STORY
STORY
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ENTER DAVE
In 1985, late-night television host David Letterman set up the first annual David Letterman Telecommunications Scholarship Competition at his alma mater, Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. The competition requires students to submit a film, video, audio or written media project to be judged by a panel of professors and students. The First Place winner receives a full year's tuition, Second Place half, and Third Place one third. The projects are judge solely on their creativity - grades play no part. In fact, the projects are distributed to the judges anonymously.
During the Competition's first five years, the First Place project had always been a video. When I began work on "Tales from Ra'Hash-nir" for the 1990 Competition, it was my hope to produce a project that would end video's reign and prove that audio had its own place in the world of media. I tried to incorporate as many audio-production techniques as I could, including multi-track recording, tape speed and digital processing effects, live vocals, and sound effects. I turned the final product in about 15 minutes before the deadline.
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One month later the awards ceremony was held. After viewing selections from each of the projects, I had in my mind who the winners were. I didn't even consider myself in the running when confronted with the quality of video projects that went ahead of me. But when my choice for Second Place received Third, and my choice for First place received Second, I was pretty clueless as to who they could have selected for First.
You can imagine my reaction when they announced my name as the First Place winner of my college's most prestigious scholarship. It still boggles my mind today.
THE ALBUM
In 1992 I was involved in a "Doctor Who" convention in Indianapolis called WhoosierCon II. As part of the cabaret (a tradition with many DW conventions), I was urged to perform some of my music by my friends on the Staff. I consider myself a composer/recording artist, not a performer, but it was going to be a small audience and "Doctor Who" fans tend to be among the most tolerant and supportive, so I didn't think it would cause any lasting harm to my self-image.
So I got up in front of 200 people and performed three of my songs. I was blown away by the standing ovation. After the show, I was bombarded by friends who didn't know I wrote music or could play and people who wanted to know if I had a tape out. Even more thrilling to me were the positive comments from the convention guests. Craig Charles, best known for his role as Dave Lister on the BBC series "Red Dwarf", cornered me the next day and really praised the performance and asked me to send him a tape if I ever made one. Sophie Aldred, who played the Doctor's companion Ace in "Dr. Who", was also very complimentary to me when I stopped to get her autograph during the post-convention party the next day. It was at this time that I began to think about producing an album.
Over the course of the next year I researched studios in the Indianapolis area, looking for a place to produce my "Tales from Ra'Hash-nir". Also during that time I began to receive investments in the project from friends and fans. It was really amazing to me the support and encouragement that I got from people. I couldn't have even fathomed starting this project without them.
In February of 1993, I took my master tapes of the Letterman project to Gary James Productions, along with my keyboard equipment, and spent the afternoon mixing my album. My friend Rick Lee accompanied me for moral support. The engineer on the project was an incredibly talented English guy named Mick Fincher, who used to mix live concerts for David Essex in the 70's. He had also been a "Doctor Who" fan, so he found the project and how it got started to be very interesting. It was also great to hear from him that he found it refreshing to work on something OTHER than heavy metal and rap recordings for a change.
Finally, after receiving the cover art for the tape from my friend Kari Lempke (who had also done the artwork for the original Letterman Project), I commissioned the first set of tapes from Gary James Productions. Over the following year I sold and distributed all my copies of "Tales from Ra'Hash-nir". I was able to get airplay on a couple of stations, including doing an interview on one of the local college public radio stations in Indianapolis.
So that's how it got started. The prestige of the Letterman Scholarship has been influential and my work on the album has led to other musical opportunities, including scoring the amateur "Doctor Who" video "Time Rift" (see my "Time Rift" web page). Now I am living in the Boston area and the competition is fierce. I'm not into competition (I'd rather collaborate), so I am hoping just to carve a little niche for myself and my style of music. If I have to get out and perform a little, though I'm not a performer by nature, then I guess I'll have to do that.
