Photo Album
Page 3 - Back to Paris
Here are a few of my favorite snapshots from different points in my musical journey. Enjoy!
Back to Paris
Paris — Music Capital of France.
Recording Masters with Olivier "Morya" Marot. My best friend Olivier — melody master, guitarist, keyboardist, arranger, programmer, sound engineer, producer, and multi-talented music whiz!
Olivier Bringing His Incredible Talent to One of My Songs. Here, Olivier is suggesting improvements to some of the guitar parts and optimizing an arrangement at my home studio in Paris.
Songwriting. What started as a few notes — a melody captured on a little tape recorder — is about to start its long journey towards becoming a song. Various stages will follow — numerous rewrites, harmonizing, arranging, scoring, programming, and ultimately, recording and mixing. Not the easiest of jobs! This may take months of hard work and require intelligent collaboration with the right musicians ... but what an incredibly exciting and intimate journey for the soul!
Home studio: This is the same home studio where I recorded over sixty of my hour-long guitar classes on tape. I really loved doing these. The discipline of preparing them made me become a better teacher, and it was professionally very gratifying, since the tapes became a big success in the Paris guitar community.
Olivier and Me at My Birthday Party. At one time or another in his life, a musician may be lucky enough to meet another musician who is a perfect fit — someone with whom everything clicks both musically and personally, allowing the music inside to become a reality. This is what happened with Olivier and me. We have both so much in common — in music and beyond — while at the same time having much of our own individual richness to share with each other. What followed has been a fantastically fulfilling musical collaboration and friendship that remains very much alive to this day. He and I are real soul brothers for life!
Double Happiness. A Japanese ideograph summing up my perfect musical partnership and friendship with Olivier.
Live in Paris with my Buddy Olivier. Here, I am playing live with Olivier to support a CD release of his "Coeur de Soleil" project.
Live in Paris for the "Coeur de Soleil" Project. The chord changes in this series were challenging but beautifully musical!
Live in Paris for "Coeur de Soleil." As always, a guitar solo is only as melodic as the chord progression it is played over. That was never an issue playing with these guys. Everything was in place for Olivier and me to trade truly majestic solos — the ones you know are going to be huge before you even start playing. I guess it's kind of like surfers hitting a monster wave...
Two French Vocalist Friends at an After Party. On the left is French-pop singer Geronimo, who I had just done a series of live shows with. On the right is my favorite male vocalist in Paris — multi-talented keyboardist, songwriter, arranger, programmer, vocalist, and my very good friend Pierre "Freegh" Emberger. Pierre and I co-wrote and arranged songs for various artists, including platinum-selling French-pop singer Jean-Patrick Capdevielle. Pierre was unquestionably the male vocalist of choice for all of my demos in Paris. A killer voice and a great guy to work with!
Happy Campers. From left to right: Me, lyricist Wendy, vocal recording artist Anne-Sophie Lefebvre (Cherry Swing), and Olivier after a day of work in the studio. Olivier and I co-wrote and arranged songs for Anne-Sophie, whose talent and ebullient personality made her our favorite female vocalist to write for.
Mixing a Song at Home with Olivier. With Olivier, I learned some of the most important skills I rely on as a musician to reach that special zone where music becomes incredibly fulfilling. It was the perfect time in my life for delving into these deeper layers of knowledge — I was ready to assimilate it, and Olivier was the ideal guide. Merci, mon pote !
Spirit. Life is Paris was good, but I found myself missing the fabulous American spirit of adventure, freedom, and optimism I had been exposed to in California as well as the intensity of American music itself. I was ready for the personal growth that would be possible in new, fertile soil, so I said goodbye to Paris and hello to Seattle, Washington, USA.
