Something I’ve forgotten: To post the Persephone: A Rock Ballet soundtrack link on this site.

A petty note about this album: I bit off more than I could chew with the whole Rock Ballet project, as many can attest. One thing that didn’t receive as much time and attention as I’d have liked is the general mixing and mastering of this album. Well, it didn’t receive ANY real mastering, as the time required to get it through a mastering house wasn’t available in my Supremely Organized Calendar Of Events.

That being said, the mix definitely has a “character” to it. In other words, it’s less universal than a professional mix. A professional mix will translate well to any sound system. Some of mine do achieve that coveted status despite being more or less amateur, some do not as much. Many things factor into this, but regardless, the reality is that Persephone definitely sounds best through certain speakers. A good choice in this case is the inexpensive and trusty Sony MDR-V150 headphones. I will not recommend specific non-headphone speakers as the room you’re in affects things a lot as well and, well, let’s not get into audiophile shit right now.

Shall we talk about poop instead? No? Ok… that’s ok…

Despite the fact that, in my perfect mind-world, all the music I’ve made would be released chronologically in the order in which it was written, and despite that, because it’s not, the listener’s ability to track my “journey as an artist” is impaired, I am still pretty damn proud of this collection of songs. I mean why wouldn’t I be? They’re some of the best ones I’ve written to date, thanks to the whole artist journey thing mentioned above.

There’s been an eight-year gap since my last official “studio” (I use the term loosely) album as solo-artist-davidjmurphy, or David J Murphy or whatever the fuck my name is. Eight years! You don’t see it anywhere but in that time I’ve written A LOTTA MUSIC. At least a few albums’ worth of completed songs, in fact, plus a bunch of odds and ends. Most of the time I would record a prototype/working version of a song and post it on MySpace before MySpace went the way of a condemned, haunted, inner city asylum. These albums of songs of which I speak WILL be recorded and released, rest assured (I know you were really fucking worried about that).

None of the songs I wrote in that eight year gap appear on the Persephone soundtrack. All of those are fresh and new (well with the exception of the beat in The Dance of the Lost Souls whose riff was one of those ‘odds and ends’ until this show came along, aaaaand the instrumental Alone which not-so-secretly steals a theme from {guess which other soundtrack}). Anyway you’ll get the older stinkier davidjmurphy stuff soon, all spit-shined and buffed to a brand-new, still-stinky, little-too-personal, indie-produced sheen!

In the meantime, back to work on the Vindication of Ronald Clay soundtrack!

An idea that I had a while ago–almost two years I guess–is steadily coming to fruition. It’s what I’m calling a “rock ballet” which contains both rock and ballet very non-exclusively. In other words, there is non-rock, and a lot of non-ballet. In fact, mostly non-ballet. My girlfriend Hilary is the choreographer and I am the composer. The subject matter I’ll withhold for now so as to enhance the surprise or something. Basically we’re using an old myth and building a killer show.

Hilary has put on dozens upon dozens of dance shows in the past, and for many of them what she does is take a story and select a pop/rock sound track to which to choreograph. The result is awesome. The way I have chosen to approach writing the music for this new show is that I take a scene from the story (after we’ve broken the story into scenes in outline form), look at the feeling(s) that create the scene, imagine what kind of song Hilary might choose for that kind of dance, and then write that song. I get input from Hilary as to what kind of dance she wants to do and what tempo might be appropriate, etc..

This is an opportunity for me to write music really differently from how I normally do, or in different styles from how I normally might. It’s pretty exhilarating when going out on a limb, creatively, turns out well. And it’s all in the privacy of my own brain/computer/studio.

One night I had a dream about a pivotal scene in the story, and the music was all there, along with the feeling behind it (super intensified as happens in dreams sometimes). I woke up crying, like ya do on occasion, sat up and was like “what the fuck, that was amazing,” and have since retained some core elements of that song that will be in that actual scene in the show. Some stuff is happening with this project for real, and I’m just, as I said above, effin excited to see it all manifest. In fact tonight I met with a friend of mine to try her out for the lead female vocal in the show.

Ha, something I forgot to mention: the music will be live. Yes! That is, the dancers will be performing to recorded tracks, but the main elements (lead vocals, lead guitar etc) will be missing from those tracks, and will be added in, live, by your truly, my singer-friend, and hopefully one or two others, on risers behind the dance area. In other words, I’ll be singing and playing guitar, next to another singer and keyboard player, and the drums, bass, and other elements will be supplied by a backing track over the PA.

This is all booked to happen at the Sondheim Theater the weekend of June 10th, 2012. So mark your calendars for some epic awesomeness. I will post more updates about it as I’m sure I won’t be able not to, and there will be a promo video coming soon.

Other projects that are also in the works are: full length album number two, the score for The Vindication Of Ronald Clay, a band I tried out for which TBA ahem ahem, some voice over work on the side I hope, and potentially an album of massage/relaxation music. Haha. Stay tuned.