Apologies once again for letting so many days go by between posts. But, you know I've been busy working on all kinds of cool stuff so I hope you forgive me.
The inks have been laid down on the back cover illustration I showed off last week and it's already been scanned into the computer and toned for final printing.
There has been so much stuff that has been flying off my art table these last sixteen weeks that it's been really hard to keep up and show off everything that I've been working on. But, here is a piece I did a few weeks ago for the cover of the first ever OilCan Drive EP album.
The good news is that I finished up the album late last night and submitted it for production at 1:04 am. This means I should have CDs in hand for the Denver Comic Convention on May 31st and, after that, they will be available to the world.
You can't hear it yet but you can see a cool preview of what the finished album sleeve and CD will look like HERE. After working for so long on it it is really cool to see something like this brought to life, even if, for now, it's just on the computer screen.
After recording the songs for the album for weeks and weeks I knew the drop dead deadline I had to get everything complete and in my hands by the convention was approaching quickly. I originally planned to have it all done by the end of April but I could never seem to find the time and mixing the album wasn't going as well as I'd hoped. I finally got some decent mixes earlier this week but I still needed to make them as perfect as I could. I would be mixing songs, listening to them, and mixing them down all while jumping back and forth between the music and sitting at my art desk drawing either something for OilCan Drive or for a client. It was multitasking at its finest.
Finally, last night, after multiple mixes and sending files to a friend in Nashville who kept telling me they needed a little more work, I finally got everything almost buttoned up. I kept going over and over the album, listening to all the songs in sequence a bunch of times. I knew I was on to something when I could listen, not hear any of the mistakes (which I'm sure there are still a bunch of), close my eyes, and see the band in my head playing the songs. When the song took me out of seeing the band play the songs on stage I knew there was a problem. I was trying to make the four songs sound like a set played in sequence to an audience or on TV. I really don't know right now what the hell it came out sounding like but at 1am last night I pulled the trigger and sent the sucker off.
I took a bike ride at 2am, got home, drank a glass of milk and watched an episode of Dawson's Creek, and then passed out.
It feels surreal waking up this morning knowing what I accomplished. I've been wanting to do something like this for ten years. It's something I've dreamed about since I came up with the concept of this band and the first time I picked up the guitar again at age 32 to learn more than three chords. Getting on the radio with the one Bob Dylan cover song years ago was great but really scared me at the same time. Now someone was saying I was good and now I felt I had to be good and wasn't just goofing around anymore. Someone out there was listening. I think that might have done more harm than good, even though it was cool. So to finally break out of that fear and finally get it done is a huge thing for me.
Now, all that's left is the book. And I have one week to wrap this sucker up.
Right now, I feel like I can do anything. There is a lot of work still left to do bu there is no longer any fear or nervousness. I can do it. I didn't believe that until last night. But, wow, I can really pull this off.
One more week left. Have a great one!
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