How one magician's vision became my first music release... and a dream come true.
Sometimes, it takes a Wizard...
I've been Creating hunks of noise for a diverse range of projects over the years... from talking basketball hoops to singing elves to thumping bass lines played on bells (really), I've done it. Behind it all, there's been this 6 year old who told everyone he was going to be Ringo Starr when he grew up; music has always been playing in the back of my mind when I'm writing and producing audio.
Although I've produced jingles and bits of music imaging over the years, I've never thought of myself as a musician. I might be able to manage some 3 chord grunge on the guitar, or hammer out a melody on the keyboard, but when I've produced music, I've approached it more as a sound designer, assembling it all via MIDI and mixdown. Clapton, Dr. John, Vai, Folds... these are musicians. I'm just some producer who can pound a rhythm together. But sometimes, with a nudge, you can surprise yourself.
My nudge came from a magician named Jay Sankey. You might not have heard of Jay, but if you've seen Criss Angel, David Copperfield or David Blaine, you've probably seen them perform a trick Jay invented. Jay is not only one of the most Creative minds in the world of magic, but he's also a gifted comic and video producer. I met him through my own interest in things magic, but I had no idea what roads he would lead me down.
When Jay found out that I play with audio, he asked me to create music for a comedy Rap song he was going to produce a video around. As I've been hacking together beats for years, it didn't take long to get something together for him. Jay loved it, the video was shot (and was pretty damned funny), end of story... or, not.
A couple of months later, another email from Jay appeared. "Dude, can you do a couple of pieces of music for my next DVD? It's gonna be BIG!!" Hmmm. Music... real music. Not beats, not a meditating V-twin engine... real, honest to goodness music. Hmmm.
Somehow, I got past the "Hmmm" stage, and onto Creating music. Jay's new DVD was called "Kaleidoscope," and I decided to approach it as music you might hear on the "other side of the looking glass;" mysterious, quirky, unique. I did a couple. Jay loved them... and asked for a couple more... then, a couple more. In the end, I ended up writing and producing 15 pieces of music, of various lengths. When it was all said and done... wow. I had actually produced music.
When I finished up the last of them, Jay made one more request. "These kick ass!! You really need to expand them and do your own CD!" Hmmm...
Well, the Wizard hadn't steered me wrong with the music in the first place, so I decided to go for it. What finally developed was a CD release called, "The Sankey Directive," which features 12 electronic/techno tunes I wrote and produced for Jay's DVD. While it's exciting to hold my first CD in my hands (and hear the tunes pounding in my car), There's something that goes deeper. It's a realization that dreams, bubbling under the surface for years, can come true. It just takes a nudge from a Wizard who believes.
So, Dear Game Designer, I'm ready for my next dream to come true... need some music for your next first person shooter?
Check out samples at: http://www.amazon.com/The-Sankey-Directive/dp/B002CKB5A0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1246241129&sr=8-2
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