Arlo Tarr

My blog last week stressed the importance of finding a Music Mentor. The best way to get the next level, in any endeavor, is to learn from someone that has already done the things you want to do. 

This weeks blog is sort of a continuation of my last blog. I'm going to talk about the importance of collaborating with other musicians.

I LOVE being alone in my home studio! Typically on my days off from my regular job, I get my son on the bus in the morning and for the next 6 hours until my daughter gets home I'm in studio heaven. I might have a song I'm already tracking or I may have listened to some song ideas that I have stored in my phone and I pick a new song to start from scratch. I might be tracking guitars, bass or vocals that day. I might be programming drums with my EZdrummer software. I might be mixing a new song with my favorite Acustica Audio, Soundtoys or IK Multimedia plugins. Whatever it is I'm working on that day, usually, the hours fly by like seconds. Every day is a great day in Sunrise Studio!

I also really enjoy it because I'm alone and free to experiment with any idea I want. I don't have anyone distracting me or waiting around for someone to do their part. I don't have anyone telling me that they don't care for how this sounds or they think it should go more like this or that. It's just me and creativity. 

Last Tuesday, I had a phone call with Matt Starr. Matt is replacing my EZdrummer drums with live drums recorded in the studio. We talked about the feel of the song with the software drums and where we felt more energy could be pushed into the song at certain sections. It was a pretty easy and FUN conversation as Matt and I have similar tastes in music. I've watched a bunch of videos of Matt playing Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Black Crowes and Kiss tunes. I'm more than confident that he'll play what's right for my song and also add some of his drum personality to it. I could've left the software drums on there but I think having a professional drummer will bring even more emotion to my song. I'm excited to hear what Matt comes up with!

Then the next day a post on Facebook caught my attention. Keyboardist Derek Sherinian was looking for solo artists to work with. Derek plays in rock supergroup Black Country Communion with Joe Bonamassa, Glen Hughes (Deep Purple) and Jason Bonham (son of John Bonham). I sent the song Matt is working on to Derek. Twenty minutes later, Derek sent me the song back with B3 organ on it! The song sounded HUGE! I hadn't considered putting the B3 on it but once I heard it the song transformed into something different. He also adding some different melody lines that added some other character to the song. So now I'm thinking of adding keys to some other songs that will be on my EP.

So why is collaborating with other musicians important?

Well it can be fun for starters. I love talking about music and when you talk about music with other people that know a lot about music it gets you fired up. I couldn't wait to work on more music after talking to Matt and Derek. It also felt good to have pro musicians think that my music was even good enough to work on. It feels validating to me that I'm creating something that is worth someone else's time to work on. 

It also showed me how the song could morph into something even grander than I had envisioned. Many times at my regular job, I'll go to my boss with an idea on motivating staff or a merchandising idea on the sales floor. I'll tell him the idea and he might say "I like that, what if you also said this or did it this way". He doesn't squash my idea with his own. He try to enhance my idea by adding to it. The idea still feels like my own, I want to go forward with my idea but the idea has maybe evolved and become a better idea.

I LOVE my alone time in my studio! I'm also loving the idea of collaborating with other musicians to help my songs evolve into something more emotive than I first envisioned.

I hope you get some time to work on your creative endeavors today. Maybe take some time to find someone that is also creating in your space. It might be music, painting or writing. Whatever it is maybe look around and see if you can find someone that shares your creative interest and see if they'd like to collaborate. You may be surprised with the results.

Have a good one!

-Arlo