This commercial

Gets him every time:






P.S.- Happy Halloween from the Auers!

Re-Branding.

So my good buddy Phil calls me from time to time whenever he needs a custom piece of music for something. He's the person responsible for getting my song "Love Grabs You" on that TV show [RIP] "What I Like About You", and for many many other cool placements.


Phil is working with a TV channel/network who is in the hopes of re-branding their image to reflect their target market and create a younger scene. All last week, Brandon and I worked on composing a custom piece inspired by, in the words of Phil:

"Looking for a unique instrumental track....upbeat with exotic travel kinda sounds. Must be kind of romantic (_________ is for chicks).
If you have any thing with Hawaiian sounds...big plus. Think of the branding theme of a new Airlines. Actually pretend you are scoring a new TV ad for an Airlines that takes gals away... to a fantasy land...far away from their horrible miserable lives."


We made a few different versions to give them variety and show them what we can do, but here's my favorite.





So, ladies, where to? Hawaii? The Bahamas?

Cross your fingers for us! It's looking pretty good at this point. I'll keep you posted when I get more info. And here's a picture from my wife and I's anniversary cruise back in September:

Janu and the Whalesharks

For the past two weeks, I've had the pleasure of mixing and mastering the stellar tunes of this funky indie band. I gotta be honest- their music is catchy as hell! I've loved being a part of this project for them and even more than that, I'm honored to be the one that gets to finally help them wrap-up their long anticipated EP.

You must check them out! Now, I'm pretty sure that the final mixes aren't yet up on their 'space, but when they are.. prepare for greatness! These are some talented kids so keep an eye out!


Listen to 'em HERE!


Still, lots of stuff going on for TV and other random creative outlets. I'll keep you posted. Until next time...

Sorry!

I know, I know. I'm trying to break old habits, not get back into them.


This past week or so has been crazy busy with some great exciting projects, but one thing at a time. First, some sweet studio pictures that my wife took:





Tyler DeYoung, drummer extraordinaire, came up to track drums for me.







A big thanks to my buddy Trever Hoehne for allowing me to borrow some of his gear, including this awesome pedal... Super Hard On. Yes... seriously.






Sometimes when my wife takes pictures of me I panic and then I try to eat things. This explains a lot, right?




I think Todd and I both have come to the understanding that he is never getting this back.





It's so good, it's almost painful. Well, maybe more painful, less good. And now for some killer "action" shots:









More thanks to my good friend Travis Ryan for allowing me to borrow his guitar as well. You read it here first, people... I would be nowhere if it wasn't for people giving me stuff. I mean, lending me stuff temporarily [or, more long term, you know, depending on where I move to... very suddenly... out of nowhere, and happen to pack with me]. Really though, the day was awesome and my friend Charlie really killed it with being the producer for the day. To take a back seat on that end of it was really different and equally refreshing for me! I had to battle myself to just be the artist.

The song I tracked was called "Up To You" and it should be listen-able in the next week or so. Gotta finish the editing on it. It came out pretty damn good if I don't say so myself when you consider that we didn't load in until 2pm, start tracking until 3:30pm and had to be DONE and packed up by 11:00pm! It was a quick day but totally worth it. If I haven't told you yet, I work well under pressure.


Now, back to my current projects... you'll hear more from me later.

Any Guess?

From these pictures, can anyone guess what my wife and I have been up to lately? Here's a hint: it takes us to the eXtreme in this almost 90 degree weather...


Oh yah, and here's a mushy one, for the ladies:






In other news, I'm going into the studio [a REAL studio] here in a few hours to record the song "Up To You". My good friend Charlie picked me do gift a free session to, because he's doing some training thing and wanted someone who not only wrote rockin' tunes, but could bang out a song in a day. That's me, folks! Wish me luck. I'll keep you posted with pictures and stuff later.

Taylor's New Song.

So, since good old [or young, you know] Taylor seems to be on the rise with his career, I figured maybe I should put a bit more time into the music I'd been writing him. The more $ONG$ I can write for him now, the more $ONG$ his potential label loves, the more $ONG$ make it onto his album, and the more.... awesome he sounds [well, too]. Anyway, since Taylor and his dad are having a bunch of meetings with a bunch of people, I figured I'd let them browse through some of my older stuff, [think AVNER] and re-vamp it for them [with all the stuff I've learned about producing since I recorded them originally]. They picked a few songs, which I'll be showing you on here. The first of which is one of my favorites, and will indeed be on my OWN album when that happens.


It's called A Loss For Words, and you can listen to the original version [with my vocals, the old recording] in the video below [no fun stuff to look at this time... just black... like your hearts].





Now, to hear Taylor's new, kick-your-teeth-in version, visit his Myspace page HERE! It's the first song on his player.



And just so you don't get bored, here's a couple pictures of me from the good hair day I had last week:











I'll bet you all almost forgot what I looked like, huh?? Speaking of my album [from above], a friend of mine offered me a day in a pro studio to track one of my songs! I'll be doing that next week, so stay tuned for studio pictures and general delirium!

New Song.

I wrote this song a few years back right after my band, PAX217 broke up. At the time, it was really theraputic and serious. I figured now was as good a time as any to re-vamp it a bit and sell it along with the rest of my soul, to ABC.
I figured it was only right to put up some memories of the good ol' days with my boys for this one. Enjoy!

Kinda Cool.

So, last year Amanda's sister [that would be my sister in law, yes] asked me to write a song about New York because her friends were planning a trip and she was making some rather intense and personal travel kits. I say intense in a good way... the planning gene must run in their family!

I, of course, whipped up a super sweet song that she gave me a poem to use as lyrics for. She included it onto the mix CD of New York songs she gave each of her friends for their trip.


About two months ago, Westways Magazine wrote up an article on making travel kits and my song was mentioned. Seeing as I got my name in the press, figured I'd share...















Hopefully one mention in the press of many, many, [undeniably] MANY more to come. If you recognize this issue, scan the pages to feel in person the ink that my name in nation wide syndication!

It's going to be a long day.

So, my home-made vocal booth has been getting more and more shady for a while now. Last night, in a surge of empowerment, I decided to tackle the booth and make it more stable and strong [like myself]. Since it got too late for me to go out and buy anything, the project dragged it's feet into today and I'm spending my afternoon drilling and building instead of writing and tracking. Not happy. Here's me being proud of myself for being 80% done:





Until I noticed something.


See this proerly made corner right here. This is bitchin.





See this corner:






These do NOT look the same. Why, why, WHY in my right mind did I screw the cross beam to the outside of the verticle brace [don't worry, it's guy lingo. Dudes... you got me, right?]??






Oh yah, Brandon was here to help. And make fun of me. Wait... with me. Make fun WITH me. Here I am, delirious at this point, wearing a tiny witch hat in silent protest to what I know I must do....





And here I am, fixing the problem. Oh by the way, note the back corner, which was ALSO put together wrong [and differently than the other wrong corner]. Can't I just write songs and be cool?? I am clearly not cut out to be a construction worker.





Hopefully tonight and tomorrow will be filled with nothing less than my glorious voice filling our hallways. Well, I guess not... that's what a vocal booth is for. To hold sound in [or out]. But at least I'll be surround by it!