The Life That's Chosen Me

Daily I receive comments about the song that Karen Taylor-Good and Lisa Aschmann wrote for the last album we did called "The Life That's Chosen Me". Sometimes they're very hard to read but ultimately it's a great testament to the wonderful work that was put into this song and album.

Hearing of the various "challenges" out there that caregivers are going through makes me realize that it was all a great adventure!

Randy

HwH Records



Update on Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 12:58AM by Randy Grossman

The emPOWER music and arts yearly awards, posipalooza concert and pajama jams are held in Kansas City up till August 2008 now they'll be in Orlando and perhaps other places in the future (January 2010) but I was in Kansas city enjoying the music and company with my partner Jodi and I had been talking with Jodi about creating a song that revolves around support to caregivers globally through music.

A few months earlier I had sent a note to my good friend Karen Taylor-Good whom I had the utmost admiration for as a musical celebrity in her own right. She had via email offered her assistance and had mentioned that across the street from her home no more than 50 feet was a family that had a child afflicted with autism and she had only met them once.

Well that was all it took to talk to her in Kansas City. Jodi, Karen and I went to get "kansas city bbq" that lunch and sat talking over this bad lunch.. who would have thought. Karen was curious about my life and the children and how we do things. She had good questions but it was Jodi's mention that we had periods of time where we didn't leave. No vacation, no nothing for years and years between my wife and I.

That started the process, when she got back to unity main campus she went to her hotel room and tried to sleep but couldn't and out came the very first verse and chorus. More to come on this fantastic story!

Randy Grossman

HwH Records



Update on Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 1:02AM by Randy Grossman

After having a blast seeing a lot of my friends perform at the Posipalooza in Kansas City I was departing the event to go back to our hotel room/PJ jam party room when Karen Taylor-Good came flying up to me saying "I have it, I have it". She explained that she had been up the night before and the lyrics came to her and she wanted to show me what she had. She and I met inside our HwH Pajama Jam room while the music was flowing and couldn't find a place to go that would allow her to show us in piece and quiet.

Thus the bathroom in the room was chosen... with me sitting on the toilet and karen sitting inside the bathtub she read to me the first verse and chorus from her laptop. Quiet an honor when you have Faith Rivera jumping into the bathroom to use it and realizing we were already in there! I was teared up over what Karen wrote, talk about a sublime experience.

She and I talked for a bit and too which we both went back to our lives, about three weeks later I had an email from karen saying that she had it and that Lisa Aschmann had helped to create the hook and other parts of the song to support it. I was excited to find out what they had and the demo showed up magically in my email. She called it simply "song for Randy and Cheryl".

Cheryl my Wife and I listened intently and both connected with the song instantly. Karen singing the rough on Lisa Aschmann's out of tune piano getting the basic track mapped out a bit. WOW! I followed up right away with Karen, thanking her and commenting that I heard a certain sound in it. I kept hearing this old Journey song "Faithfully". YouTube - Journey - Faithfully

The chord progression at times were close, the tone of it sounded similar to which Karen was surprised but agreed it had that tone. I asked if I could be in the studio through the recording of this just too see the process through. Karen was nice enough to agree and thus flight was booked for Nashville. I arrived to Nashville where she picked me up at the airport in a curious mode. She wanted to learn more about me as I did of her, already stoked on getting to see one of the greats in the studio doing what she does so well I was honored that she was curious about my life.

The process of recording is wonderful, Jason Garner's small home studio in his garage was a cozy little place with a simple recording booth, his background is wonderful in this field.. a true talent. Upon arriving he had already at Karen's guidance mapped out the basic tracking of the piano, drums, etc.. it was already coming together quickly. We were ready to record...

Randy Grossman

HwH



Update on Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 1:04AM by Randy Grossman

The recording process with Karen and Jason was a pleasure, Jason's skill with pro-tools and Karen's experience is wonderful. They had worked well together for quiet a time and it showed. The cozy studio and warmth of Karen's heart for this project was obvious. She really wanted this to go well!

I had a sound in my head that was very persistent for the month prior (it was driving me crazy actually) and was yearning to get it out of there, lol. Being my first time in a studio in about 20 years It was like old times. The equipment had changed a lot but luckily via the miracles of the internet I kept up a bit on equipment and had a pretty good base from when I had my job at Steve's Music Store in Toronto back in the day.

I have always loved production like this and usually it was a room full of reel to reel, large mixing consoles, etc.. that I was around years prior but too see this in a small section of Jason's garage studio was incredible. So simple. You really do have the world at your finger tips when you can play keyboards!

The first vocals were prepped with Karen just seamlessly roughing out the lyrics in her head (she didn't even to my recollection vocally prepare for this... a true master) then a first try at it. No windows to watch her just the speakers to hear.. Jason and I were listening carefully, beautiful first run of it. She talked it out with us on the "talk back" button of which I started to help him engineer it. Like old days.. lol.

We did a second sweep of it, amazing. The first piano intro showed her depth of her vocals better.. smooth. Very little ez tuning going on later in the process. Then another pass at the opening and viola she had it! This time we kept going and the development of the song connected.

Got to the bridge and this was a challenge. I had a very deep approach on this, the lyrics were always perfect in this song but at the point where it states "I need answers, I need help, it's so much work... and a miracle or two sure wouldn't hurt" was dramatic for me. We had a little bit of a tough time connecting the lyrics with the arrangement at the point where it "streisand's" the lyric ... it's the LIFE that's chosen me and we kept passing through this and I remember asking for it too be really built up because she had no idea that the guitar was really going to be the lead on this and I needed her to take the lead over it. At this point I opened up the studio door and offered her a picture of my two boys, both afflicted with Autism in different ways but needed her to sing it while looking at them. It worked.. goosebumps!!

That belt out of "it's not the life that I've chosen,... it's the life that's chosen me" was the hook, the title of the album and ultimately the banner statement that would connect the song to completion. We continued to tweak the vocals but we pretty much had it and off to meet with Chris Graffagnino a well known guitarist/session musician who had a larger studio and plenty of space to spread out.

Note: Karen was kind enough to stay through out the sessions, as that she was excited to be in the studio to watch the process but for someone who has been doing this for quiet a while it was nerve racking for me as that I knew that the critical part for me was always matching the guitar's strength with her sweet lyrics and melody.

Chris's guitar collection made me envious, his pedals, etc.. were huge and vintage ruled in this studio. He listened to the tracks a few times without any prior listening to get the feel and then setup the layers and layers of guitars (8 I think in total?) I got to pick the sound through his experience and developed it.. loving every moment of this I took advantage to shoot the breeze over the sound. He seemed to really get into the sound I was looking for and I talked his ear off with nervous excitement of guiding this process!

I was in heaven, for about 4 to 5 hours we just recorded, lead lines, rhythm, 12 string electric.. went on and on! We got to points where it was finally out of my head, this sound. This was the second day and back to Jason's studio we went to complete the basics. Back at the studio Jason burned rubber to merge the comp'd vocals and guitar lines. It was coming closer to completion, Karen did a run of it uninterrupted and had a few changes to some delay and reverb elements. I had a few adjustments.. phew!

The next phase helped to establish a companies direction...

Randy Grossman

CEO HwH Records

www.hwhrecords.com



Update on Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 1:13AM by Randy Grossman

The song was almost complete and by this point I was learning so much from my new mentor Karen that it was apparent that she really got me. I also learned something about myself as that all through this process I was guiding the track. Karen and Jason I guess had been talking and came to the conclusion that I was somehow producing the track. Not truly clear on what that meant they explained it in the studio and humbly I was feeling complete in an odd way.

I had been staying at Karen's home and was so grateful for the time, upon arriving they're the first night after studio time a cassette tape (didn't know they were around anymore.. lol) was on my pillow in the guest room. All it stated was "Roger" Lisa Aschmann 85'. This tape would take me to places I didn't dream of. Lisa Aschmann is the co-writer of "The Life That's Chosen Me" and is a mother of which one of her children is autistic. She heard through Karen the situation and wanted me to listen to the track for consideration.

Early that following morning I was rummaging around Karen's living room looking for a cassette player and while Karen was there played the track for the first time. It was Lisa singing it accompanied by a single acoustic guitar. I could immediately hear my oldest son Kyle in the lyrics.. I could even place the vocalist - my friend Gerald White from LA. One of the finest singers in the world belting it out.. and out of that came this magnificent story about my Kyle. The story of this song will come later as that finishing Karen and Lisa's first song for me was in order.

Back to Orlando I went with this new track in my mind, I thought it was wonderful but realized it needed something extra. We used programmed drums and I have always preferred live instrumentation more! I headed to Phoenix shortly there after in December 08' to meet up with my partner Jodi Floyd of which we had been invited by a good friend/music manager Tom Garrett. Tom had listened to the track and was very interested in me meeting his business partner Gardner Cole.

I knew of Gardner's career but didn't know everything, I guess the first thing after googling his name was picking my mouth up off the floor. I had been lucky enough to see him perform with A-Ha all those years ago in the 80's and had remembered a guy with white gloves on keyboards bopping around. I was excited to meet him at this private party for a local band called Hollywood Heartthrobs and with that brought Jodi with me. He had been relayed the track we had worked on in Nashville with Karen and was eager to meet us too apparently.

Gardner's career goes back into the 70's and yet at a very young age he was able to successfully do music as a full time gig. Upon meeting him at the party I was impressed at how humble he was. I had expected someone with a career that big to be ego driven. My first impression was "is this the guy I had seen all those years ago?" and after meeting we were inseparable for hours. Jodi, Gardner and I stayed fixed in our spots talking, connecting and he loved what he heard of Karen's and Lisa's song.. he thought it was brilliantly written. Some subtle suggestions were offered (synth ramp up's, live drums, live bass) and with that we started talking regularly via phone and then email.

It became a relationship that I have cherished from day one, his support like Karen's and so many others has been exemplary of why I love working with them and just shooting the breeze. The Life That's Chosen Me song title comes from a phrase that Lisa Aschmann added to the song and became the theme for the whole album content.

Gardner added some synth parts, Mike Fix on drums and the mighty Freebo on bass guitar! The song was tweaked and final outcome is what you hear. I love that it blends many talents and styles but the lyrics just fly and accompanied by the fabulously rich vocals of Karen it has a unique connectivity that many caregivers find comfort in. After all it's not often that an amazing grammy nominated artist takes the time to listen to a story from a caregiver.