So, in order to get an audition with Cirque, I need to do a few things:
1) Create a Cirque account on their site. Basically just fill in background info on myself. This, somehow is the most horrifying aspect of the whole thing to me, as I've never been good with red tape and I get frustrated with all the paperwork and just stop doing it halfway through. Gonna have to get over that for this 1ne.
2) Make a couple of videos of myself playing. This is not as terrifying, but I have like no infrastructure in place for it, i.e., nowhere to play and nothing to record it with. In the interim, I had to decide on what to play for auditions.
I talked to Biggie Fries, my old drum instructor about it, and he sent me 5ive charts of Cirque's music with 2wo tracks for each, 1ne with drums and 1ne without. That's kind of like the illest audition prep pack ever. So, I figure I'll use one of those for one of my videos and I'll make another of something else.
Selecting a track for this is complex. Firstly, they stated on their site that they prefer instrumentalists who can also sing, so I wanted to pick something that would allow me to do both. But drumset ain't exactly the friendliest instrument for accompanying a vocalist. So, that limits the field significantly. I also wanted to show off my strengths, obviously, and they are independence, an understanding of odd and compound meter, and the ability to play musically, making things groove. They also focus a lot on "percussion." I had done a ton of musicals, and I got used to playing multiple percussion instruments at the same time as the kit. So I wanted a track to do that too. Lastly, I wanted it to be pretty short. I could play "Close To The Edge" by Yes, and that'd show off my skills, but no one's gonna watch the video for twenty minutes.
So, I spent like a week working on listening to music to pick for this. I was watching a video on youtube to listen to a piece of music, visualizing a scene for a movie I want to make (separate story for another time). The dude's name is Gavin Castleton, he's brilliant, was part of my favorite-band-that-no-one-has-ever-heard-of, Gruvis Malt. He also made one of my favorite solo albums a while ago. Anyway, he released a couple videos for his newest album, and one of them contained the music I was using to visualize that scene. It's like 12:45am, and this is what I like to do before I go to sleep - the creative ideas flow really well when I'm tired. Anyway, for my sixth or seventh consecutive listen, I accidentally clicked on the wrong video, a making of for his album art (if interested, you can see it here: http://bit.ly/bpQmpP). The whole things is over the first track, called "Are You Brave," and it's amazingly perfect, it just clicked. I probably listened to that like a dozen times before I decided to just go to sleep.
So, now I have my track. I've pretty much learned to sing and play the whole thing at this point via air drumming (weak, I know, but don't have anywhere to set up the drums). I did get to play on a kit once, but I need to dig up an egg shaker and a tambourine to really do it right. But the clock's running, and I need to get moving on this if I'm gonna get an invite to audition. Thank god all the technique I've learned over the years allows me to get warm quickly. The plan at this point is to set up my drums in a park somewhere. This will allow me to play without blowing out the mic on a camcorder which WILL happen in a practice space. Plus, I don't have anywhere else to go. Along with the shaker and tambourine, I need to set up a mic and amp for the vocals. Playing around with recording settings is going to be a bitch. But these things happen.
So, that's what I'm thinking about. I've gotta be ready to move quickly here, we're getting a little close for comfort. Stay positive.
The Fool
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