Lots to catch up on, but it is super late, well super early actually so I’ll cut to the chase. Fair Gemstone is about to be released. Behold the album cover.

The tracks went to mastering a couple of weeks ago in the very skilled hands of Barry Gardner of Safe and Sound Mastering. He gave me homework to do each night which involved making minor adjustments to my mixes and then sending them back. Within a week, all the tracks have been mastered. Presently they are off to distribution via CDBaby. The album will be just about everywhere…iTunes, Spotify, Amazon MP3, Rhapsody, Youtube Music and much more.

This album was a lot of work, and I was sure to keep a promise to myself from the beginning. “Do everything about this album right.” Worked on my mixes, had it professionally mastered, licensed album art, the whole nine. I look forward to sharing this album with all of you.

-Movestro

Yes, it’s been a while for sure. About a year and a half since I last posted, actually. Well, life got in the way, but in a good way. I’ve taken on a new hobby in that time which took more time than I imagined. However, I ‘ve finally reached a place late last year where I am able to achieve balance. And this means…I’ve been working on the album, and I owe it to my friend Scott who gave me an eye-opening talk on a Vegas visit in October. Since then it’s been about making time, this year it’s about balance.

Now, when I say I’ve been working on the new album, I should mention that I mean I am readying the tracks for mastering. The songs are done, right now it’s about final mixdowns, exporting stems and getting them all nice and ready to be sent off for mastering. October was a real eye-opener. That night I went to my hotel room, queued up my songs and critiqued what needed work and what didn’t. Since then I made the final selections of what will go on this album and what won’t. So far I am pleased with the outcome. Thanks for hanging in there, whoever you are, and I understand if a lot of you gave up. But, this is the year the album comes together.

-Michael

Until next time…

These songs are for a genre I first fell in love with during my youth (ah, my youth) and this style of music has never left my heart. New Age music. Not New Age music in the sense of whales, light rain and a Native American flute in the distance (though I love that stuff, especially when the wife and I…umm…nvm!). More like Enigma, Enya, Deep Forest, Adiemus and some amazing piano stuff like George Winston. That very first Pure Moods album was just the most amazing thing I have ever heard up until then. It was the 90’s, and it opened my ears to a whole new aural experience.

That was 20 years ago, and I am 20 years older and 20 years wiser. I’ve learned that sometimes life gets in the way of dreams and sometimes those dreams take a hiatus. As a creative person I’ve explored my creativity outside of music via video editing, special effects, radio hosting, and even attempting graphic design for a short stint… and poetry. In the end, I choose music, just as music chose me when I was 5 and hit two notes on my grandmothers piano that actually made sense. Music has always been my heart.

I remember in 1993, 17 year old me started taking myself seriously and recorded my very first song. I used a Yamaha PSR 500 and a Yamaha SY22, up all night at my friend Kevin’s house (and I had school the next day). I was so proud, it was the realizing of a dream that maybe one day I could compose and record just like my newly discovered music idol…Yanni. Yes Yanni. Got a problem with that? Anyways, I recorded some songs here and there using those two keyboards and a 4 track cassette recorder over the years that only friends and family heard. A few years later, I think it was 1999, I had an idea… my first “real” legit album.

My friend Larry introduced me to mp3.com which at the time was a haven for unsigned artists (not the mp3.com it is now). I was on a recording streak. My album got picked up by a Japanese publication and next thing I knew I was best new artist, with 9,000,000 downloads in the Mood Music genre (my artist name at the time was ‘LoneSaint’. I guess you could say I was really big in Japan before Japan was big in Japan. What brings me back to that is I just really loved making music. Over the years, that still hasn’t changed. As I approach 39, I long for things that no longer exist. PLlces I’ve been to that have since been torn down, faces of people who changed as people or moved or passed. I look to the familiar and instead find memories. But my love for making music is still the same, and I really need that.

With my upcoming album I want to do everything right, down to the last note, last word, last fold in the CD liner notes (yes there will be CDs as well as digital). I want to give it my absolute best shot ever. Because in many ways, this is the return to my youth (the return to innocence…ok I just had to make an Enigma reference). This is the embrace of that passion, and I want to be a contender. I want to see my name right up there on New Age websites with Enya, Yanni, Delerium, Adiemus and…Michele McLaughlin.

A bit about Michele McLaughlin…I have been fortunate to have some very amazing musicians follow me on twitter and I tend to try to learn from them as much as I can about promotion, what they do to get their music heard. I’ve learned that simply uploading an album to the internet and hoping somehow that people suddenly know of it, just doesn’t work. For some reason, Michele followed me on twitter at just the right time. Her name sounded familiar, as if I might have heard her on Soundscapes Music Choice at some point. Anyways she followed at just the right time because that very day I was questioning whether I should pursue the album, because I thought that I’d probably be the only one to care (as if loving what I do musically wasn’t enough of a reason…pfft). What intrigued me about Michele though was that she reminded me that this dream of mine is not only achieved by the ridiculously famous who were in the right place at the right time 20 years ago when this music movement took off. She’s around my age (maybe less), she has a kid, she makes the time, she lives the dream and her new album ‘Undercurrent’ debuted at number 3 on the Billboard New Age Charts. NUMBER 3!

Young Michele was like young me, with a keyboard and a cassette deck making songs for friends and family.

Suddenly, I realized that I don’t need the brand recognition of Yanni or one of the heavy hitters of the genre. The dream is still obtainable–even for folks who never had a PBS special–so long as you are consistent, talented, and care enough to do what you can to get your music heard by as many people as possible even without the power of a major record label. Michele following me has probably been the best thing that happened to me on Twitter (right next to when Hans Zimmer followed me during my orchestral/filmscore phase) just because it made me see that you don’t need to chase the dream, you make the dream. (Oh yeah, just a few days ago she won Best New Female Artist and Best Instrumental Song at the IMC Awards!)

Odd, when I sat here determined to do a post I had no idea what I was going to write. Look at this! I got to get to bed!
Until next time….

I wasn’t too happy with the last redesign, mostly because of how it would butcher images, and it just didn’t seem to have a good flow for what I’m using it for. This one is much more versatile of a template to work with. All the features aren’t even enabled yet but I’m sure that my site will be growing into it. There’s still a few subtle tweaks I’ll need to make in coming days, but nothing too complicated. This template is great to work with and my options and workflow are limitless. Now back to working on the music (which is also coming along swimmingly).

Download here:

Joy to the World

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Listen here:

Thank you for enjoying my music and have a Happy and a Merry (your holiday here)!

See you in 2013!

After deciding to have a private proposal, the planning began, 3 months in the making. I told Angie I wanted to back up our photos, so she gave me her external drive (she’s taken lots of pictures during our relationship). I sorted them as moments through the years and started the editing process. First thing, I needed music. Well, I’m a composer. So I made a new updated version of a song I wrote for her 4 years ago. I wrote completely new music for the beginning and then brought in the familiar tune (she realises this at 2:07).

I was only able to work on the song when she wasn’t home, once a week, because I was paranoid that she would hear it through my headphones. On the final version I did a mastering process to make it sound the best it possibly could through my PC speakers.

After the song was complete I started putting the video together, again working on it once a week, because when I tried to work on it while she was home, she’d walk into the room and I would quickly change program windows on my computer and act all casual, but I started to wonder if Angie might have thought I was watching porn. After many revisions to the video the next part was how to record her reaction so we can share it with friends and family.

I setup my webcam and ran “rehearsals” of where she would be seated and where I would be standing, adjusting for height. I tested to make sure my PC could handle recording video while playing it, success! Then I ran into a glitch, the webcam had to be positioned behind the speakers, which meant the audio of my proposal would have been drowned out by the music. Solution: Record audio separately via Voice Recorder on my iphone, using the headphone mic as source placed towards the front of my desk close to where my head would be when proposing, then sync it with the music audio in post.

Another problem, now the mic was in front of the speakers and the audio would still drown out the proposal, so I went into the video editing program and faded down the music for the time that I would propose and then fade back up to after she would have said yes (hopefully). I re-rendered the video and did another rehearsal. It worked like a charm!

On the day of the proposal (my boss let me work from home) I called Angie’s dad early to ask for his daughter’s hand in marriage, he said “Of course!” and sounded a bit choked up, and he gave me his blessing. One “yes” down, one more to go! I waited to the same day of the proposal to ask him because it sucks to hold a secret from people when you’re dying to tell them and I didn’t want to put him through keeping it a secret for too long, so I told him “before you go to bed tonight you will get a call”.

This was planned to be a “trifecta”: video of memories, a new edition of her song and of course, the proposal. It was a stressful 3 months, and when the moment came I was extremely nervous, as she was watching the video next to me I felt my heart pounding. My main thought was not to let go of the ring box in my pocket once I located the hinge so I don’t open it backwards, and not to miss my cue, and the whole time my brain was like “OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG”, pretty much why I look statuesque in the video lol. However, all’s well that ends well

I have been having a great time working on the new world fusion/ethereal album. Actually, it doesn’t feel like I’m “working” on an album at all and I think that’s one of my favorite things about it. It’s nice to have fun with my music, it’s like I’m in my element again.

As another summer comes to a close here in Rockaway Beach, NY, it was the most different one I can remember due to the affects of Super-storm Sandy. A beach with no boardwalks with the exception of one block concrete “concession islands” spaced every 8 blocks. Forbidden access to some parts of the beach due to erosion, and to other parts due to dredging. I almost didn’t expect this secret summer vacation destination to have much life this year, but the affects of a storm didn’t stop the faithful from coming out.

Multiple generations of families come out to the Rockaways every summer, staying in summer rental apartments or in the few remaining little bungalows left. Some of these summer homes have been passed down from one generation to the next over the course of many decades.

Tonight, the beaches will officially close for the last time of the year, sending our visitors from Brooklyn and Queens home until Memorial Day 2014. The summer renters will pack up their cars and head back to their respective states to get the kids set for school. The beach will return to it’s natural ambient sounds of crashing waves and squawking seagulls.

Not all the summer vacationers leave today though, the oldest generation (the grandparents) usually stay on for another week, and enjoy this quiet time with each other after their now-adult-offspring and the grand children leave. Soon enough they to will go back from whence they came and if the license plates of cars on my block are any indicator, that would be New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maine, Connecticut and Florida.

Here in the Rockaways, tonight is the night many summer renters are packing up their belongings and summer memories and headed back home. I however, live out here year-round in a bungalow that has been weatherized for all seasons. So to me, it’s still home–only the neighborhood will be a bit quieter again.

The work on my upcoming album is coming along great, and it is the most fun I have ever had working on my music. I can’t wait for you to hear some of it when the time comes.

Happy ‘last day of summer’ in many respects.

-Movestro

Now lets get to the songs…

Into The Tunnel leads off the album and takes you into the journey with a quipping bass and influences from other cultures, representing the melting pot that is New York City and the diverse commuters of it’s subway system.

Canal Street was inspired by an asian man playing an Erhu in the Canal Street station. The track itself is reminiscent of a stroll in China Town on a bright day, while observing the busy markets and the scent of delicious cuisine.

Lefferts was inspired by Lefferts Blvd and it’s Indian culture. The track contains various plucked strings and Indian influences.

Wining The Empty Seat is the celebration of that joyous moment when you rush into a train with hoards of other people who, like you, are competing to get to the final empty seat. You size up your opponents on the platform and then the train comes into the station. The train stops, the doors open, and you’re off! You use wit, clever body manipulation, and speed to beat everyone else to the seat without looking like you were trying. You won the empty seat! Songs may not be sung about it, the news won’t report it, but deep inside you know you won a great victory! A calm excitement comes over you and you remember to smile on the inside only, as smiling on the outside might get you shot after defeating your fellow commuters.

Running Local is a song composed one of the times my Downtown A express train ran local because of “train traffic” or a “sick passenger” or “police activity”. The conductor will use a different excuse at each stop when in most cases they were not informed as to why the delay or reroute is occuring. Like the extra travel time, the song itself is subdued and drawn out, good for relaxation and keeping yourself from crawling in your skin when you realize you will now be home an hour later than expected.

eYah eYEAH was written for the times the local train goes express. It’s a feel-good kinda song.

Signal Problems at Jay Street is a common occurrence for delays on the A train. The station was originally called Jay Street/Borough Hall but renamed to Jay Street-Metro Tech when they converted it to a much needed transit hub. However when there are delays because of signal issues, they revert back to the name Jay Street/Borough Hall in their announcements and tweets to prevent the Metrotech name from being tarnished. True story.

NYeve, can be pronounced naive. It can mean two things really: New Years Eve which is when this song was written, or New York evening. It’s up to you. Either way, the song represents an exciting night in New York City.

Eyes Shut with Ears Alert – That’s how you “sleep” on the train. Ever see people asleep on the train but as soon as the train gets to their stop they wake up and get off the train? That’s how it’s done. No one should ever fall asleep on the subway train, ever. In fact it’s best to be alert at all times. However if you really need to relax, close your eyes but keep your ears open, don’t actually sleep. Cause someone might try to snatch your stuff. Putting the leg through the strap of your bag wont do much if someone can just open your bag and help themselves to its contents while you’re asleep and drooling on your shirt. This song (inspired by Deep Forest and Delerium) represents those stages of subconsciousness when you are tired, your eyes are closed, your head is down but you know not to sleep.

Overheard on the Downtown A is recorded audio clips of various in-transit-entertainment performers. Sometimes you get a dance crew, or some singers, or a crazy guy rambling for your entire commute. Sometimes its people asking for money, sometimes it’s people selling candy or DVDs. Sometimes you get people saying they work for charity organizations and will even have a fake i.d. from a fake organization and claim they were sent to the trains to collect money for either the homeless or for children and sometimes just for homeless children. However, as panhandling is illegal on New York City subway trains, no real company would send employees out to panhandle. Anyways, this song contains recordings of some of the best I have recorded as they usually come around from time to time as I’m trying to compose music on the train.

Happy Organism has a Homestar Runner feel to it. It’s basically a silly happy song.

Wacky One is the song I was composing as some crazy guy was rambling for my entire trip. He must have affected the song because it sounds a bit eerie and wacky, just ike he did. Thanks crazy rambler!

Glimmer is a song with no particualar meaning, it’s name inspired by the glimmer of little sparks from the train wheels quickly shining against the walls of the tunnel as I was thinking of a name for this song.

The Waters is about the awe-inspiring views from the Downtown A train when leaving Howard Beach Station and heading to Broad Channel and then on to Beach 90th Street. Leaving Howard Beach Station at just the right time of day as the sun begins setting, it looks as if the waters are glowing. Facing the left you can see planes ascending into flight from JFK airport. To the right, you can see a series of bridges such as the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial bridge, the Marine Parkway bridge, and the Verazzano stand tall over the bay. It really is the best part of any subway ride I have ever experienced.(UPDATE: Due to damage suffered by Hurricane Sandy, this stretch of track will be closed to the Summer of 2013. Much of the track bedding was washed away and as this was built on marshlands, it will take months to fix.)

Stuck Between Stations was written as my train was, you guessed it, stuck between train stations surrounded by the dark abyss of the tunnels. In a way it’s a metaphor. How many times do we find ourselves feeling stuck between where we came from and where we want to go in life while surrounded by uncertainty? Deep, right? Well relax, this stuck-in-uncertainty feeling only lasts for 2 minutes and 51 seconds. Too bad they can’t all be that way.

Well, there you have it! I hope you enjoyed this album as much as I enjoyed working on it. Feel free to share it with your friends, acquaintances, social media networks, the pool boy, etc This album is a free download here.