“Mixolgy” with George Petit: The Drew Zingg Adventure — Chapter 1

I think I am finally at the point where I can tell the story now.  As I sit on this American Airlines flight #64 with my wife, bound for a place that is safe and sacred to me, a place that I have visited and revisited since the age of about eight, I realize that I had to get here, to come this far to be comfortable with the telling of it.

Time for George too unwind…

To say that it took four years to get here is both accurate and misleading; for in fact it is only this most recent “chapter” that began four years ago.  In telling this story, I am going to focus on this four year “chapter;” but I am sure that I will allude to the ones that came before. Context demands that I do this; you need to hear some of the backstory along the way, perhaps in the form of Shakespearean “asides” to “get” this chapter…and to get to its end, at which I should arrive in twelve months time.

I have had the pleasure of writing a few pieces for Sonicscoop.com over the last year or more, and I rather enjoy it for, like most story-tellers, I seem to like the sound of my own voice!  I entertain…me!  Writing these is fun, yes, but more important it is educational and enlightening.

I learn from this on many levels (not just about my “craft” either) and, like many engineers, musicians and producers, I long ago happily realized that I will never stop learning.  Literally every time I pick up my instrument of choice or begin a session or new project, and throughout the duration of each, I am learning.  It took a long time to grasp that.  Now that I have, it makes every project more rewarding, more exciting.  I actually look for the learning.

Four Years and Seven Scores Ago

Four years ago, I intentionally began a project of my own design that would prove the most demanding, exhausting, frustrating and impossible of my career – in fact of my life.  It would draw from the deepest wells of what talents and abilities I might have, expose many sore points in my character, redefine “passion” for me, the desire to succeed…and  my flat-out pigheadedness.

It would keep me up at night, at times make my physically ill, strain my marriage and my finances, end friendships, start new ones and basically shake my values and sense of what is “correct and professional.”  It would also solidify my work ethic and sense of responsibility and create a new benchmark of quality for any future work.  It would prove to me that I “can” do whatever I set my mind to do…and allow me to “let things go.”

Charts d’art — and much more — await.

And all that is truly the very tip of the iceberg!

I invite you to meet me here often…and I will tell you this story exactly how it happened.  Yes, with humor at times I hope, a lot of tech talk, photos, quotes from the master musicians involved and with audio examples from the project itself.  From inception to release and after, I hope you’ll hang out with me as I tell the story.  For in the telling of it, I will not only learn more, but I will be able to re-live it all, and sort it all out; even the painful parts!

And if you get one tenth of what I did from this adventure, we’ll both benefit.  So hang with me for the hardest, most demanding project of my life to date; the fulfillment of many a dream:  The Drew Zingg Debut Album Project.

Thanks and, see you next month…I love a good adventure.

George Walker Petit thinks a lot about mixing and many other musical things. An award-winning producer and mixer, he is based in New York City. Visit George at his Website, and keep up with him and the Drew Zingg Debut Album Project here.

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