Steal This Dance was Written, Performed (Vocals, ALL Instruments), Produced, Orchestrated, Mixed & Mastered by Kenny Schick MORE AT
Video was made by Jessica Fong ADAPTED CREATIONS
Artwork & Backing Vocals by Sabine Heusler-Schick BASEMENT3DESIGN
Blog
Christmas, Holidays and Happier New Year!
To our dear family, friends, artists and clients we were honored to work with this year! We wish for you a lovely holiday season and a better 2021!
We know every single person in the world has been struggling to some degree this year. It’s been tough, it’s been hard, it’s been sad, it’s been frustrating and downright crazy. However, there were good things too: watching and re-watching great tv shows, learning to use zoom, growing a garden, cooking more, nurturing a love of wild birds and discovering tiktok. I’d love to say we did more or learned many new skills and crafts, but the uncertainty of the world put inspiration at bay. Kenny did have time to produce a few of his own songs, and we released videos for them, so that was good.
We are lucky to have always worked from home/studio, so that was not so different for us. As we did not travel this year we really miss our family and our friends in California more than usual. We stayed home, we stayed safe, wore masks and kept our distance from other humans. We still went for walks at Shelby Bottoms park, but could not pat every dog that walked passed us (which was super hard) and we had to psych ourselves up sufficiently to buy essentials from the supermarket.
What gave us joy was still being able to work with wonderfully creative souls who all made fantastic music this year! Surprisingly and thankfully, we were busy.
So onward to a hopefully better year! We wish for you a Happier New Year and hope you enjoy this different kind of holiday season! Make yummy food, nap, go for walks, call and zoom friends and family, watch movies, play and/or listen to music.
Kenny enjoyed making this Christmas Song for ya’ll – (as with all his songs he did everything, production, performance, orchestration, mixing & mastering) hehe, my sister Jessica Fong in Australia made the super cute video (in record time) with the help of my niece Caitlyn and I (Sabine) did the graphics. A very family affair!
WATCH ‘FALALALALALALALALA’ ON YOUTUBE
Sending lots of LOVE to you all, stay safe!
Kenny & Sabine xxx
no one else….can sing your song – c’mon c’mon c’mon
C’mon C’mon C’mon started its life on a different trajectory than it ended up on: originally, I was writing a song for a placement opportunity, and the basic feeling was supposed to be ‘nostalgic’.
I got that part moving along just fine, and as it’s written now, that part would have worked out fine.
There were samples given as an idea for the type of sound and feel they were looking for, and that sound and feel leaned toward a melancholic pop/indie vibe. Usually, that is right up my alley, as well as those familiar music know. But when I’d play the song, which at first was just on acoustic guitar, I kept playing it at a certain speed, and that speed took it out of a melancholic feel. I tried to slow it down and make it more weepy, but nope…this song wouldn’t have it.
So…. I abandoned my initial mission, forgot about the placement, and served this song as it wanted to be served. It just wanted to be kind of a Brit pop type thing—a hair punky, with an upbeat feel. There was a whole other section of lyrics in the bridge, which is just instrumental now—where the widdley-woo guitar solo is. They were cool, but it was murky and just wasn’t working, so I went for some guitar fun, which fits the theme of the song, as it ended up being about my musical journey in a way, and it was ripping guitar riffs that pulled me into music in the first place.
The idea of the song is that musical styles, and even fashion styles (which often accompany music styles) always seem to repeat and come back around again… what was in style once will likely come around again—I mean, how many times has punk rock come and gone now?
We saw a time in the 90’s when the old swing sound came back around again (and everyone sounded like an updated Cab Calloway), rock-a- billy had it’s day again in the 80’s and brought with it that 50’s fashion, and here in Nashville on our favorite local radio station, Lightning 100, I hear so many bands that sound like they’ve revisited the 70’s and 80’s again for inspiration.
I’ve had a few questions asked of me regarding the line ‘the drink and then the sound is brown, ’til the strong and clear take down the town…’ — the brown drink is whiskey, the brown sound was what Eddie Van Halen’s sounds was labeled. Both of those fell out of favor at some point, but now we know bourbon is the big thing again after the years when strong, clear liquors became popular and almost destroyed the bourbon industry— and the 80’s saw that more clean sound (drum machines, clean guitars, etc.) swallow the big guitar sound. Then came the whole grunge movement and ‘alternative’ bands like Tool, Dinosaur Jr., and Smashing Pumpkins that brought back the wall of sound again.
And so it goes…round and round… what you like may pass out of favor, but it will come back around.
So sing your song!
WATCH THE VIDEO
HINDSIGHT IS 2020: The Ghost Of Nashville
SPOTIFY | APPLE MUSIC
2020 started with hopeful thoughts for many, but soon, premature hopes would be dashed on the proverbial rocks as 2020 tumbled down the cliff, moving ever more rapidly to becoming the worst year in recent history for the entire planet. WATCH VIDEO AT END!
Nashville suffered one of the earliest big blows of 2020, literally and figuratively, when in the early morning of March 3, a deadly and unpredicted tornado outbreak ravaged Northern and East Nashville, as well as outlying areas.
In East Nashville, where Kenny Schick, and his wife, Sabine Heusler-Schick run Basement 3 Productions, a music production company, many of the businesses that made East Nashville vibrant (including a very popular music venue, The Basement East) were torn to pieces, just a few blocks from the Schick’s ‘compound’.
Immediately following this tragedy, the whole planet went into lock down because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nashville, being a town where music, entertainment, tourism, and restaurants make it the destination it is, and being a town full of musicians who rely on gigs and touring, immediately felt the full impact of the shutdowns. Followed immediately by Black Lives Matter protests and riots, Nashville unraveled quickly as opposing ideologies and contrary opinions about how to ‘carry on’ clashed in grand fashion. Musicians and the music industry that gives Music City it’s identity, an industry who’s employees often struggle to eek out a living even in the best of times, hangs on the verge of extinction in Nashville, and many wonder if the clubs, the artists, the hotels, the restaurants will survive. Even before 2020 reared its ugly head, concerns of rapid growth and rising housing costs had threatened the survival of an already challenged music industry, as well as the charm and history of Nashville.
It is with this whirlwind of thoughts and fears that Kenny Schick penned the song, The Ghost Of Nashville, a tribute to his hometown of just 3 years. Schick and his wife had fled the San Francisco Bay Area as some of the highest costs of living in the country had gutted the once thriving community of artists there. Schick and his wife knew Nashville was growing quickly, but both were surprised to see a place called ‘Music City’ on a trajectory to let economic growth alone potentially devour the very industry that attracts so many to Nashville from around the world. ‘The Ghost Of Nashville’ leaves listeners with lots of questions, but Schick hopes it inspires thoughts and new ideas that will lead to preserving the heart and soul of Music City.
Spitfire Audio | Westworld Scoring Competition | Kenny Schick Producer
Spitfire Audio | Westworld Scoring Competition
Kenny Schick Producer
The task was to create an original musical score for the provided clip, from season 3, episode 5 of Westworld. This project was for Spitfire Audio’s Westworld Scoring Competition and as I’m a huge fan of Spitfire Audio I thought I’d have some fun!