January 29, 2023

It’s Brett’s birthday today. I would prefer to just kick back with him and maybe watch a little football. But, we have a film to finish.

This is my view from where I sit in the control room. I call it the two cents chair. The hard work on mix days is done behind the console, where Brett is sitting, manning the controls. He is brilliant. Occasionally he will ask for my two cents. It’s usually some little thingy or other that I would like to hear in the mix. Actually, today I had him “fix” a couple of notes. Something that was impossible when I first built this studio back in the 80s with Doug Montcrieff. Doug would really love to see the magic that Brett can do these days.

We are mixing the song that opens The Artist & the Astronaut. It will also be playing underneath the credits at the end of the film. It’s called Earth Rising. Brett and I wrote it, and we brought in some incredible singers to join us. Jeff Gordon of Hard Promises and the incomparable Letizia.

The inspiration for the song came from Pat Music, one of the stars of the film. In the film, she and Jerry Carr were invited to the United Nations along with all the other men and women who have actually seen the earth from space. They all said the same thing. We are a very fragile planet. And we had better start taking care of it. There is also, in the film, some impressive footage of the Earth rising over the moon. I’m sending Pat the song right now. She is one of my heroes. 96 and still producing art. Amazing.

It is less than a week until our CNY premier. Onward we go.