from the archives...

Things have been really hoppin' here lately. We've been lucky to have a large number of original music projects crop up (more about these later when they are close to being wrapped), and our good friends at FatKat have got us auditioning everyone for their animations, including this dog who showed up and wanted to read the part of a shark in 'My Adventures With Cloe' (nobody had the heart to tell him the microphone does not care WHAT you are wearing). While I was looking through some archived projects for some old voice demos, I came across a radio play that I wrote and recorded with Nolan, Olaf and Ben Reynolds (formerly of the band Sweetsalt) in the style of 'The Lone Ranger'. This was for a scene in Frantic Film's 'Quest for the Sea' in which a girl was supposed to be listening to a non-copywritten radio play on an old radio about 40 or 50 years ago. So pull up a chair, warm up those tubes, and tune in to the continuing adventures of Captain Radisson © of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police © ® !

We're Gloomy About Ruby Gloom

Last month, Nelvana contacted us to request a submission for theme music for 'Ruby Gloom', a new animated series they have in development. We were honored to be asked, and happy to put something together for them. Last week, Norm from Nelvana contacted me to let us know that our production was among the finalists for the series theme. Hurrah! Unfortunately, the focus testing in the target market (young girls/female teenagers) identified another submission that worked better with that demographic... stupid *%##! focus groups! Anyhow, I still am proud of the work that Olaf and Kevin did on this music, and thought at least I can post it on the blog so's it can be enjoyed a bit before being relegated to the damp and dusty recesses of our basement archives... (a place, ironically, that Ruby Gloom would probably like!).

Anyhow, click HERE to have a listen at our go at a Ruby Gloom theme!

Jim and Karen drop by...

Jim Williamson is a great guy and a wonderful client, representing Manitoba Public Insurance.

Jim does all sorts of interesting things on the side, including a one-man show about Charlie Chaplin. Knowing his inclination to act, I have abused my friendship with Jim on several occasions, most recently when we made our independent short entitled 'Sound Productions'. Jim was kind enough to volunteer to act as the client 'Barry', who gets a little carried away in the studio... Jim as 'Barry' the unruly client in 'Sound Productions'

Anyhow, Jim and his wife Karen dropped by to visit with Sherri and I on the weekend to celebrate spring by hanging out, having a few cold ones, and chatting about life, pets, and and life with pets. Thanks guys! It was great to see you!

When the German is away...

As you might or might not know, Olaf has been visiting his folks in Germany for the last couple of weeks. However, since we acquired a couple of web-cams, I seem to be seeing more of him when he is away than when he was here, as evidenced by this photo of him and his family (that's his dad Klaus and mother Heidi... how perfect is THAT) having an internet Pilsner with Annalee and Nolan a few afternoons back (yes, I know, we work REALLY hard here!). Anyhow, because he is away, I am taking advantage of the situation to make fun of him a bit. Not that it is not deserved, and not that I don't do it to myself in equal measure! (see the Mister Rabbit post for any evidence that you might require).

Last fall, we wrote and recorded a Caillou musical with KOBA Family Entertainment, licensed from Cookiejar Entertainment. While we were in the midst of working on some of the songs, I asked Olaf to do some scratch vocals of Julie the babysitter and Caillou (a duet... he did both voices). Of course, being the sadistic bastard that I am I kept the rough files over the last 8 months waiting for the perfect chance to make Olaf's vocal acrobatics public.... Click Here to hear the result of Olaf's scratch demo session!

Important Studio Activities

It is a funny paradox... the more that goes on here, the less time I have to update this blog, and the less that goes on, the more time we waste making things up to post on the blog.

Really now, the last week has been crazy...but there is very little here to show for it! One of the more fun projects we had was three days in the studio with children’s' entertainer extraordinaire Mr. Fred Penner recording some fun new songs for Barefoot Books.

We had the pleasure of being visited by Barefoot's own Jo Collins who jetted in from Jolly Olde England just to hang with us for the week! Fred shows Jo how to dig into lunch... an important studio skill! Jo looks tentatively at Fred's enthusiastic gastric performance...