History

Welcome to Musical Chairs. I am a self taught musician who has been playing music on a semi-professional basis for over 20 years. I play drums, rhythm guitar, lead guitar, bass guitar, piano/keyboards, ukulele and sing lead and harmony vocals. Being involved in a lot of different bands over the years has allowed me to be very flexible in a range of different musical styles.

I have always been interested in making quality recordings in a home studio environment learning with a Portastudio multitrack tape recorder and moving to digital as the technology improved. It always came easily to me because I could play all of the required instruments and I didn't have to rely on other musicians. First and foremost I am a drummer and by playing various other instruments in a home studio environment, I could form my own band.
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Technology

Over the past couple of years technology has advanced to the point of making digital recordings using computers and multi-track has never been easier. Since moving to Ottawa, I have setup a home studio environment recording cover songs and posting the results on YouTube. I was the studio musician, I was the artist, the producer and the engineer. I was basically a one-stop shop service for a home studio. Happy with the results I was getting and the feedback I was hearing from other people, I decided to research starting my own business.
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Opportunity

I was curious to see if anyone was offering a ‘full backing band’ as part of the recording packages. So I decided to research what other home studios were offering and came across a lot of tacky looking websites that seemed more interested in displaying the type of equipment they were using to justify the high cost of their packages. Most of the sites offered studio time to make a great sounding song but if a single person wanted a backing band they were told to bring in a Karaoke track. As a multi-instrumentalist musician, this is where I think I have something to offer.
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Photography

I’ve also been a freelance photographer for over 20 years. If you need promo photography done for a press kit, your website or CD cover? I can do that too. One-stop shop service for a home recording studio that includes studio musicians along with the option for photography. 
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Videographer

As a recent graduate of Algonquin's Broadcast Television program, I was able to expand my skills and focus on directing and producing content. So with Musical Chairs, I can put together promo videos, music videos or even a short documentary and put all of the pieces of photography, music and video together including web site design in a one stop shop offering any single service or the entire package to solo musicians.​

​Music Video

I wrote, performed and directed my original song called "I Wanna Be A Barenaked Lady" for a school assignment. The song follows the story of an enthusiastic fan who follows the early beginnings of the Barenaked Ladies and starts a quest to join the the band by writing a song.

​Song Credits: 
Aaron Reid - Vocals, guitar, percussion and audio editing / mixing. Video producer, director and editor.
Ron Christian - Piano, audio recording and mixing.

​In Summary

I want to offer solo musicians a chance to be in a band and offer multiple services to help people market themselves. Maybe you want to try something like this just for fun, maybe it's the first step to find out if you are really serious before spending the money on a bigger recording studio.

Basically if you are any kind of a soloist (guitar player, piano player, singer etc.) who wants to be in a "band" environment without it sounding like a Karaoke track then - I AM LOOKING FOR YOU!
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In my research, there is no other person in Ottawa who can offer these types of services with the kind of flexibility, versatility and diversity that I can offer. I am looking for three solo artists that would interested in being a part of my promotional / portfolio material for this business and in exchange, I would be willing to provide all three services for FREE with NO STRINGS ATTACHED.

Can be any musical style, kids or adult, covers or originals. Send me your songs, your ideas, and let me put it all together for you.

Prerequisites

• SOLOIST or DUO only. (If more, explain why in your pitch.)
• Must be able to play to a click track. (Have good tempo)
• Must be performance ready.
• Must be flexible and willing to accept suggestions.

Sound too good to be true? Not at all. Just fill out the survey below and I will pick the best entries that I think would be suitable.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: AUGUST 30, 2017 (Deadline may be extended depending on the number of entries.)