Music Progress - Solos, Vocals... More!
- darrenleerichardson
- Jul 17
- 3 min read
Music Progress - Solos, Vocals... More!
It's been five f'n months... I have no excuses... just reasons. Those reasons are similar to the reasons of many in our world today, along with personal ones; work, family, life. Sometimes I feel just lucky that I can make progress with music.
But that came with the choice to ONLY do the music and move the next album forward. I had to put aside any time for promotion or engagement. Those will come later as this will be my last full album project.
Last Time I Blogged...
The last blog I shared was for my progress in completing the bass tracks. I made a video for that which you can find at the end of this blog. I have not had time to keep that up, so I mostly have a textual update.
Current Progress... Until Hell Freezes Ever Over
Since that progress update, I have completed the solos and am actively rehearsing and tracking vocals. I offer this short video song collage of what I have in a first-pass master phase. I am tracking the hardest of the hard rock vocals first as a choice. It gets my vocals back to strength and allows me to be "better" as I move on to each next song. There will be mellower tracks as well, but this is where I'm at.
I did complete one of the mellowest songs, Both Too Small, last year and released it as a single. I've updated it for the album and offer a piece of that in the collage as well. You can find the link to hear the full single version here if you would like to hear where it started.
I hope you will take a "visual" listen and let me know what you think of the progress so far in the comments.
Community Support - Especially... James Allan Stellar
I feel the need to call out the indie community and their unwavering support, even though I've been AWOL for far too long. I discovered that they have not forgotten me and I could not be more appreciative and touched by that.
James Allan Stellar is an amazing indie music supporter and has a regular show called Indie Boom Shockwave. It is a fun show where he plays and shows music from the indie community and is an all-around supporter of indie art in all capacities.
He is one of two people I've met through the indie community that I entrust with sharing my music progress behind the scenes. They both allow me to bounce the tracks off of them as I get closer to finishing them. Their feedback and encouragement has helped lift me out of the doldrums of what I've been working on, as we creatives often go through. Their response to what I've done so far has made my rehearsals and tracking rise a few levels because I feel like it matters again. I thank you both more than you will ever know.
Anyway, James had a show yesterday, 7/15/2026. Now, mind you, I have not been able to attend his shows regularly for quite some time due to timing conflicts. I pop in for a few minutes from time-to-time when I can, but I am not a regular by any stretch of the imagination.
Well, yesterday, I had a moment by myself and realized his show was still on, so I decided to see what was up. I happened to come in at the exact moment when he was sharing my video, Fear, from my Next We Rock album. Just by pure chance... I was amazed that he still puts me on, even when I rarely attend. He is a true gentleman and artist supporter. It took me a minute to be able to chat with him and the group. I caught him talking up my samples I had been sharing with him. I laughed and smiled.
Thank you, James!
Here is his show from yesterday. I started it at the point where I popped in. Feel free to watch more of it if you so desire. Subscribe to his page as well if you want more for the future.
Here is the bass progress video I mentioned above:
Until Hell Freezes Ever Over - Progress: Bass Level
Check out my BLOGs page to keep up with my music reviews, music progress (like this one), and other thoughts and insights.
Please come to my About page and subscribe to my website at the bottom to get newsletters and future info from me as I grow this part of my musical journey! Thank you!
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