Pace Media produces a New York hip hop style music video for the new Folktronica track from Chords of Truth, “The Power To Be Alive (The Chameleon Acidfolk Remix) ft. Man-u-iLL”
As I began promoting my debut album “Reflections of Reality” it became abundantly clear to me that I had created something different. I honestly don’t know enough about the technical aspects of music to understand why, but even the bloggers weren’t really sure who to say my music was like. Apparently, my inability to match the exact patterns for the covers I always played allowed me to create my own musical style. Plus, I have many ideas concerning deep spiritual and scientific principles for improving our lives that needed an outlet. So it came out through these songs.
For me, the fact that I was able to write original songs at all is overwhelming. Just a few weeks ago I was watching this documentary on the Rolling Stones, and Keith Richards was talking about how after their first record of covers was so successful, they became pressured to as he put it “invent something” (write original songs). And how impossible that felt to him at the time. I can’t even imagine what Roger Waters was thinking when he had to take over songwriting for Syd Barrett in Pink Floyd. And these are just a couple of the greatest songwriters of all time that probably felt intimidated at first. So how do you know if you are a great songwriter? You have to actually try to write your first song.
Now I’m not claiming to be a great songwriter and am not even entirely sure what that technically means. I have only written 7 songs and songwriting is a complicated art that involves various techniques and structures of which I have never studied. So I am just going by what I like about the music I’ve heard and what feels right. But it appears that I was able to put together a decent combination of music and lyrics to convey a message of inspiration through original artistic expression that people are really getting into. So that feels amazing!
As I was recording the album, I could hear so many notes being played as fillers between my acoustic guitar chords and lyrical vocal patterning that we didn’t add, intentionally. The idea was to keep these songs close to the raw acoustic sound of my live performances. But adding the subtle piano, vocal harmonies, mixing and mastering along with all that goes with a professionally produced album. I had no idea what was going to happen, but definitely did not want to have these songs limited by something as fundamental as the production level. A couple things that my friend and producer, Jeffrey Joslin, said as we were finishing up the album really stuck with me. It had come up that I was now possibly going to have actual fans and we were laughing about it and he got serious and said, “Dude, I guarantee you there are people that are going to really dig this.” And as I was leaving with the finished album he said, “I’m really interested in seeing what all you do with this man”.
At that point, I had a few ideas and would be using my professional online marketing skills to promote the album. I had no idea if I actually had something people would be into, but I was going to give it the best chance possible with my resources. One thing I always planned was to have remixes. I even bounced down the mastered tracks after the album was finished so I would have them available when needed, but didn’t know when I was going to get to that. First thing was to get the Acoustic album out there and see what people thought, and the response was incredible. I had serious music fan bloggers calling me a “Brilliant Lyricists” (IMP) and “An Acoustic Powerhouse” (Technorati). It was insane! I can’t even put into words the honor I felt being in the same conversation as some of the artists the press has been throwing around.
After a few months promoting the acoustic album, I decided to find an electronic artist to create a remix and see what happened. I eventually hooked up with a producer name Sydney Bostwick (AKA Tha Green Raver) that created a crunchy dubstep remix of my song “Listen”. Craziest thing I had ever heard! It took me a couple listens before I could really appreciate what he had done because it was SO different than my original. So I decided to create a remix contest and made the tracks to all of my songs available for free to download to create their version of my songs. The only rule was that it had to “stay positive in message”. So the Chords of Truth Remixed Project began.
Over the following months a series of fortunate events led to the creation of 65 totally unique versions of my original 7 acoustic songs. It was crazy! Producers from all over the world became involved and loved the music and the message. All kinds of genres are being associated with these remixes including Dubstep, House, Trance, and EDM along with a new subgenre called Folktronica. In March of 2013, we released 9 new albums containing these newly created versions of my songs. The project includes 8 genre specific versions of the original acoustic album each by different producers, along with a Double LP that contains some of the best and most diverse remixes from the entire collection. There are so many styles of music represented.
The idea being that one style is not going to appeal to everyone so why not try to convey my message to as many people as possible by mixing up the presentation. It is truly amazing how a different perspective on even a song can change almost every aspect of the experience. Imagine the impact a different perspective can have on our life/habits/beliefs if we just keep an open mind and consider the possibilities. I feel like this project has been a total gift from whatever you want to call the guiding force of the universe. Whatever connects us all. And it is my responsibility to help share this message through music.
Now that the music is created, released and being heard; the next step is to create visual representations of the songs to accompany the music. i.e. music videos. The first official Chords of Truth video was produced by Pace Media in a hip hop style for the track “The Power To Be Alive (The Chameleon Acidfolk Remix) Ft. Man-u-iLL”. This is the first of many videos that will be created over the coming months and years. We hope that this music video will help remind everyone that WE all have the power to “be alive”. Appreciate every moment. Be free!
~Chords of Truth