Envy No More

For the longest time, I’ve marveled at stories about singers and other artists being discovered as a result of their postings on youtube. I envied artists with their stuff drifting out there in cyberspace. It’s all about possibility.

Envy no more. My goal heading into the studio August 3rd was to get some of my own stuff out there in the youtube universe!

I’ve written more than 120 original songs and, over the years, recorded close to half of them. The last time I went into a studio to record music was in 2003. I recorded several jazz standards. Since then, my jazz trio has performed on telethons, at Montreal’s tennis event and in Dominion Square Park.

To help me finally get music on youtube, I enlisted the help of  monster jazz bassist, Dave Watts and videojournalist, Matt Consalvo.

My knee hasn’t been the same since I fell carrying my bass drum up the stairs at home. It happened as I was loading the car with my drums to go to the studio. I still feel it.

My plan heading in, was to record eight songs! Ridiculous. I recorded six, but none of them sound the way I hoped they would. Realistically, I should have planned to record two or, at most, three. Sure, I spent 11 hours in the studio that day but, inevitably, ran out of time and money!

I wrote a country song for the first time in my life and recorded it, along with two covers, including Chantal Kreviazuk’s incredible love song, “Invincible” and the Tears For Fears classic, “Mad World”, which I posted on youtube. I love Dave’s moody playing of the bass with a bow.

Later on Facebook Dave wrote, "I've never seen anybody work so hard in a session, you must be exhausted." For me, it was all play; eleven hours flew past in a blink, with just two bananas and a bag of trail mix for lunch and supper!

I re-recorded a song I had done a few years ago about the arrival of my son and did a song I wrote in 1985, called “Never Turned Out”, which I put on youtube.

Finally, I recorded “A Mere Diamond”, a song I wrote last summer. Matt did a nice job filming and editing it and I was happy to post it on youtube earlier this week. I also posted the lyrics in this blog. I included a rap in the song as a nod to one of my bomb bands, Linkin Park.

I appreciate all the comments I've been seeing and hearing about my stuff. Truth be told, I could live in the studio and I hope to get back there soon.

A Mere Diamond (lyrics)

A MERE DIAMOND



A little girl, in a great big world

lived up the street, seemed so sweet



I knew she was out there

but never knew she could be mine.



She is the sun in my day, nothing gets in her way

her approach to life, is all about today



She’s taken us so far above

already given me – a lifetime of love.



(CHORUS)  All this for a mere diamond.



For love she shares her love, she shares her life

she feeds her body to me, in the night



It’s the one thing that makes me thrill

and I burn - for her still.



I can’t take my eyes off her, I watch her read

does she know that when she looks at me, it’s off what I feed



If I land on unfamiliar ground

her smile tells me - I am found.


(CHORUS)



I’m slowing down, I’m losing hair

she must see it happening, but doesn’t seem to care



She gives me motion

With her devotion, yeah.


(CHORUS)


(RAP)
At times it doesn't seem real, but I believe what I can feel
If love has some grand scheme, then I am living in a dream.


(CHORUS repeat and fade)


Song written - July 2, 2012.

(See it on You Tube - Richard Dagenais - A Mere Diamond)



Studio Bound

I’m super stoked! It’s always exciting to be heading into the recording studio! My plan is to record four covers and four original songs during a multi-hour session. I recorded some jazz standards at a topnotch Montreal recording studio in 2001 and again, in 2003. I haven’t been in a recording studio for my own projects since then. The material I'm recording this time around is more pop-oriented. I'll be singing, playing guitar, percussion and drums. Montreal bass player Dave Watts has performed with me in-studio, on-stage and as part of a telethon. He’ll be part of this recording project. Gotta get on YouTube! It is such a mind-boggling and powerful tool for publicity and networking. I’m hoping tomorrow’s session will allow me to post a few music performances on YouTube! I'll definitely provide links when I can.

The Lap of Luxury

I'm wrapping up my first week in a long time, anchoring news. It's been nearly six months since I last hosted a newscast.

Talk about a change of pace!

I’ll anchor Global Montreal’s 6 o’clock evening news for two weeks. As it turns out, compared to the morning show, I feel like I’m living in the lap of luxury!

The sometimes grueling and unpredictable nuts and bolts of preparing, building and presenting an automated news program have been hidden from my view this week. I merely write the news and then walk into the studio to present the news.

Glitches, technical problems, line-up issues, choice of visuals, rundown changes, banner spelling, supers and a million other aspects of live television, for the most part, happen somewhere else. The control room for the evening news is in Edmonton. There’s no fumbling for the teleprompter foot pedal under the desk, or forgetting to cue it to the right place, it’s all taken care of, thank-you very much.

By contrast, the morning show control room is right in front of us our desks, so we are, inevitably, intimately aware of the multitude of extraneous variables that can hamper smooth show preparation and presentation. The growing pains over the last six months have included, but not been limited to, software oversights and random technical glitches, as well as connection problems and sudden on-air equipment crashes!

We operate our own teleprompter, which, at least in my case, has, at times, posed some minor attention challenges!

Alas, the morning show is three hours of unscripted fun, high energy interaction between co-hosts, columnists and interview guests, whereas, the evening news is thirty minutes of scripted, serious news delivery. Either way, I’m so fortunate to be part of the Global Montreal team.

The biggest visible change, though hardly jarring, may involve wardrobe! A couple of months ago, as I wrapped up a morning show interview with my buddy, trumpet player Ron Di Lauro, he boldly wrestled a necktie over my head and around my neck!

I know he’s happy now.

So Much More To Learn

Without a doubt, after presenting news for so many years, it’s tremendous fun to let loose on the air! As host of Global Montreal Morning News, in virtually constraint-free circumstances, I get to be myself. I’ve always loved being able to interview people and, consistently, many of the people I’m privileged to meet are incredibly talented and interminably fascinating! In the last few weeks, I had the opportunity to meet and speak with Juno award winning singer, Lorraine Klassen.

She had been on the show in March as a Juno nominee and, after waiting for several weeks for her Juno to be engraved, she finally returned to the show this week and spoke energetically about winning the award, her latest recording project, ailing icon Nelson Mandela and signing the Golden Book at Montreal city hall. She was on the show Friday and came in for the interview in spite of a sore throat! We quickly ushered out  members of the band, Tcha-Badjo, after their live performace and had very little time to put a microphone on Lorraine, carefully remove her Juno from its box and take the cue to begin speaking! Through all the last second mayhem in our studio, she was smiling, gracious and sincere.

I also spoke with bassist Alain Caron this week about his jazz festival show. Alain had just been named recipient of the Montreal International Jazz Festival’s 2013 Oscar Peterson Award. He’d won it once before as a member of Uzeb. He’s won 11 Felix Awards, been named “Best Electric Bass Player” eight years in a row by Jazz Report and had recently released his eighth studio album.

After interviewing Montreal saxophonist Joel Miller last month about winning his Juno Award, I had a chance to meet and speak with Juno-winning saxophonist and jazz composer, Christine Jensen. I own her third album and was delighted to meet Christine and speak to her about her inspirations and jazz festival show.

It was terrific fun to meet and speak with Mikael Kingsbury, two-time World Champion moguls skier.

He spoke about his incredible season, his training and the upcoming Olympics. I had forgotten to ask him to bring in the Crystal Globes, which are awarded to freestyle skiing’s world champions. I'm grateful that he kindly remembered to bring them in for the interview! The 20 year old is a dedicated and highly talented young athlete, as well as a credit to our province, our country, Quebecers and Canadians!

I haven’t even missed a day on the morning show yet and, already, I’m eagerly looking forward to settling back into the hosting chair!

There’s so much more to learn!

Punting Nostalgia

I bought a bunch of songs by the Canadian prairie band, Streetheart, a couple of weeks ago. Now, every time I listen to them, I’m transported back to Currie Gym, when, as students at McGill, some buddies and I went to a dance featuring the band.

I was a fan then and, after recently downloading the Streetheart songs I remember from the late seventies and early eighties, I discovered I’m still a fan!

Streetheart’s “Under My Thumb” remains my favorite version of the Stones’ classic song!

The band earned six gold albums, four platinum albums, a gold single and a Juno Award, yet another reflection of my good taste in music!

I hate climbing into my time machine. Feeling nostalgic and dismayed over the lightning-fast passage of time rarely proves to be an enjoyable experience but, in the case of Streetheart, I can’t resist; besides, when you crank their tunes up loud enough, wistful nostalgia is punted aside in favor of the urge to flat-out rock!

Morning Twist

He was in our studio a few weeks ago, eloquently promoting McHappy Day! I’ve met the diving sensation before and, as usual, Alexandre was a pleasure to interview. He just happened to be at our studio on, as Camille pointed out, “No Socks Day” and he happily lifted his leg to show he was celebrating appropriately!

Having already heard rumors, I peppered him on-air with questions, prompts and provocations in the hopes Despatie might spill the beans on our show, but to no avail! The beans were spilled today, as we learned one of Canada’s greatest athletes is changing platforms.

Quebec’s anglophone community certainly wins, with two Montreal-based English language morning shows. Communities are being connected and that’s wonderful news! Quebec’s anglophone community is being connected with francophones and francophones are being connected with anglophones and, of course, anglos are being connected to each other.

All of it promotes communication, understanding and unity; we hope, essential ingredients in Quebec's quest  to keep moving forward.