Spending Spree

In the last few days, I've been on a spending spree. I've purchased a boom mic stand, a spider shock mount for my Oktava Mk-319, a pro audio surge protector, a sample CD, a pair of monitor headphones, and an address stamp for the record label. I'm working on a track that sounds like a No Limit throwback beat that I'm creating from the new sample CD I just purchased. I'm not even going to rap complex over it, I'm just going to ride the beat and have fun with it.

I'm now #19 on Reverb Nation's local Hip-Hop chart. Competition has become much more intense after I entered the Top 20. After two days stuck at #20, I had to readjust my promotion campaign to compensate. Now I'm rising again in ranking. I added the past shows from the fliers I recently found to my Reverb Nation page. I updated my current artist bio by integrating information from my old bio that I found along with the fliers and press clippings. I had forgotten about doing show production for Jars of Clay, Chris Rice, The Florida Mass Choir, Guardian, and Across The Sky (all of which are Christian/Gospel acts). I also got a couch from my day job that they were going to throw out and I'm in the process of cleaning it up before I drop it off at Daryl's studio.

I've been working on cleaning up the studio room in my condo. Its almost to the point of being functional once more. But the recent surge of activity that I've been on hasn't come without its drawbacks. I'm having trouble juggling my dating life with my business life. I operate on so little sleep that I require energy drinks, eye drops, and extra prep time before going out on dates just to appear alert and well-rested. Even then, I still find myself spacing out at times when my mind temporarily shuts down due to fatigue. But no pain, no gain....

Busy, busy....

I joined the Lexington Area Music Alliance the other day. I'm now at #21 on Reverb Nation's local Hip-hop chart. I've begun working with my boy Darryl, who I used to rap with back in the days. So far, its going great. He has as much drive as I do when it comes to making moves in the industry. Also, I don't think I've met anybody that has as much knowledge as he does about underground Hip-Hop. Normally, I stump people all the time when I mention underground rappers and their albums. But he was able to tell me things about most of the underground rappers in my iTunes library that I didn't even know about. He literally has as many albums on his hard drive as I did on my last 3 hard drives put together.

I've started cleaning up the junk room at my condo and reconverting it into a recording studio. I also just found a bunch of old resources in the attic at my parents' house including a Stanton turntable, a pair of noise canceling headphones, a small pair of monitor speakers, an electric typewriter, two CD labeling kits, a stack of solicitation postcards for submitting demos for magazine reviews, four CD racks, my old master tapes from back in high school, and a folder containing all of my old show fliers and press clippings. I spent the evening integrating the new stuff into my office/studio room. I also added the press clippings to my Reverb Nation profile.

On my way to my day job I got a call from a woman who was an extra in the Secretariat movie, asking me if I heard anything about a red carpet event here in Louisville. The only thing I was able to find was an advanced screening a week before the movie drops (but by no means the first screening, since several major cities have already had screenings) and next week there is an unveiling of an exhibit at the Kentucky Derby Museum that is in honor of the movie. Other than that, I couldn't find anything. Its kind of strange receiving cold calls ever since I got listed on the Kentucky Film Office directory. While at my day job, I ran into a beer rep and got his contact info so I can talk to him about getting some promo materials for the record label launch party.

I'm going to turn it in and get some sleep now. I have to record with Darryl tomorrow after I drop off my printer/copier/fax machine at the repair service. Peace.

A Dream Come True

Today was a great day. I received final confirmation that I've been selected to work on the movie "Daylight". I also received word that Future Music Magazine has selected "On Lock" as one of the 3 readers' demos selected for full feature review in the upcoming issue. This includes an article, picture, plugs for my webpages, and my song featured on the CD that accompanies the magazine. This is BIG. Future Music is to the United Kingdom and Spain what Recording Magazine and EQ Magazine are to the United States. A large amount of big time industry people are going to read about me, hear my music, and be provided with a way to contact me. My phone will start ringing much more than it already is real soon.

In other news, I advanced to #36 on Reverb Nation's local Hip-Hop chart. I listed Chamber of Night Records in the various phone book directories so it'll be listed when the new ones come out. I talked with Club Envy and Prime Lounge about hosting the record label launch party. I tweaked "Chromed Out Spinners" some more, adding reggaeton-style air horn sound effects at various points to hype it up a little more. I also submitted "On Lock" and "Nod Ya Head Musick" to The Magic Hour internet radio show (hosted by comedian Magic Jackson in Atlanta). Tomorrow, I'm going to the Lexington Area Music Alliance meeting and joining as an artist (I'll have Chamber of Night Records join as an organization later). I'll try to take it easy on the music tomorrow because I have to catch up on my reading for my upcoming test.

Tough weekend...

I had a tough weekend between my day job and entertainment industry work. I went to a film audition in Evansville, Indiana for a film called "Daylight". I'm going to be working as audio mixer and gaffer behind the camera and I'm going to compose music for various scenes and make a cameo appearance as an extra. After I got done with the audition, I went to downtown Evansville to see if I could find one of their entertainment newspapers to get a pulse on the city since the last time I was in Evansville, it was a performance at The Funny Bone about 5 years ago. Downtown Evansville was a ghost town on a Sunday. Nothing was open except for the casino. Not drug store, not restaurants, not bars, NOTHING. I know that the recession has hit Louisville badly, but Louisville's recession is NOTHING compared to what Evansville and its surrounding area have been going through.

I was eventually able to find a News 4 U magazine at the casino's hotel lobby. I'm going to launch an Evansville promo campaign for the label's music since I'll be up there repeatedly for the film. Also, I'm thinking about putting together a comedy show that I might want to bring into Evansville. The Funny Bone is gone, but there seems to be a Comedy Caravan up there. I drove back to Louisville, then went straight into the day job, functioning solely on caffeine and sugar. I got home and managed to do a minimal amount of online promotion before passing out from exhaustion.

Earlier this weekend, I made it into Reverb Nation's local Top 100 Hip-Hop chart on just the 6th day of having a profile on there. As of right now, I'm ranked #77 locally (and still climbing). My new goal is to make the local Top 20 in the next week. On Saturday, I attended the CD release party for Eddie & The F*ckMonkys, a band that I used to jam with back in the days at Highlands Tap Room in Louisville. It was great to see that they're still going strong after 10 years. I also ordered business cards and promotional refrigerator magnets for Chamber of Night Records. Today, I'm mostly going to catch up on my reading for this upcoming test. Tomorrow, my main focus will be securing a venue for the record label launch party so I can begin focusing on creating fliers and radio ads for the event. On Wednesday, I'm going to sit down with Fella and officially sign him to the label.

Another late night....

Today I submitted "On Lock" for review in Future Music magazine (creating a SoundCloud profile in the process) and tinkered with my Facebook, Myspace Music, and Reverb Nation profiles before going to work at my day job. I came home after work and launched an Indaba profile for myself and figured out how to add annotations to my Youtube videos (if I had figured this out before, I would have had several times the subscribers and views that I do now). I also added some search engine optimization to the front page of ChamberOfNight.com and added the P.O. Box address of the record label to the bottom. Eventually it will be moved to a contact page and most of the content currently on the fron page will be moved to a Godhand profile page later. I just needed some content up and viewable ASAP. The site will begin to look more refined as the weeks go by. I'm going to do as much of the initial HTML coding as I can before I see about paying Ermin to remodel the front page.

Its already past 2:00 AM again, which is not out of the ordinary for me to be up working on this entertainment industry stuff well past this time. I function on only a few hours of sleep each day, but for some reason I don't feel drained. I look forward to the challenge of each new day. Tomorrow I'm going to work on getting review submissions sent out to regional publications. Hopefully, I'll have enough time to stop by the gym. I need to make full use of my membership even though its farther away than the last gym I belonged to. As much as I would love staying up to see the new Reverb Nation chart ratings as they're posted, I need to also go on campus and schedule an appointment at the testing center for an exit exam for my associate degree in emergency management that I'm working on. But anyways, I'm signing off for now. Be back tomorrow.