Going back into the studio on June 28!

For those of you who are new to my blog (or the soap opera of my life, for that matter), here's a little background 9I promise to keep it as short as I can, for both of our sakes).

I started playing music when I was a tiny kid. Piano lessons at age three, got a guitar on my seventh birthday, yada yada. Basically, I've played music my whole life, and ended up spending a career working in the music industry. I've played on people's recording for released albums (lots of them), I've played big live shows along with well-known acts, and generally had a good life based on my love of music.

But there's one thing that I haven't done: made my own record! Sure, I've contributed my own compositions and performances to plenty of other people's records, but never my own. Well, we're now going to rectify that oversight.

In January 2007, I started writing songs again after years of keeping my priorities focused on my career and being a parent. I found I'd really missed songwriting, and some pretty good songs were starting to pour out of me. At the same time, I was starting to get into live performances again in a big way. Even though I'd spent years and years performing live with bands, I'd never had the opportunity to pick all the material, or do my own stuff that much.

So, back to the point of this tale: by fall 2007, I'd recorded a number of demo tracks here at my little studio, and decided that they were good enough to want to take to the next level. And I continued to write new stuff whenever I felt inspired to do so. Due to my fortunate circumstances of having made friends with a number of people in the industry, I was able to secure studio time at a great recording facility: Sound Sanctuary Studios, in Riverside, CA. I went in with my pal, multi-instrumentalist Bunny Knutson, to help out on drums, and we tracked the first couple of songs on March 29 of this year.

They came out great. Due to work, family, scheduling, and other obligations, we haven't been able to get back into the studio since then. However (and FINALLY here's the point of this post), we're going back in on Saturday, June 28. I plan to try for recording three more tunes in that day, and if we get two good ones (like last time), I'll be ecstatic.

So, there's a preview of what's happening. In case anyone is interested, I'm going to try and record my songs "You're Like a Cloud", "Thanks Anyway", and possibly "The Sands of Redondo" at the session. You'll hear about this much more, I suspect, once the recording session is complete.

Last note: if you want some 30-second clips of the songs I've done so far at Sound Sanctuary, the music page of ZakClaxton.com is a good place to look. :)