We’re in the throes of recording CD number two for Groove For Thought. Very exciting! We are trying to get everything done within a couple of months, which basically means that we are working non-stop through the summer. Our primary focus at the moment is two fold - get vocal recording finished on tunes that we already have the charts for, and get all of our new material written as soon as possible so we can get going on recording that stuff too. Both Kelly and I are on summer break and basically spending every spare moment in the studio tracking, editing, or arranging. It’s a fun, creative, yet sometimes exhausting process.Kelly is our primary arranger, and I swear the guy can pop out a mind-blowing arrangement in a day or so (which he’ll then spend days criticizing and tweaking until it’s even more mind-blowing). Even with his arranging prowess, we would never be able to get all of the charts for the album done in time to record everything if it were all on him. So, I have taken on an arrangement of my own. Now I have done a couple of vocal jazz arrangements as well as some choral arrangements in the past, but GFT arrangements are whole different ball game. Coming up with something that is creative, unique, and worthy of a GFT arrangement has been extremely difficult. I have been staring at my computer screen, slamming on my piano, and staring at my computer screen some more for days, just hoping that what I’m writing will pass the ultimate litmus test - when Kelly listens to your work and gives you the thumbs up or thumbs down. Now, keep in mind that we all want everything we do to be at a high level, and Kelly, being the founder and resident musical genius of GFT, has the final say on all things musical in nature.
A couple of days ago the time came, and I showed my arrangement to Kelly. This after days of working on this and beginning to feel like it wasn’t worthy of a GFT track. I played the track for him and watched his expression, waiting for the “that measure there is cool, but I’m not sure about the other 30.” Yet, it never came. Instead, he said, “That’s pretty cool, man, keep plowing ahead!” I was admittedly shocked and suddenly more inspired to keep going. And so now, a few days later, I’m nearing the end of my chart and ready to get to the recording part of the process. You might be wondering right about now what the song might be I’m working on, or what the name of the album might be. Stay tuned for announcements all of this stuff in the near future : )
All of this GFT album work comes only a couple of days after releasing Amanda’s solo album, “Pieces Of My Heart” (which, by the way, you can order at www.amandataylorkunz.com, and well you should!). After a couple weeks of 12 hour days of mixing and mastering her songs with Kelly and our good friend Larz Nefzger, there's nothing like jumping into some more 12 hour days on another project. Yet I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’ll admit that there are times I think to myself that not working all the time would be nice, but then I take a day (or just a few hours) off and immediately get bored. So, I continue with the long, yet always rewarding, work days.
Stay tuned for some great things in the coming months from GFT! We’ll be in Las Vegas in September, as well as Northern California and Nebraska in the next couple of weeks. Check out our schedule page for more details, we’d love to see you at a gig! And as always, stay tuned to our website, facebook page, and twitter
for updates.
Brennan
