Ok, perhaps the title overstates it a bit. But ever since I was a young lad I liked to sing. Christmas carols, radio tunes in the back of the '67 Chevy Biscayne that was the family car and, during my teen years, at Christmas parties hosted by the Payette's in my home town of Chapleau. During the early 80s I actually performed a couple of gigs in Chapleau with home town bands. The first group, "People People", consisted of lead guitarist Terry (aka Bucko) Lafromboise, Hughie McGoldrick (vocals/congas), Murry Midkif (percussion) and Kenny Lane (bass and band leader). The gig itself went over quite well...we performed a number of classic tunes including "Brown Sugar", "Sending out an SOS", "Black Magic Woman", to a friendly and boisterous crowd of about 500 people at the curling rink. The next year we came back as "Quick, Ham and the Horses" but the absence of Kenny Lane was noticeable in the end product and it was a shadow of the first performance. In '84 while attending Carleton University in Ottawa, I jammed with a three piece band we dubbed "Blue Cotton Seals Band" which, when translated into French, came out as "Ouate de phoque bleu"...a play on words welcomed in a town that prides itself on its bilingualism. The sole gig we did was at a residence (Canadian version of a frat house) party and performed two original songs...one with the cheery title "Why do the Children Die". After that my musical career faded into an irregular sequence of karaoke evenings scattered over the almost three decades that followed.

That all changed in August of last year when I reached out to James (Jim) Robinson who is the Head of Strategic Planning at my current employer Dubai Airports.

I heard he was a very good blues/jazz guitarist and I approached him to do a duet at the annual company talent show. He agreed and we soon thereafter met to jam at his apartment near Dubai mall. The first song we worked on was "Summertime". It was a bit rough but showed promise and we agreed to meet again. At the next session we were joined by Solle Svan, GM Regulations & Safety with Dubai Civil Aviation Authority. Solle also is a helluva bass player who played semi-professionally back in Sweden earlier in life...that included playing with Chubby Checkers on his Scandinavian tour. 

Within a matter of weeks we were regularly meeting - every Saturday at 1400 in Solle's house in Mirdiff - to jam and work on a song list. As the weeks passed it occurred to me that in this day and age of advanced technology, and with a long list of well established contacts who could assist, 'Hey why don't we produce a CD!?'.

I sent out a couple of emails immediately. The first was to Steve Polak, a good friend of mine from back in my days at Air Canada, who is also a talented photographer. He was to shoot the cover photos. The next was to Rich McCausland, an equally talented designer who I knew from my time with IATA in Geneva...he agreed to design the CD artwork. As it turned out Solle had a good friend - Roy Bolwede - who worked as a music producer in Sweden earlier in life - who expressed interest in producing the CD. 

Together we formed 'stereotypes', a group of relatively mature professionals whose passion for music survived and emerged suddenly, and unexpectedly, after years of inactivity.

Together we have pulled together a list of about 14 songs that will be worked onto a new CD. Included in the mix are "Georgia on My Mind" (our version of a Ray Charles classic), "Hoochie Coochie Man" (Muddy Waters), Clapton's "Rocking Chair" and a few jazz numbers including "All of Me" and "Cry Me a River" among others. Yesterday, February 23, was our first recording test at our own homemade studio assembled by Roy and Solle. It was an interesting day...the process requires a lot of focus and discipline...far more so than jamming/playing live. As we do not have a drummer (Roy is our drummer in post), the first step is to lay down what is known as a 'click track'. That sets the pace of the song and keeps bass, guitar and vocals in synch. Once that is done, we play the song together (with the click track playing in our headphones) but only record one instrument - typically it is the bass. Once that is laid down, the guitarist listens to the recorded bass and click track and lays down rhythm, then the leads and intros. My vocal follows.

Roy records everything on his portable 64 channel studio that sits on his i-pad. Truly amazing technology given the same process used to involve a room filled with mixing boards and recording equipment.

The software can also digitally replicate other studios. During our first session my vocals were recorded in a digitally replicated 'Abbey Road' studio. (check out my sterotypes photos) How cool is that?!

So the process is underway and together we hope to have a CD produced and 'released' to friends and family before the end of the year. The goal isn't to become the latest you tube sensation or to cut a deal with a record label. Instead it is simply to create something that expresses our passion for music and proudly share that with our loved ones. And I'm enjoying the hell out of it. Will keep you posted!