Forgive me, father, it has been a long time since my last post…
A few months back, Mandi and I were in the studio, editing tracks for my upcoming EP CD (which I had hoped would be finished, pressed, and mailed out to you by now). Turns out there's a lot more work to do than I ever realized.
"What is an EP," you ask?
Imagine going into a really fancy restaurant you know you can't afford, but immediately as soon as you walk in, you get whisked away by the aroma of prime-cut tenderloin together with garlic and herbs wafting through the air. You get whisked away by the ambience of the dim track lighting, the jazz trio in the corner, and the old photographs on the wall that provide a better history lesson than you could get in a year's worth of Houghton Mifflin text. It's one of those restaurants that's too cool not to stop in and hang out for a while, whatever the price. If it were me, I would promptly sit down and order an appetizer for dinner.
All the fun, half the guilt. That, my friends, is an EP. Mine was going to have six songs.
Anyway, Mandi said something very profound to me that day in the studio. "Nicky, these tracks came out so good! This is going to be huge in Europe and Australia. If only we could release it there."
"Why can't we?" I retorted, briefly taken aback.
"Well, it's very difficult to find distribution for an EP overseas. They usually want to see a full album."
Now for an indie cat (on an indie budget) like me, news like this is bittersweet. I'm so excited about the first six tracks we made together I can't stand it, and here's a chance to make even more music with an incredible group of people that lots of other songwriters only dream about. When opportunity knocks, answer the door, right?
But the no-frills, hard-nosed, business side of me winces to think that for every song we add to the project, we pile on thousands of dollars worth of additional costs for studio time, musicians, editing, mixing, mastering, etc etc etc.
Now I know what Jason Mraz meant when he said, "I have no regrets that I bet my whole checking account because it all amounts to nothing up in the end…"
And Mandi makes a good point — this really is the opportunity of a lifetime for me. And for once in my life I don't mind putting all my eggs in one basket.
(Insert more clichés here to imply going for it.)
So it's back to the drawing… er, writing… board for me. I've got four new songs I'm working on for the CD. Bring me the steak, Pierre! This appetizer just won't do.