IMPORTANT MESSAGE - Please Read

Greetings friends, family, acquaintances and/or fans...

It’s James Gillice here. As you may or may not know, in my spare time I am an independent singer-songwriter. I completely write and produce all of my music by myself. You may even be aware of the fact that I’ve been working on completing my third album for quite a few years now. Well it’s finally done! It is called Here Nor There and it is available to download right now! As you might imagine, I am pretty excited about this. This represents countless hours of work over many years. And now that it’s finished I only want one thing...for as many people as possible to hear and own it.

But here’s the problem...it turns out that it is no easy trick in this day and age to get people to even listen to your music, let alone consider parting with their hard earned cash to purchase it. So here’s the deal...I want EVERYONE to own this album. EVERYONE! If you are reading this, I want this album sitting on YOUR CD shelf or taking up YOUR hard drive space, playing on YOUR iPod, being listened to BY YOU, in whatever way and at whatever time is most convenient to you. That is my greatest desire.

I understand that it ridiculous to expect people to pay “full price” for music that they may be only marginally interested in. I certainly don’t do that myself. No one in their right mind would. And so I don’t expect you to either. I know that If I tried to charge (any amount really) for my music, 95% of you will just not be interested, and the music will remain unheard and un-enjoyed. That is just the reality. That is absolutely NOT what I want. Remember, I want EVERYONE to hear and own this album!

Here’s where I need your help. As of today I’m making Here Nor There available as a “pay what you want” download. What I need from you is simply for you to GO AND DOWNLOAD IT! That’s it. That’s all I ask. You will be able to pay whatever amount you feel it is worth to you. For many of you that amount might be zero. That’s OK!!! It is completely legitimate and I have no problem with that. Remember, I WANT you to have this more than anything! I’d rather you have it for free than not have it at all.

But here’s the other part of it...IF this music IS worth something to you, and you have the financial means to do so, PLEASE pay whatever you feel is a fair amount. No amount is too small or too large. Think of it more as giving a tip than making a purchase.

Also, if it just so happens that you DO enjoy this music, there are many other ways you can “pay” for it that have nothing to do with money. Recommend it to a friend...post about it in your blog...post a link on Facebook or MySpace...write a review on iTunes or Amazon...leave a comment at any of those places...there are dozens of things you could do to help without ever paying a dime. The more people that hear about the music the better. But again, the only thing I am truly expecting and asking of you is to PLEASE at least download this album for yourself. That is the minimum “requirement”. Pay if you want, but PLEASE download either way. Please don’t let money be the reason that you don’t own this.

Thank you for your time. Happy listening.
James

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

Album Release Information

Here it is folks. An official album release announcement!

Here Nor There, the third album by James Gillice, will be digitally released on Friday, November 26th. It will be available for download starting at midnight on Friday morning. This will be a "pay what you want" release. More details to follow.

Make the music of James Gillice a special part of your Holiday Season.

Go HERE to preview tracks now and to download on the 26th.

Something to Be Thankful For...

I worked on about 5 songs last night. I can tell I'm getting close to finishing because the work goes very quickly these days. It's only the smallest of tweaks and changes that need to be made now. It's very, very close...and just in time for the Holiday weekend!

Stay tuned for a big announcement!

...OK...Maybe Not

So in my last post I said there was only one song left that needed work. Upon further review it turns out that many songs needed a little help. I was able to help 3 of them last night, and there are probably at least 3 more that need a bit more work. I would say 2 of those 3 need major work.

Still making progress, just not as much as I'd hoped. I'm not a perfectionist really...I just know I will have to live with these recordings forever so they need to at least sound good.

One Left

I've spent the weekend mastering tracks. All are essentially finished except for the last track "Comfort Me" which still needs some re-mixing and mastering. I've been reluctant to start that process because it is going to be some work. But I did get so a lot done with the rest of the songs. I've even gone back to songs that I thought were "finished" and have found ways to make them sound even better. One of the problems is that I'm still learning to use Logic Express, picking up new tricks along the way. Each time I figure something new out, I have to go back and apply it to every song. So that's basically what I did all weekend.

So now it's on to the final task at hand. I've never been happy with the way "Comfort Me" has sounded, but it was such a pain to mix it to the point it is at now. I'm hoping the time I have spent away from it (mixing it at least) will make it easier to come back to with fresh ears. I've had plenty of time to listen to it and I have a pretty good idea of the major changes it needs. I hope I can easily bring it up to the level it needs to be at. So that's my goal for this week. I'm not sure how much time I'll get this week because Desta has a project that she needs to finish on the computer. We really need a second iMac.

More of the Same

I'm afraid these posts are getting boring (if they weren't already). I really have been working a lot lately, but it's just the same things over and over as covered in my last few posts. More mixing and re-mixing. I will say that it IS going well. A couple of songs are sounding better than they ever have.

I can't wait to finish this process. I'm very close. I can't wait to spend more time playing guitar and writing new songs.

Subtle Changes in the Night

If any of you have been listening to the new songs on my bandcamp site, you may or may not have noticed that there are subtle changes in the mixes and a song might sound slightly different from one day to another. You see, what you are hearing is not actually the finished product just yet. Those are the "good enough to be heard by others" mixes. Not the"good enough to be on the final album" mixes. So most night I spend listening and tweaking and listening and tweaking again. At the end of the night I post the latest version to bandcamp. This is why I have not enabled downloading from that site yet. I don't want anyone to go and download an incomplete version.

Songs that have been getting this re-mix treatment lately are "Take Our Chances", "The Enemy Is Me", and "Drifting Away". The changes would be most noticeable in those songs. The other songs that I still find myself wanting to mess with are "Comfort Me" and "Castles In the Sand". Once everything is "good enough" it will be time to burn the final disc and get this baby into production.

I've also been working on finalizing the design and artwork. This is one of my favorite parts of the process. I recently added all of the lyrics to the fold out booklet. I'm now in the process of writing the album credits and thank you's and such. There is not a single photograph of myself and I think I will keep it that way. I'm quite sure I used too many on the last album so maybe I'm making up for that.