Music Chris Schuette – Indiebear Music

Music

October16th

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On The Red Carpet

Posted in: Minnesota, Movies/ TV, Music

Guess what I did last night. No, you’re WAY off! (And let’s watch the language.)

Patty and I attended the world premiere of “Finding Home” at the Twin Cities Film Fest. “Finding Home” is a character-driven independent film about the challenges faced by a young couple while on a camping trip. As I have mentioned previously, it’s a wonderful film, and I am proud to have composed and recorded the soundtrack.

Patty and I have never been to a World Premiere and it was an awesome experience to be interviewed on the red carpet. The best part for me was experiencing the film with an appreciative audience and chatting with some nice people at the event.

Again, congratulations to Chars Bonin of Orange Apple Productions, and I can’t wait to get to work on the next project.
October12th

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Finding Home

Posted in: Music

Last year I had the good fortune to compose and record the soundtrack to a great feature-length film called “Finding Home.” This is the biggest project I’ve been involved in to date and I will be attending the world premiere at the Twin Cities Film Fest on Monday, October 15 at 7pm. More information on the festival is available at twincitiesfilmfest.org

My involvement in the film actually started several years ago when I re-connected with the director, Chars Bonin of Orange Apple Productions. Chars and I attended Blaine High School together, and as we were catching up, I learned that he went into filmmaking, while I was involved in film/TV scoring. Shockingly, these two disciplines work together nicely and I started providing the music for several of his smaller projects. “Finding Home” is Chars’ most ambitious project yet, so he enlisted the help of Producer, Stein Rosburg (another talented Blaine alum,) plus an incredible cast and crew. I’m excited to experience the results with a full theater on Monday.

We’re all proud of the finished product. If you can’t make it to the premiere, you can still learn more about the film and the amazing people involved at the Orange Apple Productions website or on the “Finding Home” Facebook page.
April1st

4 Comments

Album Re-Release

Posted in: games, geek, humor, Music, Weekly Thing

I have some exciting news to announce! Anyone who knows me knows that I am a huge fan of old-school 1980s video games. Therefore, I am thrilled to announce that I am re-releasing my solo piano CD, All You Know for a whole new audience!

I’ve received such incredible support for All You Know since its release. So many wonderful people have been kind enough to tell me how the gentle melodies and relaxed attitude have affected them, and I couldn’t be more grateful.

So now, I am releasing “All You Know – the 8-Bit Remix” for an audience who is hip to today’s sounds in 1980s video game music. Here is just a sampling of what you’ll hear:

Mario himself will jump for joy at the NEW sound of “Into My Own”

And YOU won’t have to worry about giant monkeys, flaming barrels or (eek!) Ghosts when you’re listening to the pixelated goodness of “For The Rest Of My Life”

Be sure to pre-order YOUR copy by sending check or money order to: 123 April Fools Lane, DigDug, USA (Sorry, tokens not accepted.)
March8th

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Palimpsest

Posted in: Music, Weekly Thing

Photo Credit: Howard Nelson/pilgrimstorome.org

When I finished score for “Finding Home” (more on that later!) I naively thought I would be able to record a variety of other projects with all that extra time I would have.

Well, it turns out that raising Isla, taking American Sign Language lessons, and a (thankfully) busy day job pretty much have dibs on any remaining free time. I’m not complaining, of course, but it does mean that I need to work smarter on other music projects.

For example, the piece I’m posting today is only 1:48m in length, but I carefully worked on the piano part to get the delay effect just right, I agonized over whether I really like the contrabass at the :15 mark (still not sure.) Long story short, it took a week to do this “quick little piece.” Admittedly, I did it for fun, in between my other activities, but I still need to work on streamlining my process.

OK, enough of that! I call this one “Palimpsest,” which refers to a surface, such as a manuscript page, or even a wall that has been scraped off and used again. Yep, that’s what I named it.
February17th

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Upcoming Concert

Posted in: Minnesota, Music

Other than the occasional home concert for Wifey and Isla, It’s been a while since I played in front of a real live, polite Midwestern audience. Well, I’m excited to announce that I will be performing my original piano compositions in St. Paul, MN on Friday, March 30 along with pianists, David Nevue and Steven C Anderson. The concert starts at 7:30 pm.

David is the talented composer and founder of Whisperings Solo Piano Radio, an online radio station I am proud to be a part of. If you enjoy solo piano, do yourself a favor and check it out!

The concert will be on Summit Avenue in St. Paul. Seating is limited, so please RSVP to steven@stevencmusic.com to reserve your seats and get directions to the home. The suggested donation is $10/person at the door.

I’m really looking forward to this, and I would love to see you there! For more information, visit the Events page at the Whisperings website, or drop me a line.

Unfortunately, Indie & Bear will not be in attendance.
December13th

2 Comments

Piano in the Corner #5

Posted in: Music

Well, I haven’t done THIS in awhile.

I occasionally like to sit down at our upright piano and just start recording. If I ignore the recorder, I can usually relax and just play whatever comes to mind. Sometimes (but not always,) I even feel like it’s worth posting here. Here is a little thing I recorded this morning. Nothing fancy, just me at the piano while Bear naps next to me.

I really should be Christmas shopping.
December3rd

2 Comments

Clockmaker

Posted in: dogs, humor, Music, Weekly Thing

In case I haven’t made it abundantly clear, I am a musician, not a photographer. Oh sure, I can hold a camera and follow the basic “aim away from face” rule, but that’s about it. Most of the photos you see on my blog were taken by my wife Patty. She is a very gifted photographer and she frequently posts on her own blog at pattyanne.net and on her Flickr stream. I’m trying to become a better photographer just so she can be in more pictures with Isla.

Isla & Bear

Bear Hugs

As a result, most of my posts involve original music I’ve created for various clients, or just for fun. This piece is one of the latter. I’ve been switching over my recording software from Digital Performer to Apple’s Logic Pro, so I put together this simple piece of music entitled “Clockmaker” as a way of trying out the software. My goal was to complete it in four hours, but it ended up taking twice as long. Oh well.

I’d love to hear what you think.
December1st

4 Comments

Holiday Giveaway

Posted in: Music

Hey, everyone. When you get a chance today, go check out the excellent website, kellehampton.com

Kelle Hampton is an incredibly talented writer and photographer and I highly recommend you check out her website as soon and as often as possible.

I’m doing a CD giveaway there, so you can read her blog post for more information.

Good Luck!
October28th

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A Little Halloween Music

Posted in: Movies/ TV, pop culture, Weekly Thing

Ever since I was a little boy growing up in the brown-tinted era known as the 1970s, one of my guilty pleasures has been scary movies. I clearly remember sitting in front of our (color!) TV in the shag carpeted, wood paneled family room watching a show featuring clips from all sorts old classic scary movies, including Psycho, Halloween and The Omen. Obviously, I HAD to see these movies.

You thought I was kidding about the Family Room?

I’ve written about this before, but excellent blogs including Final Girl and Kindertrauma have helped to bring back some great memories…memories of watching TV; kinda sad now that I think about it.

I also remember seeing the commercial for 1979′s Phantasm. I didn’t see the film until years later, but just watching the trailer freaked me out. (What’s that flying silver ball with the spikes? Who’s the creepy old tall dude?? Holy crap, that kid is supposed to be safe in bed, but these jawa-looking things start attacking him!!) OK, it looks kinda tame now, but hey, I was 8!

(Man, film trailers back then mentioned the film title A LOT)

Since it’s almost Halloween, I put together a piece of music reminiscent of the scary film music at the time. Specifically, I was thinking of the minimal scores John Carpenter wrote for most of his own movies. A lot of the films were done on a tight budget, so the themes often used synthesizers rather than full orchestras. I don’t currently have a full orchestra hanging around my studio, so please enjoy the synthy goodness!
April15th

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Whisperings Solo Piano Radio

Posted in: Music

My parents have always taught me that when you’re a part of something amazing and very cool, you write a blog post about it.

I’m proud to announce that I have been chosen to be an artist featured on Whisperings Solo Piano Radio. What am I talking about? Well, Whisperings Solo Piano Radio was founded in 2003 by a very talented pianist and composer named David Nevue. Realizing that while many people love to listen to solo piano music, there was no real opportunity to hear it on the radio. So, David went and started his own radio station…on the Internet!

Several of the tracks from my CD, All You Know can be heard there, as well as solo piano music from many other talented artists. I guarantee you’re going to hear something you like, and when you do, send an email to let the artist know. We love that kind of thing.

So, if you enjoy solo piano music (and trust me, you do) I invite you to stop whatever you’re doing as long as it doesn’t involve heavy machinery and/or child care and go to www.solopianoradio.com to learn more. Thanks for listening!