SOUND BYTES: February

Well...

where do we start? January saw a wealth of activity at Hear and Now Music. Unfortunately, most of it had to do with upgrading the system...ProTools 8 and Mac OSX Leopard, and backing things up... necessary housekeeping. Which is ok, as most clients seem to be suffering from the economic hangover that the whole country is suffering from. As confidence in the economy grows and the desire to have their projects up and running again, clients will benefit from the upgrades at the studio.

Maggie Kain's CD, BLESSINGS IN DISGUISE, is finally here! It looks as great as it sounds.... which, to my ears, is quite wonderful. Songs are already being submitted for film and tv placements through Broadjam and Pump Audio.

Nancy Shafer's CD, THE JEWISH KID IN ME, will also be available this month. Derrick co-produced the cd with Nancy and Danny Shafer. 

SOUND BYTES: January

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hear And Now Music is glad to welcome 2009. We look forward to many exciting new recording projects as well as success stories from last year's projects.

Derrick and Meredith are looking forward to their collaborative effort with Ned Yost and Andrew Rios as part of the 1320 Collective. Creative ideas are abounding, and we're sure that the combination of content that H&N can provide, along with some innovative digital age marketing strategy, will spell SUCCESS in 2009. Stay tuned for more....

January will see the long awaited release of Maggie Kain's cd, BLESSINGS IN DISGUISE. We are already submitting songs from the record to film and television listings.

We also are looking forward to getting some sales numbers for the 2008 Christmas release for Christian Beginnings. With a late inning marketing and promo push, included the article you see here from the Pioneer Press, we expect to post some encouraging figures soon.

SOUND BYTES: December

Well, it's holiday time at Hear and Now Music. And what better way to get in the holiday mood than by giving. That's right....giving to a good cause. 2008 marks the first ever Christmas CD benefitting Christian Beginnings Preschool in Deerfield, produced of course, by Hear and Now Music. For only $10 you can own some of the cutest, funniest Christmas music you've ever heard, including several original compositions by Hear and Now's very own Meredith Colby Procell. CD's can be purchased through Christian Beginnings or Hear and Now Music.

Maggie Kain's cd, Blessings in Disguise, is set to be mastered by Trevor Sadler at MasterMind in Milwaukee. Trevor has mastered records by artists such as Tony Levin, The Subdudes, Ramsey Lewis, Urban Knights, Jesse Cook and Tingstad and Rumbel. Check him out @ www.mastermindproductions.com Maggie hopes to have her cd in hand by Christmas. And we do too!

Speaking of gift giving... the 3rd grade students at Half Day School are working on a class project that will have them actually composing their own verse to a song, I'M GRATEFUL, written by frequent H&N client, Sue Wynne. Derrick will take his show on the road to the school to record the kids doing their verses and together as a full chorus and then bring it back to the studio to edit and mix. The resulting individual songs will be turned into cd's for the kids to give as gifts of gratitude to their parents for the holidays.

THIS JUST IN....Hear And Now Music has licensed their song, BECOMING FRIENDS, to the JAX Company for inclusion in the short film, INDIAN HILL. This independent release about boyhood skateboarding friends in Portland in the 70's will be submitted to numerous film festivals in 2009, with the possibility of commercial release soon after.

Hear and Now Music welcomes new clients Ron Cohler and John McCormack!

SOUND BYTES: November

November is a busy month at HearAndNow Music. As we prepare for the long awaited release of Maggie Kain's CD, BLESSINGS IN DISGUISE, we are also hard at work on a variey of other projects.

Maggie's CD contains some great covers of songs by Keb Mo, Karen Taylor Good, and Emmy Lou Harris, as well as a number of original songs written or co-written by Derrick Procell. For some stellar playing and singing...and did we mention production..., look for it soon!

The big push in November will be to finish a special project for Christian Beginnings PreSchool. This is a project close to our heart. We are producing a full length CD of the kids there singing Christmas songs.... 11 classes each tackling 2 songs. The children range in age from 2-6 years old. How fun is THAT going to be?! This should prove to be a powerful fundrasing effort for the school as well as a great experience for us. We'll be posting some of the best ones on the HearAndNowMusic website.

We are also in mid-production of another long awaited CD by Derrick's former bandmate and songwriting partner in ARROYO, Jim Krzych. This is going to be killer record of great tunes, superb playing, and of course, Jim's unmistakable vocals. The styles are many and varied, but then so are his influences. More on that soon.

Other recent clients include Jerry Cox: singing demo, Terry Abrahamson: Bar Mitzvah song for client, Cathy Glickman: Bar Mitzvah song for son, Rosie & Isabelle Fleming: Voice Over demos, North Shore Auto Group: promotional cd production, and Wee Play Music Theater: music composition and production for Fall Class curriculum.

Finally, we also await the release of Nancy Shafer's CD of children's music, THE JEWISH KID IN ME, which Derrick co-produced and supplied vocals and keyboards on. Just in time for holiday gift giving!