I have a friend who's an astrologer, and about a year and a half ago, I asked him to do a reading about what I'm doing with Eponymous 4. He said to watch out for nine opportunities. I kept that in the back of my head, but I proceeded blindly — I didn't want the search for the nine opportunities to get in the way of the nine opportunities happening.

So which events altered the course of what I'm doing today? Looking back, I'd have to say:

  • Took courses in synthesis at Austin Community College. I was a lot less skilled with how to work effects processors before these classes. After manipulating sound waves to sound like other things, I have better confidence in tweaking things, although I'm not inclined to tweak too much. I'm not skilled enough of as a mixer to make anything incredibly polished, but I don't think my recordings sound terrible or crappy. Of course, I took advantage of my student status to get academic discounts on a number of software, including Sibelius, Sony Sound Forge and QuarkXpress. That last one is important.
  • Bought a crossgrade license to QuarkXpress to practice cover art design. I had a very ancient copy of Adobe Pagemaker, which I bought for a newspaper layout class in college. That was in 1996. Quark offered a crossgrade for Pagemaker users, of which I took advantage. Thus armed, I researched about CD package design, leading me to work with templates from Mixonic. That led to the next event.
  • Had some blank CDs pressed with my own cover art. How CDs are made was always a process shrouded in some degree in mystery. It's not all that mysterious. Mixonic, in particular, makes it incredibly easy. They're a bit pricey, and they use some unconventional requirements for submission. But having gone through the process of designing a CD cover — then seeing that package come to life — was incredibly instructional.
  • Moved to a bigger apartment. In May 2007, I faced a steep rent raise. For the size of my apartment, I felt that was a rip off. So I went to the leasing office to see if they had a bigger one-bedroom available. In fact, they had a two-bedroom apartment for $13 more than my proposed rent increase. If I'm going to end up paying more, I should get the square footage to go with it. So I moved to a bigger apartment and turned the master bedroom into my studio, something I've been longing to do. The walk-in closet was configured to become an isolation booth, and for the first time, I was able to make consistent vocal tracks. I couldn't do that in the smaller apartment because I had to break down the mic setup after every session. As a result, I've actually made tangible progress.
  • Helped a friend record vocals for a stage production. The problem with doing it yourself is that sometimes you need to be in two places at once. By helping OmarG with his own recording project, I was able to work exclusively as an engineer, not as performer and engineer. That night of work gave me the confidence to produce recordings that didn't frustrate the hell out of me.
  • Sent out a compilation of demos to select people. Now that I had some decent enough recordings, I mustered up the courage to send out a 13-song compilation out to friends as "Christmas cards". It's the closest thing I got to releasing an album.
  • Formed a label and a publishing company. I felt really restless on my birthday. I was in the office when I didn't really want to be. So I found myself researching how to file a DBA in Texas. Before I knew it, I was filling out the forms, then told my boss I needed to run some errands. I filed my DBAs, then went straight to my credit union to open some business bank accounts. Without really thinking it through, I had set up business.

That's seven out of nine events. Kramer, my astrologer friend, mentioned something about working with other musicians becoming a difficult part of the endeavor. It's the step I've been avoiding because I'm still grappling with the idea of letting other people in on the work. I like working alone, and it's a modus operandi completely in my comfort zone. But I know I can do a lot better with some collaboration.

Now that I've actually taken some really serious steps — in fact, I just filed an application for sales tax permit — I have an incentive to produce something worth buying.

I've got another reading with Kramer over the weekend. Maybe he can shed some perspective.