New Single Dresser Drawers available October 10th

For the past couple months I have been squirming with impatience, waiting for my finished album to return from the mastering studio in its fully matured form.  At last, it has arrived. And although some final pre-release tasks for The Rafter must be completed (i.e. album art and CD printing), I can confidently say that the first single from the album, Dresser Drawers, is presently barrelling it’s way through cyberspace towards your favorite digital music retailer. Here’s the album art courtesy of Robin Sathoff, if you haven’t seen it already

Since the new single will be available for free download, it will be replacing my previous free release, It Took Five Years but Now We’re Doing Fine. After all, I have given away about 1,000 copies over the past few years. So please click on the link to my bandcamp page below and get the EP while it’s still free.

By the way, it’s nice to meet you.

Mix, listen, mix, listen, mix, listen, repeat

I never thought of myself as a sound engineer. But the restrictions of my budget laid necessity on me to take on a new challenge and learn a new skill. At this point my album is successfully mixed. I have forwarded it to a few trusted ears and currently wait for the “go-ahead" to send the tracks for mastering.  But getting to this point was not always easy.

Just in case you don’t know, mixing involves raising and lowering the volume of individual instruments in “the mix" so that they sound good in relation to one another. But it’s more than that. You also have to compress and EQ (adjust the bass, treble, and mids like you would in your car stereo) for each individual instrument so that you can hear it clearly. Add to that, echo, reverb, and panning left/right and I had a big mess on my untrained hands.

Mixing my own music was like riding the proverbial “emotional roller-coaster".  At times, when things lined up so easily and the sound in my imagination matched what in reality entered my ears, the feeling of success was euphoric! I felt as if the end was in sight! Then I would burn to CD and listen in my car stereo and it would sound terrible. Depression inevitably ensued. “Will I ever get this thing finished", “Is it going to sound any good when it’s done?"

If I have learned one thing from this whole ordeal it would be this: stick with it. Mix, listen, mix, listen, mix, listen, repeat.  Just keep at it until it sounds like you want it. It’s tedious, for sure. And having a 6 year-old computer that crashes when I work too fast did nothing to ease the situation.

Toward the end, I could hardly hear the songs as music at all. My compositions failed to stir in me, the composer, any emotion at all. I completely forgot the inspiration behind my own art.  I was tweaking a blurry mess of frequencies like someone might straighten each square tile in a colorful mosaic and completely miss the image that they collectively portrayed.

When I reached my limit, I left it for a week to give my ears some time. A few days later, I let a friend riding with me in my car listen to the first track. To my surprise, it was there….the song. It was good! My friend didn’t ask me about frequencies, reverb, or EQ. He asked me about the lyrics. “Why did you write this song?" he asked.

It moved him.

It moved me.

Tom Moore @ the Abbey, Deland, 9/24/11

Deltona Coffee House

The Deltona Arts & Historic Center, where I teach guitar and voice lessons, has just started hosting live events every Saturday night as part of what they call the Deltona Coffee House. "Good for them" for trying to bring some arts into the creative wasteland of Deltona, FL!

But, bad for them for misspelling my name on the April 2nd Grand Opening Songwriter's Showcase flyer. That featured artist there at the bottom "Tom Martin".....that's supposed to be me.

Check out my Calendar page for a list of my upcoming performances.

Tom Moore Music Featured on Intheeditingroom.com

I am proud to announce that my song "I Need You Now" is now being featured on the professional photography site of Khadees Design at intheeditingroom.com

Khadees is a creative and inspirational photographer out of Orlando, FL. He specializes in wedding photography, engagement photo shoots, headshots, and family portraits. And, although I do say so myself, I think my music fits perfectly with the photo-reel on the homepage of intheeditingroom.com.

Thanks Khadees Design!

TOm
www.tommooremusic.com

New Videos

First of all, I would like to thank everyone who has been coming out to support my shows recently. You guys are really the best! This past weekend ended up being a success thanks to you. I had a really good turn out at my concert at the Gateway Center and at the Deland Original Music Festival.

Thank you, thank you.

I managed to get some pretty good videos from the Gateway Center. I performed a few songs that were probably new for most of you. So now you can see the video again and get a bit more familiar with them. Do me a favor: grab the link and post it on facebook, twitter, blogs for me so we can get a little more buzz about my new music online before I start recording them for my new album.

Thanks so much

Tom Moore

Tom Moore - Live in Concert @ Gateway Center for the Arts

I will be performing at the Gateway Center for the Performing Arts on Friday November 5th 7:30pm.

I must admit, I am rather excited about this concert. It will be unlike any other show that I have played before. Quite a claim, indeed. The Gateway Center has an excellent concert hall with beautiful acoustics and professional sound and lighting. Not at all like singing over the grinding of coffee beans, an experience that I am all too familiar with.

In addition, I am unveiling quite a bit of new material; original music and cover songs that have of late served as my creative muse. I will be accompanied by my trusty loop pedal and perhaps even some small percussive instruments that will make their debut in my performance. If that's not enough to motivate you, my loyal fan, to rampant internet buzz then....

See you then.

TOm

For ticket information please contact the Gateway Center at (386) 668-5553
find this event on facebook
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