November Sound Bytes

As we gear up for the holidays, of course we have a new holiday CD to shout about. The latest from Naptime Nanny is a collection of Christmas stories from around the world retold by Judy Rundell, the Naptime Nanny herself. As usual, the music was produced and arranged by Derrick. It includes some holiday favorites as well as some original works worthy of becoming holiday classics themselves. This is the third volume of stories in the series and if early sales are an indication, the Naptime Nanny franchise is well on its way to becoming an annual event at Hear and Now Music. Look for it at www.naptimenanny.com

We have also been busy arranging and composing songs for the Junior Choir at North Shore Unitarian Church. September marked the beginning of the new sessions for the choir and we have two songs under our belt, with a Christmas show to prepare before next year.

SEPTEMBER SOUND BYTES

Summer's over??? Already???

Don't know about you, but we've been too busy here to even write about it!

So.... to catch up a bit....

H&N Music provided original as well as re-worked songs for Lil Language Scholars. The Spanish language school, located in Libertyville, needed a teaching aid for young students. We enlisted the vocal talents of Lily Perez to complete these short, but cute, ditties guaranteed to help youngsters...and their parents... learn Spanish. Another satisfied client!

H&N also provided the music for the Daniel Wright 8th Grade graduation video. This was a massive undertaking, involving a re-sing by some talented students of the Killers song, HUMAN. Thanks to Barb Tolbert for bringing the project here.

The last few months have seen a number of Derrick's original songs placed on high profile TV shows, like Memphis Beat and HBO's True Blood.

New client Elizabeth Egen came in to follow her lifelong dream of doing VoiceOver. The resulting VO demo that we produced should have her feeling like she's well on her way to achieving that dream. That's what we're all about here folks...helping people achieve their dreams.

And speaking of which....

on the heals of here second release, Judy Rundell is back in the studio to work on the next Naptime Nanny project. This time we're going into overdrive to get a Christmas themed package out in time for holiday gift giving. Half way there as of this writing.... stay tuned.

And last, but not least, the long delayed Jim Krzych project looks like it will finally come to completion yet this year. This collaboration with Derrick, and a host of some of Chicago's finest players, contains some of the best ARROYO music that never was!

March Sound Bytes

So...
where were we?
Oh yeah... November. Well, glad that's over. In fact, 2010 loomed large by December's end. New studio projects and bigger and better things for The No. 1 Sports Promo Voice.

January saw Derrick's voiceover career kick into high gear with the addition of the Los Angeles Dodgers as a new client for the entire baseball season. Derrick will be providing the Voice, as well as audio production and even copy consultation, for all of the Dodgers English tv and radio spots!
The season hasn't even started but Derrick's been a busy boy getting the first of many spots done for the defending Western Division Champs.

January, February and March saw the inception and completion of one of our favorite client's sophomore projects, Naptime Nanny Volume 2. Derrick produced and wrote original music for 6 animal themed stories with a kid friendly twist, narrated again by Judy Rundell. These delightful tales will be available shortly at fine retailers everywhere and at www.naptimenanny.com

March has also seen the completion of a one song project by Jill Hoffman, a senior at Deerfield High School. Jill's song, LET YOU GO, was produced and co-written by Derrick, with guest appearances by Chris Siebold and Greg Baroni. A fine pop ditty, this song will be a strong contender for multiple licensing opportunities as well as a solid showcase for Jill as a budding young artist. Look for it soon on our website.

November Sound Bytes

So... what happened to October? Well, we got busy that's what! Timothy Hay, aka Tim Severns, decided that he liked what we were doing with his songs so much that he figured we'd better finish the "wreckerd" in time for his move back to Utah. And finish we did! With several weeks of intense recording, mixing, editing and mastering, the final product was wrapped up by the end of October and sent off to Discmakers for duplication just as Tim and his faithful companion, Minnie, headed out west. It was a creative challenge for us at H&N to work with tracks that had been started elsewhere, but we came up with some interesting ways to deal with it, much to everyone's delight. And most importantly, we made a new friend. Tim and Minnie will always be welcome back at the studio. We'll soon be posting a comp of the tracks and a link to Tim's site, as well as a good Before and After of at least one song to showcase what we do here at H&N. Watch for The Timothy Hay Wreckerd at all the finest online retailers.

In between Tim's record project we hooked up with our old friend, Mike Britton, on a voiceover gig for Silver Rock resort in La Quinta. Other voiceover work included a new client, ReachMD, a satellite radio channel by and for doctors.

Derrick and writing partner Brett Ratner composed and produced two new tracks for MasterSource in Los Angeles. The songs, Inside Looking Out and Song She Sang, will appear soon on a Psychedelic 60's compilation and will undoubtedly find their way into numerous television and film projects.

SEPTEMBER SOUND BYTES

September already? Looks like we missed a couple of months there. No worries... we were having too much summer fun to keep up with the studio projects.

Along with summer fun... as well as an unwelcome three week summer cold... Hear And Now geared up for the fall promo season by getting marketing materials to the NFL and NHL. We've already experienced some great feedback and an audition for the Florida Panthers! The NBA is next.

Summer studio projects included producing some fun music tracks for TAKEDA International. Cathy Glickman provided vocals on three parody tracks and Derrick got to finally sing a Lenny Cravitz song. Meredith and Derrick also had the opportunity to be the Pips. The tracks were a big hit and we look forward to working with TAKEDA again.

New client Tim Severns brought a fun record project to the studio with a variety of songs recorded over the years in various locations with numerous musicians. We get to take all the tracks and add some new instrumentation and mix. Looking forward to working with Tim and his rootsy Americana songs. More as things develop.

June Sound Bytes

As Derrick gets ready to go full tilt with his new voiceover promotion as THE NO.1 SPORTS PROMO VOICE, we anticipate a busy time in the studio as voiceover work starts to pour in.

In the meantime, the latest Hear And Now Music projects include writing, producing and donating a theme song to a local Deerfield organization that's very close to our hearts, KIDDOS, Kids In Deerfield Doing Outstanding Service. Meredith Colby Procell wrote the words and music and Derrick arranged and produced this fun anthem for the kids to sing live at a talent show fund raiser. CD's of the song were a much sought after item, and the event was a rousing success.

Derrick's new song, 21st Century Cowboy, is being considered as the theme song for a new cable television show. This rockin' blend of country and pop is a hook filled hit that will be another feather in our music placement caps.

March Sound Bytes

In like a lamb... yeah, that's more like it. On the heels of some pretty slow months to begin the new year, March rolls in weakly but there are new projects on the horizon for Hear and Now Music.

One of the most exciting bits of news to report is the renewed interest and forward motion of the musical project closest to our hears, Planet Camp. For those of you not familiar with PC, it is a proposed "GREEN" kids tv show/interactive web presence/multimedia project that H&N Music is producing the music for. We now have some very powerful allies helping us to get the project to the likes of Kenny Ortega, the choreographer/director of Disney's mega-franchise, HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL. More on that as things develop. We anticipate a flurry of activity based on Planet Camp production duties. Besides music, Derrick also provides voices for several of the characters, including one of the main characters, Woody The Cool Talking Tree.

Other musical projects on tap for H&N this month include some original Blues songs for a project being pitched to Absolute Music, a music licensing library. Derrick is reaching back to his early days as a front man in several blues bands about town in Milwaukee WI for inspiration. Blues is a fun genre to work in because there are so many flavors of blues to color the songs with.... urban, country, rock, acoustic, jazzy, etc. The real fun begins when Derrick gets to blow some mean harp on these tracks!

Other clients this month: Jake O'Brien, who read a story and sang a couple of songs as part of his 6th birthday celebration gift. A grand time was had in the studio, including finding out how many ways one can enhance and digitize a burp!

Terry Abrahamson is back for yet another Mitvah musical number to include in his multi media presentation for a client. Lots of fun, challenging vocal work for some very interesting and funny tunes about a gal who loves CHOCOLATE!