Category Archives: CD Project

Seeing Stars CD Launch – Update July 2012

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I have been very busy of late with some day gig (web design) projects hence, the lack of blogging at the moment however, I thought I’d give you all a heads up as to where things are at with my CD launch plans.

Pre-Ordering My CD
As well as pre-ordering my CD online via PayPal, you can also pre-order “Seeing Stars” direct from me.

All you gotta do is shoot me an email or message me through Facebook with your Name, Delivery address and contact email and phone number and between us we’ll work out how I can make this pre-order happen for you.

The “Seeing Stars” Songbook
I’ve just started work putting together the Seeing Stars Songbook and it has me really thinking more about my songs and my songwriting process in general.

I can tell it’s going to be a very valuable experience for me putting this all together which will translate to an awesome experience when you receive it.

The Bonus CD
I have all the bonus CD tracks set up ready to be included into the Pre-Ordering package. Some are first off acoustic demos of the songs that didn’t make it onto “Seeing Stars” and some are the completed songs but are not mixed and mastered.

I may put some of them through my studio and add some more tracks to them if I have time. That would be fun :)

The Band – “The Chosen Few”
I’m still waiting on confirmation from a keyboard player to join up, but the band is pretty much ready to start rehearsals.

The Chosen Few are:

  • Darren Zaza – Electric Guitars, BV’s
  • Craig Kelly – Bass
  • Tim Irrgang – Drums, Percussion
  • TBC – Keyboards
  • CS – Acoustic Guitars, Vocals

Rehearsals will start in early August but in the meantime I’ll keep you all in the loop as to what’s happening there. I’ll also try to get some rehearsal recordings and some footage online when I can.

All in all it’s full steam ahead for the CD Launch. I’m planning to do some video promotion in the next week or two so watch out for that.

One main thing that I’ve learnt from doing all this is that life never stops, it just keeps evolving and getting more interesting with each day that passes.

All I can say is BRING IT ON…

Peace,

Corey :)

CD Project Update #27 – You Can Now Pre-Order “Seeing Stars”

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Now that I’ve finished recording my debut CD, “Seeing Stars” (which has been two years in the making but about 25 years in its development) I’m giving everyone the opportunity to pre-order my CD for only $25.

This offer is only available from May 1st until July 31st, 2012 and with your pre-order you’ll receive:

  • My CD “Seeing Stars” signed by me.
  • One free ticket to my CD Launch on **Sunday, October 14th at The Promethean
  • A 10 track BONUS CD of unreleased demos.
  • A copy of the Seeing Stars Songbook.
  • Your name on the CD credits.
  • My complete and utterly heartfelt gratitude towards you and your family.

**Note the change in date of the CD Launch

If you like, you can pre-order more than one CD so your friends and family don’t miss out on the action as well.

Your pre-order will be shipped to you by the end of August and I’ll even pay for the postage.

Remember, it’s only $25 so to take advantage of this limited time offer, all you need to do is go to my Pre-Order CD page, click on the PayPal button and follow the instructions provided.

Go on, have a go…You know you want to.

Peace,

Corey :)

CD Project Update #26 – CD Mastering Now Complete

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The recording part of my CD officially finished yesterday with the mastering of the recorded tracks completed by Neville Clark at Disk Edits. I was there with Anthony Stewart of Red Brick Music to witness the whole thing.

The process of audio mastering has always been a mystery to me. I know roughly what it is and where it’s placed in the  recording process, but if you asked me to explain it to you in more technical detail, my mind would draw a complete blank.

However, by watching Neville at work, it gave me a little bit more insight into the mysterious world of audio mastering.

 A t the end of the five hour session both and I were given audio reference discs with all the  finished tracks on it. This was so we could give everything a final listen and make note of any changes that would need to be made before we both give the final OK.

That should take a week.

The songs are also in the final CD release order so listening to the disc will give me a chance to see if the proposed order actually works as a whole. I’ve loaded all the tracks onto my Mac and I’m listening to the songs as I’m typing this.

I’ve got to say, the songs are sounding AWESOME!

Now with the recording process officially over, I can now concentrate on:

  • Getting the CD Pre-Order campaign up and running
  • Start officially promoting my CD Launch at The Promethean
  • Anything else that needs to be done (my to-do list is growing every day)

Ah, the joys of being a performing songwriter… I wouldn’t have it any other way :)

CD Project Update #25 – CD Launch: Change In Venue/Date

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I just wanted to let you all know that there has been a change in plan regarding the “Seeing Stars” CD Launch venue and date.

I’ve decided to take a leap of faith and go with The Promethean (which was my first choice anyway) instead of The Brunswick as the launch venue.

The reason for the change in venue was pretty simple. Space and capacity.

As I’m working towards a target of 150-200 people to come to my launch I’ve realised that The Brunswick would not be able to accommodate that many people whereas, The Promethean is more purpose built to handle what I’m wanting to do.

(The Promethean also has a Grand Piano and its own PA system that I can use as well which really sealed the deal for me)

So, in light of the change of venue there’s also a change in the launch date.

It’s been changed from Saturday, June 30th to Sunday, August 26th as it was suggested to me by the manager of The Promethean, David Grice that a Sunday mid/late afternoon show would be an ideal time for the launch.

I know that it’s added another couple of months to the timeline but it will give me all the time I need to really promote the launch and to rehearse the band to its fullest potential.

Once again I’m excited.

Peace,

Corey :)

PS: I’ve also booked the mastering of the CD for Thursday, April 26th at Disk Edits. More details as they come to hand.

The “Seeing Stars” Songbook

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In the spirit of keeping you all in the loop with what I’m doing, I just wanted to run something by you all… It’s an idea for a different type of product or merchandise?

It will be called the “Seeing Stars” Songbook.

It would be a book with the lyrics and chords for all of the songs on my “Seeing Stars” CD on one page and a detailed description of what the song is about and how it was written on the other page.

I reckon it would be something a bit different to have available at the CD launch however, what do you think about this idea?

  • Is there anything else you’d like to see in the songbook?
  • Would this be something you’d be interested in owning?
  • If so, how much would you be willing to pay for such a product?

I’m looking forward to your honest and candid feedback as always…

Peace,

Corey :)

CD Project Update #24 – Final Mixes And The Mastering Process

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Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been helping Anthony Stewart at Red Brick Music complete the final mixes of all the songs in readiness for the mastering process which will be done later on this month.

The songs sound absolutely fantastic and the feedback from the select few people that have heard the finished songs is very, very positive.

The more I listen to the songs as they are now the more proud I am with what I’ve achieved.

For me, this CD will become the start of an amazing journey.

It will be a journey which will enable me to revisit what it is to be a performing songwriter and musician playing my own music rather than the music of other people.

It will also be a journey that will hopefully propel my music career up into the next level or two and with that, will come the profile, the touring opportunities and the professional satisfaction of doing my own thing that I have been working so hard for so many years.

All that needs to be done now with the songs is the CD song order to be finalised and a little bit of “top and tailing” of all the tracks and they are ready for mastering.

According to WikiPedia, mastering is “…a form of audio post-production, the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master); the source from which all copies will be produced (via methods such as pressing, duplication or replication).”

This means that once this process is over all that is left to do is to physically create the CD.

I’m really starting to get excited now.

Peace,

Corey :)

CD Project Update #23 – Non Musical Activities

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Over the past week I’ve been mainly busy getting stuck into creating the CD artwork plus finalising the CD launch date and the venue.

Yes that’s right… I’ve finally decided on when and where my CD is going to be launched. It will be on Saturday June 30th at The Brunswick Hotel.

For a long time I was going to use the Promethean as the launch venue but, I changed my mind.

I chose June 30th not because it’s the end of the financial year but because it was on the weekend closest to the 2nd year anniversary of when I actually started the process of making this CD (June 26th, 2010).

I chose The Brunswick as the venue for four reasons

1. I already have an ongoing relationship with the venue and its management via the Open Mic I run there every Thursday night.

2. There’s no hire fee for The Brunswick compared to the $500 hire fee I would need to shell out for The Promethean.

3. I can use my own PA system at The Brunswick rather than use the house PA if I were to play at The Promethean

4. I can choose my own date for the launch at The Brunswick instead of working the launch around a busy schedule at The Promethean.

The Brunswick booked me with no hesitations.

I’ve made some changes with the CD title as well. I was going to call it “Out With The Old, In With The New” to signify the releasing out into the ether, old and new music but now I’m going call my CD “Seeing Stars” instead

This decision was based on a fair bit of feedback that I received from you guys that the original title seemed a bit dark and gloomy and not necessarily fitting in with what I was trying to do with the CD.

Fair enough call I reckon…

For the consistency of marketing message I’m also going to base the CD artwork and typography on my current online presence – My website and associated social networking profile avatars.

Everything is still in its early stages but already I can feel the momentum starting to happen. I’ll definitely keep you all posted when more development come to light.

In the meantime I just got to keep moving forward.

Peace,

Corey :)

CD Project Update #22 – Recording Done, The Fun Now Begins

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As predicted in my last CD Project Update, I finished recording all of the tracks yesterday.

It was a strange feeling though, like I was saying goodbye to my songs because I had worked so very closely with them over the last 18 months or so and in that time, I had gotten to know the songs inside and out.

Now I have to let them go and be mixed, mastered and packaged into a CD that I’ll be very proud of. No more overdubbing, no more studio experiments… That’s it, finished.

It all seems very final doesn’t it?

I must say though that my songs now (with the knowledge that there’s a CD coming out) take on a whole new perspective when I play them live. It’s like the time that I’ve taken with them in the studio has given me a whole new outlook on how I can present my songs in a live environment.

As a live performer first and foremost, I’m very, very excited by this realisation.

Another reason that I’m excited is that today I started on my CD Marketing Plan. I want to make sure that I can get everything done by April to June of 2012 as this is when I want the CD launch to be held.

Hopefully by that time people have recovered from the madness that is February and March and would be ready to start going out again even though it’s the end of Autumn/beginning of Winter.

I can now see that the recording of the tracks was the easy part. Getting everything to the finished product stage is where the fun truly begins.

As usual I’ll keep you all posted…

Peace,

Corey :)

CD Project Update #21 – A Revised Timeline

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I was in the studio on Wednesday (23rd November) and completed the backing vocals to “Don’t Turn To Me Now”, “Jigsaw” and “Seeing Stars.” I’ve only got the backing vocals for three more songs to go and all the recording for the CD will be done.

Man that is going to be a load off my back but of course that doesn’t mean that the CD is ready to release.

The next step after recording is for the tracks to be mixed down and balanced by Anthony Stewart. After discussions with Anthony about this, we’ve worked out that this next process is looking like being finished by the end of February 2012.

While the mixing of the tracks is taking place I’ll be making sure that the artwork for the CD will be completed by the same time. Once this is done we are then well and truly on the home stretch.

With the mixing and the artwork completed, all that needs to be done is for the tracks to be mastered by Neville Clarke at DiskEdits and then for the physical product to be printed and put together which will be done by Alec Gheude at Pro Advanced Media.

Only after all of that will I then have my own debut CD in my hot little hands. I’m anticipating that this will happen by the end of April 2012 so there’s a little bit more of a wait ahead for me but I tell you what…

It’ll be well worth it.

Peace,

Corey :)

CD Project Update #20 – Not Long To Go Now

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My sincere apologies for the sporadic nature of these CD Project updates. I’ll try to do better from now on :)

In the months since my last CD Project update, the recording process has been a little stop/start with illness or unavailability of either myself or Anthony Stewart getting in the way however, I’m happy to say that all of the instrumental recording were completed a couple of weeks ago.

The Running Sheet

The only thing left to do now are the backing vocals.

Yesterday I had Alex Frost come in and put some vocals on a couple of songs “Seeing Stars” and “A Girl Like You” which turned out really well.

Alex Singing

My goal was to get all recording finished by the end of November and I’m happy to say that this goal is still very achievable.

I’ve now finalised the 12 songs that are going onto the CD. They are (in alphabetical order)

  • A Girl Like You
  • Don’t Turn To Me Now
  • Half Hearted Man
  • Jigsaw
  • Just One Kiss
  • Leave It All Behind
  • Missing You Already
  • Nothing Stands In Your Way
  • Seeing Stars
  • Shadows
  • The Back Of My Mind
  • We Can’t Get Together Anymore

I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the tracks that are left over but I’m leaning towards giving some music away as a way of promoting the CD. I’l keep you all posted as to what I decide.

I think now is the time for me to start putting together some ideas for the design and the pre and post launch promotion/marketing of the CD. Maybe a photo session is going to be needed as well.

So much to do, so little time.

Peace,

Corey :)