Jonathan McEuen - Believe CD Release Party

the song "All Good" from the album Believe by Jonathan McEuen

written by Gardner Cole

Scorsese - Jonathan McEuen

If Scorsese wrote a film of your life, what kind of script would he write?

Friends

the new song from Jonathan McEuen written by Gardner Cole out of a dream.

Eternity - Jonathan McEuen

The new track from Jonathan McEuen's CD "Believe"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boRlAX6FVNg

www.hwhrecords.com

The Life That's Chosen Me pt.3

Karen Taylor-Good enjoying the music

Jason Garner (engineering) and Chris Graffagnino playing it up

Chris G. listening to "The Life That's Chosen Me" for the first time

The recording process with Karen and Jason was a pleasure, Jason's skill with pro-tools and Karen's experience is wonderful. They had worked well together for quiet a time and it showed. The cozy studio and warmth of Karen's heart for this project was obvious. She really wanted this to go well!

I had a sound in my head that was very persistent for the month prior (it was driving me crazy actually) and was yearning to get it out of there, lol. Being my first time in a studio in about 20 years It was like old times. The equipment had changed a lot but luckily via the miracles of the internet I kept up a bit on equipment and had a pretty good base from when I had my job at Steve's Music Store in Toronto back in the day.

I have always loved production like this and usually it was a room full of reel to reel, large mixing consoles, etc.. that I was around years prior but too see this in a small section of Jason's garage studio was incredible. So simple. You really do have the world at your finger tips when you can play keyboards!

The first vocals were prepped with Karen just seamlessly roughing out the lyrics in her head (she didn't even to my recollection vocally prepare for this... a true master) then a first try at it. No windows to watch her just the speakers to hear.. Jason and I were listening carefully, beautiful first run of it. She talked it out with us on the "talk back" button of which I started to help him engineer it. Like old days.. lol.

We did a second sweep of it, amazing. The first piano intro showed her depth of her vocals better.. smooth. Very little ez tuning going on later in the process. Then another pass at the opening and viola she had it! This time we kept going and the development of the song connected.

Got to the bridge and this was a challenge. I had a very deep approach on this, the lyrics were always perfect in this song but at the point where it states "I need answers, I need help, it's so much work... and a miracle or two sure wouldn't hurt" was dramatic for me. We had a little bit of a tough time connecting the lyrics with the arrangement at the point where it "streisand's" the lyric ... it's the LIFE that's chosen me and we kept passing through this and I remember asking for it too be really built up because she had no idea that the guitar was really going to be the lead on this and I needed her to take the lead over it. At this point I opened up the studio door and offered her a picture of my two boys, both afflicted with Autism in different ways but needed her to sing it while looking at them. It worked.. goosebumps!!

That belt out of "it's not the life that I've chosen,... it's the life that's chosen me" was the hook, the title of the album and ultimately the banner statement that would connect the song to completion. We continued to tweak the vocals but we pretty much had it and off to meet with Chris Graffagnino a well known guitarist/session musician who had a larger studio and plenty of space to spread out.

Note: Karen was kind enough to stay through out the sessions, as that she was excited to be in the studio to watch the process but for someone who has been doing this for quiet a while it was nerve racking for me as that I knew that the critical part for me was always matching the guitar's strength with her sweet lyrics and melody.

Chris's guitar collection made me envious, his pedals, etc.. were huge and vintage ruled in this studio. He listened to the tracks a few times without any prior listening to get the feel and then setup the layers and layers of guitars (8 I think in total?) I got to pick the sound through his experience and developed it.. loving every moment of this I took advantage to shoot the breeze over the sound. He seemed to really get into the sound I was looking for and I talked his ear off with nervous excitement of guiding this process!

I was in heaven, for about 4 to 5 hours we just recorded, lead lines, rhythm, 12 string electric.. went on and on! We got to points where it was finally out of my head, this sound. This was the second day and back to Jason's studio we went to complete the basics. Back at the studio Jason burned rubber to merge the comp'd vocals and guitar lines. It was coming closer to completion, Karen did a run of it uninterrupted and had a few changes to some delay and reverb elements. I had a few adjustments.. phew!

The next phase helped to establish a companies direction...

Randy Grossman

CEO HwH Records

www.hwhrecords.com

Trying To Get Through To You pt 3.

Victor Crowl and Michael Moon in Ojai, California

CBC Studio's 212 Toronto, Canada

In between the time of recording the song "roger" with Ted Jacobs at house on the corner studios and Harold Payne's/Faith Rivera's wonderful "You Are My Teacher" I was busy thinking of avenues to go on this song that my wife called "beatle-ish". It's first renditions were kind of like a beatles met pink floyd song (I'll follow the sun) which wasn't bad but it didn't fit the lyrics completely. I asked both Michael and Victor if I could take the direction on it and they were open to it.

After some discussion with Ted we both felt it needed to be lifted to more of a dance beat, I warned Ted that this was a very challenging track prior to his hearing it and he mentioned that it didn't scare him one bit.. optimistic to the end, lol. He heard it and was quiet at first, hesitant then we talked it out. I had a couple of ideas I wanted to try, very dramatic tempo changes both of them but he was open to it.

The first style was a sort of symphony build up thing, naw.. that didn't work (like a david foster moment a bit) with the big drum slow beat, you get the idea. It was frustrating, a couple more variations around it, which included the beatles acoustic tempo and more dance laden 120 bpm techno beat stuff.. fun but not what we wanted completely.

Then one sleepless night it came to me.. I was talking to Gardner (our soon to be music president) Cole and asked him what that Madonna song was that she put out a few years back that was only acoustic guitar tempo as the opener? It was "Love Profusion" YouTube - Madonna - Love Profusion (Music Video) and matched perfectly the opening sequence to give Teddy something to start with. I liked the beat, the lyrics were great and ultimately it was current Madonna material references.

Ted was lovin' it, his speciality was dance mixes and this was right up his alley. I thought if anyone could pull this off he could and boy did he ever! After some subtle tempo adjustments I felt that with this direction both Victor (specializes in dance music) and Michael's vision could be complete and not take it away from it's core goals of exposing what a beautiful lyric that they had created. The true nature of this was to show what it was like to be affilicted with autism and Michael took that from his own experience living it with his Mom.

I heard a few more renditions of it tighten up and then It came to me on another early morning evening while I was giving direction to Ted about the song "roger" that Faith Rivera would be the elixir needed to make this song soar. I still wanted the choir from Canada in it but not as much and knew Faith with her tremendous vocals could add an amazing layer to this already coming together recording. I woke up in a start and headed to youtube to look up a song that I always liked by Duran Duran called "come undone" YouTube - Duran Duran - Come Undone . That beautiful haunting backing vocal of Tessa Niles captured perfectly what I was looking for. Faith loved the idea and recorded the vocals quickly.

I received the track back and was lovin' it! We had what was a very rough demo taken all the way to a current danceable song.. wow! I cautiously sent it to Victor and Michael in various stages of production to graduate them up the final version and they loved it. It was a beautiful blend of lyrics and arrangement but more importantly it was Michael's first time collaborating with another artist in this capacity.

There is more to the story as that the song is of interest by both Victor Crowl and Michael Moon and the video shot in LA on a huge green screen created the right vibe for it. Quirky and fun, almost reminescent of those 60's austin powers moments... lol.

YouTube - Trying To Get Through To You - Harmonizing with Humanity

Randy Grossman

HwH Records

www.hwhrecords.com

Trying To Get Through To You pt 2.

I get to Toronto amid a terribly cold time in December but was eager to go forward with the recording there. We were thinking that a choral arrangement would add a depth to the song and thus a friend of Victor's helped us with the publicity. Reaching out through all our connections we had about 25 of some of the best vocalists show up that cold evening at the CBC studio's in downtown Toronto.

The prior evening (11 pm) I got a call from the producer we had hired stating that he wasn't "feeling" the song and was just asking if I could take the track back from him. The track has a number of elements that were very concerning at the time but they're had already been work on it and included in the mix was a famous guitarist who himself declined after recording his rhythm parts on it declined wanting any acknowledgement that he was involved in it. This saddened me terribly as that as much as he did a favor for us he was perhaps uncomfortable with the track and possibly Michael's involvement. Hard to say as that I never got to talk with him after the fact.

So, I had a tune that was promoted and set for a recording session in Toronto the next day and I still wasn't happy with the outcome of the track. Lyrically it was great but otherwise challenging. I talked to the producer en-route to his apartment studio about stripping down what we had to a basic beat and no guitar, etc.. getting this simple track open to the layering of harmonies needed to build it up. I grabbed it and ran to the CBC studio to meet with Victor, Michael and the 25 musicians.

Included in the "cool canadian ensemble" were a mix of blues, hip hop, rock, jazz, rock, etc.. they're were canadian idol finalists (thanks to Farley Flex) like Daniel Panetta and raggae artists like Tanya Mullings.Humble. Good friend Angelica Mileto (fantastic performer/voice who kept right up with Liberty). We even had the luxury of the wonderful Liberty Silver and her 6 1/2 octave range.

Victor took on the role of choir director while Michael parlayed his thoughts on the tone of the song. The vocals came together well, overdubs of key vocals were tracked and off I went to LA to try and salvage the song. I was meeting up with Ted Jacobs at his studio to do another track "Roger" and had this in hand to see what we could do...

Randy Grossman

www.hwhrecords.com

The Life That's Chosen Me pt.2

Faith Rivera and Robert Anderson (Devotion) at the HwH PJ Jam

After having a blast seeing a lot of my friends perform at the Posipalooza in Kansas City I was departing the event to go back to our hotel room/PJ jam party room when Karen Taylor-Good came flying up to me saying "I have it, I have it". She explained that she had been up the night before and the lyrics came to her and she wanted to show me what she had. She and I met inside our HwH Pajama Jam room while the music was flowing and couldn't find a place to go that would allow her to show us in piece and quiet.

Thus the bathroom in the room was chosen... with me sitting on the toilet and karen sitting inside the bathtub she read to me the first verse and chorus from her laptop. Quiet an honor when you have Faith Rivera jumping into the bathroom to use it and realizing we were already in there! I was teared up over what Karen wrote, talk about a sublime experience.

She and I talked for a bit and too which we both went back to our lives, about three weeks later I had an email from karen saying that she had it and that Lisa Aschmann had helped to create the hook and other parts of the song to support it. I was excited to find out what they had and the demo showed up magically in my email. She called it simply "song for Randy and Cheryl".

Cheryl my Wife and I listened intently and both connected with the song instantly. Karen singing the rough on Lisa Aschmann's out of tune piano getting the basic track mapped out a bit. WOW! I followed up right away with Karen, thanking her and commenting that I heard a certain sound in it. I kept hearing this old Journey song "Faithfully". YouTube - Journey - Faithfully

The chord progression at times were close, the tone of it sounded similar to which Karen was surprised but agreed it had that tone. I asked if I could be in the studio through the recording of this just too see the process through. Karen was nice enough to agree and thus flight was booked for Nashville. I arrived to Nashville where she picked me up at the airport in a curious mode. She wanted to learn more about me as I did of her, already stoked on getting to see one of the greats in the studio doing what she does so well I was honored that she was curious about my life.

The process of recording is wonderful, Jason Garner's small home studio in his garage was a cozy little place with a simple recording booth, his background is wonderful in this field.. a true talent. Upon arriving he had already at Karen's guidance mapped out the basic tracking of the piano, drums, etc.. it was already coming together quickly. We were ready to record...

Randy Grossman

HwH

Eva Nichole: The Life Thats Chosen Me

Eva Nichole: The Life Thats Chosen Me

"The Life That's Chosen Me" creation

Karen Taylor-Good and JD Martin - emPOWER's Posipalooza 08'

The emPOWER music and arts yearly awards, posipalooza concert and pajama jams are held in Kansas City up till August 2008 now they'll be in Orlando and perhaps other places in the future (January 2010) but I was in Kansas city enjoying the music and company with my partner Jodi and I had been talking with Jodi about creating a song that revolves around support to caregivers globally through music.

A few months earlier I had sent a note to my good friend Karen Taylor-Good whom I had the utmost admiration for as a musical celebrity in her own right. She had via email offered her assistance and had mentioned that across the street from her home no more than 50 feet was a family that had a child afflicted with autism and she had only met them once.

Well that was all it took to talk to her in Kansas City. Jodi, Karen and I went to get "kansas city bbq" that lunch and sat talking over this bad lunch.. who would have thought. Karen was curious about my life and the children and how we do things. She had good questions but it was Jodi's mention that we had periods of time where we didn't leave. No vacation, no nothing for years and years between my wife and I.

That started the process, when she got back to unity main campus she went to her hotel room and tried to sleep but couldn't and out came the very first verse and chorus. More to come on this fantastic story!

Randy Grossman

HwH Records

Trying To Get Through To You

CBC Studios Toronto - Studio 212 December 28th, 2008

Talk about a challenging song, being open to the idea but ultimately having been concerned over the track I felt that this song was the most unique in it's experience. But much like a child you can't just throw it away when it fights back. I was putting together the album "The Life That's Chosen Me" and this was one of those tracks that just showed up for the gig.

Victor Crowl and Michael Moon, friends of mine from Toronto had simply presented a demo to me that really was from they're heart. Michael (afflicted with autism) had never collaborated with anyone musically he just was working at his own speed and interests and this really took him away from his comfort level but with Victor being an open minded learner and learning daily more and more about Autism it was a very interesting collaboration.

I liked the fact that the song had a real feel through the lyrics but the melody was "unique" to say the least. I asked for them to recut it with a few changes lyrically as that it was a bit angry towards Teachers (which I understand why through my older son Kyle is a reality in his Autistic world). I loved the simple view of the world and didn't change anything after that first verse ending.

Cheryl, my Wife never let me drop the song.. even on the brink of frustration and thus I flew to Toronto to help with some of the production in Dec 2008. This would prove to be one of the toughest assignments around (but I'll explain that on another overview of the song's history).

Randy Grossman

HwH Records

The Life That's Chosen Me

Daily I receive comments about the song that Karen Taylor-Good and Lisa Aschmann wrote for the last album we did called "The Life That's Chosen Me". Sometimes they're very hard to read but ultimately it's a great testament to the wonderful work that was put into this song and album.

Hearing of the various "challenges" out there that caregivers are going through makes me realize that it was all a great adventure! I look forward to the new material releasing in a few weeks and ultimately hearing how it has an optimism laced with incredible performance by Jonathan McEuen.

Randy

HwH Records

www.hwhrecords.com

Jonathan McEuen CD

We're amazed at the progress that we have on the Jonathan McEuen Cd that will be coming December 22nd. The final product will be on hand for the Ojai Album launch party set for Theater 150 in Ojai, CA that evening.

A stellar group of musicians are merging to help support Jonathan's new CD!

The CD will be available through digstation.com among a whole host of other online music companies.

www.hwhrecords.com