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Serendipity

Posted on | June 16, 2010 | 2 Comments

I’d like to share a serendipitous moment/story with you that I experienced yesterday. It’s a bit complex and involves things that happened a long time ago, which makes it a lot more special… stick with me for a bit:

Yesterday I met with Chris Hobson who is producing, engineering and mixing my new album, entitled “Trust.” We spent the day pooling our revision notes on the mixing process so far, and came up with versions of all the songs that are very close to being done. Being anxious to finish, I asked Chris how long he thought we should listen to these 95%-done mixes before making the final decision to move on to mastering. He recommended that we spend a couple of weeks with them to provide the opportunity for our ears to hear any more changes that we might like to make. He understood my anxiousness, but began to tell me that this part of the process is where most people rush, and that it’s one of the worst parts to do so. This lead to a story he told about a previous client who wanted to hurry-up the mixing process in order to finish in time to duplicate physical copies for his CD release show that he had already booked. Not wanting to do all this work only to potentially make a mistake at the crucial end of the mixing process, I told him I understood and agreed to the two-week listening period.

So where’s the serendipity? It’s coming… here’s a little back-story to help this make sense:

I came to know Chris through a mutual friend who is also a singer/songwriter. I met this mutual friend a couple years ago by chance at a venue in San Diego while on a gig down there. I really enjoyed his music, told him so, and we kept in touch after that. When his new record came out a year or so ago, I went to his CD release show at the Mint here in LA (right before he moved away), and bought a copy of the album. I loved the way the record sounded and was produced, so when it came time to look for a producer for my new record, I went first to the liner notes of that album and found Chris Hobson’s name credited as producer, mixer and engineer. I contacted him and we began working on “Trust” together.

Are you ready for the payoff? That client Chris talked about who needed to hurry-up the mixing process to get CD’s made in time for his release show is the same singer/songwriter I met in San Diego — the same one whose CD I bought at the Mint that night, that introduced me to Chris.

Realizing how all this went together, I said to Chris: “If he hadn’t wanted to rush, he wouldn’t have gotten CD’s made in time, and I wouldn’t have been able to buy one at his show, and I wouldn’t have known about you, nor contacted you about working with me on this album.” We both kinda stood there for a second, then smiled and laughed about it.

Moments that happened quite a while ago between other people ended up affecting, in a very heavy way, my life and the creation of my new record. When things like this happen, I can’t help but feel purpose and design poking its head out from behind the curtain… I enjoy them thoroughly.

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