the greatest people alive.  no exaggeration. also, a very talented photographer and musician.

love
aron

these blogs were nice enough to write about me.  Stereosubversion.com
wrote a great review of my record and Jonkmusic.com interviewed me and I rambled on about some stuff.  He also had "To the Country" as his top songs of 2008 which is an honor. 

that's all the bragging I'll do for now.  I wonder how all of you are doing?  There are so many of you I've met through the computer, some really wonderful souls, and I feel shorted not getting to meet you in real life.  someday though. 

Speaking of wonderful people, my good friend Daniel Ellsworth just released a new ep, which I played trumpet on and sang backup vocals on the last song.  He's really good, so give it a listen, and if you ever meet him give him a hug. 

I think about process constantly.  I'm curious about the most efficient way to do almost anything i have to do.  It's the nerd in me.  Also, I get frustrated when I feel there is no way around a painstaking process without sacrificing the end result. 
Recording.
With every second that passes it becomes more plausible to record/produce, mix and master your own music.  With my last album I had three people do those jobs that specialize in those jobs, which is ideal...and time consuming, oh and can get expensive.  I recorded my album in 2006 and it took almost two years before it was prepared to be released. 

My question to you is, How much would you be willing to sacrifice sonically to get more music, more often from an artist you like? 

Does it damage the listener's idea of the song to let them in on the process(hearing the song in stages of development)?

I always love hearing the very first crappy demo of a song, with all the weird ideas that didn't make the cut.

16 months, yes, it's been that long, and many things have happened since then. July rolled around, which was the deadline for making a teacher's salary at music. That didn't happen, not even close, but enough good things have happened to encourage me to keep pursuing music.

I have continually been playing bigger shows at better venues, played more paying gigs, and sold hundreds of cds and digital downloads. I also have had 6 tv/film placements this year: five on the second season of Everwood DVD and one this coming monday on the show One Tree Hill(if you miss it you can watch on hulu.com). This month's American Songwriter Magazine has a really nice review of "in the woods" and was written by one of my favorite songwriters, David Mead.

I'm listing all of these things not to brag, but to thank YOU for making them happen. Every single thing I listed happened because one of you friends mentioned me to someone else. It's crazy really, the power that each individual has just by telling someone else to listen, or burning a cd or sending an email.

I know this wasn't as specific money-wise as the initial post, so if you're a musician just starting out and you want the nitty gritty, leave me a comment and I'll be glad to help any way I can.

This is mostly meant for other songwriters but it also gives you some insight into my songwriting process if you're interested.
Most times I pick up a guitar or sit down to a piano, I come up with several melodies, chord progressions or rough sketches of song ideas. More often than not, I walk away without noting it or recording it in anyway except for what is locked in my brain..if it hasn't been completely forgotten. When I come back and try to play it again from memory it is always different, it has to be, and always seems to be dwindled down to something less interesting than what I had originally created.
The reason I thought of this at all is because I recently got a small recording device which I love called the Zoom H2. It records great quality audio and can be used alone or as a USB mic with Garageband or whatever. I'm not selling anything here (except my music, wink) so I'll let you read more about it elsewhere-it's beside the point.
The point is, the importance of documenting the song throughout the process whatever tools you use. The original idea of a song is almost always the most original and visceral thing you do, like I said before, I think our brains subconsciously try and bring it back to something more familiar.
Also, having an easy way to record and listen back immediately gives you a third person perspective as opposed to the first person you would get from playing from memory. This added perspective makes you weed out the weak ideas and expound on the great ones much faster than you would normally.
The ability to use it with Garageband or Protools makes it great for adding additional tracks and fleshing out the idea even further. I'll try and post some recordings I've done with it the last week or so.
I love all of you. Write me soon to say hi. okay?
aron

Things have changed since my last post...more shows have been played, albums have been bought (digitally), and my faith in the goodness of people has been renewed.

I played a show the other night at 3rd and Lindsley here in Nashville. I thought it went really well, the sound was great and there were plenty of people and I got to play with my good friend Daniel Ellsworth and Richie Lister both of whom are really great artists. I met lots of nice people- one nice lady gave me some money just to encourage me to keep playing music! It's an amazing feeling getting paid for something you love doing and would do regardless of the money. I encourage anyone reading this to find whatever it is you're passionate about and start pursuing it.

The "tangible" album is almost almost done, just a few more design issues and it will be sent off to the press. It seems that many more people than I expected are still wanting a real cd. I've also found a growing number of people buying vinyl LPs which I think is great. I think the young people of the Y generation love the portability of digital music but are also starting to respect and enjoy the experience of putting needle to vinyl and being forced to sit down for a minute to listen. The large album art is also much nicer to feel and look at than cds or a screen. I predict that we might see this trend in other aspects of our lives i.e. hand-written letters, reading books!

Recently I've been trying to really nail down some goals as specifically as possible. Most artists I know (including myself) are terrible at this, but it makes me feel so much better about what I'm doing when I know where I'm going. We need metrics to measure our success. My big goal in my last post was to make a teacher's salary by next July 11th. In Tennessee that's $32,000 gulp! or 2,666/month or about $86/day. It seems like a lot of money to me for playing music, but once I really broke down the numbers it made it much easier to focus.

In the last month I have acquired a business license, formed a music company (Makeout Music Co.), "hired" my friend Jessica Duty to do PR for me, found an intern Justin Clark for next semester, designed t-shirts, I almost have my album finished, I wrote/recorded a Christmas song for a compilation, and lots of other little things as well. I'm pretty proud of myself, if you can't tell. Between digital sales, door money from the one 'proper' show I played, and the kindness of new friends, I have made approx. $240 from music this month. It's a good start. I don't want to give the impression that money is my reason for doing music, anyone that has tried it can tell you it's probably the worst way there is to make money. If it can be done, it will be a blessing in my life. well I'm starting to bore myself. I have more to say but it's mostly redundant. I hope all of you reading this are well and are showing love to others.
p.s. i'm playing my first radio show in knoxville sept. 26th at noon with Quote, the webcast is at www.wdvx.com I'm really excited.



aron

I recently had two offers for teaching spanish in public schools here in Nashville. I think I'm going to turn them down, which is hard because it would make my life a lot more comfortable, but would also take my focus and time away from pursuing music. My goal for this year is to try to make a teacher's salary playing music. Is that possible? I work in a coffee shop now as my day job, so i guess i'll work there until i get fired because I'm playing too many shows.

another rant:
People aren't really buying cd's that much anymore. duhh. I played a show last night at the boro, in murfreesboro, tn which i thought went really well, but I could hardly give my cds away. I know I hardly ever buy music anymore, which i think is because it's literally everywhere we go, and we don't buy albums because we know we won't like most of it. You have to really really love a song to take the time and spend the money to get it, because it's almost just as easy to get online and listen to it for free. This leads me to believe that maybe songs, especially for new independent artists, are better used as marketing tools instead of sources of income. it's more beneficial, in the long run, to give my music away in order for more people to hear it and come see me play.....so the venue gets more money. right. this is just a lot of complaining, i love playing music. sorry

I have just started recording a new album with my good friend Mike Odmark. The album will have 10 songs and will be beautiful. We've finished most of the guitar and vocal tracks and now we're fleshing out the songs. so umm buy one when it's finished, okay? thanks