Session Drummer | Studio Drummer | Touring and Worship Drummer for Hire | Dale Baker | Durham, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, NC

eSession

This month's Electronic Musician has a great article on the emerging trend in recording that they refer to as the "World Wide Studio."  I've seen an increase in the amount of remote recording sessions I've been asked to be a part of and it's been encouraging.  I like the thought of being able to get the players you want to appear on your record without having to go to one of the major music towns.  Frankly, living here in North Carolina allows me to work for a lower rate due to the lower cost of doing business here.  And I look forward to continuing to work with the many indie and unsigned artists that have called on my services.

With that in mind, I signed up with a new service called eSession that serves as a sort of "virtual recording studio."  You can pick and choose the players you want from their growing database of session musicians.  Each musician sets their own rate, and eSession takes a small percentage of the money each musician receives.  It seems like a pretty good idea.  My hope is that the interface on their web site doesn't get in the way of booking the session...The eSession site is still in beta test mode, so I think the folks involved are working towards creating a user friendly site...it just may take a while before they get the kinks worked out.  As expected, I'm one of the players featured on their site, and you can choose to have me play on your session if you wish by submitting a proposal there.  (But if you're reading this right now, it's probably just as easy for you to click on my email button - up there on the left side of my page, underneath my Welcome message - and drop me a line.)

I'm encouraged by what I'm seeing in the music industry, a de-centralization of sorts and the falling away of the "old" way of doing business, i.e. getting signed to a major label with a huge advance.  I'm a big fan of the DIY aesthetic and the return to true artistic freedom and the work that goes with it.  I think there is enough room for all of us out there and I look forward to collaborating with many of you in the coming months (and years).  Sure, some of us won't get rich doing this (like we might have a few years ago) but I think and hope that there is a way for us to survive financially doing what we do best.  (but then again, I'm an idealist at heart...)

New Judd and Maggie CD...

I noticed that Judd and Maggie have a new site design and that you can pre-order their new album (due out in Late August) over at Amazon.  Unfortunately, it looks like the disc will have that nasty copy protection stuff on it, so depending on your brand and age of computer, you may end up not being able to load the songs into iTunes or whatever music program you're using.  Oh, how I hate copy protection on CD's.  My hope is that the Judd and Maggie album gets released over at the iTunes store, and I'll just pick it up there.

Anyway, be on the look out for this magnificent duo.  I was privileged to work on a short demo/ep they put together prior to recording this disc out in LA with Joey Waronker (REM, Beck, Walt Mink) and friends.

They'll be coming through Chapel Hill with Erin McKeown August 4, but unfortunately I'll be out of town that night, arghh!  You can see if they'll be coming through your area by going here for their tour schedule...

Almost there, whew...

I think most of the work is done now...as far as the tweaking of my site here.  Hopefully you've noticed the new background image and the new entry page.  I've tried to tweak my TypePad site here into something that resembles a full scale website.  I've mainly been tweaking the style sheets in TypePad, but on some occasions have messed with the index templates to get rid of the banner on some of my pages. I also did some nail-biting domain mapping work so that even though this site exists within TypePad, it looks like my own custom site (www.dalebakerdrummer.com and not, dalebaker.typepad.com).  For a few nervous hours today, my site was down due to my domain mapping and more than once I wondered if I'd done the right thing...but now that the site is back up and working (almost) like it should, I feel a little bit more sure of myself as a tweaker...

Tonight was the last night of Worship over at the Duke Youth Academy and it was pretty emotional.  The campers have been here for almost 2 complete weeks and have experienced and been challenged on multiple levels.  I was involved with the Academy this year as an Artist-in-Residence.  I've participated in most of the evening worship sessions (on percussion) and taught 5 workshops on utilizing percussion and drumming in worship and liturgy.  It was an honor to be involved with such a prestigious group of kids, mentors and leaders.

Now, I've got a week to catch up before I leave for Missouri to visit my family and participate in a big 'ole reunion of sorts...it'll be nice to get away for awhile and visit with family and friends.  I'm looking forward to it (and of course, my dad's fried fish - it's the best stuff in the world!).

Tweaking...

I've been messing around again with my site.  I finally figured out how to tweak the style sheet in TypePad, so I can get that "custom blog" look.  I've been exporting the TypePad Style sheet to this editing program called TopStyle and that's made my choices a little less stressful as I've gone through the various options, etc.

You'll also note that I've uploaded some mp3's so that in addition to my iTunes demo you can also hear some other songs and styles that feature my playing.  Click here to check out my new demo page.

Oh, and a great book I just finished reading last night is: The Glorious Deception by Jim Steinmyer.
The book is an amazing account of the history of magic around the turn of the century.  Fascinating stuff.  I really enjoyed Steinmyer's other book, and this one was just as exciting and wonderous in its depiction of the rigors, joys and adventures of being a professional magician during the early days of vaudeville.  I swear you'll want to be a magician after reading one or both of these books.  It's sort of the same feeling you get after reading Lust for Life, but instead of wanting to be a painter, you want to go learn sleight of hand and start putting together tricks.

Updates and stuff

Sorry to be so long in posting...

Alot has been happening...I've been updating some features here on my blog, considering possibly splitting my blog in to two parts - the professional and the personal - still not sure what to do about that... I've been in 3 days of intensive training for the Duke Youth Academy where I'll be teaching a session on the use of percussion in Church Worship.  I'll also be participating in some of the evening Worship services they'll be having over the next two weeks.

I've also started toying with the idea of a new merchandise store that will allow me more options over the long haul and give you - the consumer - more choices as well.  So if you've been thinking about purchasing something over at my CafePress store...do it quick...I'm not sure how much longer that store front will last!

And in other news, I'll be reviewing a couple of CD's in the coming weeks for possible publication over at InFuze magazine...I don't want to get too excited about that yet - since I haven't officially been published there - but let's hope it all turns out good!  I'll keep you posted on how that all "goes down."

What else?  I'm in the process of upgrading my teaching set here at home and am expecting a package from Sweetwater now, anyday.  And I'm looking forward to finishing the mixes and tracking for one of the Mali tunes I've been working on with Nathan Fancher...hopefully that will be finished before the end of the month.

So...yeah...lots going on...makes it hard to blog...and I miss my blogging when I'm not able to get to it...

Typepad, Music, Calendars and...

Some great things happened this weekend...

TypePad came out with some new templates and styles and they've made it easier to edit some of the code underlying the templates...if you're looking for a way to blog that's fun and creative...come join the fun.  I've really been happy with TypePad as it's offered me the ability to be creative visually, to stuff my site with content and not worry so much about the underlying code everytime I change something. 

Dave Latham's CD is closer to being in your hands.  His CD is back from being mastered and I imagine it's just days away from being available over at his website (or elsewhere).  I had a great time with Dave and producer Anthony Gravely down in South Carolina recording the tracks for his latest release.  I'm really proud of the work we did (and how quick we did it).  His voice is calm and sure and his music is soothing...I've been listening to the rough mixes for weeks in my car...and I've really been enjoying these songs.  Producer Anthony Gravely did a wonderful job of fleshing out these tunes with Dave.  Go check it out if you're looking for a great CD to listen to over the summer.

I spent the better part of yesterday transferring all my calender stuff from Microsoft OutLook over to Mozilla's new calendar application:  Sunbird.  I've really enjoyed using Mozilla's Thunderbird email application and of course their Firefox browser and so I made the plunge and finally switched to their calendar app.  I'm really pleased with all the features and how straight forward it is compared to Outlook.  I'm hoping as time goes on, they'll continue to add features and functionality as well.

Oh, and hopefully if and when I get the time, I'm going to add this cool feature to my site:  FeedMap.  It tells you how many people are blogging in the general vicinity of where I am...you can view a version of it over here (it's over on the right side of the page).

Things to do for the Holiday Weekend...

I've really been enjoying this online site, Infuze Magazine.  Unfortunately, you have to subscribe (it's free to do so) to access the content...but the content is worth it.  From them I learned about the King Kong movie site, and just today I read about Plumb's new record (I played on the first Plumb record, btw).  They also feature great interviews and blogs about modern culture, film, screenwriting, etc.  I also like how this is a site that deals with - well let me have them tell you (taken from their "About Us" page):

" Imagine a grid of lines. One of those lines we'll call "art." Another line we'll call "faith." Infuze Magazine is the exact point where art and faith intersect. A "fusion," if you will, of two important concepts that we believe are inextricably linked."

and then later they say:

"Infuze Magazine is about creative people and what they create -- art and entertainment such as film, music, novels & short stories, poetry, artwork, some television shows, comic books, and even video games."

I think it was last week that I read an insightful interview with screenwriter Dean Batali, and just thought how cool it was to be able to learn about him and his journey as a screenwriter, but more specifically as a Christian working in the creative arts.

I also enjoy reading producer Matt Bronleewe's blog and hearing what he' been up to (see "Christmas in May"), bugged by (see "Domino No No!!!"), and engaged in (see "Confessions of a U2 virgin") ...

So my thought is, if you're looking for something to do this weekend, subscribe (again, it's free!) to Infuze Magazine and spend the holiday reading some great stuff...and subsequently getting encouraged and inspired to create some art, music, culture, etc. of your own.