About the Radio Show
From Glenn Gray Records and Reflections May 4, 1982.
A few weeks ago Corinne and I managed to procure a recording session for a local radio program featuring original artists. After being accepted on the basis of what was really an extremely poor tape as far as standard recording quality goes, the band spent two weeks of concerted preparation assuring our readiness for the session.
We began by making tapes of the ten songs we decided to do for the program, hoping by so doing that we might be able to get a better idea of what to expect when we actually found ourselves in the studio. Admittedly the basement tapes were a little rough sounding, but only because the recording facilities available to us were inadequate and the rooms not properly sound proofed. Every evening for two weeks we met at the house we were practicing at, recorded as many songs as one evening would allow, and afterward sat down to give each separate song a critical listening and make any corrections or changes that we felt necessary. This is a tedious process but proved most efficacious when we finally came to actually recording the songs last night. Wednesday evening we yet have to return to the studio to complete the vocal tracks and do the final mixdown.
During the two weeks in which we worked on the songs in the evening we spent some time going around to local booking agencies in an effort to get full-time work. As expected the story we received from the people we talked to was much the same regardless of where we went. Everyone told us the unpalatable news that we would need a certain amount of commercial songs in order to get full-time work. The situation is truly an ironic one. Music is a form of creative art and expression and yet it seems that in order to mollify the interests of the general public a musician must stoop to playing an array of accepted popular songs in order to earn a living. It is a base and a crass expectation on the public’s behalf as they remain blind to the fact that one, they are totally integrated with what they hear on the radio and don’t realize the conditioning they are subject to and two, every single song they hear on the radio, or, at least a good ninety percent of them are original compositions of whoever artist they happen to be listening to. So in essence what occurs is while those people who can afford a recording capable of being broadcasted on the radio are venerated for their talents as recording artists the rest get saddled with the expectation of having to perform those songs broadcasted rather than original compositions. As the reader can easily discern it is a vicious circle. However, those who don’t write at all get the worst of it as they have no means by which to transcend the vicious circle.
In many ways the band has had a good stroke of luck inasmuch as the tape we will have will enable us to promote ourselves more on the bases of original compositions than on how well we emulate the contemporary songs of the radio. As well, although the songs won’t be aired consistently on the radio they nonetheless will be aired for an hour on a local radio program that includes a band interview. Perhaps the biggest benefit is that in the future having done one radio show we have the opportunity to do another.
All in all the last two and half weeks have proven the source of a most edifying experience, one that has been beneficial to the band as far as studio experience is concerned as well as supplying us with a perfect piece of promotion.
