The Annex Studios in San Mateo, CA, with our super-engineer Jermaine

Yesterday, I had the privilege of recording the Steve’s Quest Episode 2 vocal and dialogue tracks with thespians extraordinaire Robin Yukiko, Gina Harris and Justin Vanegas.

We recorded two songs — “Give Her the Tour,” a duet between Steve and Ash (Steve’s friend and romantic advisor) about how Steve should pursue his love interest Sabrina, and “He’s Got Potential,” a duet between Sabrina and her friend Rona where they debate whether Steve, well, has potential.

We also did about five minutes of dialogue, which is a lot more than what I have in Episode 1 — I felt much more confident in my script-writing abilities after watching about 75 episodes of various Joss Whedon TV shows like Dollhouse and, of course, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I think all my intensive research paid off.

I’ll share some more candid studio shots below.  Doesn’t the stage presence and adorability of the cast just radiate from these pictures?

Gina and Justin, recording dialogue.

Robin, also recording dialogue and chuckling about something — obviously, the uproariousness of the dialogue.

Gina, momentarily distracted by something more interesting than the dialogue.

Justin, definitely not chuckling because he is being blinded by my camera’s eye-splitting flash.

If this desk at the studio could chuckle at the uproarious dialogue, you know it would.

And, last but not least . . .

Your humble writer/producer, already gearing up for Halloween.

Stay tuned for more visual stimulation!

I know it was a nail-biting ordeal, but your patience is finally being rewarded — Part 2 of my top ten pop music clichés (here’s Part 1) is live n’ loud.  Here’s the rest of the long-awaited list:

6.  Rhyming “Change” with “Rearrange”: If the singer’s life is being changed by the breakup of their relationship, you can be sure that their life is also being rearranged.  Or, in the context of a political song like Graham Nash’s “Chicago”, if the singer expresses the desire to change the world, it’s a safe bet that they also want to rearrange it.

Putting it this way seems a bit redundant to me.  Still, I find this convention totally charming and I hope it’s neither changed nor rearranged.  Or, as Bob Marley famously put it:  “don’t let them change ya — or even rearrange ya!”

7.  Love Is Knocking On Your Face: We’ve all heard lyrics about love knocking on the door, or more grammatically creative variations on this theme, like Tesla’s “love is knockin’ / outside your door.”

But your door, as it turns out, isn’t the only thing love can knock on.  Sometimes love’s habit of knocking turns violent — just ask Paula Abdul, who got “knocked out” by a “love TKO,” or R. Kelly, who introduces his girlfriend as “the champ” because of her ability to knock him unconscious with her love.

Usually, in pop-song land, it seems like getting knocked out by love is a positive development.  But if it isn’t, we’ve just got to follow Keri Hilson’s advice and get back up — and do whatever Ne-Yo adds about getting back in control of our “pimp ship.”

8.  Rhyming “Life” With Something That Doesn’t Rhyme With “Life”: Although it may seem natural for song lyrics to talk about life, seeing as how being alive is something we all have experience with, using “life” as a rhyming word is fraught with peril.

This is because words that rhyme with “life” are pretty scarce, and the few words of that kind are either overused or only work if you’re striving for silliness.  Aside from “wife” and a few archaic variations on that word (“alewife,” “fishwife,” etc.), there’s basically “fife,” “knife” and “strife.”

“Fife” probably won’t play well unless your song is about the Revolutionary War, and “knife” and “strife” seem kind of heavy metal genre-specific to me (although I suppose sometimes love, or the loss of it, does “cut like a knife”).  I guess that explains why lyricists who use “life” tend to cheat a little and rhyme it with “nice” or something like that.

9.  “I’ll Do Anything For You.” Lots of singers profess this to their lover, but is it true?  I think anyone who makes this claim should be asked the series of questions made famous in Oliver, including “would you rob a shop?”, and “would you risk the drop?” — which means “would you be willing to be hanged until you are dead?”

Of course, some songwriters are even more up front about their level of devotion — both Bryan Adams and Prince, for instance, claim that they would die for you, while Bon Jovi and Damn Yankees do them one better by being willing to both live and die for you.

I don’t know about you, but I’d be a bit concerned if my significant other was that willing to risk bodily harm for me, even if they drew the line at having to get a few stitches.

10.  Instrumental Bridges: It used to be that the typical pop song had a bridge, which traditionally means the section that comes after the second chorus.

What’s more, the bridge had a distinctively different melody and chord progression than the verses.  Nowadays, instead of a bridge, a song often reuses the music from the verse part, but leaves out the singing.

Personally, I would prefer that, if a songwriter doesn’t feel like writing a bridge, they use a non-melodic, rhythmic part where they experiment with samples and weird effects.  (The mid-section from Footloose that goes “cut . . . foot . . . loose, oh oh oh oh oh!” comes to mind.)

But maybe I’m just being a peevish fishwife.  Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this, and I hope you’ll remind me of any clichés I may have overlooked in the comments.

It seems like more talented people are joining the Steve’s Quest team every week.  Last weekend, I and some new cast members rehearsed the dialogue and songs for Episode 2 of the show.

This episode has an “ensemble cast,” at least in the sense that the cast contains more than three people.  In this episode, we bring it to an epic, Cecil B. DeMille-like nine.

I had a blast at the rehearsal, and I thought I’d introduce you to, and shamelessly plug, some of the new people, in the hope that you enjoy meeting them as much as I have.

Robin Yukiko:  Robin plays Sabrina, Steve’s love interest.  She is a singer-songwriter in San Francisco, and leads a songwriting workshop that I dig.  This is one of her many adorable music videos.

Gina Harris:  Gina plays Rona, Sabrina’s staunchly anti-Steve friend.  Gina is a jazz singer with infectious warmth and enthusiasm.

Justin Vanegas:  Justin plays Ash, Steve’s friend and romantic advisor.  Justin has his own rockin’ rock opera called “A Farewell Device.”  I believe he is the sweatpants-clad singer drawn on the album cover.

Adam Barry:  Adam plays Tord, Steve’s co-worker and NextComm’s resident Norwegian metalhead.  Adam has appeared in shows ranging from Rent to Beauty and the Beast.

But wait, there’s more!  We just finished the cyberpunk-tinged, and sweatpants-clad, concept art for Episode 1 of the show, and I’m raring to share some with you!  Take a gander:

A top-down view of Metro City, the futuristic metropolis where Steve’s sci-fi novel is set.

The headquarters of “NextComm,” Steve’s employer.

Diagram of the cybernetic enhancements of Gain, the hero of Steve’s novel.

I hope these hors d’oeuvres temporarily satisfy your craving for Steve’s Quest updates before the soon-to-be-completed Episode 1 comes out.  More to come soon!

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I’ve been strangely bewitched by the idea of doing a musical about a man who falls through a sewer or subway grate into a magical realm.

In my copious spare time, I’ve been messing around with song ideas for the show.  I recorded a (rough) demo and (rougher) music video for one of the songs, “Beneath The Grate,” which I’ll share with you below:

At the point in the show where this song is featured, our hero, creatively named “John,” has come upon a village populated by strange creatures (portrayed by vaguely Muppet-like puppets), and learned that the creatures have been rendered immortal by the power of the enchanted land beneath The Grate.

John has also discovered, to his shock, that the creatures were once human, and that the same magic that gave them eternal life has also transformed them into vividly-colored beasts.  What’s worse, John notices fur appearing on his own body, and realizes he is turning into one of the creatures as well.

Our hero must now make a decision:  stay in the village and become an immortal puppet, or venture into the foreboding darkness beyond, where the creatures tell him nothing can survive.  Faced with this dilemma, John and the creatures sing this song, “Beneath The Grate.”  At the end, John runs off into the dark.

In the visualization of the song you’re seeing here, I wore masks during the parts when the creatures are singing — both to show you which character is singing what part, and hopefully to entertain you.

I’m still working out the story, which is one reason I think the lyrics have a raw, unfinished quality to them.  But something about this show excites me (maybe it’s the fact that no one appears to have set a musical in a sewer before), and I think you’ll be seeing further work on it from me in the near future.

Enjoy!

Lyrics:

Creature #1:
You stumbled upon us,
With a life astray.
Took all your spirit,
Just to get up every day, now.
Even now, you’re too blind to what’s true,
To see what’s here for you.

Creature #2:
I know how you’re feeling.
I was once like you.
I’d rather have suffered,
Than to try on something new.
I tumbled in one stupid drunken night,
Now I’ve finally made things right.

Creature #3:
Your world’s the one that’s dark.
It’s brutal, cold and stark.
Now you’ve found a home.

You will meet a friend,
Round every bend,
Right here underground.

Here beneath the grate,
It’s not too late,
To turn your fate around.

And though you never will return,
There’s so much here for you to learn.
You’ll start a new life, a fresh clean slate.
Here in the grate.
Here in the grate.

John:
It’s happening so fast.
Everything’s changing.
Can I face the last,
Of my days as a man?

How can I trust,
The things that you’re saying?
I don’t want to stay.

Creature #3:
There’s no other way.

John:
I don’t understand.

Creature #3:
Out there nothing survives.
Here together we thrive.
So come and share the joy of this enchanted land.

Creatures:
You will meet a friend,

John:
How can I trust you?

Creatures:
Round every bend,

John:
I know what I must do.

Creatures:
Right here underground.

John:
Flee the underground.

Puppets:
Here beneath the grate,

John:
I’ve got to get back to,

Creatures:
It’s not too late,
To turn your fate around.

John:
To turn my fate around.

For better or worse, I seem to remember song lyrics better than any other type of information I’ve ever absorbed in my life.

Although this talent might not look useful at first glance, it has helped me put together this hopefully entertaining list of pop song lyrical cliches I’ve come across over the years.  Of course, I mean all this in good fun, and I don’t intend to put down any of the artists or songs mentioned.

1.  “You Took My Heart.” Parents were up in arms when Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, in which the villain removes a man’s heart with his bare hand, received only a PG rating.  And yet, despite how often we hear about the singer’s heart getting removed in pop songs, we don’t see anyone demanding an “Explicit Lyrics” label to deal with it.

The idea behind this lyrical device is that the breakup of a relationship is kind of like being dismembered.  The most classic example is from “All of Me” (“you took the part that was my heart”), but there are many others.  Sometimes the body part that gets (figuratively) lost isn’t the heart — in other cases, for instance, it’s the lungs (“how do I breathe without you”).

2.  Rhyming “Fire” with “Desire.” Jim Morrison shocked the world when he rhymed “mire” and “pyre” with “fire.” Well, at least he would have shocked me, had I been alive when “Light My Fire” came out, because I thought some songwriter union regulation required all lyricists who use the word “fire” to rhyme it with “desire.”

But I admit, the “fire/desire” cliche makes sense.  After all, what things both (1) rhyme with fire and (2) are more fiery than desire?  Wires?  Church spires?  I mean, maybe funeral pyres meet these criteria, but again, probably only Jim Morrison could credibly get away with using that phrase in a song.

3.  “Love Will Find a Way.” “How could she say to me,” asked John Lennon, “love will find a way?”  I don’t know if I can answer his question, because that phrase has never made much sense to me.  Still, a lot of pop songwriters seem to use it.

Perhaps “love will find a way” means that matters of the heart will somehow work themselves out in the end.  But of course, if that were true, we wouldn’t have all these pop songs about broken hearts (that are usually also torn apart).  Maybe we songwriters should be thankful that love doesn’t always find a way, because if it did, we might run out of material.

4.  Rhyming “Girl” with “World.” In pop lyrics, if the last word of a line is “girl,” you can be nearly certain the singer will next tell you that the aforementioned girl (1) is the best in the world, (2) is his world (in the sense of being everything to him), or (3) destroyed or ended his world by leaving him.

But again, I think this cliche is understandable.  I mean, what besides the world could be as important to you as the girl you love?  Okay, maybe a pearl, or at least a string of them.

5.  “More Than Words Can Say.” It’s common for the singer of a pop song to claim that they either love or miss someone more than words can say.

The irony is that the singer usually spends the rest of the song using lyrics (words) to try to convey how much they love or miss their partner.  If words really can’t express how deeply I care about someone, wouldn’t it make more sense to write an instrumental?

Well, that’s probably enough for now — after all, the items on this list are cliches because pop music is saturated with them, and taking in too many cliches at a time would be like — I don’t know, a diet high in saturated fat.  More to come shortly!

I’ve definitely come to see how creating something, especially something long-term and time-intensive like my show, requires us to put a lot of faith in ourselves and the goodness of the universe.

To stay motivated to keep working on creative projects, we need to believe some super-optimistic stuff — ideas many people would dismiss as unrealistic, egocentric or airy-fairy.  These include ideas like:

1.  People will relate to my experiences. I haven’t easily fit into every environment I’ve been in, and sometimes I’ve felt like a downright outcast.

Why, then, should I assume other people will relate to the life experiences I talk about in my creative work?  Maybe my quirky way of seeing the world (e.g., the fact that I like composing video game music for outdated systems) and the events of my life will seem totally alien to most people out there.

And yet, to keep pushing forward in a creative project — at least, one I’m hoping other people will see and enjoy — I need to have faith that what I say will strike a chord with a sizable bunch of folks.

2.  My experiences are unique. It’s not enough just to believe that people will relate to my experiences.  After all, my experiences might be relatable, and yet totally humdrum and run-of-the-mill.

For example, lots of people can “relate” to the experience of putting on a pair of pants in the morning, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anyone wants to watch a film, or look at a painting, showing somebody putting on pants.

So, to sustain my drive to create, I have to make two almost contradictory leaps of faith, telling myself my experiences are both one-of-a-kind and relatable.

3.  The process will be fun. To start a big creative project like a musical, a book or a business plan, I think, we need to have some degree of conviction that we’re going to enjoy ourselves over the long haul, and that working on our project won’t become too miserable to bear.

This isn’t necessarily a rational way of thinking.  After all, even the collected works of great authors are littered with unfinished stories that those writers lost the desire, or didn’t live long enough, to complete.  Why should “everyday schmoes” like us assume we’ll have the intestinal fortitude to push through to the end?

So, it seems there are a lot of reasons not to believe the three ideas I just talked about.  Why, then, would I choose to believe them anyway?

My answer is:  Because they make life more livable.

I feel more energetic, and more contented, when I accept that I’m a one-of-a-kind person, and yet have things to say that resonate with lots of people — and that the creative process is just as thrilling as its final product.

Sure, these assumptions don’t always prove to be true — sometimes people can’t relate to the things I write and/or find my writing boring, and sometimes the act of creation can be a trying slog.

But because they drive me to create, and make the world a more inviting place to live in, I think they’re still worth believing.

I’m at a loss to explain how this idea came about (isn’t that the way with ideas), but I’ve decided that one of my future projects is going to be a musical called The Grate.

Obviously, the poster shown here is a joke, and has nothing to do with the show.  However, I am going to share some of the actual ideas behind The Grate to solicit your serious, and not-so-serious, feedback.

The Grate is about a man who is walking down the street of a major city and suddenly falls through a subway or sewer grate.  He then sits up, miraculously unharmed, and finds that he is in an underground realm populated by strange, talking creatures.

Perpetual Puppets

I have no idea what the creatures will look like yet, except I know they will be portrayed by puppets (this will be a live show, as opposed to my current project, Steve’s Quest).  Anyway, the puppets he meets at the beginning are kind to him, and they take him back to their village.

In the village, a dog-like puppet begins playfully roughhousing with our hero, and in the process falls off a cliff, plummeting to its apparent death.  However, the dog-creature gets back up and continues playing as if nothing happened.

That’s when our hero discovers that the puppets cannot die.  But soon afterward, he learns that there’s a catch to their immortality.  He has this realization when he notices a patch of green fur growing on his body.

The puppets explain to the protagonist that they were once human, and that spending time in their magical realm is causing our hero to transform into one of them.  So, he must choose between becoming an immortal puppet and trying to return to the surface.

Instead of a Dark Lord, You Shall Have a Dark Queen

Beyond that point, the story is still in development.  I’m thinking that the hero is too frightened of becoming a puppet to stay in the village, and so he ventures out, against the advice of the puppets, into the darkness beyond the village’s borders.

There, he meets more twisted and cruel-looking puppets who capture him, rob him of his possessions, and bring him to their queen.  (And they sing a song called “Welcome to the Dark.”)

My vague vision right now is that the queen, who is human, turns out to be the main character’s ex-wife, who somehow also found herself in “The Grate,” and that they become closer and less hostile to each other by the end of the show.

So How Does It Play?

So that’s the story so far.  The piece’s clearest influences are probably Labyrinth, The Neverending Story, and of course Alice in Wonderland.  I’ve written one song for The Grate, and I plan to share it with you shortly.

So what do you think?  Does this sound interesting to you?  How do you think the story should turn out?

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On a random whim, I wrote a song that lightly satirizes the obsession with traffic and being part of the “A-List” we often see in writing about blogging.  On an even more random whim, I shot and starred in a music video for it.  Here it is!

Aren’t we all just Waiting For Likes, in some deeply metaphorical sense?  Anyway, if you enjoy the video, a Like on YouTube would be most welcome.

For your hopefully further amusement, here are the lyrics:

Lyrics:

The moment I wake up, I silently pray
Can I have one hundred Retweets today
But I’ve one hundred less
So I sit and refresh
And wait for approval to come my way

I wrote a new post about cool iPhone apps
I thought it was great, but I guess it was crap
It was such a blow
The traffic was low
I know I can’t expect it to fall in my lap

But it’s so unfair
Because all my blogging buddies seem to be on a tear
Won’t somebody click on Share

I’m waiting for Comments
I’m watching for Views
I’m getting no Hits
So I’m singin’ the blues
Is there some kind of blogger union that’s on strike
I’m waiting for Likes

Don’t get me wrong, you’re more than just a number
Your Visits are wholly Unique
I’ll be sure to StumbleUpon your Tumblr
When I’m in the A-List blogging clique

My Four-Hour Workweek was just a mirage
Can’t blog my way out of my parents’ garage
The traffic won’t rise
It won’t monetize
Darren, won’t you please advise

I’m waiting for Comments
I’m watching for Views
I’m getting no Hits
So I’m singin’ the blues
I guess I’ll go outside and take a long hike
No, I’ll sit here and wait for my traffic to spike
I won’t rest ’til it’s South By Southwest and I’m on the mike
I’m waiting for Likes

Another shot of the futuristic metropolis “Metro City” from Steve’s Quest

So the song I shared earlier from the upcoming animated online musical sensation, “Maximized,” is sung by Steve’s colleagues at NextComm, the software company where Steve works.  One of the last concept art pieces we’re trying to complete is an “establishing shot” of NextComm’s main building.

NextComm’s building wouldn’t be complete, I think, without a shiny, aerodynamic-looking corporate logo signifying NextComm’s status as cutting-edge in the field of . . . okay, what NextComm does is never really revealed, except that it has to do with software.  The burning question for us is:  what should the logo look like?

So I thought I’d “crowdsource” the issue (I hear doing that is in these days).  The question I have for you, the “crowd,” is:  in your opinion, what tech company logo out there is the most exaggeratedly sleek and suggestive of technological sophistication? In other words, what would be the best existing logo to model our fictional NextComm logo on?

Here are some examples of logos I’m considering basing NextComm’s logo on (Disclaimer:  I’m not dissing the companies that use these logos — I’m sure they’re wonderful places to work, so if you work at any of them, please don’t call your legal department):

And Speaking Of Logos . . .

What do you think of the new logo for this site in the upper left hand corner, and its animated sparkliness?  Is it a worthy and eye-catching addition?  Or do you find it as irritating as the corporate logos I’m lightly satirizing?

Since Steve’s Quest is my main passion right now, I figured it would be best to spruce up the decor of my site accordingly, but I’m open to suggestions.

I’m making some t-shirts to use as perks in my IndieGoGo fundraising campaign for the second episode of Steve’s Quest (which, for those of you who don’t know, is my upcoming online animated musical).  These shirts feature the image above, created by our concept artist par excellence Michelle, and the stevesquest.com URL on the back.

However, I’m going to give away three of these shirts for free, even before the IndieGoGo campaign starts, to people who have Liked the Steve’s Quest Facebook page.  On Monday, August 6, I’ll randomly select three people from those who have Liked the page to receive shirts.

If you’ve already Liked the Facebook page, you don’t need to do anything further — you are eligible to win a shirt.  If you haven’t Liked the page yet, and you want to be in the drawing, go to this link and click on “Like.”

By the way, I had the wonderful opportunity to share a paragraph-long pitch and brief music sample (featuring this song) with a panel of producers at the Academy for New Musical Theater’s “Biz of the Musical Theater Biz” conference last weekend in LA.

Because of the unusual, hard-rock style of the show’s music, and the fact that this is my first foray into the musical theater world as a writer, I was expecting the panel to tear the pitch to shreds, but actually they were intrigued by the idea, and even chuckled a bit at the music sample (which, you know, is a good thing because it’s a comedy).  I was pretty psyched.

Looking forward to sharing Episode 1 of Steve’s Quest with you soon!