I get this a lot from people. My blogging hurts my music. People mistakenly believes that my music doesn’t go anywhere because of it. When people make up these claims and myths about me… I just ignore ’em and laugh at ’em. I don’t think my online web presence and my blogging will hurt my music at all. Maybe a little bit but not too bad. If it does happen to hurt my music… who cares. It’s not the end of the world.

My blogging is part of what made me a musician. In the past, I got noticed from the Metroland Polls and Metroland Readers Pick two times back in 2006. My blogging helps me get known.

Sometimes being controversial and being honest does good things for ya.

On top of that, there aren’t really a lot of musicians who are upset at my blogging about local music. Maybe some of them are but a lot of ’em are with me about what I say about the music scene. A certain few may whine and cry about my music scene topics but not too many. Yes, I may not “get along with a lot of musicians out there” but who cares. If I’m hated, that’s actually great.

It’s actually kind of good to get a mixed response if you think about it.

It’s a good thing for a musician to blog. It helps expresses yourself. It helps let people know who you are. There are even famous musicians in the music industry who are controversial and honest but it doesn’t hurt their careers at all like look at Ted Nugent for example. The more people are hating on him and the more he gets all of this mixed responses, the bigger you’re making his music career.

My blogging doesn’t damage my music at all. It actually helps. I’ve had more people get interested in me over the years. Plus, there are a lot of adult acting people who don’t take everything I do seriously. Some enjoy everything I write and actually debates with me on various topics like an adult without the bullying and harassment.

Whether you love me or hate me, either way I’m good!!! 🙂 I don’t care about negative and dramatic people. I avoid them like the plague. I ignore all bullshit and continue to do the things that I love to do. Blogging and making music. Nothing’s stopping me from being who I am!

Being honest and realistic is a good thing for a musician to do. Nothing wrong with it.

Anyway, I think more people in this scene is gonna like my new batch of songs that I’m doing. My music is not just for Capital District people. I will welcome new fans/supporters from everywhere. I got supporters from different states in the US and I got some from Nottingham, U.K. who have always been supportive of my music too.

My blogging doesn’t hurt me at all. I’m being realistic and honest ’cause I love being this way. I also do it to entertain people doesn’t matter how controversial my blogging gets. I just like to get people all fired up ’cause it entertains me. I do it to entertain others too. If you don’t take what I do personally, then you would find what I do is entertaining.

I feel no regrets at all for what I do and don’t feel apologetic for my “controversial” web presence. It’s just who I am.

Kev

I just re-recorded “Leave This Place”and “Speak A Little Loudly” this morning. Spent all day working on those two songs. I stayed out of the red through the songs pretty much so it shouldn’t clip at all. When I master them hopefully I can make the songs louder without clipping them in “Final Touch” mastering and I know there’s a way to do it.

While I recorded one song, I recorded a little video footage as one reader suggested me. It’s a good idea to do a short “Behind the Scenes” video to give people an idea of how I recorded the album.

Maybe I’ll inspire more bands and musicians — hopefully they’ll start to do the same thing. Make their music on an Ipad instead of an expensive studio. They might find what I do inspiring. It’ll help save lots of money from expensive studios.

Kev

Just like most bands & artists, I hope to get recognized for my music too. Get more exposure. More listeners listening to my music and having people enjoy them. I try my very best to get there. I really do. It really is tough to get noticed with your music. I’m hoping these new songs will help get me some more recognition but if not, that’s okay. I’ll just enjoy them for myself and release them for the small following that I have out there.

I know respect doesn’t fall in your lap. You gotta earn the respect from the people. It’s hard to make really good music that everyone will like. It’s hard to predict whether or not people will enjoy your songs. I know, I feel ya. People are just honest, I guess. They only support stuff they like.

However, if your music is being ignored too much… you can’t keep your focus on that. It’s possible to grow your own following. Prove the doubters wrong. Prove people wrong that you have what it takes to make good music. Keep making the music and more people will come around to support your stuff. You shouldn’t feel offended or hurt that your music gets ignored a lot. It used to bother me but not anymore.

No matter what people think of you. They can hate your music and hate your online web presence all they want to… you WILL always have fans. You’ll have people who’ll stay loyal to you throughout the years and you will get a few new fans along the way.

I’m thankful for fans/supporters of my music. I’ll always welcome new listeners.

The question is, will I ever gig shows again? I know playing a lot of shows will help get you even more fans but gigging is tough for me ’cause I don’t drive. Someday I will get my license and car, then I will be able to gig a lot more often. On top of that, it’s getting tougher to gig these days ’cause most venues are all about politics when it comes booking. They only care about booking bands/artists who are already established/popular. If you’re not popular, they won’t book you — it doesn’t matter whether your music is good or bad. I know I’ve seen it since I’ve gigged out there myself. It’s crazy out there. In order to book a gig, you have to prove to them that you can pull in a lot of people. If you don’t have that, you’re done. That’s how it goes in Albany. There aren’t too many venues anymore that books bands on the talent. It is usually based on the number of fans they have. If a band/artist can make the venue a lot of money, they’ll love you for it. Sad but it is what it is.

The only time you’ll get lucky to get a gig is when a band or an artist asks you to open for them and that’s exactly how I got most of my gigs in the past. I was just openers for a lot of acts.

I’ll try to book a few shows for the upcoming internet-album but I won’t travel so far. I’ll probably just gig in Greenwich or Saratoga Springs. I’ll try to book a gig at Caffe Lena’s. Maybe the Putnam Den too. I don’t think I’ll gig in the city of Albany, too far.

I’ll just see what kind of response these new songs will get. That’s all I gotta say.

Kev

I have been doing a little research on “clipping” when doing audio recording and I think the best way to avoid it is that you need to stay out of the red completely. I think in garageband, I’m gonna have to re-record these songs over again and stay out of the red in the VU meter. I can make them louder later when mastering in “Final Touch” app that I just got.

“Final Touch” is a nice mastering app. I’ve been watching tutorial videos in youtube learning how to use it.

I don’t mind re-recording these 7 songs over again, though. At least I got ’em recorded as song ideas so I won’t forget ’em. I could find a way to improve these songs too! I want the sound production to these songs to sound really good that’s part of why I got the “Final Touch” mastering app.

I want these songs to sound great. Studio professional on an Ipad. If I can get these songs to sound clean and GOOD, I’ll no longer have to record in professional studios! I’ll spend all this week re-recording these songs. Staying out of the red is probably the best way to avoid clipping.

I’m real proud of these songs and I’m trying to get the best sound out of ’em the best I can.

Kev

For the Ipad, I ended up buying the “Final Touch” music mastering app and it is really great. It’s well worth the money. It is easy to use. All it takes to master a song with good sound is just a few swipes of the finger and that’s it.

When you get an Ipad or an Iphone you have to choose your apps VERY wisely. Why? Because there’s a lot of garbage apps in the app store. A lot of ’em don’t even work. Some will want you to pay more money for the extras. You really have to be careful on the apps you buy. To know when the app is really good just read the customer reviews. They’ll tell ya. When they say it’s a good app then it probably is. When they say it’s bad, don’t waste your money. I haven’t bought a bad app yet. I’m usually am very careful.

I try not to get a lot of apps for the Ipad, I only get the ones I need and can be useful.

I already mastered a song with the “Final Touch” app this morning and it’s a lot of fun. Sounds great. I just wanted to test it out, learn how to use it and mess with it.

I won’t upload the songs yet… only when I’m ready to.

Kev

I think I’m gonna want my internet-only album to sound really good as possible so after I get ’em recorded in garageband… I’ll get the songs mastered. I think it’s best to get the songs mastered ’cause I want the volume of the tracks to sound similar. For example, I don’t want one track to sound louder than another track and don’t want one track to sound quieter than the other. You want the volume levels to be pretty much the same. Plus, I’m gonna wanna improve the sound even better. I want the guitar and voice to be loud and upfront so to do that, I gotta master it. Maybe mastering will help eliminate background hiss and other noises too.

I went looking around for mastering apps in the Ipad and found this. This app is getting good reviews from other musicians, they say it’s good and easy to use so I think I’m gonna get this app in a couple of weeks.

I’m gonna try to avoid clipping as much as possible ’cause I want this album to sound good for y’all. Plus, I want the songs to sound good for possible radio airplay and stuff.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/audio-mastering/id640515541?mt=8

The internet-only album is coming along well. I’m currently working on song #7.

Kev

Pauper writes, “No one will ever listen to you, because you don’t ever want to listen to anyone. Especially where the truth is concerned.”

——————————————————————————————————————————————

That’s exactly right.

I’ve never had listened to anyone over the years and don’t really have to. Don’t need to. Don’t have to. Don’t want to. It’s very rare that I agree with the majority of the public. Happens once in a blue moon. Like I said repeatedly, when I make an opinion and thoughts… I stick to my guns no matter what anybody says or does. I will always hold on to my beliefs. Do all you want. Call me all kinds of names. Lose your temper. Whine and cry. Bash the hell out of me. I will always stick to my opinions and thoughts.

Also, you really need stop saying that everything you say is the truth. It’s just your truth and yours alone. I repeat, YOUR truth. You’re just very opinionated.  Everyone says their side of the truth. Everything you say doesn’t necessarily mean everyone else will have the same thought.

You really need to stop believing all the crap out there that’s put out about Barack is the truth ’cause that stuff is not. Barack is not a very transparent guy so everything he puts out there is not very truthful. There’s no truth of Barack’s birth certificate being real. There’s no truth of Barack not being involved with Benghazi. There’s no truth about Barack’s NSA spying and IRS targeting being legal. There’s no truth about whether or not Obamacare is legal or whether or not it’s a good healthcare system. There’s no truth about Barack not being a Muslim. He’s not transparent with any of that stuff. You guys are too naive to fall for his bullshit.

The point is, there is no truth about anything that have to do with Obama ’cause everything about him is a lie. I’m just getting tired of you guys acting like Obama does nothing wrong each time he tries to pull off something bad.

You guys, bone and Pauper are both misinformed with your politics, all the way. It isn’t because you don’t agree with me on Obama, you just don’t know what you’re talking about most of the time.

You just don’t know what he’s doing to America and it’s really too bad that you can’t see it. You still can’t see that he’s capable of killing innocent people. You still can’t see that all he wants to do is destroy this country and possibly turn us into a Muslim state. You can’t see that he’s a fraud, liar and a huge hypocrite. You can’t see that he hates America and you can’t see that he’s a terrorist supporter.

I just can’t see Pauper being a conservative. A conservative doesn’t act like Obama wasn’t involved in his crimes and scandals. A conservative doesn’t act like Obama’s actions are completely legal. From what I’ve seen in conservative forums and blogs, most of us KNOW that he’s nothing but a criminal, a fraud and a fuckin’ murderer. Most conservative views have the same views of Obama as I do. Most of what they discuss in forums and blogs are pretty much the same stuff I talk about on here. If I don’t see Pauper talking about Obama that way… that’s not being a true conservative, in my opinion. I can sit here and point out all kinds of comments from conservative facebook groups and I’ll post ’em right here. I’ll show you how real conservatives talk about Obama. I’ll prove my point.

I believe I’m doing okay when I talk about Obama. In my personal facebook profile, I have a few conservatives and they enjoy everything I post about Obama. Pauper claims to be “conservative” but not a very good one, in my opinion. He’s not aggressive enough to be a conservative. Seems to be offended at all the Obama hate on here and doesn’t make a bit of sense to me. A conservative doesn’t get offended at Obama hate. I’ll prove my point tomorrow.

Also, I don’t need to talk about the Jimmy Page thing so get over it. I don’t think Page is a child rapist. That stuff was made up by a biographer name Richard Cole. I don’t think that stuff is true. Just some silly tabloid bullshit. I don’t need to debate about that crap.

Kev

For several months now, I’ve been trying to find ways to overcome my shyness around women and people. Guess there’s nothing wrong with who I am ’cause that is who I am. There is a term for that called an “introvert”. Meaning somebody who prefers to be alone and be the quiet type and embraces it. That is me pretty much admittedly.

I have been trying to talk to women and other people more, though. I’m not the type of guy who will sit there and talk for hours and hours like a lot of people out there. I do like talking to people don’t get me wrong. I’m more of a listener than a talker. I just like listening to other people. Just like Jad here, I just talk very little and just listen to people respond.

The only time when I DO talk a lot for hours and hours is I do that only to people I know really well. I just happen to be quiet around people I don’t know. I am very picky and choosy of who I let in my life ’cause admittedly I do have a hard time trusting people out there. Only I choose who to be friends with. Admittedly I don’t have many friends in my life… hardly any in fact but I’m okay with that. I may chat with some people online on a regular basis but I wouldn’t really call them “friends”, they’re just online buddies, nothing more… hope that makes some sense.

There’s a lot of claims and myths out there that women don’t like shy and introverted guys which is actually bullshit. Women actually LOVE shy men just like Jad here explained. Shy men STILL can get a lot of women… even the HOT ones.

So I guess I’m okay of being who I am. Introverted. I do like my me time, though but still gotta practice getting out of it, though. I’m still gonna work on talking to women more which I have been doing. It be cool to have a nice woman to go to the movies and stuff with. I know you don’t wanna go to the movies on a first date… you wanna start off with a small coffee date first.

I do like talking to people but like I said, I’m very picky and choosy. Even though there is nothing wrong with being shy and introverted… I’m still gonna work on learning how to talk more with confidence.

This is a great video!

Kev

I was doing a little experimentation with bandcamp on how you are able to download albums from the site and throw bandcamp albums in your Itunes library so you can listen to your albums on your Ipods. I couldn’t download albums directly from bandcamp to the Ipod ’cause they don’t accept that for whatever reason but I figured out a way so you can sync your bandcamp albums to your Itunes library. Just make a new folder in the Itunes Media folder, unzip the file and copy the album into the media folder… then you would be able to import the album to your Itunes Library successfully.

I just tried this by downloading the latest album by local band, Lucky Jukebox Brigade which was a free album download by the way. With bandcamp you are able to download free albums without paying anything and you are able to sync it to your Ipods.

I think I will definitely release the internet album to bandcamp. When I do I’ll post the lyrics to each song on there too.

Keep in mind that the album sound quality is not gonna be 100% perfect but that’s the whole point. I’m just hoping to inspire people that albums don’t always have to be about perfection. You don’t need to record in an expensive studio when all you need is just a small and cheap recording rig. A good sounding computer or an Ipad w/ garageband is pretty much all you need. This is just good for acoustic music, anyways. If you’re gonna record with a full band, you might need a recording studio but recording acoustic music… home recording is good for that. This is gonna be a strictly homemade album.

Bandcamp is turning out to be an alright site after all. Maybe I will continue to release albums on that site on a regular basis.

I’ll do a full band rock n’ roll album someday… maybe that’ll be the next one. However, when I do the rock n’ roll album… it’ll be a real band with real musicians. It won’t be backed up by MIDI. It’ll probably be a three piece band with drums, bass and guitar/vocals. I’ll think about the rock n’ roll album for next year ’cause I always wanted to do one. That has always been my dream to make an in your face guitar rock record… full of thundering riffs and improvised jams… all that stuff.

Kev

I completely understand why I get a lot of haters, trolls and critics out there. Some find the way I post online is considered offensive and some believe I go way out of line of certain topics. Some believe that I never write anything positive. Some believe I’m always negative and hateful on everything I post. Some believe I’m a hypocrite of some of the things that I write but you know what? Once again, I don’t really give a shit what anybody thinks of my online presence anymore. I’m really am at that point where I believe that, “I’m at that point where I don’t care if people like me or not. If you do great, if not that’s great too”. No matter what I say and no matter how good my thoughts and opinions are, somebody is always gonna come around and be offended. Disagree and complain. That’s why you gotta stop pleasing others.

One thing to be sure, I am not always negative and hateful on a lot of things. I write a lot of positive thoughts too. I try to write positive things and yet people still see me as a negative person. People can be really weird and crazy, ya know?

I understand that people try to call me out on the things I say so they try to vent in the comments. They create anonymous pages like on facebook, twitter, wordpress as a way to vent to and it’s their way of retaliation against me but try all you must, none of that stuff is gonna change who I am. I don’t have to change for other people ’cause others don’t like the way I am online. I’m just being me but apparently, it seems to be a crime for other people out there.

You can’t let people think they can control you. I have every right to an opinion. I have every right to speak on anything I please as long as I’m not discussing anything criminal which I have never done over the years. It’s really weird how everyone thinks they have the right to say what they wanna say but every time I open my mouth, I’m always the bad guy. No matter what comes out of my mouth, people are gonna be offended and complain. I’ve dealt with this attitude with people for years so I learned to ignore everyone’s opinions and thoughts. I don’t care if people think I’m a hypocrite, a troll, a negative person or whatever you wanna call me these days. None of that is changing me. I will always be the same guy.

So people don’t like me deleting comments on my “blog”… well that’s tough shit. I don’t tolerate bullshit on here. I just delete stuff I don’t like. I only approve comments that are positive and valuable to the discussion. I don’t tolerate attacks and insults against me. I also won’t talk about my personal life too much. All the dating stuff is fine but everything else in my persona life? No.

I actually love it when people get offended at the things I say. I really do. That’s what a critic and blogger does. Their job is to get people all fired up and get ’em going. If you’re not doing that, then you’re not a very good blogger and not getting enough attention with people.

I am honest man and that’s all there is to it. I will talk shit about Obama all I want to. I will talk shit about local music all I want to. Nothing’s changing.

Also, it is funny how a few of you guys get easily offended when I talk dirty about women on here. You see, anything goes on this blog. This is not a PG rated or a family oriented blog. ANYTHING GOES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Swear your head off. Talk dirty. Sex. Whatever you want. If I wanna say that a woman has nice tits or a nice ass, I’ll say that on here if I want to. That’s the way men talk about women sometimes and there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s called being a man.

This blog wasn’t designed to make every reader happy. It doesn’t work that way. Sorry.

Kev