Tag Archives: chill

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Halcyon Sky (Debut EP) – The Bonus Track, Social Media (Pt 2) – Day 21

Halcyon Sky_final_

Greetings…

Last night, or should I say yesterday, was a long 12-hour stint at work, so I decided to go into work a little later to, just in time to make a 10am team meeting. I’m transcribing this post from paper at which time was written while sitting in a local Starbucks.

Now that the EP is released, I’m still thankful for all the positive feedback I’ve received since the release date. It was nice to see some producers in a FB producers forum I frequent saying how much they’ve enjoyed the EP. That said, I’m definitely realizing that the work ahead (in terms of promoting and marketing it in the most effective manner) is far from done.

I’ve developed a social media and marketing strategy, which I had my publicist review last week. At the moment, in appears to have the underpinnings of a solid plan, so I’m going all out for it. While the net provides a seemingly endless reach in terms of audience, the work required to reach that expanse is directly proportional to that expanse.I have the beginnings of a database comprising local, nationwide and global contacts in different media formats (print, web, college radio, podcasters, etc). so it’s definitely time to get the ball rolling.

Phase 2 is the completion of the bonus track, which I have incidentally taken back to the drawing board. The original track is nice, but was regularly finding it difficult to progress through. I don’t know if my muse was purposefully absent or what, but I came to the realization that the song is much better for a release like Soulosophy, my contemporary smooth jazz project, currently in the planning stages.

Phase 3 is the project remixes. I don’t intend to remix every track in the project but definitely rease at least three remixes. Stay tuned on more of that next year.

Anyway time to head off to bed. An eight hour day is standard, but today was a long one too. Nevertheless, I’m grateful for a job.

::: oceans of rhythm :::

Fresh!

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Halcyon Sky (Debut EP) – The Bonus Track, Social Media, etc – Day 20

Halcyon Sky_final_

Greetings,

I hope this post finds you well and in good spirits. First off, I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank you again for all the positive support on my EP, I definitely appreciate it.

Now that it’s out there, it’s time for Phase 2 – marketing. I have (with the help of my PR firm, Tigerlily Communications, a database of internet and college-based radio stations I hope to submit the EP to for airplay, a long with some other activities that will be rolling into place over the next few months. Thanks to Felicia Hodges for the great work, I highly recommend her for your PR needs.

Currently, I’m in the midst of getting the bonus track completed. The accompanying video is done. As for the music, arrangement is completed, guitar is currently being recorded, then bass, mixing and voila…the trick is done. I’m glad to give this exclusive bonus track to all those who donated monetary support for the EP, thanks again.

On the social media front – for my Twitter, IG, and Vine users – I’ve created three accounts for my production entity, SFTF Productions. Songs From The Future (SFTF) is an entity I came up with in the early 2000s, an entity which is finally coming into fruition. I’d appreciate if you follow me at those accounts, should you want updates on all things I’m doing musically….there’s a lot line up for sure. that said, click on the links below:

SFTF on Twitter
SFTF on Instagram
SFTF on Vine..and…

SFTF electronic mail

The EP is available here for free download/name your price. I hope you enjoy it either way.

Lastly, big shout out and thanks to my podcasting brother AND geek, Darrenkeith Wyatt, host of the excellent podcast, My Love For Music. He featured the title track of my EP in his latest podcast that just dropped this past weekend. You can find it here.

That’s about it for now, I have as many zzzzz to catch as I can before that alarm goes off…

Thanks for the read….

::: oceans of rhythm :::

Fresh!

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Halcyon Sky (Debut EP) – An Interview with Felicia Hodges

HS_Interview_Hodges

Greetings all…

Happy Labor Day to those who’ve had the pleasure of partaking in it, I hope it was enjoyable.
I’ve had the pleasure of being interviewed by Felicia Hodges, owner and CEO of Tigerlily Communications, a social media and publication relations business based out of New York.

This was an in depth, long, but very enjoyable convo. I appreciate her taking time out of her busy schedule. I hope you enjoy it as well as I have.

::: oceans of rhythm :::

Fresh

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Halcyon Sky (Debut EP) –The Fans Speak (Day 19)

Halcyon Sky_final_

Greetings All,

Once again, I’m really happy at the results of the Halcyon Sky EP. It was truly created to be a musical gift to all of you, but the responses, the comments I’ve received are nothing short of great and with that said, I’m grateful. I thought I’d share with you some of the commentary:

“You have no idea how much I needed to hear this music today The music is amazing. It’s exactly what I need in my life right now….: – J.M. – Lincoln Park, MI

“Thank you for sharing it is fabulous!” – C.H. – Worcester, MA

“Your EP is fantastic Bruh. Awesome job.” – D.W. – Orlando, FL

“Love it. As cool as the other side of the pillow.” – D.M. – Argyle, Maine

“I love it! Congratulations!” – K.S. – Bradenton, FL

“…and to let you know the title track Halcyon Sky was my first choice…..simplistic beauty…” – J.J – Tulsa, OK

“Very chill. Love it. Thanks for sharing it with us.” – JC- Austin, TX

“Congrats on the release. This has a Beautiful, chill vibe” – Q.S. – Washington, DC

“Nice!” – A.R. – Upper Marlboro, MD

“I have been waiting for this and so far what I hear is worth the wait Great stuff bro Loving it. – D.P. – Clinton, MD

“Halcyon Sky is lovely nice.” – C.B. – NYC

Doug, here’s to you and your efforts with this fabulous production! Sounds great and I’m wishing you all the best of success with Halcyon Sky!” P.C. – NYC

“Anxiety attacks are not my friend. Halcyon Sky helps. Well done, Doug! Well done” – A.T. – Atlanta, GA

“Looking forward to listening to your new EP, Doug! Congrats! (P.S. Aren’t we overdue to work on some music?! LOL)” – J.H. – Greensboro, NC

I’ve had the pleasure of being interviewed twice, so far, about the EP. You can read (audio coming soon) Felicia’s interview and listen to Calandra’s interview at their respective locations:

New Music – Halcyon Sky – Felicia Hodges/Tigerlily Communications

Artist Conversation with Mr. Fresh – Halcyon Sky EP

Below is a very short promo video for the project, featuring a little studio footage.

You can stream/download the EP, here.

Once again, thanks!

::: oceans of rhythm :::

Fresh!

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Halcyon Sky (Debut EP) –The Release/The Thanks – Day 18

Halcyon Sky_final_

Greetings all…

Hope everyone is enjoying the day, night, evening, or whatever time it is as you read this. As some of you know, I’m happy to have released my debut EP, Halcyon Sky. In some ways, it felt like giving birth, metaphorically of course. The thought process and conception for this release started back in January of this year, but officially work on it started a month later. As mentioned in a few Facebook posts (and probably in the early days of chronologing the journey here), the inspiration for it came from my love for the genres that influenced me to conmpose these seven tracks. It doing it, at times it felt like work but all in all, I wanted to not just release the EP, but do in based on all the tasks involved and staying to schedule. This release was not manifested without some lessons learned. As a matter of fact, there are two or three lessons learned that almost caused me not to release the project at all.

I understand that I’ll be interviewed not once, but twice, so I’ll leave a lot of the background out of this blog post in anticipation of answering interview questions that will allow me to elaborate further.

I do want to take a moment to extend my thanks not only all those that encouraged me along the way, but to those who supported the project by purchasing it a price they chose to. I highly appreciate that as I released this to be a free project, a first time musical gift to the masses. It was not my intent to make any money off of it, but to instead share musical compositions that reflect my deep fondness for the genres of chillout and downtempo. I decided that all proceeds are going into the ASIA fund. What is ASIA? I’m glad you asked. Stay tuned for the upcoming interviews to find out. For all those who have and will support the project by purchase, I’m working on a bonus track exclusively for you. When completed and uploaded, please be on the look out for a download code in your email.

Once again, thanks for all the positive comments, FB likes, the whole nine yards. Special shout out to my boys, “bandmates”, C3 – Todd Kelley and Trel Robinson, for mad puttin’ down on the track “Deep”. More to come on that as well.

Have a productive and positively prosperous day.

::: oceans of rhythm :::

Fresh!

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Halcyon Sky (Debut EP) – Available Aug 9, 2014 – day 17

Halcyon Sky_final_

Greetings friends and fam and an early good morning. Many of you have read blog posts I’ve done journaling the release of my debut project, Halcyon Sky. The wait is just about over. Halcyon Sky will be available for download this Saturday, August 9 (coincidentally, that date, I just realized, is another special date).

For those who are not familiar with the blog posts and background of the project, here we go. Some of you know I’m the originator of the chillout, smooth electronica, and downtempo podcast called The Sunday Soundtrack. It was about 10 years ago that I became really enamored with those genres of music – very smooth, cool, laid back, easy, and relaxing. Music is a universal language and those genrutes, reminiscent of tracks you’d here along the beaches and venues of Ibiza, became a favorite of mine.

Being a musician since I was a teenager and jumping into the foray of musical production since the 90s and watching the technology advance, I decided to one day release a project such as this.

Halcyon Sky is a collection of seven tracks of instrumental chillout, my take on it, based on the years I’ve been listening to it. I have the distinct pleasure of featuring one track entitled “Deep” by C3 (better known as Crosscountry Collective – Trel Robinson, Todd Kelley, and myself) Better yet, it’s really just a set of tracks I wanted to share with the world. Nothing needing some spectacular trumpet fanfare of introduction or anything I hope to make some tremendous profit off, just a gift share. Those who are fans of these genres will enjoy this project the most. Those who are new to these genres, well, I hope you’ll enjoy some, if not all of the tracks on this project.

I’m also happy to say that you’ll be able to read two upcoming interviews by Calandra Branch and Felixia Hodges about this project’s origin and a few other goodies I’m sure 🙂

Halcyon Sky – available August 9 on bandcamp.com

Thanks for the read. Enjoy the day.

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Halcyon Sky (Debut EP) – Day 16

The Lab

1:47am. Yesterday was a day primarily devoted to moving the EP along. A few months ago when I started this journey, I had the EP scheduled to drop yesterday, but time flies whether you’re having fun or not. Returning to work after a 15 month layoff made me realize that, ideally, I have less time on my hands to complete this now, than before but I’m not complaining due to the reasoning why.

The website is done and four of the ten tracks are ready to be mixed down, so even though the drop date is slipped, all in all, the progress isn’t bad. The track edits are finally done for the song I was working on, a song that I actually started to compose two summers ago. while on vacation in a hotel room. Today, it was back to a track I composed about four years ago originally entitled “Third Sky”, which is being renamed for this EP. Though the arrangement, the drums, and the synth pads are fine, the bass guitar is decent, but it needs to be redone. The guitar I *maybe* can live with but wont listen to again for a day or so. Either way, those are two tracks I didn’t really plan time to redo, but upon listening again…

The other five tracks are sufficiently prioritized such that I can reschedule a more realistic drop date. That planning will have to wait until tonight. Sleep time is definitely now….hmmm..I just realized I ate almost a whole pack of Club Crackers while typing this post…

Have a great Sunday.

::: oceans of rhythm :::

Fresh!

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Halcyon Sky (Debut EP) – Day 15

lab

Greetings, Sitting in the public library in between stops, basking in a little satisfaction. Ahh yes…forward motion. Last night I wrapped up mixing one of the tracks on for the EP. It’s a track I composed about two years ago and thought it’d make an excellent song for the project. Though it’s in it’s pre-mastered state, a good thing to do for any track at this point is to play it on various systems – mp3 player, CD player, over computer speakers, studio monitors, etc. This is to try to achieve the best sound possible across the many mediums people listen to music on.

I burned it to CD and took for a ride around the city today….I like! Not too bassy coming out of the SUV’s sound system, percussion is nice and organic sounding, acoustic guitar is sweet. next is an mp3 for the iPod.

So, I can pretty much scratch this one off until I get to the part of the schedule where I master all the tracks over a few days. Forward motion. On to the next track in the priority list tonight.

In the last post, I mentioned starting design of the Bandcamp page. That actually is now completed as well. I like banner artwork and the color scheme design. Onward.

Have a good one….

::: oceans of rhythm :::

Fresh!

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The Sunday Soundtrack – 14 Apr 13

Greetings Listeners….

Welcome to another edition of The Sunday Soundtrack. “It’s been a long time, I shouldn’t have left you…” (a little hip hop lyric reference there). It’s great to be back with another edition, albeit overdue, of the podcast. It’s about 12:37 am here in studio, but it’s done. I hope to stay on a regular (to be determined) schedule. Starting with pre-production on Monday for the following Sunday helps, doing a little everyday helps even more. The plan is to finish Saturday evening 🙂

For my new listeners, The Sunday Soundtrack podcast is geared towards giving you an alternative listening experience to the standard Sunday afternoon commercial smooth jazz formatted programs and expose you to independent artists with tunes that provide that same smoothness, but in such genres as electronica, nu jazz, downtempo, experimental, chillout, instrumental jazzy hip hop, and the like. Please feel free to take a listen and leave comments, if u like. You can also reach The Sunday Soundtrack at (301) 458-0499

Without further delay, let’s get to the playlist.

1. Moon Beat – LTJ X-Perience/Moon Beat
2. Consequences (Late Night Mix) – Blank & Jones/Relax 4
3. Gutenmirgenduft (Morning Scent) – dZihan & Kamien/Gran Riserva
4. Subsolitude – Hypoetical/Pendulum
5. Try Me – J Boogie’s Dubtronic Science f/Goapele & Capitol A/J Boogie’s Dubtronic Science – OM Records 2003
6. Square Purity – The Jazzment/Beats – Old Stuff
7. Sunbeams – Uko/Cafe Del Mar – Vol. 7

Some special shout outs:

  • My entire podcast massive: Fave, Big La (Todd Kelley), DarrenKeith, Anji Bee, Nikki, BSOTS, DJ Diva, EJ Flavors (The Sensei), and T. Grundy (Mr Brilliant). All excellent podcasters whose episodes range from smooth jazz to soul to hip hop to R&B to chillout to funk. My hats off to all of you, thanks for the encouragement
  • All the podcast drops done by the crew above AND listeners – thank you!
  • Ray Garraud – The Garraud Files Podcast, a versatile tech enthusiast, author, blogger, podcaster, public speaker, and good friend with whom I’ve had several great conversations with on his own thoughts of mobile podcasting and the evolving tech out which allows it. Thanks for the push, Ray!
  • Calandra and Madeline for the re-encouragement
  • @DVSJr, @Upright for the re-tweets/favorites about the return!

    • I hope you’re enjoying the tracks. Please feel free to follow the The Sunday Soundtrack on Twitter

    Take care and have a great week.

    ::: oceans of rhythm :::

    Fresh!

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    The Sunday Soundtrack – 07 Aug 11 – featuring Clara Hill

    Greetings listeners. Welcome to another edition of The Sunday Soundtrack! It’s been about a nine month hiatus…whew…long time coming, but it’s good to be back once again. It’s been a hot summer this year…all the more better to bring you some CHILLED tracks to offset the heat. This edition of the Sunday Soundtrack features one of the smoothest female vocalists I have ever heard…the inimitable Clara Hill.

    From her last.fm page:

    Clara started to discover the power of voice in the eighties, when she was singing alongside some tunes by Madonna. At a certain point it was clear to her that she wanted to join and front a band. Aged seventeen, she founded the acid jazz combo Superjuice, together with her friend Funès. In the early nineties, at the height of acid jazz, the band toured through Berlin clubs, gathering a high-profile reputation. During these years, Clara made her first steps in live music. During one of her shows, she met DJ Alex Barck from Jazzanova, who was spinning records as a support DJ. In 1998 he introduced her to the producers of Extended Spirit (2/6 of Jazzanova): Stefan Leisering and Axel Reinemer, that produced a few tracks with Clara. Relaxed and easy, a friendship started with Stefan Leisering and Clara Hill. With him, the song “No Use”

    Clara’s thick, lush, harmonies go so very well with the wide chordal arrangements that Jazzanova and other similar artists she’s work with that I have to describe her music by taking the first letter of her first name, and combining it with her full last name: CHill!

    Without further adieu, I bring you the playlist:
    ~~~~~~~~~~
    1. Still Here – Aural Float
    2. Reel Life (Evolution II) – The Cinematic Orchestra/Man With a Movie Camera
    3. Reprise – Clara Hill/Best Of 3
    4. Maybe Now – Clara Hill/Restless Times
    5. Crush – Chevalier
    6. I’m Here – Clara Hill/Restless Times
    7. Flawless – Clara Hill/Restless Times
    8. Under The Radar – Two Little Satellites
    9. No Use – Jazzanova Feat. Clara Hill/In Between
    10. Dub In Ya Mind (Blue Water Mix – Afterlife/Simplicity Two Thousand (Disc 1)
    ~~~~~~~~~~

    I hope you’ve enjoyed the tracks as much as I do. Big shout out to my podcast massive for the ID drops in the podcast. Thanks for the encouraging words regarding the return of the podcast. An equally important shout to my regular and new listeners, as well. I appreciate you checking it out.

    Clara Hill on last.fm

    Official Website

    Enjoy the day, night, afternoon, morning, or whenever you are listening to this podcast. For those of you on Twitter, feel free to follow The Sunday Soundtrack there.

    ::: oceans of rhythm :::

    Fresh!