Over the past few years my career has taken some strange turns. For example this releasing songs to the internet which I catch a little flak for from some of my peers is supposed to be for fun, and so I can continue teaching on some level by answering questions about the songs etc. I'm technically not supposed to have a forward facing career in the first place. I have a contract with Warner that limits my ability to do that, and they're always none too pleases when a release a song and it becomes a hit of any kind. LOL... I call it the deal I signed with the devil. I don't get to be a rock-star, though I never wanted to be anyway. I just wanted to write songs. But on some level in a small niche community of guitar freaks that's kind of back-fired a bit. My career has become "Something else" on all levels in fact. I'm not just a clean-up session guy for Warner, now I'm working with indie filmmakers and TV pilot producers looking for a unique musical element to their show. Shows like "Killing Eve" have inspired this even more.
The thing is everyone thinks Hollywood is shut-down for the lockdown, but it's not!! Believe me it's not. Everyone is bored, and I've been here since the mid 90's. Long enough to know when Hollywood gets bored crazy things happen. Everyone is still working on stuff from home, or in the case of one producer friend of mine actually renting small warehouses to work out of that are exempt from the lockdown rules. Shows are being created, planned, and even cast in many cases. That being said, the changes continue for me as well here in "Bored Hollywood". I'm currently recording with vocalists and other session friends doing what I call "Killing Eve" style "Artistic representations of rock" (*or ARR as we all call it, said like a pirate of course*). I've got one friend just having me record sound-bites so he can use them when he needs them. It's almost busy-work in a way. My point is I'm not really sure where it's all heading for me or any of us for that matter. "Bored Hollywood" is a dangerous Hollywood. That much we all agree on here. Some of it I like, and some of it I'm horribly uncomfortable with. I do know what my career "was" and has been over the past 24 years. But one thing is becoming increasingly clear,,,, right now....it's definitely "Something else"!!
With that, this song is called (rather obviously) "Something else".... And I'll tell you it's not just me. This changing/bored Hollywood and the future of our careers is a big topic among my circle of friends right now. Some are actors, some are producers, some are executives, and some are musicians, but ALL are trying to figure out an answer to the same question. So since I'm part of "Bored Hollywood" I wrote and recorded this what I call "Hollywood Epic Guitar Rock Piece". I think it would make a great opener theme to a TV show. You know maybe one currently in production in a secret warehouse in Van Nuys.. LOL.. Either way, I'm sure you guys will eat it up.
Someday when I retire to a villa in Tuscany (*which is the plan btw*), I'll write a book. Nobody will know exactly who I was in the beginning of it, but by the end they'll figure out quickly that I wasn't just some schmuck who released some songs to the internet. More importantly it'll be a hilarious tale of a guy who got off a plane in the 90's with nothing, and somehow managed to get himself into what we all call "The fine mess". That mess of course is "Hollywood" and all its silliness. But when I think back on it all as I have been lately, I think if I never got on that plane and I could have known, I would have been very sad to have missed out on the "mess". --- cheers...
Enjoy.... and as always... CRANK IT UP!!!!
"Something else" - (Alternate ASCAP title: "Bored Hollywood")
Composed, arranged, & performed by Jeff Fiorentino (ASCAP)