Woah! What?? We've already reached our first goal!

It was the middle of the night on a leap day.  Everyone was asleep in the house.  And I decided to hit LAUNCH on the Patreon page because it was one of those quiet moments of clarity (mixed with a healthy dose of trepidation). 

I waited several minutes.  crickets.  A click into the digital abyss.  

Oh well, "That's how that goes I guess."  

I started getting ready to go to sleep and I got a message that Isabel had signed up.  At that moment, I knew everything was going to be okay. Because 2 people is at least enough to have a conversation!

By the next day we made it to our first goal. You remember, the goal where I would make personalized ringtones for the first 30 patrons with their name vocoded in a robot voice. And we did that over one weekend! Thank you universe! and thank you all for signing up. 

Please check your messages for an individual download link for your personalized ringtone. Enjoy!

Sounds for canines 

It was a fun weekend project. One of the first 30 had requested I dedicate the ringtone to his dog instead of using his own name. I've never made a ringtone for a dog. To be honest, I've never made a ringtone until last week! I thought it would be rad to scratch dog barking noises on to that ringtone, but then I decided against it because I figured dogs probably don't like to hear other dogs barking at them. That could have been the most traumatic thing ever.

I've learned a couple things:

1) Certain sounds don't make good ringtones.  Like when you lose your phone in a couch.  Those ringtone sounds need to cut through the couch pillows.  (and other sentences I've never had the opportunity to type until today!) :) 

2) Certain chord progressions that sound cool in the studio make terrible ringtones.  

Yeah, but what's that got to do with my daughter's school project?

My daughter is currently doing a project at school where they need quotes from "famous" people.  She asked me if I was one of them.  I said no.  She asked me for a quote anyway. 

"Well, why don't you quote me, I mean, what do I always say to you all the time?"

"Clean up your room."

"Besides that."

"Drink more water?"

"That's a good quote actually, but don't use that one."

So then I had to think up a quote that would kinda encapsulate the way I see/hear the world.  I told her to write this one down... 

"There's something to do with everything that's got nothing to do anything." - Kid Koala

To which her response was:

"?"

I had to expand on the idea a little for her.  "Well, daughter, within the process of finding that "something to do", there is an infinite maze of new adventures to enjoy, puzzles to solve and things to learn. It may not seem like it has any pertinence to real life or anything important but it does." 

Often these seemingly extra curricular things have helped me change my perspective, maybe even solve a problem on another project I'm working on. Time and time again, I keep finding out how it's all connected. And the keys to certain creative locks are lurking in the most unexpected places. I told her "I've never thought of work as "work".  It's nothing more, and nothing less than the time of your life. So you might as well have the time of your life no matter what you're doing." 

To which she responded 

"oooooooookay."  and walked out of the room.

A quick interruption featuring my mom!

My mother called this weekend while I was in the studio, as she often tends to do.

"Eric, what are you doing?"

"I'm making ringtones for people on Patreon today."

"Why?"

"Because I made it a goal!"

"What kind of goal is that?"

"I don't know but I'm laughing a lot in the studio so... a fun one?"

"How long have you been working on that?"  

"Just a couple of days."

"Shouldn't you be working on your album?"

"Probably, but I'm actually enjoying this little diversion."

"Okay bye!  Love you!"

My brain is literally buzzing, like it's rewiring to figure out the places this platform and community can go. We made it to our first goal! I made my first dog ringtone. Who says you can't teach an old dog how to make a dog ringtone! HA!

In case you were worried, I EQ'd the really high cutting frequencies out of the dog ringtone, because as we all know, dogs are really sensitive to high frequencies. I mean, I learned that information in grade school and never actually got a chance to apply that knowledge in any practical way until I was making a dog ringtone decades later. So there was a little loop closed and the tiniest victory there.

In a way my mother's right, I should be working on the album.  And I have been for many months now. But even this weekend while making these ringtones I learned many new things about the equipment in the studio, wild new sounds that combinations of pedals and premps create, and I'm going to bring all that back into the album making process. Now that our first goal is reached, it's on to the second, which is to finish my next turntable album. I'll be doing more posts, updates, and previews on that record soon! 

Meanwhile there are still the school projects 

Later that evening my daughter asked,

"Hey can you give me another quote that's shorter and less confusing?"

I meditated on it for a moment, trying to synthesize everything including my chat with my mom. I think I got it!  I told her to write this one down...

"There's no such thing as wasted time" - Kid Koala

And speaking of time, and lifetimes, thank you for spending some of yours with me. 

I'm very grateful to you all for joining me on this adventure. I think I'm going to like it here.

Eric