Now that the CD has been out for a while and we continue to stream out songs digitally via facebook and on our soundcloud channel, work has begun on the next project for 'stereotypes'. To be more accurate, we are feeling our way through the next project based on a few guidelines. We are also using 'penny earned' to get a better understanding of how difficult it is to market/distribute music...the leading song so far is "Cry Me a River" with around 1600 listens from around the world.

Back to the aforementioned guidelines. First is that we want to do a collection of 'originals'. Songs we compose, write, produce and distribute ourselves. Second, while we want to experiment a bit with style/genre, we have to capitalize on our talents. Third is we have to do so within the parameters of everyone's hectic schedules.

Another bit of good news is that we added a new member...Doug Bernie. He is Canadian and recently arrived in Dubai to work at the airport as a consultant. Doug is a very talented guitar player and vocalist with a flair for classic blues and rock. He played with a Toronto band "Devolver" and used to gig regularly in a town known for its live music scene, including performances at my favourite bar in the whole world Horseshoe Tavern. He elevates the talent level considerably and brings added versatility.

Right now I am spending some time writing songs...which I dabbled with in the past but not at this level. I'm not a musician and can't write music but basically I have been pulling together lyrics and melodies around 12 bar blues. To record/remember the melodies I hum them into my Blackberry...not the most sophisticated process but it works for me. We are recording 'scratch tracks' to evaluate if/how they will work. If they do, and surprisingly the results have been pretty decent with the first two songs, we will eventually fine tune and produce them. Personally the process has been exhilarating. It's one thing to do a decent cover version of a song, but far more interesting/rewarding to produce something original.

As I write this blog, I am set to review the lyrics and melodies for two new songs we will be recording scratch tracks for this afternoon....one of which is written for Bianca. I'm not so sure how that one will turn out to be honest as it strays outside the blues genre a bit...but if anyone can make it sound good it's Bianca. The other is a more standard blues song that seems catchy but you never really know until you lay it down.

We are also putting lyrics to some of Roy's synthesized 'soundscapes' that he recorded earlier in his career...but we haven't really produced scratch tracks for those as yet.

Anyway that's about it for now. Thanks for reading!