The Story Behind the Parallel Project

About a year and a half ago I had a very discouraging thought: All the songs I’d written and recorded that now resided on various hard drives—some gathering dust in my closets—were going to wind up in a garbage dump somewhere unless I did something about it.

Although my artistic career was spent mostly as a novelist and screenwriter, I originally came to Los Angeles to become a rock star. I still have the vague recollection that when I first arrived in California, they were not allowing people into the state unless they had a guitar in the backseat of their car.

Long ago I accepted the fact that I was never going to become a rock star. And I am keenly aware that no one is waiting for the next Stephen Smoke album. I get that completely. What bothered me was that I had poured literally thousands of hours into these songs and, unless I did something about it, there would be absolutely no chance these songs would ever see the light of day.

I recorded a couple of albums over the years, including “Trick of the Light,” that included an appearance by one of my heroes, Garth Hudson. He played keyboard (and other instruments) for The Band. Besides being Dylan’s backup band for a while, they recorded one of the Top Ten albums of all time: “Music From Big Pink.” It was a thrill to meet him and hear him play sax and accordion on two of my songs (“Wild Child” and “Lemon Midnight”).

I knew that I could upload and “release” my songs on the streaming services. However, even though I could write and record my songs, and I had released to the streaming services before, if I wanted to put my best songs up on the streaming services, and wanted to control the process, I would need to learn how to mix and master my own songs. I realize that you don’t need to be a genius to achieve that goal–though it doesn’t hurt–but it’s not particulary intuitive either. You need to spend the time learning technical concepts and skills and you need to practice. A lot!

Because this is important to me, I decided to take the time to learn those skills. It took MUCH longer than I thought it would. I used YouTube instructional videos (see my Thank You Page), I joined groups dedicated to mixing and mastering (Joe Gilder’s Home Studio Corner). I hired a friend (Barry Keenan) who, besides being a very accomplished singer/songwriter in his own right, has more than two decades of mixing and mastering experience for his own projects and hundreds of other artists.

For a year and a half, I kept learning. More like, three steps forward, two steps back. And getting feedback was undependable, at best. Friends thought everything sounded great, even tracks that were poorly mixed. Group feedback was hit and miss. Sometimes it was honest and very constructive. Other times it was honest and definitely not constructive. The best advice came from people I learned to trust over time. These people understood what I was trying to accomplish but could be very specific in their criticism. I would go away and work, sometimes for a week or so, to fix the issues they pointed out. Then I’d come back and they would tell where I had succeeded and where I needed more work.

I’m not a great musician, even though I’ve performed live hundreds of times as a guitar player and singer, sometimes on my own, sometimes with a rock band. I’m realistic about the goals I have for this album. I was fortunate to have two great musicians perform on many of the songs—most notably on bass (John Burchett), and piano (Matt Podschweit). They are fantastic players, and I thank them for their considerable contributions to the “Parallel” album.

That said, I know that since I played most of the instruments on the songs, and mixed and mastered them, they are not perfect. As a novelist I understood that I could rewrite and edit a single novel for the rest of my life, but after the first few edits the average reader wouldn’t notice any difference. Ultimately, I reached that point with this album.

Mixing and mastering an album was something new for me. My ears were not educated enough to determine when I had reached the point where I could release it—even if I was the only one who would hear it. That’s one of the things I learned about this process. That point—where it’s “safe” to release my music—really never comes. When you release your music, some people will be kind. Some people will be unkind. But if the alternative is to just let all those songs die on hard drives in a land fill, I’m willing to take that chance.

So, the “Parallel” album is not perfect by any means. But after a year and a half I honestly believe this is the best I can do at this point in my life, using the talent, skills, and tools I have to work with.

If the feedback is constructive—even if it’s negative—I need to have tough enough skin to learn something from the feedback and use that knowledge to make the next release better. I’ve still got about 60 recorded songs besides the ones on the “Parallel” album ready for mixing and mastering. And I’ve got a backlog of new songs I’ve written over the past year and a half and not recorded.

My goal was to mix and master an album that was competitive with other “Indie releases.” By “competitive” I mean, would the average person listening on Spotify hear my album and say, “Whoa! That doesn’t sound right.” I believe I’ve reached that “competitive” level.

I have to admit there were some dark days along the way when I thought I might never finish the project.

Now that the album has been released, I realize that I’ve gotten even more out of this than I thought I would. There’s something special about continuing to learn about something you love. I’ve focused on this particular learning experience intensely for a year and a half. That meant learning a LOT of technical information about mixing and mastering. It is a high-end skill and I am still not near the top end of the learning curve. But I’m making my way up that curve.

Focusing on analytical material is very healthy for the brain. My father was focusing on Khan Academy online courses (e.g., trigonometry) a week before his 90^th birthday. He was sharp and alert. He always wanted to learn something new, particularly when it came to math. In this last year and a half I really wanted to learn how to mix and master songs because it will allow me to continue to write and record songs, knowing that I have the ability to then prepare and release them into the world. Just in case someone might want to listen to them.

One thing is certain: If I don’t release my songs, there is a 100% chance that no one will ever hear them.

From now on, I am 100% certain that that is not true.