Well yesterday was my 41st birthday and my family surprised me with an incredible gift. A Dell computer touch screen w/ Windows 10. It’s a combination of both a birthday/Christmas gift at the same time. I never expected a gift like this so it was quite a surprise really. My previous computer broke and was having all kinds of problems so I ended up getting a whole new computer. An even better and more fancier one! You know those fancy Dell computers you see at the stores at the mall like at Best Buy? Those kind of computers I got.

These Dell computers are made by Microsoft so it’s a Bill Gates kind of thing. These Dell computers are pretty similar to Apple Imacs a little bit. Honestly, I’m liking Microsoft a lot more than Apple. Windows 10 actually makes Apple look really bad.

On this computer, I can do apps on it like play games, do social networking and other types of software. I re-installed Mixcraft 8 DAW software on this computer so I can have my music recording software back and I’m gonna have to set up my home studio on this thing again. A touch screen computer would be pretty useful with DAW software ’cause when I have a guitar on my lap while recording, I no longer have to use the mouse to hit the record button. I can just hit the record button with my finger. Plus, doing all kinds of editing in the DAW would be much easier and quicker using touch screen.

I need a word processor so pretty soon I’m planning to buy Microsoft Office which will cost $150 but it’ll be worth it. I need a word processor ’cause I want to write song lyrics, poems, short stories and possibly even full novels too. I want to get back into writing full time. I’m also planning on getting some kind of photo shop from the Microsoft store, get video editing software so I can make video blogs and things like that.

This morning, I’ve just re-installed Spotify so I’m thinking of getting back into using Spotify again. I can use the free Spotify on this computer too. I’m thinking about subscribing to Spotify full time real soon. Maybe that’ll be the goal for 2018. For now, I’ll just stick with the free version of Spotify.

I’ll also be able to watch streaming services on Windows 10 like WWE Network and Netflix. The WWE Network streaming is shit on the PS4 so I think the streaming would play better on here. I think WWE Network live streaming for their ppvs would stream way better on here too so I think I’ll watch WWE Network on this computer from now on.

The cool thing about this computer is that it has a web cam on it so I’ll be able to do live chats with people and stuff. Maybe I’ll have to get a Skype account as well. Since this computer has a web cam now, I’ll be able to do live home performances for Facebook live video too. Do video blogs and whatever.

I’ll be able to rent movies from the Microsoft Store too so if there’s any new releases I wanna see, I can just rent them from the store and watch ’em. I usually rent movies from ITunes on my Ipad and now I can rent movies on my new Dell computer.

Windows 10 is actually very nice really. I’m very impressed with it. Definitely way better than Apple. On top of that, Apple is pretty overrated anyways.

Kev

Making my first album has always been a dream of mine. I’m dying to make it happen and it will. If I were to make my debut album, what kind of music would be on it? I’m thinking a mix of hard rock and progressive rock put together. Kind of like an Opeth and Dream Theater thing, ya know? I’ve been listening to both bands non-stop as I’m a huge fan of both bands and I figure I want to make that similar kind of music.

If I were to release my first album, I won’t release it under my solo artist name. I’m going to release under a band name that I came up with myself. It’s gonna be under the name of K’brocking. That’s the band name that I came up with which is why I named this site K’brocking. My site here at K’brocking is not just a site for a blog. It’s also a music website for a band/album project that I got planned. K’brocking would be a pretty cool band name wouldn’t it? That’s what the name of my band gonna be.

For right now, I’m not gonna have other human musicians in the band although I would like to get a drummer somehow and maybe a bass player too if I can find one. If I can’t, I would try to record the drums and bass myself using Mixcraft 8 software.

I’m inspired by hard rock and progressive rock music. I’ve been listening to that stuff for years. For prog rock, I’ve been listening to a lot of Opeth, Dream Theater, Rush, Jethro Tull and bands such as those. Wouldn’t it be cool if I made that similar music? That’s the plan! I plan to make songs that are pretty long and extensive. Songs that can go from 6 minutes to even 20 minutes or longer. I enjoying listening to music like that. A lot of people complain about long songs, but to me I don’t see them as long songs. It’s just regular music to me. I’m used to listening to music like that is why. Probably ’cause I listen to too much stuff like Led Zeppelin, The Allman Brothers and the Grateful Dead. They all jam on songs for a long time. That’s how I always heard music, ya know? To be honest, I don’t like songs that are too damn short.

When I make an album, I’m gonna try to make it experimental music too. Try to add some orchestration and other instruments. This is the vision that I have in my head of what I would want my first album to be like. I just want to make music that I want to hear and make music that makes me happy. Hopefully, make other people happy too ’cause I too want others to enjoy it if possible. If not then that’s fine ’cause I want to make music that I can be proud of which there is nothing wrong with.

I would like to get back to writing soon ’cause I’ve been messing with some electric guitar riffs that sounds cool. I think my first album will be a mix of acoustic and electric guitar rock.

It’s gonna be an online only album. It won’t be available for physical CD ’cause I can’t afford CD pressing/manufacturing. I refuse to do that Kick Starter thing. I won’t do crowdfunding ’cause I feel fans shouldn’t have to pay music in order to be able to listen to it. That’s why I don’t agree with crowdfunding. Maybe I’ll have another rant about that soon.

When will I actually start working on this thing? Pretty soon. It’s a good idea to take your slow time and not get too ahead of yourself.

Kev

So you want to play your music and get yourself out there hoping to get noticed in your local area. I would have to say — knowing from my own experience — that being a local musician is kind of tough admittedly. It’s hard trying to get yourself out there and trying to get people to care, I hear ya.

I remember back in 2006/2007… those were the years when I first decided that I want to start playing my music publicly hoping to get well-known. When I first started releasing my music and started playing open mics/actual gigs, I got a mix of love and hate over the years. I’m fine with it too. It took me a long time to be able to finally accept the fact that I can’t get everyone to like me, but now I can handle it just fine.

I’m not lying when I said I get a mix of love and hate over the years of my life when it comes to my music. I still do get a mix of love and hate to this day. I’ve always had a mix of true fans and haters. Like I said above, I’m fine with that now. I used to be upset when I get haters and used to have a big problem engaging into them and defending myself (making things worse) but I don’t do that anymore. Now I get flattered when I get haters. I’ve gotten a lot better ignoring negativity nowadays. It’s just an unprofessional thing to do when you respond to negativity that is directed at you, ya know?

I was doing research on this stuff and stumbled upon this interesting blog on how musicians deal with haters and negativity. I liked it when this article said when you have haters take it like a badge of honor. Take it like a reward or something and be flattered by it.

Read this interesting blog which I agree with all of it:

Musicians, This Is How to Deal With Haters

Some of you may ask… why do I have a lot of haters? Is it because they think my music sucks? They don’t like my personality? They just think it’ll be funny to make fun of me? I would say a combination of all three!  A lot of people think it’s my fault that I get a lot of haters but I never thought so. All I want to do is play my music and get it out there, but unfortunately, that’s not gonna make some happy. Keep in mind that a lot of people are not gonna be nice to you. There WILL be a lot of assholes and mean people out there, trust me. That’s just the way it is. Best way to deal with them is just ignore them all. Haters are gonna hate, period. End of story. Just keep making your music and let people hate.

I also agree with that little blog post above that musicians are very sensitive people. A lot of them get upset too easily knowing from my own experience dealing with musicians. They can have some pretty nasty temper tantrums for sure. It’s crazy. The thing is, some musicians have huge egos and they can be narcissists. They just want everything to be positive about them, once you have negative thoughts about them… watch out.

I’ll never forget the days when people attacked me anonymously through message boards, social networking like the old myspace, facebook, twitter, youtube, etc. It was nasty when I dealt with all that. I still happen to get anonymous attacks once in a while, but I just ignore it and let it all slide by. Musicians and regular music fans can sometimes get all hell-bent on trying to destroy me but I’m still here. Still the same old guy and haven’t changed one bit for anyone.

Admittedly, I would like people to have more respect for me and treat me more positively but I learned that respect can’t fall in my lap. I gotta earn it. It took me a while to realize that I can’t make everyone happy even though I try. The blog above is so right, when you’re getting hated on publicly… don’t engage and let your supporters defend you. Your supporters/fans do a good job defending you. Yeah, I do have lovely fans and supporters who have always had my back 100%. They usually do help defend me when I’m getting attacked. That’s what your supporters & fans are there for. When they see you’re getting attacked by haters, they’ll help scare the haters away for you. I’ve seen it with other bands when they dealt with haters.

Yeah, there’s gonna be negativity and drama in music for sure. You just gotta learn to deal with it, stay strong and stay above it all if you want to succeed in music. I know I haven’t released any new music in a long while but when I do, I’ll probably get even more haters than ever before and I’m fine with that. I gotta get back into songwriting ’cause I’m itching for new material pretty badly.

Kev