MICK HAYES: MY CLAIM TO FAME (Recording)
Donation protected
In May of last year, I booked one day of studio time at legendary FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals AL. The very same studio that produced such hit songs like: I’m Your Puppet, Land of 1000 Dances, Mustang Sally, I’d Rather Go Blind, You Better Move On, Patches and Neighbor-Neighbor which is a Jimmy Hughes song that I have been singing and playing live for nearly all of my professional career! At that time, it was my intention to only record and press a 45 record. With the growing interest in vinyl collecting, it would give me something different to offer at my live shows other than CD’s and T-Shirts.
I started this GoFundMe on May 25th and was immediately ridiculed by a number of my peers for crowd funding, but nonetheless along with some of my own money I set off alone on this nearly 1,000-mile journey that would lead me to the historic studio filled with complete strangers whom I would make music with. Not only were these excellent players and singers people that I have been listening to my whole life, but they were about to put their own unique fingerprint on 2 of my songs. At the end of the recording session I left there with a rough-mix of the songs on a CD and I drove around for almost an hour listening to them over and over again as if the 12 hours spent recording them hadn’t happened! I was so proud and so excited that I could barely sleep that night before the 14-hour ride home the next day. My mind was ablaze with the possibilities of making this an EP album, I was pulling over in rest stops penning lyrics on receipts and whatever pieces of scrap paper I could find in my glovebox, taking inspiration from the road and found myself being reunited with the kid that who grew up on vinyl whose dreams were dashed over the last twenty years of “trying to make it” in the music industry. I was writing songs with titles like Hand Me Down 45’s, The Saddest Picture of Me and Political Funk and I was ready to work when I made it home at almost midnight that evening.
Over the next few days I did all I could to create awareness that this was the direction I was going in for the next twenty years my life. I struggled through the rest of the 90 shows I had booked from May 1st-Oct 1st and along with the help of everyone on board, we raised enough funds to return back to FAME in late October and record three more songs bringing the total up to 5. That’s when luck-struck! While I was in town there performing as a guest on a Tuesday night, a very kind and influential individual offered to gift me an additional day of recording while I was there. Awestruck, I accepted but knew this meant I still had to pay for the musicians the studio engineer and of course extending my stay at the inn. Once again, everyone got behind me in the moment. Folks were giving online all day long and a day later I was listening to my dreams coming back at me through the speakers in the control room while we recorded another two songs bringing the total to 7 now!
I returned home again and in my possession, was the best sounding, the best performed album that I had ever created. Historically speaking, albums like Steely Dan: Aja, Meatloaf: Bat Out of Hell and The Allman Brothers: At Fillmore East were quite successful with only 7 songs. So, I reached out to Cian Riordan an LA based mix engineer who’s work I was very familiar with and he suggested we talk to Brian Lucey who’s a giant among men in the mastering community. They both embraced my colorful vison for the album and each brought their own fingerprint to the sound of the album. 7 months later I listened back to the music (that only took 3 days to create) for the first time with such great pride, gleaming eyes and a clenched fist…we did it, in spite of the negative comments and difficulties we made this album! It’s so stereo, it's so fat…that it sounds like an analog record!
Everyone and I do mean everyone agreed that it was too good to just release independently and if that meant delaying the release and trying to get a record deal for the first time in 10 years, that’s what was going to have to happen! After traveling between New York, Nashville, Muscle Shoals and Los Angeles I happy to say that the record executives that have listened to the album say it’s terrific and that I should be very proud of what I have for you all to hear. One person went so far as to say that it’s a wonderful evocation of the sound that he loves, but so far everyone has passed on signing me as their artist for a few different reasons. The biggest one is that my social media numbers and statistics are too low and they all agree that the album should be full-length for me to have a better chance meaning 10 songs.
DEEP BREATH……
I’m here again, asking for your help. I’ve already secured FAME studio on May 24th and 25th with the same band that I have used on all the previous tracks. One way or another, I will get this made! If there is any sense of urgency, it’s because we started this ironically a year to the day! I’m holding a lot of debt and it’s creating quite the strain on me personally/relationally. Between now and then I’m selling some of my musical equipment, some of my guitars and personal items I can live without. That’s how much I believe in this!
If you are willing and able to give toward the completion of this now full-length album, I’m offering it to you digitally for free in return when it’s finished.
MORE ABOUT FAME
DOCUMENTARY TRAILER
I started this GoFundMe on May 25th and was immediately ridiculed by a number of my peers for crowd funding, but nonetheless along with some of my own money I set off alone on this nearly 1,000-mile journey that would lead me to the historic studio filled with complete strangers whom I would make music with. Not only were these excellent players and singers people that I have been listening to my whole life, but they were about to put their own unique fingerprint on 2 of my songs. At the end of the recording session I left there with a rough-mix of the songs on a CD and I drove around for almost an hour listening to them over and over again as if the 12 hours spent recording them hadn’t happened! I was so proud and so excited that I could barely sleep that night before the 14-hour ride home the next day. My mind was ablaze with the possibilities of making this an EP album, I was pulling over in rest stops penning lyrics on receipts and whatever pieces of scrap paper I could find in my glovebox, taking inspiration from the road and found myself being reunited with the kid that who grew up on vinyl whose dreams were dashed over the last twenty years of “trying to make it” in the music industry. I was writing songs with titles like Hand Me Down 45’s, The Saddest Picture of Me and Political Funk and I was ready to work when I made it home at almost midnight that evening.
Over the next few days I did all I could to create awareness that this was the direction I was going in for the next twenty years my life. I struggled through the rest of the 90 shows I had booked from May 1st-Oct 1st and along with the help of everyone on board, we raised enough funds to return back to FAME in late October and record three more songs bringing the total up to 5. That’s when luck-struck! While I was in town there performing as a guest on a Tuesday night, a very kind and influential individual offered to gift me an additional day of recording while I was there. Awestruck, I accepted but knew this meant I still had to pay for the musicians the studio engineer and of course extending my stay at the inn. Once again, everyone got behind me in the moment. Folks were giving online all day long and a day later I was listening to my dreams coming back at me through the speakers in the control room while we recorded another two songs bringing the total to 7 now!
I returned home again and in my possession, was the best sounding, the best performed album that I had ever created. Historically speaking, albums like Steely Dan: Aja, Meatloaf: Bat Out of Hell and The Allman Brothers: At Fillmore East were quite successful with only 7 songs. So, I reached out to Cian Riordan an LA based mix engineer who’s work I was very familiar with and he suggested we talk to Brian Lucey who’s a giant among men in the mastering community. They both embraced my colorful vison for the album and each brought their own fingerprint to the sound of the album. 7 months later I listened back to the music (that only took 3 days to create) for the first time with such great pride, gleaming eyes and a clenched fist…we did it, in spite of the negative comments and difficulties we made this album! It’s so stereo, it's so fat…that it sounds like an analog record!
Everyone and I do mean everyone agreed that it was too good to just release independently and if that meant delaying the release and trying to get a record deal for the first time in 10 years, that’s what was going to have to happen! After traveling between New York, Nashville, Muscle Shoals and Los Angeles I happy to say that the record executives that have listened to the album say it’s terrific and that I should be very proud of what I have for you all to hear. One person went so far as to say that it’s a wonderful evocation of the sound that he loves, but so far everyone has passed on signing me as their artist for a few different reasons. The biggest one is that my social media numbers and statistics are too low and they all agree that the album should be full-length for me to have a better chance meaning 10 songs.
DEEP BREATH……
I’m here again, asking for your help. I’ve already secured FAME studio on May 24th and 25th with the same band that I have used on all the previous tracks. One way or another, I will get this made! If there is any sense of urgency, it’s because we started this ironically a year to the day! I’m holding a lot of debt and it’s creating quite the strain on me personally/relationally. Between now and then I’m selling some of my musical equipment, some of my guitars and personal items I can live without. That’s how much I believe in this!
If you are willing and able to give toward the completion of this now full-length album, I’m offering it to you digitally for free in return when it’s finished.
MORE ABOUT FAME
DOCUMENTARY TRAILER
Organizer
Mick Hayes
Organizer
Lancaster, NY
