Epiphany V

Finally, the last in the series of The Epiphanies, for now. So, let's look at the options I have and how they weigh up...

Well, firstly, there's the fact that I would like to become a record producer. That way it would give me the freedom of still having knowledge of playing instruments and how they should sound in the studio. Playing live is brilliant fun but I would rather come out of the limelight and let someone else take the glory. That's the thing - I've played as a frontman and as an instrumentalist and both are immense fun with the latter being a lot easier as not all the focus is on the rhythm guitarist; I cannot stress that enough. But with being a producer, there is some responsibility but it's not like they have to be on top of it all and to be always focused on the audience and critiques. It is like it feels a lot better whilst still generating the same sort of buzz. Of course, when the time arises, I can still step back into frontman mode. Another thing is that although I'd be writing songs, I probably won't get all the glory for it and I don't particularly want to become a Mark Ronson or David Guetta (more on him later), because they should really stay behind the scenes. In all honesty, I would like the credit but have the credit anonymously. That may sound silly and somewhat impossible but it's not. The name Jimmi Cottam would be credited as songwriter/composer but the singer wouldn't be. And, I know, I have a thing about artists should write their own songs and not have someone else do it, but really, that sort of thing happens all over the place nowadays. In essence the vocals would be treated as another instrument. Another colour in the palette to work with.
Rock has now become my listening interest. Love the stuff. Always will. But with pop, I can still use parts of rock and fuse it with something else to make it better (or worse).

I'm feeling comfortable with this sort of project though because there is so much to choose from in the area of Popular Music. So comfortable in fact that I have started using my Yamaha PSR-540 keyboard a lot more. With that I wrote a song called Desiderium (Can't Carry On). This is totally different to what I've done ever before; a million miles away from Delayed Finality but still a thousand miles away from my first effort, Stop. I had never wrote a piano ballad before. I hadn't really wrote a ballad before. I had never wrote a piano song before. With it being a ballad, I could use the same customs that I used in my previous songs. And that's not all...Whilst recording a group singing David Guetta and Kid Cudi's terrible song Memories, I decided that the piano motif in that was very simple and I thought to myself "let's totally rip that off." So I did; I used 3 notes just like the bassline of Memories. That's one idea in the pipeline. Another idea is similar to Stop; a heavy grinding synthpop tune. And then there's the song I've had that's been called New One for a while. This was going to be a Delayed Finality song but never really got going. So maybe I could adapt it and create a new song altogether. But wait, there's more! I'm also planning on making a Trance rework of In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg. I like classical music, especially the really dark and brooding stuff. Except this is going to be my creation. I could then sell it to Alton Towers or something. And then there's a planned idea for me to remix one of Rowan's songs from his recent album. That's a few projects to keep me active. I've even got a name planned out. Don't laugh. Parallel Dimension Productions - ParaDime for short. So...what could be stopping me? Ah, yes.

As it stands I have 5 guitars and one keyboard. I am currently looking into buying a proper synthsizer to sit on top of my Yamaha; a Korg MicroKorg. And then I would need the various equipment to hook up my instruments to my laptop. And then I need the software. And then I need the laptop. I have a laptop. Well, it resembles a laptop. It's got a massive crack in the back of the screen and as a result, it doesn't stand up properly. I've had to put a pair of comical googly eyes on it to remind myself not to close it, otherwise it would die. 'C' doesn't like working and 'O' likes to jump out of the keyboard. There is no space on the disk drive. I only have 200-odd songs on here and few written documents. I have no idea what's clogging it up. I even had to delete some fabulous parks when I uninstalled Roller Coaster Tycoon 2. So, I'll need a new laptop. BUT, as with most of the things I've done/taken part in over the past 3/4 years, I've remained optimistic. So, when I get these sorted out, I'm going to see what I can offer the world! Who knows? I may become revolutionary. Or even evolutionary. I'm going to stand by my guns though. I'm going to see what I can do. For this is my epiphany - When something else doesn't go to plan or something gets in the way, stop, re-asses, see how it could be tackled or take a different route. You could surprise yourself. And here's another epiphany...That was a really tacky ending! Oh. My...