Trying To Get Through To You

Talk about a challenging song, being open to the idea but ultimately having been concerned over the track I felt that this song was the most unique in it's experience. But much like a child you can't just throw it away when it fights baCBC Studios Toronto - Studio 212 December 28, 2008ck. I was putting together the album "The Life That's Chosen Me" and this was one of those tracks that just showed up for the gig.

Victor Crowl and Michael Moon, friends of mine from Toronto had simply presented a demo to me that really was from they're heart. Michael (afflicted with autism) had never collaborated with anyone musically he just was working at his own speed and interests and this really took him away from his comfort level but with Victor being an open minded learner and learning daily more and more about Autism it was a very interesting collaboration.

I liked the fact that the song had a real feel through the lyrics but the melody was "unique" to say the least. I asked for them to recut it with a few changes lyrically as that it was a bit angry towards Teachers (which I understand why through my older son Kyle is a reality in his Autistic world). I loved the simple view of the world and didn't change anything after that first verse ending.

Cheryl, my Wife never let me drop the song.. even on the brink of frustration and thus I flew to Toronto to help with some of the production in Dec 2008. This would prove to be one of the toughest assignments around (but I'll explain that on another overview of the song's history).

Randy Grossman

HwH Records



Update on Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 1:09AM by Randy Grossman

I get to Toronto amid a terribly cold time in December but was eager to go forward with the recording there. We were thinking that a choral arrangement would add a depth to the song and thus a friend of Victor's helped us with the publicity. Reaching out through all our connections we had about 25 of some of the best vocalists show up that cold evening at the CBC studio's in downtown Toronto.

The prior evening (11 pm) I got a call from the producer we had hired stating that he wasn't "feeling" the song and was just asking if I could take the track back from him. The track has a number of elements that were very concerning at the time but they're had already been work on it and included in the mix was a famous guitarist who himself declined after recording his rhythm parts on it declined wanting any acknowledgement that he was involved in it. This saddened me terribly as that as much as he did a favor for us he was perhaps uncomfortable with the track and possibly Michael's involvement. Hard to say as that I never got to talk with him after the fact.

So, I had a tune that was promoted and set for a recording session in Toronto the next day and I still wasn't happy with the outcome of the track. Lyrically it was great but otherwise challenging. I talked to the producer en-route to his apartment studio about stripping down what we had to a basic beat and no guitar, etc.. getting this simple track open to the layering of harmonies needed to build it up. I grabbed it and ran to the CBC studio to meet with Victor, Michael and the 25 musicians.

Included in the "cool canadian ensemble" were a mix of blues, hip hop, rock, jazz, rock, etc.. they're were canadian idol finalists (thanks to Farley Flex) like Daniel Panetta and raggae artists like Tanya Mullings.Humble. Good friend Angelica Mileto (fantastic performer/voice who kept right up with Liberty). We even had the luxury of the wonderful Liberty Silver and her 6 1/2 octave range.

Victor took on the role of choir director while Michael parlayed his thoughts on the tone of the song. The vocals came together well, overdubs of key vocals were tracked and off I went to LA to try and salvage the song. I was meeting up with Ted Jacobs at his studio to do another track "Roger" and had this in hand to see what we could do...

Randy Grossman

www.hwhrecords.com



Update on Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 1:10AM by Randy Grossman

In between the time of recording the song "roger" with Ted Jacobs at house on the corner studios and Harold Payne's/Faith Rivera's wonderful "You Are My Teacher" I was busy thinking of avenues to go on this song that my wife called "beatle-ish". It's first renditions were kind of like a beatles met pink floyd song (I'll follow the sun) which wasn't bad but it didn't fit the lyrics completely. I asked both Michael and Victor if I could take the direction on it and they were open to it.

After some discussion with Ted we both felt it needed to be lifted to more of a dance beat, I warned Ted that this was a very challenging track prior to his hearing it and he mentioned that it didn't scare him one bit.. optimistic to the end, lol. He heard it and was quiet at first, hesitant then we talked it out. I had a couple of ideas I wanted to try, very dramatic tempo changes both of them but he was open to it.

The first style was a sort of symphony build up thing, naw.. that didn't work (like a david foster moment a bit) with the big drum slow beat, you get the idea. It was frustrating, a couple more variations around it, which included the beatles acoustic tempo and more dance laden 120 bpm techno beat stuff.. fun but not what we wanted completely.

Then one sleepless night it came to me.. I was talking to Gardner (our soon to be music president) Cole and asked him what that Madonna song was that she put out a few years back that was only acoustic guitar tempo as the opener? It was "Love Profusion" YouTube - Madonna - Love Profusion (Music Video) and matched perfectly the opening sequence to give Teddy something to start with. I liked the beat, the lyrics were great and ultimately it was current Madonna material references.

Ted was lovin' it, his speciality was dance mixes and this was right up his alley. I thought if anyone could pull this off he could and boy did he ever! After some subtle tempo adjustments I felt that with this direction both Victor (specializes in dance music) and Michael's vision could be complete and not take it away from it's core goals of exposing what a beautiful lyric that they had created. The true nature of this was to show what it was like to be affilicted with autism and Michael took that from his own experience living it with his Mom.

I heard a few more renditions of it tighten up and then It came to me on another early morning evening while I was giving direction to Ted about the song "roger" that Faith Rivera would be the elixir needed to make this song soar. I still wanted the choir from Canada in it but not as much and knew Faith with her tremendous vocals could add an amazing layer to this already coming together recording. I woke up in a start and headed to youtube to look up a song that I always liked by Duran Duran called "come undone" YouTube - Duran Duran - Come Undone . That beautiful haunting backing vocal of Tessa Niles captured perfectly what I was looking for. Faith loved the idea and recorded the vocals quickly.

I received the track back and was lovin' it! We had what was a very rough demo taken all the way to a current danceable song.. wow! I cautiously sent it to Victor and Michael in various stages of production to graduate them up the final version and they loved it. It was a beautiful blend of lyrics and arrangement but more importantly it was Michael's first time collaborating with another artist in this capacity.

There is more to the story as that the song is of interest by both Victor Crowl and Michael Moon and the video shot in LA on a huge green screen created the right vibe for it. Quirky and fun, almost reminescent of those 60's austin powers moments... lol.

Randy Grossman

HwH Records

www.hwhrecords.com