Two days ago I spotted a tweet about a piece of music. That particular tweet came from a fan of mine. One that runs a few online radio station types like Blip.fm. She goes under the moniker Jalapno. I’m thinking that’s supposed to represent Jalapeno the spicy pepper. The tweet I’m talking about mentioned a song I recorded last year with my buddy Robert Navarro. It’s about how Morning Rays brighten your days. Two fold there, with the sun coming up meaning the world is still here and if you have a special someone who puts a ray of sunshine in your day.
The song was written by me, but it was done for a library. Therefore I don’t own the rights to it for selling and licensing purposes. Though the more it gets around, eventually the better it is for me and for Robert.
As it stands, look no further than here to hear the song:
Since you’re here reading this post, I’m requesting that you share the post as well as share the video too. Heck, while you’re at it – head to the video page and share some of my other videos. Even better, I’d ask you to purchase my tunes, make a video like this, contact me for a license (it’s important to get as YouTube and other places will likely pull it if you don’t get a license from me) then share ’em on youtube, vimeo, or your favorite video site. I’d like to see where the music goes.
Have yourself a fantastic week and may Morning Rays brighten your days.
It appears that a recent request for a copy of a song I’ve written has sparked a little interest across the internet. The song in question makes an appearance in the movie Lucky starring Colin Hanks. Recent traffic to my little corner of the web has shown that there’s a growing interest in this song. Such that people are looking for the words. I’m announcing that I’m posting the Happy When I’m With You lyrics in my lyrics section.
If the interest continues I may very well see what can be done about releasing the song to iTunes and other digital outlets. In the meantime if you’re landing here due to wanting to find a copy of the song and/or lyrics then you’re welcome to purchase the song directly from me. You’ll even get a better version than what could be bought via iTunes or Amazon.
There is one catch…
In order to read the lyrics you’ll have to login to the website. Easy enough to do with your favorite social ID. No extra site info to fill out. Just pick your favorite one and away you go. You’ll get the words directly from me. What can be better?
Thanks for stopping in. Take a look around and explore my sound a little further.
My first trip to GDC has come to an end. What a trip it’s been. Having never been to GDC before, I really didn’t know what to expect. I would consider myself a veteran of conventions that gear strictly around music. GDC breaks that mold. Here are some of my thoughts via my GDC It’s A Wrap feelings.
First is that the Moscone Convention Center is a little unconventional. That’s an oxymoron right? Unconventional convention… Hmmm. Why do I say that? My usual convention examples are things like NAMM. Where you’re almost entirely in one building. One enormous building. In terms of actual floor space, I believe NAMM is very well larger. In terms of sprawl, I have think that GDC is larger.
Second, I may be wrong about this, I felt there were a lot more people at GDC. Despite that, the crowds were easier to move around in. That was kinda weird.
Third, there is a totally different sense of community. Maybe it’s been a state secret, but there’s a whole different mentality with the music community that gathers in the video game market. In film, it’s very cutthroat. In TV, it’s very cutthroat. In the world of the Major labels it’s very much a mentality of, we’ll take everything we can from the creator and then chew ’em up, spit ’em out and leave out in the desert to die. In video games there’s a huge sense of camaraderie. I think that has to do with the market being newer, easier to move in the new digital era and the fact that it takes a large number of people to produce the product over a course of time. I like that vibe.
Fourth, the businesses involved are very open to new people approaching them. This is very different from my list of people in remark three. There’s a very interesting thing at GDC, they’re very open to people coming up and putting it out there they want to work with you. Here’s something to think about. They had people at each business dedicated to talking to those who are in school and wanting to work with that business. They also had people dedicated to talking to professionals looking to branch out. The school lines were usually long. The pro lines were generally very short. Made it really easy for me to walk right up and talk to a lot of people.
Like any convention, there’s always a few nut cases. GDC is no exception. See below:
God Hates Game Designers
I’m happy I went. I met a great deal of new people. Thus I have a lot of new possibilities planted for music. That is a wonderful thing. Plus it doesn’t suck that quite a few people were asking about my music as an artist and not just a composer. Bonus!
I look forward to going next year. I’m hooked.
p.s. here’s a shot of me sitting in a game consul that costs $15,000. Was it cool? Yeah, it was damn fucking cool for a video game. Very realistic race car driving game. The only thing missing from it is the G forces you’d feel.
Awesome Race Game
p.p.s. here’s another shot of me sitting on a throne for the game Game of Thrones.
King Jody for Game of Thrones
From San Francisco, say see ya GDC it’s a wrap.
I got an email recently. One from someone who had seen a movie that was released mid year last year. The movie in question actually has me scratching my head about one of the supposed stars in the film. As it turns out, a song that I had a hand in writing and performing called “Happy When I’m With You” was in this movie. In a way, I could say it’s lucky music in a movie.
The flick is called Lucky. It’s main star is Colin Hanks. Son of Tom Hanks. Other stars include Jeffery Tambor, Mimi Rogers, Ari Graynor, and Ann-Margaret. If I were prone to playing the Sesame Street game of which one of these is not like the other, it would be Mimi Rogers. Why? Well, quite frankly due to the fact that she is credited with a starring roll and I couldn’t find her in a single moving image in the movie. That’s pretty Lucky if you ask me.
Music can often make or break a film. While I would like to think the song I co-wrote in the film made the movie, it did fit very well and didn’t break it. How it got in was a little strange and how it got credited was a bit of a mistake. See, I did write the song with Johnny Elkins. I did perform all the instruments (except for the drums, they were done by my buddy Donny Gruendler). I did sing the song. Where it names the artist performing it should have said: The Pieces. Somehow it got credited to me – Jody Whitesides. Additionally, it got credited with the wrong title too.
I’m not trying to hide from something I created. It was an agreement Johnny and I had that it would go out as a band name rather than a solo artist. Despite that, somewhere along the line, there was miscommunication on the credits part and I got named. Not the end of the world. Oh well.
Getting back to the original first line here. Someone wrote me an interesting email. In it, he had stated how he tried to find the song on iTunes, Amazon, and other digital sites and could not find it. Then he went on to explain how he tried to find it on YouTube, other places and then pirate sites. All to no avail. He likened it to a search of Bigfoot and Nessie. This made me chuckle and I was flattered. Flattered that someone would go to such lengths to find a song from a movie.
Needless to say the song was not released on a soundtrack. Johnny and I never thought of releasing the song. It’s a catalog type of track, that wasn’t really intended for sale. However, I loved the email so much and I felt this fan really wanted the song. So we made an agreement. He sent a $1 and I got him a copy of the song for his very own.
I’m going to guess that you’re reading this post right now having searched for Happy When I’m With You as co-written and performed by Jody Whitesides. Which means you’ve seen the movie and now wondering where you can obtain a copy of that song. Which to me is lucky music in a movie. You can contact me and I’ll work it out with you on how to get the song. I also appreciate that you want to purchase it and not pirate it. That means the world to me.
Monday will mark my first journey to an event known as the Game Developers Conference. As a musician making his way in the world, I’ve had an agent for video game work for a little over a year. That has led me to work on several games so far. A wonderful experience. The best way to expand on that network for spreading the music is to go where the business is. Which means I’m going to gdc sf (GDC SF) for the 2012 experience. I can’t wait to find out what I’ll learn and who I’ll meet.
Already a contact from my NAMM journey earlier this year, I’ve been granted a pass to attend the San Francisco event. Gotta love that. I can sense that it will be a fantastic relationship with a new company. That makes it more exciting already. Knowing that someone is going to be there that I can be introduced to others via. The bigger bonus is one of my reps from SESAC will be there for a few days. Then my agent will be there too. Lots of people to meet. Lots of new relationships to make.
Two days ago, I was put in touch with another composer out of Salt Lake City, or rather south of there. He’s also working on heading there. Because of that contact, with him (Brady Ellis), I’ve already been hired to work on one of his projects as a guitar player. Good things are afoot even before the event happens. I’ll be playing guitar on nine tracks for Brady.
I have other music projects I’m putting some finishing touches on. I’ll have to announce them in some different posts as it’s probably not wise to cross my new wires too much in single posts.
The last bonus is that I’ll get to hang with my sister a little bit during the week. She lives not far from San Francisco. Additionally I’m going to reach out to another recent NAMM contact who works for Sound On Sound.
It’ll be a fun filled week of games, games, games, and more games. Plus, and I’ve witnessed this as well, I’ve heard that game developers party hard. There’s no doubt some late nights are ahead. More to come in a little over a week when I get back.
In the meantime. Spend some time listening to my music <- click there. If you’re going to gdc sf (GDC SF), contact me and lets meet up.