The year was probably 1996. The internet was young – really young. There was no google, but instead, a smattering of funky search engines that were primitive by today’s standards. I was in the midst of teaching myself how to use musical sequencing software and recording software, also really primitive at the time… but the idea of quality recording on my own time? Yes!
After recording in countless recording studios across the country, I was finally able to record whenever the mood struck me, and play for hours with sounds and textures. Writing new songs in the studio was so amazing. The very first song I wrote, sequenced, recorded and mixed all by myself was a song for my daughter. I was on Maui at the time, and my little studio had a lot of windows open to the ocean breeze. It was awesome.
And I also was teaching myself html. There wasn’t much in the way of software yet, so hand coding was the way we did it. It was time consuming, and those of us putting up websites were kinda in the wild wild west. I put up a site that started growing into a crazy size, full of my songs, lyrics, inspirations, and consciousness based articles. Back then, I actually couldn’t find any other sites like that. It seems impossible today, with countless people sharing and teaching their own techniques for a more conscious life – but back then, I started hearing from people all over the world. The little articles and song lyrics I posted were inspiring all these strangers, and it was wonderful.
In addition to playing in the studio, gigging and growing the website, I also had a side gig doing “intuitive services”…mainly Astrological Charts and Tarot Readings. But it was at this time that I realized that my music could be healing, too. So it’s been a long journey of learning to blend the music, the writing, and the intuitive services kinda one thing.
So I recorded a spacey musical CD, and put it on my site – and the CDs actually sold. Hundreds of them, which was surprising with no advertising. There was no soundcloud, no Amazon, no Facebook… just a bunch of people stumbling around the early internet, finding each other, somehow, and communicating. I got lovely messages from all kinds of strangers who loved the music. Those of you who’ve followed me since the early rock band days know that I like to push boundaries, and this first non-rock spacey CD was quite the challenge for me. But hey, you stretch as a musician, right? And then you realize you’re also stretching as a human being. Pretty cool.