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In 2015 – While social media was getting too social, WW3 seemed right around the bend, and Garfield celebrated 37 years in print, I was having a very ‘T’ centric year. Yes, a particularly career-focused year, which left me very self-absorbed (My heart probably shrank a size temporarily), and gave me a gushing waterfall of progress that has me a little scared (another word for excited) about how much wonderful stuff will be going on in 2016. I’ve never been so demanded of (my phone calendar truly looks like a kid was let loose with a crayon in it) – and also never felt more like a mwaon!
Lets look back at the great, the sad, and the fugly!
- This website came to be! That may not sound like much, but it was a long-drawn out procedure. In particular, I slaved for over a month with little interruption, making sense of my past and compiling the Abravault section of it. Speaking of which, I just updated 2015 section of the Abravault fully. Take a look at it here. Was all the effort of making it worth it? … Not sure, probably not.
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… - Voice acting to extremes! Recorded 44 episodes of Fangbone! this year as the titular role, plus a web game that’s going along with the series. Episodes start airing this year around the world on Disney and I’m very very excited. I would watch
it religiously even if I wasn’t in it, seriously. This is the show I wrote the theme for as well. Also, The Stanley Dynamic began airing – and we got picked up for a well deserved second season! So far, everyone involved have busted off our keisters and 13 episodes of Season 2 have been taped out of the 26 order. I’m on set for all of this process – and its very fun, very challenging work. Imagine voice acting for a 12 hour filming day, learning blocking, learning droves of lines that can change the night before. I had to turn down a lead in another cartoon series cos there’s literally no time in a week. A crazy good(?) problem to have! Other projects I voiced on also starting airing around the world, including a re-boot of George Of The Jungle.
>>> - I began writing & producing songs for Super Planet Dolan – the animated videos for these songs I wrote, produced, performed & assisted with the story-boarding, have garnered nearly SIX MILLION VIEWS since they began debuting in September, and the views and positive response just keep coming, which is awesome and very gratifying! If you haven’t seen em’ yet, take a look at the bottom of the page for a playlist that has all of them in perpetuity (and some that are clearly made by someone else), or here. Mae
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- Taylor & Bryn paid plenty of dues. As a new duo, and it being a very alien thing to both Bryn & I, its nice to hear us starting to really come into our own as a unit. It helps being housemates and having every part of our lives intertwined – including weekly meetings just so we can keep on track of all the little strands of stuff there always is to do. Played Montreal, Wasaga Beach, Georgetown, Toronto, weddings… all over Ontario! In the midst of everything else we’re doing, somehow we prepared over four hours worth of songs we can perform – originals, covers. Sometimes after a work week of using my voice intensely on set, I’d have to play a three hour gig on the weekend too (and self-record a cartoon audition or two). And with my awesome diet and exercise routine I began (with no small thanks to Bryn for) – I only got sick once this year at the very end of it! Put that in your pipe and smoke it, mother nature! We are getting far along in our debut single, and figuring out other recordings too. Check out the Taylor & Bryn website, including some new demo recordings, here.
- This year was huge in the saga of getting our professional recording studio, Silverthorn Studios, operational. Bryn & I, with help from some very skilled studio folks, have made tremendous progress. I’ll spare you the immense amount of detail and drudgery – but I will say, a lot goes into making a recording studio right, and anywhere something could get held up or go wrong – it did. But that’s simply what it takes to have the creative independence to make the recordings I’ve always wanted to, and to create an amazing spot for the Toronto music community – and I wouldn’t have it any other way. We’ve got a lot of the foundation work done, including securing a massive bank loan we were looking for, and some very promising partnerships with equipment from a long-time professional studio, which will bring our studio on-par with most other recording studios in the country.
.. - On a more personal note – I put myself out on a limb for love, a lot – without the results I was hoping for. But hey, I got some good song ideas out of it. Hurting to breathe makes good music. I’ve also been coming to turns with the significantly changing state of my grandparents. Bryn & I put on a surprise concert for them, in fact, as a little gift after they completed downsizing, a move that was, in no small part, due to the incredible effort of my wonderful parents.
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- Signe & I had a bestselling book & spread the power of creativity and songwriting! The Song Creation Formula, a book for which I wrote a section, became a bestseller due to a brilliant campaign by Signe Miranda, who is also my co-partner in leading our Song Creation Workshop and Song Creation Samples. We lead some powerful sessions this year, leaving people passionate, alive & unstoppable in their songwriting & their lives. Check out our Song Creation website here.
- The Beaver Den, my musical, had a workshop production with a super revamped script & songbook – lots of new songs by me, I contributed to the story a ton. Slaved on this. We’ll have to see if there’ll be more productions of this puppy in the future. You can find my copious amount of demo recordings for this production in the 2015 page of The Abravault on my website, FYI.
- The EP I promised this year didn’t happen! And that’s okay. I had to make an executive call, and made it up to all who had pre-ordered. Having our own studio soon will certainly streamline the process of making my solo music, not to mention Taylor & Bryn and everything else I do!
- Bryn & I turned parts of our dwelling into a crazy successful Airbnb! Take a look at it here.
I guess that covers the real meat and potatoes of it. Looking forward – 2016 will be a brilliant year, and I’m excited to share it with all of you! I’ve had a lot of lessons, a lot of struggle, a lot of victory, a lot of things not going as planned despite very deliberate and cautious planning. In other words, a lot of life, and along with rhythm and music… who could ask for anything more? Old man trouble, I don’t mind him.
Thank you all for being a part of my world, and a happy happy new year to you.
T.A
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