What's Going On?

As I sit here listening to Marvin Gaye, I figured it'd be a good time to sum up some of the recent activities of this freelancer. The frequency of my blog posts has dropped considerably these last two months, but that's actually a sign of being busy, not a lack of things to discuss.

For starters, you probably know I've been working on a website with my friend Dave Hahn. I've been trying to brainstorm new articles for that site as well as find more guest writers to share their stories as musicians.

I've also been recording with Lauren Zettler, a process that has influenced a few posts here. We're shooting to have an EP done by the end of January.

And of course I'm writing a lot of music. Not only for my new album, but also for Collective Pursuit and some songs that seem to be just for the hell of it, not really sure where they'll end up. This song is still in the works although I haven't done much work on it since I started traveling for the holidays.

Speaking of Collective Pursuit, I've been arranging some of the tunes from Life Is Loud for the larger ensemble. Currently I'm working on "Chester Bustamante." When I first came to NYC, I was re-arranging music for an octet to be played by a trio, but now I get to go the other direction. I'm finding this process a whole lot easier.

You can also find me on some other social networking sites like Twitter and now Tumblr. Twitter is where I'll post some short, random thoughts or links I find interesting. Tumblr is something I'm still trying to figure out, but for the time being I'm posting an mp3 everyday. Each track is something I've worked on. It ranges from Life Is Loud to the hip hop band I played in back in college.

Finally, the holidays are a good way to stay busy. My wife and I spent a week in St. Louis with our families and friends, and are now in San Antonio visiting her dad. It's amazing to see how things change with time. We're still close to many of our high school friends (in fact, my wife and I started dating 11 years ago, while we were in high school). These are people that really feel like extended family, in that you start moving in different directions and maybe don't have that much in common after a while, but you still love each other and enjoy hanging out together. These are the people that inspire and encourage me to keep doing all this. I'll probably reflect more on 2008 later, but for now, let's just say it's been a tumultuous year and I'm looking forward to smoother sailing in 2009.

Thanks for reading.

Recording, Releasing, and Performing Cover Songs

Here's a recent article I wrote on using cover songs as a means to connect with your audience and help boost your sales.

My Hidden Funk Band Agenda

I've been playing with Collective Pursuit for about 6 months now have a secret agenda to turn it into my new funk band. That's not to say it will replace my trio, but I'm starting to do more writing for the larger ensemble along with arranging many of my trio tunes for the group.

When I was in Indiana, I had a similar group which recorded in 2004. Those recordings make up most of my first album. I've pulled out several of those tunes and updated them for the group so far. The rest of the tunes on that album are with my old trio, which at the time was guitar/bass/drums. Those were more straight ahead jazz tunes.

I love the energy of a larger funk band, with poppin' horns and a deep bass groove. But upon moving to NYC, my plans of reforming the funk band met with the daunting reality of organizing the group (many props to Katie Chauvot for organizing and running Collective Pursuit for doing just that). So I ended up putting a trio together and for the love of funk, re-arranged some of my charts for the trio.

Then I got around to writing strictly for the trio, and that's how Life Is Loud was born. I've grown to love playing jazz/funk in my trio. There's fewer lines of communication and therefore fewer boundaries while improvising. When the tune abandons the ink, it's generally a sign things are taking off, not crashing because half the band is lost.

But after writing some funky new jams with James Brown inspired horn lines for Collective Pursuit, I remember why I went to all that trouble to organize the funk band in Indiana. I have definite plans to release a new trio album in 2009, but who knows, maybe I'll be adding a straight up funk record to the agenda as well.

To find out when Collective Pursuit is playing, check my calendar.

"Untitled" Progress report

It was a busy weekend, with gigs Friday and Sunday and a Christmas party on Saturday. Not to say I wasn't writing, but I wasn't writing for this tune. In fact, I came out of the weekend with three more ideas: a funk tune for Collective Pursuit, another possible trio tune, and something else that would work in a singer/songwriter context. Who knows when I'll complete those ideas, but I'm hoping to do a good bit of composing and arranging over the holidays.

The point of writing tonight is just to point out that this is part of the creative process. It's probably similar for a lot of people. It's impossible to just work on one idea at a time. If I narrowed my focus to just this one tune, I'd miss out on some potentially great ideas. Balancing all of these, along with whatever other work I may be doing, is the real challenge. Multi-tasking is one thing, but multi-composing can really max out your mental capacity, at least for half your brain.

"Untitled" - New Song in Progress

Last night a new idea came to me. I'm never sure where these ideas come from, but it's probably a combination of the music I listen to all the time mixed together, combined with my constant revisiting of the material I've already written for the new album. It all gets mixed together and the ideas come to me while I'm in the shower.

The idea last night, like most of these ideas, hits me as a complete tune. Sort of like instant improvisation, where I just hear the whole band playing the chart and everything locking together, including the solos. It's similar to having a song stuck in your head, but it's a song you've never heard, or at least don't think you've heard. The trick is to hone in on the heart of the tune and replay it in my head for a while. As soon as I wash the shampoo out of my hair, I run to my notepad and jot down the idea.

Sometimes the heart of the tune is the guitar part, melody, a certain riff, whatever. This time it was the drum part, with a little bit of a bass line mixed in. I wrote this down before I went to bed:

And another beat:


This is pretty common for me. I get two ideas, one usually a response to the other. The first beat is the "A" section. I'll probably start this tune with just drums playing that beat to set up the groove. I'm generally pretty liberal about the hi-hat part, and this tune is no exception. Quarter notes feel right for the time being, but as we break it in, I'll let Kenneth do whatever he wants.

The beat is without a doubt influenced by Clyde Stubblefield and the beat to James Brown's "Say It Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud)" which I've transcribed before. In JB's tune, the hits are on 2 & 3, similar to my "A" section. I moved the hits up to 1 & 2 for the "B" section. However, the tempo is brighter and I often shift my back beat off beat 4 of the first measure of a two bar phrase. I mean, let's face it. That's just funky. I also feel it moves the music forward through anticipation. Similarly, the 16th notes on beat 4 of the second measure in the "A" section (that's a mouthful) will create a lot of energy. Or noise. We'll see.

Today I got up and played the beat a few times on my imaginary drum set. The bass line, which will probably be initially doubled by the guitar, started coming back to me. I didn't write it out the night before because it simply wasn't sticking with me. This morning, the idea morphed slightly. I manipulated it a little more to create a more interesting (yet subtle) chord progression as well. Here's the bass line for the "A" section:


There would be a C-7 on the first bar, Ab-6 on bar one "and" of 4, and E9(#11)/G# on beat 3 of the second measure. That just changes the colors slightly. I chose these chords in part to tie into another song that'll be on the album. It moves from an Ab minor sound to the E lydian dominant sound. I will be working some other thematic material from some of my other new tunes as well. That's all part of tying this album together as a complete thought.

Tomorrow I'll spend a little time developing the melody for the "A" section and maybe figure out what I want to happen over the "B" section as well.

If you're not yet bored out of your mind, I'd just like to add that when the next Coldplay album comes out, please listen closely for any of these motifs! I need to retire somehow...

Making of a New Album

I've been writing the music for my new album for a while now (this is for the jazz/funk organ trio), but it happens in spurts. First two tunes, then three more, and now I feel another rush of creativity coming on. This time, I'm going to walk through my process of composing music for my trio. I have no idea how this will work out. I could end up scrapping the idea before it's done. Either way, you'll get to see me nitpick every rhythm and note and be happy you don't live with me while I work through the creative process.

My next album is, for lack of a better term, a concept album. Life Is Loud was a reflection of my move to New York City, and while I approached each tune with the same frame of mind, I didn't fully understand what I was writing until halfway through. Also, I wrote several of those tunes for a guitar/bass/drums trio instead of guitar/organ/drums. So I wasn't using the instrumentation to it's full potential.

The new album is a reflection of my roots and influences. I grew up in St. Louis, which is a river town. Culturally, it's similar to other Midwest towns like New Orleans, Chicago, Kansas City, and many smaller towns along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. A lot of great American music was born, developed, or flourished in this part of the country. Many influential writers and artists come from these towns. I'm also reflecting on the influences from my childhood, from the years I spent tap dancing (thank you Mom), to the books I read (thank you Parkway North English department), to the music I listened to (thank you... Metallica?).

I'm hoping this album will help me define my voice as a guitarist and composer. The actual tunes themselves, as they appear on the page, are only the beginning. They are really just outlines or guides for the band to explore. Brad Whiteley and Kenneth Salters have a pretty big role in the way things will ultimately turn out. I write for them, and take their feedback on every tune.

So here we go! Shall we see what happens?

Unknowning Fans as Unknowning Publicist

I'm going to try an experiment.

It dawned on me the other night that the press mailings I did when Life Is Loud was released were incredibly ineffective. The first mailing of about 40 CDs, sent to very specific writers who write about my kind of band/music/guitar playing produced a handful of reviews and pretty much zilch increase in sales or internet traffic. More importantly, the whole point of these mailings was to spread the word about the album, not to the writers, but to the potential fans out there. Hello? You out there?

So here's my experiment. Writers, you're fired. Not that you cared in the first place. Instead, I'm going to see if I can find a dozen or so regular people out there that would like my music, and ask if I can send them a copy for free. In exchange, I just want to know what they think.

If I'm able to look at somebody's internet presence (Facebook, MySpace, blog, Twitter, Last.fm, etc.) and determine that they would probably like my music, I'm betting that they would be more likely to spread the word on their own. I'm not asking them to blog about the music, but if they write a blog, chances are good they just might do it (what else do we blog about?).

I'm not looking for friends who blog, I'm looking for bloggers that don't know me who fit the M.O. of a Cameron Mizell fan.

I mentioned this to a couple friends, and they didn't quite get it. "Shouldn't we be doing this anyway?" Well, kind of. But I'm looking for people kind of like me. If John Scofield personally sent me his next album and wanted my opinion (ahem), I would not only tell him, but I'd share the experience with friends. Not that I'm Sco, but if somebody hadn't heard of me and all of a sudden I wanted to send them my CD, I bet they'd want to figure out who I am, and what's wrong with me.

All I have to lose is a few CDs that would otherwise end up in the abyss of journalists' desks.

What can we learn from Christmas music?

As soon as the dishes are cleared from Thanksgiving, many people cue up the Christmas music. Maybe there's a nap somewhere in between.

My wife is one of those people that loves Christmas music, because of the nostalgic feelings that surround the most wonderful time of the year. To envoke nostalgia, you usually want to hear the same music you heard growing up, or at least the music you've heard in the past that is tied to those happy feelings. Therefore, we end up listening to the same few albums over and over again.

I tend to look for variety. I have no problem with Christmas music, but I like hearing new ideas, new songs, and avoid too much repetition. That's not to say I don't have my favorites. I could sing every lick Vince Guaraldi plays on A Charlie Brown Christmas just like I know Kind Of Blue like the back of my hand. But because I'm a musician, I probably process the music differently than my wife (although she has a strong background in music herself).

Christmas music is the gold mine of specialty music for both of these reasons. Bing Crosby's classic White Christmas will sell for eternity, passed generation to generation through nostalgia. But at the same time, there will be ridiculous amounts of new Christmas music being recorded and released, and it will sell because there are people who want to hear something different.

To successfully capture some of that nostalgia, new Christmas music needs to become a part of somebody's tradition. That's not something you can market. But it is something that can grow with time through a persistent presence every holiday season.

This has never been easier than with today's technology. When we play music around our apartment, it's usually off one of our computers. I have a Christmas playlist that holds all the music we like to listen to, both Jill's classic favorites and the slightly more obscure titles I like to hear for variety. Set it to shuffle and we're all happy.

The rest of the year, there's plenty of other music to listen to. Plenty new releases to explore. Can we learn anything from the trends around the holiday?

I think so. The music people listen to around Christmas is usually serving a purpose. Nostalgia is one. Atmosphere is another. Participation (caroling) is another. The music becomes tradition. It represents a moment in time.

What can your music represent? What might people do listening to your music? What kind of tradition might your music play an important (or relatively minor) role? Can it be embraced as part of an existing tradition because it adds variety to the status quo?