Here’s a quick little story about how I had to do make an audition video in the space of a few hours. I had to learn the song, program the drums, record the keys, shoot the video, edit the video, then upload it before the person requesting it woke up the next morning. Sometimes extreme circumstances call for extreme actions.
When I got wind that Cirque Dreams was hiring musicians for their upcoming Rock show I wanted in on that opportunity. I wasn’t going to let it slip away by diddle daddling around. No sir, I make a move on things.
I had been talking to the music director via email about the show. These emails went back and forth for a while but no concrete offers came my way. Then one day I got an email asking, “can you record yourself playing this song and send it to me?”
The answer was “yes” before I even heard the song.
The song was Joe Tex’s “I Gotcha.” It’s a very easy song to play. It’s basically the main riff and then the chorus riff. That’s it. But the bass drives the song and you have to play it consistently right the whole way through. Also, the bass line signals to the singer when to come in.
The problem with this was that I didn’t want to slap on the Joe Tex song and play over it. How can the music director tell if I’m playing well or if it’s the CD track playing well? I wanted no doubt that it was me playing the bass. I also wanted to take the opportunity to showcase that I can a) program drums, b) play keyboards and sequence them, c) play the bass lines that she wanted, and d) have the material she requested the next morning and waiting in her email box when she got in to work.
That’s the work ethic I want to display. You ask for something – you get it in record time.
I didn’t know if she was looking at anyone else on bass or what. But if she was looking at someone else on bass I was going to make sure that my video got in before theirs did. It was going to be first, it was going to be the best, and it was going to solidify me in her mind that I was the guy to choose.
Who else would take the time to program the song from the ground up on a drum machine, perform the horn section on keyboards, play the bass, record it all and have it ready the next day? No one, that’s who. No one but me.
Look, I don’t mean to toot my own horn here, but beep beep.
So when I got that email asking me to learn “I Gotcha” and to record it and send it to her I jumped on.
I got home, got a cup of coffee, and I fucking got to work. I programmed the song in no time. I can program drums pretty damn well at this point. Then I had to figure out the horn section part. That was a little trickier cause it was in a style I was unfamiliar with. But once I got all that stuff down it was all a matter of getting the bass down. Drums, check; keys, check; bass….check.
In a matter of hours I programmed the drums & keyboard parts and learned how to play the song.
I set up one camera and shot one master shot. That’s it.
That’s all I had time for. I knew I still had to import the video, slap on my information, and render it.
For some reason, the video editing software I was using at the time would take FOREVER to render. I knew that I had to wait several hours for the whole video to render and I wanted to be able to upload the file while I slept.
Well, that’s what I did. I managed my time well, rendered the video, and then uploaded the video as unlisted on YouTube – so only she can I can view it (she didn’t want the public to know what the set list was). I then emailed her the link to the video so she wouldn’t have to download it from her email.
It worked out well.
I had to do this again when she asked me if I could sing BTO’s “Let It Ride.”
Being able to turn in a great performance in a short amount of time is very impressive to people. I think it’s one of the things that got me the job working with Cirque Dreams. I did the 2012 U.S. tour with them and they asked me back for the 2013 tour in Mexico as well.
Here’s the video I shot that night. This is the first time I’ve shown this video to the public.
It’s a simple song and not flashy in any way. I kept it simple and played exactly what the original recording had. I kept the drums the same and pretty much kept the keys the same. I didn’t use it as an opportunity to show off my skill on the instrument but my skill to turn in a piece of work that was complete, sounded like the original recording, and turned in quickly. It was what she asked for, in an original way, and waiting for her the next morning.
So, just keep in mind that sometimes extreme circumstances call for extreme actions. You can sleep later. Get your stuff done and get it done quick. While you’re sleeping someone else has their foot on the gas peddle and is ready to pass you up.
