“Ten songs, or 35 minutes of original music, created during the month of February. The RPM Challenge.”
RPM Challenge is a month long event that takes place in February each year to challenge musicians in recording an album’s worth of all original music.
This year I’ve decided to accept the challenge. For the last 6 months I’ve been working on an historic family history project that consists of “Imagined DNA Portraits” painted to represent each Dorsey male that I descend from for the last 200 years. As a long time student of genealogy, my idea was to include a musical soundtrack for each man’s portrait, to tell more of his story, based on an immense amount of documented information that I have researched and collected for over 20 years. When I caught wind of the RPM Challenge, I wanted to do it, so I signed up.
I’ve written 8 individual soundtracks, one for each of my ancestors (and myself) who’s stories are being told through my imagined interpretation of what I know of their lives, their wives, and their experiences. When I picture myself in their shoes, telling my story and theirs to my great-grandchildren, I want the next generation to have a greater understanding of where they come from and who their family is and who they were. I want them to know that this is what it sounds like.
Black and scratchy Hondo II Bass, Rat Pedal and my heavy Ampeg amp.
The inspired lyrics have been heavily researched and filtered through my storytelling filter. This is the audio interface and studio monitors that I use to record with.
My twin iMacs with dueling GarageBand files and my song writing notes.