Do you ever watch the sunset from beginning to end? Get out where you have a nice view of the horizon while the light is just starting to change and stay until the moon is glowing bright and the colors have finished their dance for the day. That’s what I did tonight. I sat up at one of the lookout points off of Grizzly Peak and listened to these songs that I’ve been working on. I’ve seen them transform before my very eyes from solo piano and vocal pieces to fully flushed out arrangements with everything from drums and bass, to organs and horns, guitars, strings, loops, and harmonies. It’s been an incredible process.
RISE is basically done. All of the songs are mixed and sounding beautiful. All that is left to do is mastering and determining what order to put them in. Which, it turns out, is WAY trickier than you would think. There are over 6 billion possible song orders. Literally. It’s factorial. Check it out. Then, beyond that, I am entering into a world where it is all about playing this game that I do not know how to play called marketing and publicity. In short, I made this great album, now how do I get to a point where people are actually going to know that it exists. If you’ve got any pointers on that, please don’t hold back. I could use all the help I can get.
As the sun went down, I shuffled songs into place and came up with the first order that really feels right to me. I sat there looking out at this beautiful vista, and as the final song played I just felt this incredible sense of peace. Yes, I am putting this album out into the world. It is an offering of love. I don’t know how it will be received, but I know that I feel so proud of what I have made and no matter what happens, it’s already been worth it.
It’s huge that this project is finally done. I feel an overwhelming joy about it, but it is bittersweet. Because I have had the BEST time making this album. I’ve had the absolute pleasure of working with a team of people that are so talented it blows me away. Saying goodbye to that part of it is really hard. It feels like I will miss it forever.
But as the last colors on the horizon faded, I looked down at the city all lit up below and all I could feel was gratitude.
