This fascinates me.

Suddenly I have this secret place where I can post the behind-the-behind-the-scenes information…which is a lot of fun, because I know very few will ever see this.

Here, I can start some of the developed scavenger hunts and puzzle mysteries that have been developed but not released yet…

And I can talk about the plans of the band and such.

Could be a lot of fun. So let’s start.

The search for a keyboardist continues. I believe it will be the missing piece that puts the whole endeavor over-the-top. Currently, with Eric and Trevor, the sounds is like a powerful magic. It inspires me without limitation when we play together. On stage or in rehearsal. I’ve never felt so free to express in-the-moment as I do now.

We may be able to get by without a keyboardist, but to have a sound as full an complete as the album, I’d alternately have to use pre-recorded tracks and that kills the spontaneity and inspiration and makes performing a song more like a precision event which is not what my music is. It is a celebration – a storytelling – an adventure – a live communication happening at that tiniest division of passing time, direct to the listener. So a keyboardist is a must. I will find him or her soon. They will have to magically appear tomorrow so that i can get them to the next rehearsal which happens Tuesday.

Ok. This is a fine start. I hope it will be of interest to you, too.

Jon

I should not be up at this hour.

My computer shouldn’t be on.

But it got very cold in my room which happened to coincide with an inspired nightmare where I laid down in a very dark room to sleep and outside it began to storm. Moments before I laid down, I had been watching and also participating in an old movie on the television that was part detective movie and part supernatural thriller.

I don’t enjoy dreams about sleeping. I’ve had a few where I tried to wake up and couldn’t, stuck between the sleep in the dream and my real sleep. There have been times where I opened my eyes and couldn’t move my body; couldn’t get it to wake up until I shook it awake.

So that is why I am awake.

My computer is on from last night, when I went to bed.

I had it doing a task – loading in 29 sound files at 259 megabytes each in to Logic Studio.

I have been going through all of my album files, because they need to be re-released as ‘Jon Magnificent’ releases, so I thought I might be able to also make sure that they are up to the sonically magnificent standards of the current release “You Won’t Believe This” which will be shipping (finally!) in October 2009.

I had some trouble with the artwork printed by the CD manufacturer, who finally reprinted the front covers to correct their mistake, and sent them to me.

What I found with the old albums is that I really didn’t have the tools to mix the tracks properly.
The original performances are great. But the mixing / production was not near as good as what I can easily do now.

So I have finished what was the old ‘part 2′ CD, and you’ll be surprised at how much it rocks compared to the original release (which has been my best seller so far).

And I am 1 song away from completing what was the old ‘Part 3′ CD…some songs got cut…but I may add a song.

For the past week I have been tackling a new project – I didn’t think there could be improvements to the Come And Get Me CD….until I opened up the files and did a test remix. I found that I could make it MUCH more powerful. But was I really hearing this? I needed to know what others thought. So I brought Eric, my drummer, and Bobbie my wife and Mary, our publicist, in to listen to the original final mix version of the first track ‘Awaken’ compared to the mastered version that was done at Sterling Sound in New York, compared to my newly remixed version.

Unanimously, my new mix was clearer and more powerful than either of the previous versions.
So the Come And Get Me album is also added to the list. Which brings me to 6:05 am where the files were already loaded and the project saved, Logic Studio closed.

I am also awake because I am excited.

I received news yesterday that I have been included on the official ballot for the 2010 Grammys by the National Academy for the Recording Arts & Sciences…in two categories. And not some unknown category, either, but Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance and Best Rock Song.

In the Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, there are only 55 other artists on the ballot.
But among these are Prince, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Rob Thomas, Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, John Fogerty, Bob Dylan, Scott Weiland and Todd Rundgren, just to name a few!

Only 5 make it to the nominee stage after the ballot voting. And only 1 carries home the award.

But I am THRILLED just to be on the ballot.

Ok, then, that catches us up. It is now 6:14 am and I am off to bed to dream of Grammys and my new mix of Another Day.

What’s the catch? No catch. You just have to visit once a week to download it.

The easiest way to do this is to be reminded – and I send out a reminder email every week as soon as the file is posted.

The email also gives some info about each song. Like this one: Email Message

Sign up on the official email list here: EMAIL LIST

This past weekend I unearthed all of my old demo recordings that I have on hand – I had to borrow these cassette tapes from a friend who was collecting them because I didn’t have any copies of these myself – and borrowed one cassette from my brother, too, who has a collection.

I learned something about myself that I hadn’t expected and I won’t bother to say it here because it would sound more stupid typed than it did when I said it to myself.  I took every one of these and transferred them to a hard drive and separated out every song. A little more than 80 songs.

I discovered that these ideas were really good, but unfinished and unpolished because I lacked the skill and/or the tools to create the song properly to its full vision that I conceived it to be.

So I will be recording each of these again with my new studio to their fullest original concept. Let the creativity flow!

And I probably won’t bother to make albums out of these – but these songs will be added to the free download schedule and will be available for sale as single files, along with every other song in the Jon Magnificent catalog.

And in between there will also be new songs.

But it will be a good portion of my life’s works and compositions – about 75%, I estimate – there are many demos and songs that were recorded on tapes that are now gone. Some brilliant acoustic guitar instrumentals and early composition experiments and recordings that will probably never be found again.  But the majority of it will be here and will be available to enjoy.

Meanwhile, here is a sneak peek at the online store for the next and probably last album release, YOU WON’T BELIEVE THIS, which will begin shipping in August. The Store.

It is fully functional as of last night, so if the urge grabs you, place your orders.

J

This was created using an Alesis QS6 synthesizer one day in Seattle. I wanted an opening theme to my album, something other-worldly, because often I get the feeling I am from another planet. And I have very vivid memories of performing music in front of an audience in a venue that was in some other Galaxy. So, I thought I would approach the album as if I were there at that time. And it was a lot of fun to make an album this way.

At the time, grunge was winding down around the world (and in Seattle NO ONE would admit they ever played ‘grunge’ music) – now the music was being called “alternative” — and as you can imagine, my album and music didn’t really follow the current trend. I never do, anyway. I always try to approach making an album to be as listenable now and enjoyable at any time in the distant future as I can possibly make it. I try to keep it ‘pure music’ as I like to call it. Trends in music usually follow a certain group of sounds (like in hiphop and dance music right now, a lot of people are using the exact same synthesizer sounds) or a certain type of chord progression. Usually it’s one artist that has success by doing something new and it’s a bunch of copycats hoping to have similar success by doing the same type of thing.

So this song is the opening theme of the Zero9 saga — I actually wrote a good amount of fiction to accompany this.  It is archived for now, but I’ll post it up in a later post so you can read it and get in to the story.

- Jon

I’ve had some decent opportunities in the past. But every time these had been undermined by other people near to me, which ultimately I am responsible for, if only for letting them into the camp in the first place…except this first time: I still have trouble shouldering the responsibility for my parents who didn’t want me to be a musician, swore an oath to never buy me an electric guitar, and cut the line between me and a record exec who wanted to sign me and release my recordings when I was 11.

But now, I have some wonderful people in my camp. Several amazing people promote my music through the web. I live in a nice place where I have my own studio, my own gym which is customized to train a singer’s muscles, my own rehearsal studio and workshop to make repairs and modifications to equipment I need. I have an album ready to be released that is my best work yet.

This is a long way from playing songs on the street, busking for change or playing coffee shops and book stores, interrupting what people went to those places for with my music hoping to make a few bucks. It is far removed from the clubs that pay nothing but herd bands on and off he stage like cattle who think that because there are so many bands that want to play that the club is entitled to not pay anyone for their effort, their art, their hard work.

Things are looking good.  Such a long time coming!