And what a feeling!

On the 1st October 2009, the day before my birthday, my daughter, Lillana (Lilla for short) was born, nicknamed by the hospital staff ‘Cookie’. What a gift and what a feeling!

Since the birth I have been rather preoccupied as you can imagine and it has provided me with some realization too just how much time I tend to spend on the internet. After looking at that I have been able to determine how much internet time I really love and that which I don’t. With this new-found insight I am excited about putting into practice a new approach to my online activities, which will improve my day to day quality of life by allowing me the time to devote to my family, whilst still allowing me the time to enjoy my work to it’s fullest.

I have included a rough recording of a song I wrote in July at a time when my wife and I were presented with emotional challenges with her pregnancy. Without going into details, we were faced with some uncertainty for a few weeks about the health of our baby. During this time I faced some personal fears and came to the very empowering conclusion that whatever the outcome I would still be receiving the gift of a life and allowed something greater than myself to handle the matter.

I figured that, seeing as I could not choose the outcome of the situation I could choose how I felt about it and I wrote this song to help remind me of the fact that everything happens to teach us something about ourselves and a situation is only a problem if you choose to label it as such. I was very grateful for the fact that I very quickly found myself feeling extremely happy about being a father, no matter what the situation with my baby and of course I am grateful now too for now being a father to a very healthy and beautiful little girl.

The Boy at Heart Story continues soon!

Tune in now!
Where are you now? Where do you want to be? I like writing songs that are focused on providing answers on such a question, like overcoming the necessary hurdles and challenges to get where you want to be in life, learning from what at first seem like undesirable circumstances and situations and more freely tapping into intuition to find the truth of what it is we really want and what we need to achieve it.

In order to keep the Boy at Heart blog interesting, even once the membership area is up and running I thought it would be fun to focus on the story of how all of this came about, how the name ‘Boy at Heart’ came to me and what it means to me.

I am sometimes a little slow to notice things and I have noticed in recent times that I have had considerable success over the last few years in creating my life the way I want it to be. The thing to remember is that there is always something more to create. I look at that these days as a sign of my desire to grow rather than any dissatisfaction with what I have right now.

I have been a bit conscious in the past about simply talking about myself, but I am of the mind now that anyone who is interested will read it, so why not? If sharing my experiences helps you then that makes me feel good. I want to to stay retain as much of a musical focus here as possible too. The music I make does a pretty good job of expressing what I want to say and it’s where my whole-hearted passion lies, so this is going to be a big feature, especially in the member’s area where high-quality MP3s will be available for free download.

How to separate the material from the blog and the member’s area? Well that’s where the idea for publishing my history on the blog comes in. I want this place to be as sales-pitch free as possible. That means that you get to read stuff that interests you, listen to some positive, inspiring music that rocks and then have the freedom to choose whether you want to get more immersed in the content and message or not.

It’s as simple as that. Once you become familiar with the heartbeat of this part of the web I hope it will help you to stoke the fire of inspiration in you and to keep it burning. I’ll say this now. It’s all about tuning into the radio station of your heart – Your Intuition!

Hey, Good timing!
You picked a great time to turn up! I was just getting everything ready for you. Well to be honest there’s a lot to be done, but seeing as you’re here why not come on in and maybe you can help out by making some valuable suggestions.

Make yourself at home, tell me what you’re up to and what you’re looking for and let’s get things moving!

You know what the energy is like when something is being planned, constructed and implemented? Lots of activity, followed by a period of quiet reflection – a ‘heads up’ on progress to make sure that things are moving in the desired direction and then more activity based on that analysis. Lots of apparent chaos, a few heart-in-mouth moments, uncertainty, a little bit of risk taking and culminating in a result!

We are right in the middle of this very process now with the Boy at Heart VIP membership feature, which is a big task, but I am capitalizing on the momentum built from the site redesign you are looking at now, which to be honest I surprised myself with. I wasn’t expecting it to be this good. From somewhere I seemed to have been taken over by some kind of mad programmer/designer after starting a redesign that I didn’t even know whether I was capable of doing or not, but here it is and on with the next phase of development!

It was a big decision, but I have made it
Incidentally, decision making is one thing I talk about quite a bit, seeing as certain decisions I have made in the past have made a very big difference to how my life unfolded from then on. Decisions are big and they are where you can exercise great power.

So yes, my decision. I have decided to create a membership area and access is going to be free. There may be premium features added further down the line, but as far as my music and much of my content, like books etc. is concerned, then free is the order of the day!

For example: My latest book and music album experience ‘Mind over Matter Heart over Mind’ will be available inside the VIP area. There may be a premium version of it too, but as far as the actual information you will get for free, it will be everything – no details witheld. Possible, premium versions of my creations will be things like interactive, rich-media versions, an example of which could be a pdf book with embedded multimedia content, providing the experience of a multimedia website within a downloadable file and of course any tangible products I create like CDs, hard-copy books, T-shirts and other merchandise.

Am I crazy? Is this a sustainable business model?

Well I think the answer to both these questions is YES! I am a little crazy and I’m really glad that I am. If it weren’t for my compulsion to not follow the crowd I would not be enjoying the quality of life I live now and if that is the result of being crazy then I whole-heartedly recommend that everyone goes a little crazy!

In fact I remember the line from a song by Seal called ‘Crazy’:

No we’re never gonna survive unless we get a little crazy

So I’m OK with that one and yes I do believe that my decision to provide nearly all my content for free in the member’s area is a sound business plan. You see I’m not interested in just trying to sell stuff to people. I want to know who you are, what it is you actually get out of listening, reading and watching my work and creativity and gaining more satisfaction from knowing that what I do actually has a purpose, which is where your feedback comes in (hint hint – leave a comment if you have anything to say!).

I’m also a believer in the philosophy of ‘paying it forward’. You give, you help people get what they want, you make people feel better, you make a positive difference and it comes back to you. I find it to be a rather simple and obvious truth actually. If I make an effort to make people feel happier then I am making a decision (there’s that word again) to have the intention of their being more happy people in the world. The more of those there are, the higher the likeliehodd of me meeting happy people instead of miserable people and happy people will always make me feel better than miserable ones.

I know this I have been miserable before and I was a bore! So you could say I’m being selfish really Ha ha. I want to do what I can for you because I want to live in as happy a world as possible, so there you are, the only reason I’m doing this is because I want to feel good! Ha ha ha, so the cat’s out of the bag! But you get to feel good too, so we’re all winners right?

But seriously. I do believe that I have a lot to share that will inspire people to be open to adopting a fresh perspective on things and that fresh perspective could make all the difference between living a fulfilling life or not! On the inside I will go into more detail about what I share on this blog and I will also share with you the techniques and practices I have used to turn my life around and continue to use as I continue to grow.

Basically it’s an opportunity to get to know me personally, trust me and use the information I have in your own way as much or as little as you decide.

The proof of whether this is a sound idea or not can only be had by implementing it. Ready, Fire Aim as the saying goes!

So here I am, cap in hand!
A couple of tracks I put up on SongVault FM are being promoted. To be honest I haven’t been back there much since uploading the tracks in November, but I got an email today telling me that two of my tracks have moved up the rankings and have moved onto the next tier of exposure referred to as The Songvault Showcase. I am just two tiers away from being permanently listed on The SongVault Radio playlist.

What do I need to move up some more? Well I don’t know how many, but it takes votes, thumbs up, so I am politely asking for you to visit my profile at Songvault FM and have a listen and vote. Please though, if you do I would rather you vote honestly. If you don’t like what you hear and you vote it thumbs down, then it may be valuable feedback!

Personally though I can’t see how anybody would give it a thumbs down!

The Caveat?
Well you have to login as a listener to vote, so if you are not registered at Songvault FM then you will have to do so, which I know may be a chore for those of you who are getting jaded with the number of profiles it takes to do anything these days! However if you go through with it and endure the ordeal of yet another registration on a music website then I will be very grateful and you can feel good about yourself for helping out an independent artist.

It’s Karma baby! It’ll always come back to you ten-fold! You can vote at the link below.

Boy at Heart on Songvault FM

Enjoy!

A few months ago I decided that I wanted to find a way of creating my music as my main job and source of income. Living on a tropical island has it’s plus points, but when it comes to networking with other musical types, it’s a little restricted, at least networking in person.

Enter the internet. The broadband connection could be better, but it is tolerable most of the time and it allows me to reach out like this, share my musical creations and inform the world of what I am up to at any given moment. follow me on Twitter and you will never be left in the dark again!

The Web to The Rescue (in moderation)
The internet is what has made the bulk of my dream possible, but it is so vast and full of so much data that I get overwhelmed by it and it also frustrates me at times, seeing as I still don’t seem to be getting very far with marketing and promoting my work. I am studying internet marketing and how to promote my music online and I am currently in a kind of loop, which finds me scratching my head about how to get the ball rolling. Making the music is the easy part, so I have a product, but not much of an engine to propel it out into peoples lives.

So yesterday was when I had a revisit of a realization. Whenever I am in the throes of a musical creativity, like yesterday, recording a new song I am away from the internet and in my element. This is when I always seem to get an email containing some good news or even an email notifying me of a sale! I do believe that things go your way when and only when you are doing what you love. Doing something because you want to rather than feel you have to. Even if you are mopping the floor. If you chose to do it instead of out of necessity then you are coming from a place of possibility because you are not "switched off". I don’t know about anyone else, but I think it’s fair to say I switch off whenever I am doing something I feel I don’t want to do. Not always a good idea because some things just have to be done, but if the approach can be shifted to that of being happy to deal with whatever it is then it is a more pleasurable experience and the opportunity to see the benefit at the end of the task at hand.

It’s All so Clear
So what was the realization? I make music. The way in which I produce music is so natural for me to the point of it feeling like it comes from somewhere else and is just given to me (Thanks!). This is how I want to spend my average day and if I spend my average day doing that then I had better find a way of it paying me! Internet marketing interests me because I can see an opportunity to make a residual income from my interests, but it is not my number one passion. I would say that I dabble with internet marketing and attempts to make an online income out of necessity to make an income. When I am wrapped up in that (which is a cleverly disguised way of being wrapped in worry about not making enough money) I am not making music and then I wonder why I start to feel negative, lose self confidence and just bring myself down.

It happened 2 weeks ago and lasted for over a week. I got this feeling about needing to step up my income generating efforts and the deeper I got into that the more I started to confuse myself and focus more on trying to generate an online income in an instant and I already know that’s a non-started. It didn’t stop me wading in and trying again and then I was saved by the decision to record my latest song (I haven’t written any songs for a while) and make it the first of a new era for The Weekly Songcast, which from next week is going to be a fully produced song every week. Also being inspired by Mr Ben Walker, who just recently made "This is Not an Album" available on his web store I think it’s time I did something similar here. Looks like I will have to go “tech” for a few days.

I recorded the song in a couple of days and will mix it imminently, so next week it will be available and during an intense session of creativity I remembered what I said to myself a few months ago that this is my job and I’ll do whatever I have to do to make it pay and make it work. I’m not going to go into it here because it gives me an opportunity to write extensively about this kind of approach over at The Neural Recon Report, which I enjoy writing, so I will conclude this post with a statement.

You can only find enough time to do what you love if you do what you love full time and a break feels so much better when you take one because you will never have the feeling of dread having to go back to work at the end of your break, so both break and work become far richer experiences.

Now I’ve got to go out and generate some cash! Any internet marketers want to help me out?

It’s time for another update and as soon as I can I will be creating another video update to whet your appetites for the upcoming album "All in a Life’s Work". I finished tracking the whole album on Monday 13th October.

What is interesting is what happened after. I was thinking to myself on Monday night that although I felt I was running out of time to finish for the desired release date of October 31st I wondered if I should leave it a couple of days or so before getting myself buried into mixing; give my ears a rest. It seems that I got the answer on Tuesday morning when my ear infection from a couple of weeks ago flared up again and left me almost deaf in my left ear! So it’s antibiotics and a rest from using my ears intensively for a week (at the most)

Although it was not the kind of situation I wanted I can see what a good thing it was to occur because it has forced me to concentrate on a few other things that required my attention, including our new dog Bam Bam!

Imminent updates will be the next pre-release video featuring the song Your Brave Heart, which I can only describe as epic! I am extremely pleased with that one… more about that song in a future post, because it has had a big impact on the way I feel, not only about this project, but my life in general, so thanks to my wife for requesting I write a song about listening to your heart!

I am also making an effort to ensure the feel of this website is a "Heart Space", where it is not just about my music. The whole message here is the concept of following your heart and creating the lifestyle you truly desire. In fact that shouldn’t be a concept, but an instinctive approach to living, so I want to inspire as many people as possible to see that it’s the way to go for them. This means that I will use examples from my own experience about how I may have turned situations around for the better, ideas in which anyone can do just that and follow the general direction of exploring what options there may be for you to live as enriched life experience as possible.

I guess you could then describe the Boy at Heart website as a fuel stop on your journey of your own lifestyle creation. Being in the service of others is, I believe, the way we are able to create the things in life that we want for ourselves. Karma baby!

Enjoy!

I have made a first attempt to document the recording progress of the album. The working title, which is most likely to be the official title is "All in a Life’s Work". It’s pretty exciting to be exploring the possibilities of sharing information via new media and looking on the positive side to this poor quality video, my on-camera skills can only get better. I will refrain from blaming the limits imposed by my web cam etc…!

Guitars are going really well, as I would expect, this being my favourite part of tracking the instruments. The Fender Princeton Recording Amp is an absolute gem and is delivering the goods effortlessly. This is one hell of a good amp and fits the description of recording amp perfectly. Well done Fender! Also waiting in the wings is a modified Fender Champion 600 reissue for more tonal flavours. That amp has been modded to sound closer to a tweed era champ from the 1950′s and it sounds amazing being fed through the Tonetubby 10" alnico speaker in the Princeton Recording amp.

All my other projects are on the shelf right now apart from completing 50/90 songwriting challenge. I have 6 songs left to write in 7 days, but 3 of those days I will be in the depths of rural Thailand and away form my guitar… and the internet (yikes!)

Recording of the album continues and as predicted I have been locked away in the studio whilst I focused on getting drums complete for the 12 album tracks. I have shelved plans to record several more tracks as extras, singles etc. I will do those after the album is out doing it’s ‘thang’!

Although the photo shows me playing a drum kit (not that well either), this is not what I have been doing. I have been programming the drums and painstakingly working to make them sound as real as I they can. I believe I’ve done a good job. I am very pleased with how they are sounding, which is just as well, seeing as I have spent an entire week listening to bare drums playing and listening out for any unusual sounding hits or anomalies that a real drummer just wouldn’t make.

So now the rhythm section is tracked. I had a sound in my head of what I wanted the drums and bass to sound like, which was as big and warm as possible, so that even by themselves they would really get the listener moving and it seems that the sound has come out so far fulfilling that desire and more. I am really excited at this stage. Next will be laying down guitar tracks, which is my favourite part. I did a similar project to this in 2005, where I recorded and mixed an 11 song album in 4 months. This time it is a 12-song album and time limit set by my release deadline is just under 2 months.

The PowerBook Studio is performing exceptionally well and my toshiba notebook has played a major part with the drum sounds. I never thought I would be happy about using Windows to make music, but the old G4 PowerBook just couldn’t cope with the load of the drum software.

I did mention about putting videos online documenting the process here and I have made a few clips, but I just have not had the time to spend getting that side of things done. All the time in the day currently is allocated to recording this album and eating. Even sleep has fallen down the priority list a little. I have been getting an average of 4 hours sleep for the last week, but I feel energized. I love what I am doing, which is the main thing. I have a good feeling about all of this and I just can’t wait to get out of bed every morning and continue making this music.

I hope it shows in the end result!

Enjoy!

Recording of the album continues. It is apparent that I will have to remain locked away for most of the next month or two in order to get the album ready for release in October. Initially it was planned for October 2nd (my birthday), but now it is going to be later. I think Halloween will be more like it. That gives me as much time as possible, whilst keeping to my intention of an October release.

All bass tracks are now recorded, although there is a possibility of me adding one more song to the list, because it has been very well received over at The Weekly Songcast and elsewhere on the internet. If you care to check out the song and let me know if it should definitely be on the album I would be very grateful for the feedback. It is called Hearts on Fire. I have already committed to more songs than will be on the official album, so I can choose the ones I like the best. In my experience, even if I love all the songs I record for an album, there is always one or two that don’t capture the same magic as the rest. It’s just the way it seems to go.

I mentioned in my previous post that I would be attempting to document my progress on video. I have captured some footage of dubious quality, but I have not been very effective at getting it online. Processing video takes me as long as it does to record tracks, so it’s a question of managing the time it takes to keep everything on schedule. I am, however keeping a record of what I am doing, so that when I get a handle on automating as much as possible, the creating, updating and publication of all content I will share what methods have been working for me.

I sense that there are many different options available to achieve this, so it’s a question of just getting into it and finding what works.

Enjoy!

Tracking for the Boy at Heart debut album is underway. Guide drum and guitar tracks have been created so I can track the bass guitar and so far bass is complete for about half the album. The next stage will be focusing on getting the drums tight with the recorded bass tracks.

I am just starting to get into the different video streaming and posting services out there and it seems like a perfect opportunity for me to play around with that while I track this album, so watch out for video updates of the album being recorded. There is an interesting post about such things by Christian Payne, who goes by the alias Documentally and is quite a pioneer in social networking, especially new media. In this post post he tells an interesting story, which highlights the power of new media on the web.

Only a few days ago I was feeling that I had too many projects on the go all at once and it pretty much slowed my progress with everything I had to do. I am am now seeing the possibility of integrating many of those things into this album project, so having the idea to make video clips of recording the album and writing songs for the 50/90 challenge (another ongoing project) will enable me to also add another job from my To Do list, namely learning how to use multimedia within social networks. Initially I had put that all off until everything calmed down a bit, but on reflection, things never calm down enough. It’s called life and that is why many things in life never get done! This is the perfect solution, so expect to see some embarrassing moments (for me) and some mistakes.

As is my philosophy: Whilst I am a real stickler for quality with what I create I always see something wonderful about the unpolished, ‘as it happens’ state of artistic creations, especially in music. Some of the best music I have heard on the internet is what people have done spontaneously, using their mobile phone etc and sticking it on Youtube. That is why my Weekly Songcast is presented the way that it is, so it is more than a listening experience; it is also a chance to witness of the development of musical ideas.

We’ve never really had this chance to see our favourite bands and artists during the creative process until they had a big-budget film crew on hand and then much of what makes it really interesting is edited out, so this is an opportunity now for independents, like me to share our experience of fulfilling a musical destiny with other people… assuming you are interested of course!

If you are one of those who is interested then I thank you and I invite you to subscribe to the RSS feed to be regularly updated. You may also like to join the Boy at Heart mailing list via the Reverb Nation box on the right and if you are really interested then you may like to pre-order the debut album (working title ‘I Can’t Lose’) by purchasing a 13-song volume of The Weekly Songcast.

I also recommend these interesting, multimedia, social-networking types too:

• Christian Payne aka Documentally
• Walt Ribeiro

These guys really make me want to make the most of the technology and the reach available to everyone right now. Thanks gentlemen!

Enjoy!