My Next CD

I've been starting to get questions from people asking me when I plan to put out my next CD effort.

Good question!

I've been thinking that myself, actually. In the back of my mind I had the idea of hitting the studio this Fall and trying to put out the release by next Summer. That is still a possibility, but what is more likely is getting into the studio during the early part of 2010 for a Fall release.

There are several factors that have held me from releasing a new album over the past couple of years. One thing has been my schedule. I have had such a dense schedule the past couple of years (thank goodness) that I simply haven't had the proper time to plan anything out, or to write new music for that matter. The second factor, and perhaps the most significant, is that I became a father last Summer. Anybody who is a parent knows that you can't get a whole lot of work done when you have a baby around.

All that in mind, there are a few reasons present as to why I can't start on the album right away (this Fall). Probably the biggest reason is MONEY.

Even though I'm signed to a record label (Tierra Records of Dortmund, Germany), I still have costs to have to cover from out of my own pocket. Simply put, the label I'm signed to is a small independent label and their budget isn't such that they can simply throw me 15 or 20 thousand dollars to do an album and properly promote it. Most of their help comes on the distribution end and in helping me with sales overseas.

Another hurdle, which is somewhat related to money, is the fact that I need to write some more songs. How does this relate to money? Well, on my first album I have several cover tunes (jazz standards) that I recorded to help give listeners some tunes that they may be familiar with so that purchasing my album wouldn't be such a risk for them.

What many listeners don't realize is that by doing so I had to pay a good amount of money in licensing to be allowed to record and sell those cover songs...nearly $2,000 extra on top of the other costs involved with recording and manufacturing the CD. Bare in mind, that I was discovered by Tierra Records AFTER I had already completed the album. So, all of the expenses were completely out of my own pocket.

My next album will be all original compositions to both help me get MY voice out, and to help me cut costs.

I have been stirring some song ideas around, but I'm taking my time. I really want this to be put together right and for the songs to be right for what I think my next move should be musically. At the same time, I realize that it's been awhile since I put out my debut album and I don't want it to be too much longer before the next one is released.

So, with that I think I will end this post. But, one thing is certain. I would definitely like to have a new album out by sometime in 2010.

Online Communities

I've been keeping pretty busy lately and haven't been able to get away to leave a post in a spell. My initial, unspoken goal of putting up a blog post at least 3 or 4 times a week has evaporated! The fact of the matter is that there are just so many lines of communication that I have open, it's getting tough to keep track of all of them.

As of this moment, in addition to trying to keep this blog up to date, I'm also trying to keep my website current, I have a monthly email blast to construct on an ongoing basis, and I'm on all of the "big 3" social networking sites: Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace. Not to mention I have a Youtube account that is painfully neglected. Most of my attempts to stay on top of all of these different sights are thwarted by my normal, day to day activities of being a dad, trying to keep our house from falling on top of us (or just plain trying keep the house at all!), so on and so on.

One thing I have to say about all these social networking sites is that they have been great in getting me in contact with friends and relatives who I have not seen in a very long time. In fact, an old childhood friend of mine recently contacted me who I don't believe I've seen since perhaps 2nd or 3rd grade! I also get to talk to a few of my close friends that I don't get to see in person very much because of my performance schedule, or our respective family lives.

My venturing into the social networking scene was somewhat calculated. I first joined Myspace a couple of years ago as a marketing experiment. I learned a few things from that experience, but mostly that it is an over saturated media to try and get your voice heard as a musician. It seems that everybody and their grandmother is trying to promote their band on Myspace, making the whole experience a little overbearing.

Facebook was my next move. Oddly enough, I didn't join because I wanted to market myself. My first objective was to find a lost family member that I had evidence showing that he may be a Facebook member. My second objective, and less important to me at the time, was to try and find a booking agent that I had been told about.

The result was that the person who I thought was a long lost family member wasn't who I thought he was (the search continues), and the booking agent turned out to not actually be a member of Facebook. However, the booking agent's name was very similar to the name of an old friend and former girlfriend of mine and caused her name to come up in the search results. It lead me to the discovery of someone I had not seen in something like 15 years or so. In fact, my wife and I just recently had dinner with her and her husband. We all had a great time and she and my wife really hit it off!

So anyway, I guess online communities are cool and all because you can keep in touch with people that you may not be able to keep in touch with through other more "traditional" means, but it sure is a handful juggling your attention between them!

I'm Feeling That Itch Again!

After being the sideman for a few other groups who had big concert productions this year, and having the opportunity to play a couple of gigs with my own guys, I must say that I think I'm starting to get "the itch".

It's not the sort of itch that can be cured by using any kind of lotion. The only way to get rid of this itch is to put together a concert production for my quartet and monitor the ticket sales.

The last major concert production I had for my quartet was in 2007. I had the opportunity to put together a production at a 1,200 seat concert hall known as the Patchogue Theatre in 2008, but that fell through because of a lack of sponsors and the start of the economic down turn. Since that time, I've had my quartet in some high quality performances, but it's just not the same as having a box office dedicated to the sale of tickets to concert goers who want to see you as the headliner for a real live concert hall.

One thing I have to keep in mind though is timing. There are a bunch of factors that I must consider before setting the wheels in motion, and one of them is the fact that I would really like to have a new product (ie. album) available by that time because my debut album is now almost 3 years old and there's nothing new to offer my fans and listeners. I think I will have to concentrate on that first. But then, that means that I need to start writing some songs! I haven't written any new songs in 4 years!

As for which venue I will pick, it probably makes more sense during these tough economic times to go smaller with the concert venue. The expense of the Patchogue Theatre, even with them offering me a break, was high in comparison to the amount I could probably expect from ticket sales from concert attendance. I would prefer to go with a venue that seats any where between 150 - 300 seats, because I'm confident that I could fill that many seats...at least here on Long Island. The best candidate is the Boulton Center, which is a venue I'm already familiar with from having performed there as a sideman for "Jack's Waterfall" 3 or 4 times. Also, the people who run that concert hall are familiar with me and have already shown an interest in having my quartet there.

I'll have to sit down and figure all this out, but I really need to scratch this itch!

The Latimer Legacy

I come from a family that has strong ties to the arts. Aside from my cousins who have performed and recorded with some major names in music, and of course me carrying that musical torch, there is also my uncle who is a painter, and my aunt who was an acrobat and dancer in her younger days.

And now I wonder, with my 10 month old daughter constantly around me and my musician and artist friends, will Alyssa have some kind of involvement in the arts as well?

The picture that you can see over in the above right hand corner is of me and Alyssa relaxing on a couch that was backstage at the Boulton Center for the Performing Arts in Bay Shore, New York. This was a couple of hours before I had to go onstage with "Jack's Waterfall", which is a band that I love to perform with when they need to have me in their line-up.

At this point I've had Alyssa backstage with me on a few occasions and she has even been present for some of my live performances and educational lectures. She knows it's me onstage too because she reaches her arms out at me and yells for me so I can come over and pick her up. Laughter and smiles come out from the audience and it makes me wonder what is going to become of her with all this public attention and adoration.

There are so many similarities between the two of us that it's almost scary. For example, I often mention on my blog how I always am on the go or am on some kind of schedule. Alyssa seems to need constant activity and to see new things as well. And, she already has a good sense of schedule because she seems to understand that her favorite TV programs come on at a certain time, and God forbid if we aren't near the television at THAT time! Also, it looks as though, just like me, she will skip the crawling phase all together and go straight to walking. Then there is the little fact that we both share the same birthday...though I guess it's more HER birthday now!

So anyway, I guess I need to wait about 20 or 30 years to see what she will end up doing with herself. I really don't care whether she gets involved with the arts or not, as long as she can at least develop a healthy appreciation for them. As for me, lately I've been wondering what my legacy or the Latimer legacy will be. I'm the youngest Latimer male left in my family, with the next one in line being at least 15 years my senior. Hopefully, the Latimer name will mean things like hard workers, trust worthy, dependable, serious, intelligent, and imaginative. And, hopefully, that will be a legacy that Alyssa finds herself both inheriting and continuing.

Self Evaluation

Now that the tour is over with the Gail Storm Blues Band, I really need to concentrate on salvaging the practice routine I have tried to embark upon but have failed miserably at keeping consistent.

Thus far, I haven't achieved a single thing. Not a good admission considering that I'm a full time musician, and I am keeping my practice log in a public domain. But, if anything, I think it helps to illustrate the point that musicians lead very busy lives and the stereotype of partying all day and night can basically be thrown out of the window. The past couple of months have been so busy for me with gigs, prep for the tour I just came home from, household responsibilities, fatherhood, trying to book gigs for my quartet, learning music for other artists' projects, and what have you, that practice time to improve my diminished skills has been difficult if not nearly impossible to find.

So, in any case, I will jump back onto the wagon and try again...starting TODAY!

Swing Back Home

What a trip/tour! The gigs I had down here with the Gail Storm Band was nothing short of killin'! Without fail, we brought down the house in every venue we have played at, and every last owner wants us back...and soon!

The past year with Gail has shown me that if anything, we have all the ingredients of being a very successful group because we apparently have that "something" that touches people. That is a rare thing for a band to have, and I don't think it's entirely the music in our case. I believe that "something" is the chemistry between us and how much fun we have playing together. It's something that everybody comments on.

So anyway, this will be a very short blog because we (my wife Renee and I) are only minutes away from needing to check out of this hotel before we get charged extra. We had a lot of fun down here. The south certainly swings! But now it's time to swing back home and hit the groove of our normal day to day situation. But one thing I know is that we'll be back!

On The Road

I have forgotten how tiring it can be doing gigs on the road. The past few days I have been on the road with the Gail Storm Blues Band down in the south. My wife Renee was able to join me and we have turned it into a working vacation of sorts.

Right this moment I'm in our hotel room in Hendersonville, North Carolina getting ready for the gig the band has in Asheville. This area is gorgeous, as it's in the Blue Ridge Mountains! Unfortunately, with scheduling the way it is, Renee and I haven't had any time at all to check out what's around.

We had an interesting gig last night at the Brown Street Club in Greenville, South Carolina. We definitely turned the place out! The owner had never hired a band from New York before and judging by how much he, his staff, and venue patrons were raving about us, there's no doubt that he'll be having us back when we swing down here again in about 6 months or so.

Gail hired a local drummer name Kris Hyatt to play with us because her regular drummer Bernice couldn't make it down here. Kris was great and definitely represented Greenville well...he handled all of Gail's weird cues like he had been playing with her for a few years!

The only negative thing is that I don't think it was cool that the Brown Street Club didn't take care of dinner for us. I felt that was rude considering that every other place in or out of the state of New York that we have ever played at gives us a meal, and also because: A) they had people driving Ferraris coming into the place and B) the place was packed!

Tonight we will be at Tessa's Jazz and Blues Club in Asheville, North Carolina. After how well we performed last night, I'm really looking forward to tonight's performance. Which reminds me, I have to get going so that I can get ready for this gig!