As some may have noticed on some social media platforms like Facebook, Soundcloud, Bandcamp and a few others, I have announced that I am going to release my first album, “Sojourner”. I’ve been asked a number of questions about this by more than a few people, and I thought I should probably explain what all this is and why I’m making such a fuss about it.
In mid-October of 2025, I found myself in the hospital again. I am suffering from End-Stage Renal Disease (that started back in 2023) and I have spent considerable time over the past 3 years in the hospital for thinks like DKA (diabetic keto-acidosis), a nifty tension pneumo-thorax due to a surgical accident during a routine biopsy and being constantly hypoxic and short of breath. But this time, I was bleeding internally. I had to receive 4 units of blood, along with emergency endoscopy and emergency colonoscopy. This really rattled me, because aside from being really tired all the time, I had no real symptoms. Additionally, after 4 days, they still don’t know what was bleeding inside, but it seemed to have stopped. For now.
Putting it bluntly, I suddenly realized that my shelf-life was
getting short. I’ve always known that
day would get here, but it didn’t seem real until this particular event. All of the sudden it was all too real.
On the last night of my recent hospital stay, the shelf-life
thing was coursing through my brain, over and over again in a constant, OCD
like mantra. I kept thinking about how I
still had things to say and do, and people I still need to connect with (at
least to say goodbye), but it dawned on me that even though I have produced
nearly a hundred records in my career- and played on even more- there was no real,
tangible “thing” that stated the things I like to talk and write about. And that’s where this thought popped into my
head and woke me up.
“The hourglass is loud.”
In a flash, I knew what I had to do. I grabbed a slip of paper, buzzed the nurses
station (at 2:30am) and asked for a pencil, and I commenced writing the lyrics
to a new song. It literally took me
about 3 minutes to write it, too. (kind
of a lyrical colonoscopy prep……) And
out popped my song, “I Wished I’d Known”.
And it was easily the single most honest, brutal visible and naked lyric
I’ve EVER written. It’s intensely
personal, and I am extremely proud of it.
When I set about writing the music, I was overcome with a
completely different muse than I’ve encountered before- you see, I generally
try to write interesting chord progressions that keep the listener’s ear, and
because I fancy myself like Donald Fagen or Joe Zawinul and Joni Mitchell (and
I have aspirations towards bands like Snarky Puppy) or other songwriters
who try to capture all kinds of styles like jazz, rock, fusion, prog rock,
etc. (I am very much a child of the
70’s and early 80’s) But this time,
I wanted something super-simple that just gave the lyrics a foundation and
nothing more. Nothing tricky. For musicians reading this, the tune is
literally a I-vi-IV-V in G major. The
starkness of a simple arrangement really dazzled me, and because I’ve been
spending a lot of time listening to people like Alison Krauss, Mary Chapin-Carpenter,
James Taylor and recently saw Judy Collins live, that type of songwriting like the
“Great American Songbook” appeal to me.
After finishing “I Wish I’d Known”, I was DELUGED by lyrics,
but these weren’t snippets. They were
full-fledged arrangements of sections, complete with verse, choruses and
bridges. I literally sat down and wrote
out a list of the ideas that were coming, and some of these lyrics came in and
I completed them in record time. Like 15
minutes. I was dashing out 2-3 fully
flushed out, structured lyrics a day. And
the best part- even though this effort started on October 21st (I
went into the hospital on October 17th) this freight-train of ideas
hasn’t stopped. It continues to wake me
up at night, and there’s no sign of it stopping anytime soon. (so, suffice it to say, that if you’re
reading this and want some lyrical content for your tune, hit me up!)
Hence, the album "Sojourner". The title is how I view myself- a traveler or "sojourner" who is always moving but his destination has changed drastically over the years. It's an autobiography, and goes through a lot of the experiences that got me where I am today. Yes, it's totally self-serving, but my hope is that it will resonate with people in similar circumstances and maybe provide some solace in knowing that you aren't alone. Everything in life can be overcome with love and grace, and nowadays, people have forgotten this. As a person of faith, I feel that life's central message can be read in the Bible in Matthew 5-7, and that message isn't just for Christians. It's for everybody in every faith, and whether or not you ascribe it to God or not doesn't really matter. It is the blueprint of being able to all live together and provide peace, harmony and justice to a world that really needs that now. (And, ultimately, I believe that God gets the glory whether or not we ascribe this to Him.......)
And yes- I poke fun at the current US administration in "March of the Mango Monarch". I just couldn't help myself.........
And I’m getting some tunes actually recorded awfully fast (rough tracks only), and a lot of folks want to know how I’m doing this. In the spirit of transparency, I will tell you.
I’ve spent over 40 years of my currently 61 recording music-
either as a session player or as a producer/engineer. Along the way, I’ve gained some really solid
practices, even though some of my clients don’t have them. (ahem) The very first thing I learned was to define and refine my
workflow, because where any art is concerned "the first cut is the deepest" is an absolutely true statement. What I did was to write down
the things that happen when making any record or song and I wrote those things
down on sticky notes. I then created a
flow chart of each event and refined that by merely moving the notes around. I decided that I would do this at the song
level, because an album is merely the repetition of those. That means that I work on one song until I
get it where it needs to be, and in this case, I float those rough mixes out to
the players that will be doing the overdubs.
When the overdubs come in, I repeat the process of getting the overdubs
into each song before I move on. When
all the overdubs are in, then I start mixing each song. Lather, rinse and repeat.
And I try really hard to not deviate from that, but
with clients that’s near impossible due to many factors. Where possible I will try to enforce this
workflow, but since this is my own project, I am doing this as gospel and it's provided lightning-fast speed and delivery.
So that’s the basic overview, but here’s some other Q&A
that you might want to know.
Q. I
know you don’t sing. Who’s the vocalist
on these rough tracks?
A. I actually do sing the vocals, but I use an AI app called Audimee to
replace the vocalist with something that sounds better.
Q.
Are you using AI for the lyrics?
A. No. These are all me. I will however use ChatGPT if I get stuck trying
to rhyme something or to spur the thought process on, but those are all needing
tweaking before I use them.
Q.
What about the various instruments? Are
you playing all of them?
A. I always play bass, keyboards and string (violin and viola) on all my
tunes, but I used Toontrack’s Superior Drummer 3 to program the drums, and I’ll
use Toontrack’s EZKeys2 to add to the keyboard parts if I can’t actually play
the part. (I’m highly adequate on
keys, but nothing special) I can play
a little acoustic guitar, but I sometimes program the acoustic guitar with AmpleSounds M Guitar application. For electric
guitar, I actually play that on bass, use Melodyne to shift everything up an
octave and run it through an app called Moises Studio to replace it with a
guitar.
Q. I’ve
heard a couple of your tunes on Soundcloud or thru Facebook. Are those actually the final versions of
those songs?
A. They are not. They are all going to
have the vocals and instruments replaced.
The one song, “Hold On To The Light” is only going to have it’s lead
vocal replaced by the incredible Carl Kelley- the rest of it is final. I even have a very special guest on one song,
but you’re gonna have to wait for the album to come out to hear that one!
Q.
Are you going to be putting the album on Soundcloud when you release, or am I
gonna have spend money on this?
A. Soundcloud is great for quick releases of rough tracks to garner interest,
but I’m going to be putting this on all the streaming services, and you’ll be
able to buy it on Bandcamp.
Q.
When is this coming out?
A. I’m trying to shoot for 2/1/2026 for
a release date. That might change, of
course.
Q. Are
any of your songs available for licensing for me to re-record and release on my
project?
A. Absolutely, mail me at marcmiller@outlook.com to discuss details.
Finally, I realize that this is a really long post, but I
want to tell you that I intend to write blog articles on each of the tunes to
tell you about its backstory- as soon as I figure out exactly which songs will
be on it…….I seem to have lots to choose from………
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