Seat of the Pants Productions

I just finished two days in the studio creating music for an as-yet unfinished, unedited film for a big church in a big state. Their deadline loomed large, so we did the music before the film was finished. (As a rule, this is NOT the best way to create music for picture.)

It all reminded me very much of my final days in the commercial biz – in a good way, mind you. I worked with three super-talented players (David Huntsinger, Jason Webb and Eric Darken), and we were pretty much making it all up as we went, based on some music sketches I brought to the studio. The clock was literally ticking and we were, as my Dad would have said, “Flying by the seat of our pants.”

We ended up with some very cool stuff. But I feel for the post crew. They will have to sort through some 30 minutes of very good music to choose six minutes and fifteen seconds of it for the film.

The reasons the sessions were fun and not insanely pressurized and stomach-turning (like so many of the commercial sessions I once did) are:

1) Again, great players who are unflappable;

2) An engineer (Doug Sarrett) that is as talented as he is easy to work with;

3) A client that allowed the creative folks do their thing and didn’t micro-manage; and…

4) (This is the Big One) I’ve learned to not worry too much over things that are out of my control, which is just about everything.

I wish I had that last bit of wisdom when I was 25 and writing jingles for Taco Bueno.