Ten Years Ago on a Blog Like This

Posted on September 6, 2021 by chrismooremusic

Ten years ago, I released a solo album titled The 2010 Project. Had I known the recording process would last a year from the first track recorded to the final mix, I would have settled on a different title.

That said, I also would have denied myself the confusion-inducing joy of referring to it as “2011’s The 2010 Project.”

The 2010 Project (2011)

So, why the simple — bordering on uninspired — title? From my final blog post: “It was my ‘2010 project’ to come to terms with my life (i.e., accepting myself for who I am, being comfortable with asserting myself, etc.). Essentially, my project was to heal and… to enjoy life again.”

Unfreezing the Frame (2012)

I pressed “publish” on that final post, launched a website (the HMRM Store at HearMooreReadMoore.com) that could host the songs and make them available for purchase, and walked away from the blogging component of ChrisMooreMusic.com. Unfortunately, in leaving the blog as the home page, it has seemed that I haven’t been very productive over the past decade.

In fact, the ensuing years have gone something like this: I wrote and recorded an acoustic album the year after The 2010 Project; I began working closely with Mike Fusco in the DryKnuckle BedHeads (playing live music in his studio, writing new songs, and recording a pair of original Christmas songs); I decided to discontinue the increasingly costly HMRM Store, effectively wiping my music off the internet; to rise above the stress of the pandemic, Mike and I traded acoustic performances of a combined 167 songs from our personal catalogs; I wrote a new album’s worth of songs grappling with themes of death, grief, and empowerment; and after 12 years, I reunited with my longtime songwriting partner and former bandmate Jim Fusco to contribute lyrics to his excellent, timely new album Reconnecting (click here).

DKBH – Live at Shed Zeppelin!

My next album will be released next year, but in addition to that new music, I’ve had the urge to blog again, to fill in this timeline more thoroughly. If you’ve read this far, you might be interested to learn some of the songs I have written and projects I have participated in over the past decade.

My World Now (2021)

I hope you will check back in soon, and especially in time for the 2022 release of My World Now!

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That’s, like, sooo last year… The 2010 Project arrives!

Posted on July 19, 2011 by chrismooremusic

By Chris Moore:

Okay, so I’m going to keep this post short and sweet, and I’m doing this mainly because I’m almost forty-four hours into a zombie-like state of affairs.  The past two days have proved equal parts fascinating and frustrating as I’ve navigated the web, exploring all manner of ways to make The 2010 Project available easily and reliably to anyone who might desire to listen.

Suffice it to say that, in the end, I’ve opened up a new website which will be solely dedicated to making the works I’ve discussed on this site available to listen to, read, sample, buy, or otherwise experience.  This new site is the “Hear Moore Read Moore Store” — HMRM for short– (if memory serves, which it often doesn’t, I’m indebted to Nicole for the name), and it has four dimensions: music, books, music reviews, and book reviews.  I’ll have much more to come about this new site, as well as the very exciting, very recent founding of the label that released my new album: EmEff Records.  There’ll be much more to learn in the coming months, so stay tuned for that!

So, in the name of brevity, here’s the deal.  I haven’t released an all-new, studio-production album since 2006.  Today, Tuesday, July 19, 2011, marks the fifth and a halfth (sp?) anniversary of the release of Love Out of Fashion, that aforementioned previous album.

Today marks the release date of my seventh full-length album.  I haven’t released one since the formation, duration, and/or demise of mOu, and in some ways, The 2010 Project is acutely concerned with friendship, as well as romantic relationships, and what to do after a harsh split.

It was my “2010 project” to come to terms with my life (i.e. accepting myself for who I am, being comfortable with asserting myself, etc.).  Essentially, my project was to heal and — after years on a social roller coaster, as well as working tirelessly to prove myself as a newcomer in my profession — my project was to enjoy life again.

I hope you’ll listen.  I hope you’ll appreciate the passion that drove these recordings.  I hope you’ll relate.

Finishing The 2010 Project was the catalyst for establishing ChrisMooreMusic.com, so this is a landmark occasion.  It is a time to look back and appreciate past projects which have concluded.

And to begin thinking about new ones yet to come…

Posted in CMM Announcements, The 2010 Project | 2 Comments

Days twenty-two and twenty-three: the (final) finishing touches!

Posted on July 10, 2011 by chrismooremusic

By Chris Moore:

At long last, exactly eleven months after I first pressed “RECORD” at the opening session on August 10, 2010 (yes, I did start this album in the year it’s named for!), this is my final 2010 Project online journal entry.

Yesterday morning began fairly early as I arranged and recorded the background vocals for “Socrates’ Gulps” while Nicole was out for a walk.  When she came back home, I finished them while she took a shower.  Finally, I had to concede my need for breakfast, and we went out for brunch.

Figuring out a bass part on guitar

Brunch led to a trip to the Book Barn in Niantic, which was followed by grocery shopping.  By the time we arrived home, a leak had begun dripping from the ceiling in our bathroom.  Unfortunately, the woman who lives above us was out for the day and didn’t answer her phone on our first few calls.  We called our parents, the condo association… pretty much everyone short of the governor for advice.

Finally, when the ceiling began to buckle, we knew that this was no minor situation.

In the end, we called the fire department and had the opportunity to meet many nice firemen, a very helpful police officer, and our friendly neighborhood grounds/maintenance man…

…who, when no one could find the leak, came bearing a hacksaw.  (See picture below.)

A leak led to firemen, a policeman, and a maintenance man bearing a hacksaw

Needless to say, by the time our last visitor left for the evening, the recording spirit was pretty much lost.

So, I picked up this morning with the bass, almost got it right (except for a part I’ve always heard in the song and which Mike suggested I convert to a bass line), had some amazing breakfast prepared by my wonderful girlfriend (who I hope is reading this :-)), and finished up the bass on “Socrates’ Gulps.”

So that, as they say, is that.  There’s some more mixing at Mike’s studio, some package design, and a few more loose ends to tie up before…

…the official digital release date for The 2010 Project: Tuesday, July 19th, 2011!

Check back soon for more updates!

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Day twenty-one: finishing touches, part three…

Posted on July 8, 2011 by chrismooremusic

By Chris Moore:

After a handful of very late nights this week, I slept in again until after noon today.  One thing led to another, and I didn’t even begin recording until later in the day.  Even so, I was able to work out the background vocals to “Work Time, Get in Line,” as well as a series of intricate acoustic guitar solos.

The trouble with “Work Time” is that it is a song that deals in criticism: of the corporate mentality, of rigid order, of patterns in our lives that are not “supposed” to be broken.  Thus, the instrumental break is supposed to reflect the chaos of a mind trying to break free from this unnatural order, attempting to be free in some way.

This may sound interesting in theory, but there is a fine line between chaos and controlled chaos.  I did use a metronome for this song — one of the few tracks on the album without drums — but even so there are a couple moments where the tempo is imperfect.  (The takes that I did that were perfectly in tempo ultimately came across as flat and without feeling.)   Of course, one of those aforementioned moments is in the instrumental break.

In the end, after much playing along to the song, listening to playbacks, and mixing and remixing the song, I’m proud of the result.  I’ve been worried about pulling off this track from the beginning — there’s a reason it’s one of the last songs I came back to complete! — but, after Mike instructing me in how to play congas and the acoustic and background vocal work I did today, I’m happy to report that it will make it to the album as a track I’m very proud of.

By the time I finished this song, it was hot and sweaty in the stale air of the balmy evening, so I simply had no energy to begin the final track I’m working on.

Until tomorrow…

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