January Release: The Best

About 2 weeks ago when I first began working on this record, I had plans to name it “New Year Revolution”. I thought it was a pretty solid title for a January release and shows I’m about to do things differently. However, as I started writing and producing the track, the song started taking shape and “The Beginning” felt like a more appropriate title. That was the first of many changes ☺

The night before I was scheduled to record I went to Guitar Center and purchased a talk box. It’s actually a difficult instrument to use if you’re a first timer like myself… you’re singing through a tube which is connected to an amp, which (in my case) is connected to a keyboard. As you sing into the tube and play the keyboard, you get that robotic/electronic-like voice.

Anyway, the next day arrived, I got to the studio and I was ready to bang this song out… or so I thought

When my engineer (Bruno Sutter) hooked me up to record, I started playing some notes and singing through the talk box. For whatever reason I started saying "Baby I'm the best, b-b-baby I'm the best" and that’s when the entire track just completely came to life. It sounded so hot that I actually got chills. I went into the vocal booth, laid down some heavy breathing and me and Bruno both just started bugging out. This became the bridge of the record.

Believe it or not, this was actually a problem. I knew that with a bridge this hot I would have to follow the vibe and go in a completely new direction and rewrite everything. I had to finish the song by the 5th if I was to even come close to releasing it 10 days later… and Bruno was leaving for Miami on the 6th. This gave me about 4 days to get everything done and complete recording.

So, with little sleep, lots of coffee and about 70 peanut butter cups later… I rewrote everything and finished the track. You’ll find that this is a pretty unique record with a wide range of influences. It’s a cross between Louis Armstrong, Jay-Z, The Gap Band, Brittany Spears, and Dr. Dre. There isn’t anything out there like it and I had a lot of fun trying something new.

Anyway, the song is available on iTunes now... and as for me, it's time to start working on that February record...

peace!

-Oz

Getting Started...

The Yearbook album idea came to me at about 6am last month when I was just sitting around brainstorming after making some beats. When it hit me, I really got too excited to sleep so I started writing down how I wanted to approach this project. Seeing as it was already December and I wanted to have the first song released in January, I didn't have much time to get things in order.

Initially, I thought it would be really cool to have each song relate to whatever is going on in my life at the time... ultimately, composing a yearlong “documentary” so to speak. What I didn't realize until I started recording is that if I'm going to be blogging/documenting everything throughout the year, what would be the point of saying the same things on the record each month?

That’s when it dawned on me... Keep the blog interesting, document the process; keep the music interesting, WRITE HOT SONGS! If this project gives me the freedom to do whatever I want, then I won’t limit myself to the same format each month. It’s time to bring good music back, try something new, and start taking risks!

I'll see you around Jan 15th with "The Best"

-Oz