CyberMinions.net

My latest crash pad on the road to making music... 

I'm doing late night with some of my fave people. There's equipment on the floor, on the fold out table and on the bed. I'm mastering tracks beach-side tonight. I'll be out the door by 6AM so I figured I'd post a tease now because I'm not sure if I'll have time to go on-line tomorrow. I have 1,547 miles mapped out and am planning all sorts of interesting little pit stops along the way. My gal pals are the boss of me when I'm mobile and when my kids aren't around to play TomTom (crooked little grin). My driving schedule is kind of fluid so we're working on scheduling all sorts of mischief in. ;-)

Yes, there will be food, musical pajama parties and lots of blogging going on. It's what we do... I'll keep this post brief because I'm logging into Skype to collaborate with my NaNo under cover writing buddies who I expect are ducking making a NaNoWriMo profile because they are not writing on a schedule (melodramatic sigh). I may have to coordinate a write in and go on lock down at my next pajama party. This is me telling you don't make me drive over there. I will (and you'll be punished and like it - evil grin).

For the curious: I'm wearing grey sweats and a red Bruce Lee tee shirt with VS undies in tow. I was warned the undie wars would continue for this sleep over (so I am behaving during my road trip - LOL).

FYI: The rumors about me sleeping with my Android, Korg, Axiom and laptop while on the road are actually true. Electronics are my version of a cool teddy bear (and I love my Korg - it keeps the cartoons in my head busy - silly grin). ;-)

Skype Shorty

The fun thing about jogging and blogging is the fact that no matter where I run I have either the Nikon or Sony with me. I have thousands of photographs of New York City covering almost every single day of each season for the last 3.75 years (approximately when I started jogging and blogging - silly grin).

I just don't post a lot of it... I used to do Eye Candy blogs all the time but got tired of chasing my wandering photographic work across the Internet. Now I will take approximately 40 shots on a run and use only 1 to 3 (which drives my photography friends absolutely crazy). I recently filled up an 8 Gig simm card but only published 4 pictures on my blog from the entire image collection. The girls are in my files rolling their eyes and cracking wise because they want me to do coffee books. They think I'm wasting all those pictures...

Having such a huge collection of photographs is causing a wee bit of creative differences. The argument unfolding right now is the fact that I want to use this shot for the next album cover since it's continuing the Trip Hop Jazz stuff we are creating in Queens County right now. I like the idea of going from a Fall sun setting to a Winter sun rising Unisphere. My gal pals want to use Central Park...

Why?

If we are recording in Queens why do we have to showcase Manhattan? If we were recording in Brooklyn I'd want a Brooklyn landmark.

Ever visit Turkey Creek in Florida? I did, then created a song, named it Turkey Creek and took my kids and hubby on a two hour hike/photography session for the single cover (LOL). It was a mad fun business trip. My kids had a marvelous play date with their Mama and Papa then selected the artwork. ;-)

I am 46 years old. I think I am capable of picking out a picture without supervision (LOL). We are sitting on stools with our bottom lips poked out like the 3 year olds we are because we all know I need a keeper (LMAO).

Our next album Winter Run isn't due until the end of November so I have time to change my mind (but I really don't want to - sigh). I like my Unisphere... It's big and shiny... It's a famous landmark from the World's Fair (and the Men in Black movies). It screams NYC - Queens...

It's a Mexican standoff... seriously... chicka is Mexican (silly grin).

This is why my 5 year old is in charge of us. We'll be flipping coins next, arguing for 5 out of 7...

Now I have to Skype Shorty... again...

Um... we may be turning that into a song (evil grin). ;-)

Tann Starr - Book Club Blues - Legrand    (Follow @ClaireLegrand on Twitter)

"Hell Kitty" and "Sabina K" are in progress for A Pang and J Wells. We're really getting off in Trip Hop Jazz mode today (silly happy grin). Looking forward to unleashing these puppies soon. I'm having mad fun creating them.

Our new album is turning out to be a real hoot to produce because my 5 year old is the boss of me (insert eye roll here - LOL). I have to hunt down hubby later and make sure shorty Skypes me as soon as he gets off the school bus because I've got new music for him to opine on (seriously people - LOL). For those of you new to my blog, Stephen Isaiah Starr is the mini-mogul PDD-NOS puppet master of the band. For someone who can't read he really is quite helpful with making snap musical decisions. Little Dude is mad funny and stone cold blunt. Very blunt being an understatement. No such thing as tact and diplomacy with the Wee-Why?-Monster (LOL). If I had to describe Stephen, the Minion Blur in a studio setting I would use these words: Does. Not. Kiss. A$$. EVER. If you freaking whomp you will hear about it from both of my kids, but especially Mr. Step (with gusto - evil grin).

My fave frowny face... the one where Step contemplates delivering a b*tch slap (LOL)

Band update:

Since you guys keep asking - yeah, we do have 5 songs already mastered with 6 to go, possibly 8 by Sunday, if Stephen the Minion Blur is on Skype tonight to give his wee people approval. Pssst... Nothing goes on our albums unless both the shorties like it so I have to work really hard at keeping them entertained. If Stephen dances we automatically stop tweaking and start recording. He's our litmus test for whether a song is done or not. Then we e-mail a few to a handful of objective pals to get feedback (because he's only 5 and you really should get a second and third opinion after his first take on the creative matter - LOL). Shorty sometimes hums what he wants played. My job is to figure out what those hums mean or distract Step with the electronic drums (very silly grin).

Right now we're in NYC on a late lunch break answering some e-mail while waiting for the boys to go on-line in Florida. We decided to tease you guys with a sneak peek of one of Claire Legrand's musical spoof author tracks for the Book Club Blues album. I know some of you guys e-mailed me for the "Unicorn" track because of the Vicki Pettersson post but it's not quite finished yet so we're giving you Legrand to listen to instead... It's kind of cool, like her. ;-)

Gotta go... I've got more magical musical silly stuff to arrange, twist and compose so my 5 year old can bless me with a long distance opinion today. I may leave Skype up so he can sit in on the sessions. He likes to be in the creative loop and pick sounds. My Korg-N364 has 2000 voices and is programmable so this isn't work, it's a fun game for us (LOL). That Unicorn track is for him. He really likes Claire's blog. It has pretty pictures and a few stick figures on a mad fun snarky post about writing books that he can't read but really enjoyed (LOL). We heart Claire for that.

Ninja Librarian, this track is for you. ;-)   

Tann Starr - Book Club Blues - Legrand 256kbps by C Tann Starr

Tann Starr - Book Club Blues - Jaye and Tequila (psst... follow @JayeWells - LOL)

I am amazed at how many people wanted to hear this track... Geez... (LOL)

Insanity is being on lock down in the studio for 22.5 hours to make the 90 day deadline.

I am looking forward to sleeping until the next afternoon (LOL). The album is done and I'm still goofing and spoofing with the girls who have already started their bucket list for our next musical project. I never did find that romantic piano piece for the Ivy living with the cartoons in my head but we did have fun making noise and doing other stuff...

87th day and the only progress I've made is Chopin (Prelude in E Min - LOL)

Today is "What would Ivy play?" day where I'm on the hunt for a classical romantic piano arrangement to mutilate (LOL). Chopin was brief and mad fun to add to the line-up yesterday but it's not the moody, soft complicated romantic illustration for today's Tamwood challenge. That was an itchy witch moment for a couple of my virtual buddies in the Kim-Stream I instant chat with who wanted to know what else I do when I'm not drooling over signed limited edition mugs while spoofing and doodling there in Facebook.

Hmm...

Answer: I am spoofing and doodling over here in ActiveRain (LMAO).

Seriously... I live here in virtual life. It's my digital home where I get to be sane or insanely crazy (LOL). ;-)

Psssst... Sometimes, I even go to work (oh joy!) and drive my brick and mortars crazy making them do stuff for me like pose for my sketchbook (insert wickedly evil laughter here because some poses are more fun than others - very crooked grin). ;-)

I will be posting more pages from the growing sketch pile later today so get ready for more artistic mischief. 

I'm with my music peeps right now because I need help looking through my classical music books/sheets for something interesting to mess with. It's a boring, time consuming job because I have to test the sheets out to figure out if I should be playing or not playing with a composer. All of my musical friends play better than I do (I am not classically trained and very clueless about the history of the works - LOL) so twisting each others' arms behind our bantering backs is part of the shut up and do me a friggin' favor musical fun.

I have to post this album to my distributor before the end of the month so I need to get off the futon and cracking on my Korg. Today is audio digital workstation day where I play, tweak, bend and break every musical theorem into pixie dust so I can expand my iTunes catalog (LOL). Looking forward to painting with sound... If we're lucky I will be posting Ivy ear candy later because it's fun. ;-) 

Tann Starr - Vamp - Chopin Prelude in E Minor (Op.28, No.4) by C Tann Starr

In the studio having a field day mastering two new tracks for our next album...

Today is a very good day for artistic mischief (LOL). More portraits, more cartoons, more new music to follow.

Do I enjoy letting the cartoons in my head boss me around sometimes? You betcha!

One of them inspired me to go on a hunt for some eye candy to photograph the perfect motorcycle to illustrate her on.

I love bikes so this was a mad cool photo shoot.

Album cover is done, 6 out of 8 songs are being mastered and I have 2 more to finish recording before I upload the project to the distributor. Will be releasing the Vamp single in iTunes for this week end. There will be a sneak peek at some point. That's part of the fun (LOL). ;-)

 Can't believe I'm telling you before I tell Jessica... "B" the single is live in iTunes

People have been bugging me about not putting this track on the AJ album. I have a lot of unreleased material in various stages of completion and sometimes the collection in progress will inspire me to do a spin off. Daddy needs his own album with a different spin on the kiddies. I've been playing with the ZZ track all day. I may have to release that as a single as well because I'm getting a lot of interesting DMs on this project (and have been dragged into four different fan clubs already - LOL).

It's going to take a few months to find out if we make the Pandora Collection. We gave Pandora two tracks from the album "Drum" to analyze. If they like us we'll get a contract. If not, I'll have to up my game and submit a new musical application. That means composing for Jessica's album just got a lot more complicated (LOL). ;-)

Tann Starr - Jessica Rebecca Klein - B by Tann Starr

Life With Wee People: "A J" the album (Various Artists) is now live on iTunes.

As of this writing, according to iTunes, "Runaway Train" on the "Mama Liz" album is my top song. Since Stephen, the Minion Blur forced my creative hand by requiring I create some wee people theme music so we could crash our hot wheel cars into his train collection in wee people style I find that bit of news very ironic...

That piece of trivia serves to show you that you never can tell where inspiration will lead you. Who knew playing to the whims of a quirky PDD-NOS four year old little minion would trump everything in my iTunes catalog? I didn't see that one coming... bet you didn't either. Now I'm playing to the whims of my Autistic nine year old, Noah, the Net Geek who can watch Tomb Raider all day and is fascinated by Beowulf when not giggling over Kung Fu Panda. Yup. AJ is in Kung Fu Panda. We own two copies (LOL). ;-)

We happen to love Angelina so my kids can have as many copies as they want. If you missed my previous Wordy C dissertation on A J feel free to click this link if you dare. It was a long confession so if you can't handle more than 500 words DON'T CLICK THAT LINK!!! Seriously (I don't want your eyeballs bleeding on my blog - LOL)

Hmm... this is gonna be a long post too because I have to bring everyone up to speed. I am about to answer some Jango Music e-mail. Are you ready? Good. I'm going to the bathroom. Be right back. Go get some snacks and potty too. Seriously (Did I mention this is gonna be a long post? Hmm... LOL).

While working on the Angelina Jolie series (BTW, there are more being created, photographed and filmed) I started playing with the idea of creating a Jazz/RnB/Alternative album to go with the pending "how I create a portrait" YouTubes. My fifth album is different from the rest because although I created the songs on a whim and a dare, I dragged a few adult recording artists along to come play with me on the Ambassadors of Chaos label.

Normally it is just me playing with my kids (and watching them kill my Korg) but I figured it's time I grew up musically and let some talented adults produce me.

This is the part of the show where you discover hubby and the kids are my "go to" people when it comes to filtering my creative moments. The kids more than hubby because I frequently take them everywhere (including the ladies room - LOL). Being produced by a nine year old isn't too bad because Noah is really sweet and thinks of it as a home-school project regarding music is math. Being produced by a four year old is Hell on wheels because he's opinionated and will argue why you have to speed it up, slow it down, change the bloody key, go back to the original or simply delete the offending tracks (usually all of the vocals - LOL).

Um... er... yeah... my kids frequently go into the studio and turn knobs (LOL). They slide sliders, wear head phones and say, "too loud, too loud, no, no, no, no, no" a lot. Collaborating with them can can be fun, however, it's easier with adults - especially when you have people like the Zackschewski Brothers, Jessica Rebecca Klein and Cedric Phatso Tann to bounce ideas off of instead of the delete happy trigger fingers of the learning disabled. BTW, my kids have gifted ears and love music so more often than not they prove to make the right choices in the end. They are direct and to the point when my music sucks. It's kinda refreshing to get honest opinions every single time you need a yes or no.

Stephen participates way more in post production than Noah because Stephen is the boss of everything (LOL). The Minion Blur has demanded a new album. He's planning a shopping spree so we need driving music (LOL). Dude may only get a single this time because Walmart is just minutes away (LMAO).

Did I mention Cedric Phatso Tann is my baby brother? Today is the launch of his professional music career. As usual we all get to keep our day jobs (LOL). Creating is fun. Using social media to create is even more fun. We're all working across a few states so there are times when I will email a composition and simply ask if someone wants to do a remix, vocals, vote to keep or discard a song, etc. ;-)

The next album will hold a few cool remixes of my work, original work from new artists and God only knows whatever else we come up with. I have a movie to score so I can't have this drag on like the last release did (LOL). I am sitting on a couple of tracks now... I'm in jazz mode. I want lots and lots of horns playing...

I was launching two more recording artists on my label today but they kept missing their extended deadlines and I got tired of holding up my other artists/this album waiting for them. Three singles were already in play and I didn't want to release another single, especially since we had so much fun putting the A J project together. We cut four tracks off and launched the final master at 4AM.

Yeah... I work odd creative hours. It's easier to come and go when people are sleeping. Less traffic (LOL).

No boo hoos for the missing four tracks because I started a new music project today and if they behave they'll launch their music careers on the next album (I hope).

Check out the track "AJ" on the sidebar music widget because my next "how-to" portrait YouTube shall play this song. I got the idea from my son Stephen. My four year old believes people should have a theme song...  I am his hot wheel toting theme song writing floor playing Mama who produces music on demented demand for any reason my kids and friends can imagine. The cartoons in my head are pretty demanding too (LOL).

Now I have my poor talented friends doing it because they realize if I can dive in and play in this industry so can they. Who knows what the next album will be like because there's no subject, theme or reason except "lets make an album" (LOL).

Last bit of trivia before I go: Crusado is my nephew Tony's middle name (sister Michelle's son) and also the name of my brother Cedric's new born son.

Do not e-mail me and say the name of my song means "weird cross" in Spanish. I know that. I am not  jamming about a strange cross, I am jamming for both of my gorgeous nephews who share Tony's father's family name (his dad is Frank Crusado). :-)

A J the album... and a few other musical thoughts.

Jessica Rachel Klein's stage name is Jessica Rebecca Klein. You need to know this because when I talk about Jeka there is only one Jeka (so don't let the Jess Rachel/Rebecca thing fool or confuse you - LOL).

You guys remember Jeka, right? My favorite virtual assisting gal pal who is a classical pianist that I high-jacked to model for the cover of these two projects? Yeah... that one... The one I love to giggle with (LOL).

Jeka, Chris and Michael are helping me cook up a fun new album for you. I have been composing for most of the day and am currently in the studio recording some jazz. When I hook up with the Zackschewki's later tonight (for dinner) we are going into dance and hip hop mode because we have a few cool songs that need to be completed and released very soon. I am going to be a guest on their production crew and they have graciously agreed to be a guest on mine. It's fun having talented friends you can play professionally with. We get a lot done between playtime and I'm looking forward to running a few ideas by them.

I also have to send Jeka some files for her buddy Ryan to consider for a possible collaboration. The A J album should be completed by next week so stay tuned for the update and more info on the recording artist guest lineup. If God smiles on me (and Jessica's uses her brilliant, mad cool interpersonal communication skills for my benefit - LOL) I may be adding Ryan Goldstein from Verbal Sideshow to the joint venture lineup for our next musical project. We shall see... He's a very talented and busy man. Jeka's mad busy too. We're text fiends because we are always working on something (LOL). We really do text more than we call (that's how we keep up when we're not playing in FB - LOL). Take a minute to go check out the Verbal Sideshow CD. The first link is to their MySpace page so click this link to read more about them and buy their CD.

Gotta go. Business meeting at 6 pm.

Wait until you see the album cover I'm cooking up for the film. Stephen the Minion Blur would be proud... Of course I have to run a few phone conversations by the wee people before I finish it (because my quirky kids are the boss of me - LOL). ;-)