MIKEB
The King Of Rationality
Posts: 4,536
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Post by MIKEB on Oct 15, 2009 16:46:50 GMT -5
The first single from MB's upcoming Best Of compilation will be released next week. It's called 'Professional Years'. The song is in the same style as some past hits like 'Feeling Love' and 'Time' but has much more up-to-date production. MB has spent the last month in the studio writing, recording, mixing and mastering the track and is his first original single release in over two years!
It'll be available on m4bTunes on Tuesday.
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MIKEB
The King Of Rationality
Posts: 4,536
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Post by MIKEB on Oct 20, 2009 12:28:59 GMT -5
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Post by billcs on Oct 23, 2009 15:19:54 GMT -5
Definitely one of your better efforts, Mike!
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Post by FreakyFlyBry on Oct 23, 2009 23:56:41 GMT -5
I must say I'm impressed by the quality of the background music... definitely sounds very real!
And I also like the "fake fade" in there... reminds me of Elvis Presley's "Suspicious Minds", I actually thought the song was over for a second!
Definitely one of your best in a while, I'd say!
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MIKEB
The King Of Rationality
Posts: 4,536
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Post by MIKEB on Nov 8, 2009 17:25:51 GMT -5
RETIRE?
There's been a lot of talk of retirement in recent years in the music industry. An announcement made that seems to never hold much weight but that does cross genres. Celine Dion made the announcement at the end of the last decade that made headlines. She promised to take time off to start a family. Granted, she did say it wouldn't be permanent but in two years, she was back again. In hip-hop, Jay-Z has made the claim numerous times. 50 Cent even made it a game plan in hopes of selling records. Only it backfired on him... or on us. Promising to retire from music if his record didn't beat first-week sales of Kanye West. He lost. And he didn't retire. Eminem planned to retire and called his final record Encore. In his defense, he admits he lost by calling his new record Relapse. In country, Garth Brooks seems to have been the most successful retiree. Only recently announcing after taking most of the decade off that he will be performing in Vegas. On a much much smaller scale, talk of "retiring" has been brought up by MB, or MichÊl Blacke. He made the potential claim back in 2002. He didn't stay away and it was made an assumption again in 2007. Is it sticking? It's only weeks away from the release of Blacke's first compilation album containing the best songs from the decade since his first album in 2000. That doesn't quite count as a "return", but. But! There is a new recording on it. Not recycled. Not re-recorded from a few years ago. But brand new! New music. New lyrics. New production. How's that for retiring? But Blacke didn't promise retirement. In fact, he never once said the word. He didn't say much anything at all. That's because for the last two years, MB has been missing in action. The singer/songwriter/producer completely ended the recording sessions for his last record and refused to finish it. Leaving his label The Max Records to finish compiling it themselves and release it without any further promo. Of course, the album ended up becoming his least successful release so far despite being, what Blacke had said previously "my best songs musically and melodically." What happened? Blacke's two-year relationship came to an abrupt end. A situation that would have caused most writers to go into complete solitude and write until their hand fell off left Blacke feeling no interest in writing anything at all. This happened after 9 songs had been written and recorded for the record Sneakers On A Telephone Wire. Blacke had planned to record at least 12 songs; enough for a full collection of new songs and a few tracks for b-sides. In the end, The Max Records took those 9 songs, tacked on a re-recorded version of a previous b-side Stay For You and released the album with no objection from MB. However, he did refuse to do any promo for the record and called it a day. Or a career. This occurred at a potentially new height for MB's career. He had just finished up everything related to One Way Undone, his most successful record yet from 2006 and the first single from Sneakers, 'Time', was en route to becoming one of his biggest hits to date. Subsequent attempts at hits failed. Three additional songs were released in 2007-08. All flopped. In late 2008, Blacke did release an EP of professional-studio recorded songs. No new material, however. The two attempts at hits from that EP flopped as well so plans for a third were immediately scrapped. And Blacke was nowhere to be found. It was now assumed that MichÊl Blacke was probably going to completely retire from music altogether. All attempts at reaching any sort of status were going unnoticed with songs that were released and nothing new was being recorded, or written. Blacke reveals that he hadn't written a song in over two years. "I stopped recording altogether for Sneakers On A Telephone Wire because I wasn't into it anymore. Everything had changed. There would have been no way for me to make another song that would fit in with the rest of the record so I ended it right there." MB reflects, "and I didn't write anything because I know that everything I would write would all have the same theme. Hurt, pain, defeat, yearning, whatever. Breakup songs. There are tons of those. I didn't want an entire album of breakup songs. So I didn't write any." Blacke has said, though, that he did come up with a lyrical verse days after the breakup that has stuck with him ever since that he wants to turn into a song. "That isn't to say I don't want to turn the experience into something. I do. But it has to be perfect. I don't want to half-ass this. If I can't write the best song I've ever written from what happened, I don't want to put it on paper at all." So what has MB been up to? Photography has been a big thing. He's been into photography for almost five years now, in charge of every promo photo and album artwork and design for all of his records. But his pictures have taken on new life and a lot of time. Instead of pen and paper in hand at any given time, they have been replaced by a camera. Hundreds of photos a month of anything from scenery, nature, people, events, himself, friends, anything goes. "I often find myself walking something and seeing a particular scene that I think would make an awesome photo - but I left my camera at home." Blacke says. "Sometimes I'll try to recapture it the next day if it's a time-based picture such as the way the sunlight is hitting at a certain angle. But most of the time, I admit defeat and simply admit how magnificant the scene is." MB also has ventured into making DVDs. Not regular films but photo-based DVDs. This has resulted in a Team Awesome series that began in 2005. The third (and final) disc of the series was finalized this past summer after a year of work. Other DVDs have included birthday-events and anniversary gifts. New ideas are in the works for 2010 but not until MB has completed another project: The Best Of MB. So the idea of retirement has been just a rumour... for now. "I'm constantly getting ideas for songs while I'm walking or whatever. Most of the time, I don't have a way to write them down so they become lost. I'm thinking I may need to start carrying a notepad with me because I do get my best ideas while walking now. Never at home. Maybe that's why I haven't written anything in years." Meanwhile, MB has been busy compiling the songs for the Best Of compilation, out later this month. He has been editing and mastering all of the songs for a better sound, something he learned while doing a Recording Arts program a few years back, something else that kept him busy. Blacke wanted to have two new tracks for the record but may not meet the deadline for the second song. Alas, the first song has been written, recorded, mixed, mastered and is now out there and on the way to becoming his first hit since Time more than two years ago. Retirement? The new song is called Professional Years and deals with the concerns of ENTERING the life as a professional. Retirement is DECADES away.
MB's Discography Miscellaneous (Stars Records) [2001] Anonymous (Stars Records) [2002] One Way Undone (The Max Records) [2006] What Lies Beneath: Instrumentals (The Max Records) [2006] Sneakers On A Telephone Wire (The Max Records) [2007] Worms On The Sidewalk EP (The Max Records) [2008] The Best Of MB (The Max Records) [2009]
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MIKEB
The King Of Rationality
Posts: 4,536
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Post by MIKEB on Nov 14, 2009 19:43:12 GMT -5
Here's the album cover!
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Post by Courage on Nov 17, 2009 23:00:19 GMT -5
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