I finally have a couple of songs near completion, which will be released simultaneously. It’s a big of an experiment with two different styles, and the first song was actually originally written by my best friend Billy McDaniel many years ago. He never released it, as it’s a very dark themed song essentially about being in at the rock bottom and wanting to end it all, told in 1st person. Still, I thought the song ROCKED and set out to put my own spin on it. I ran it by Billy and, with his permission, will be releasing it in the next few weeks or so.

Due to the very dark nature of the first song, and not wishing for my friends and family to think that I’M at the end of MY rope, I set out to write another song with the intention of it being more of a hopeful counterpoint to the first. This one is presented from the viewpoint of a friend or support person, trying to make the first person realize that things are what they are and you’ve got to just accept them and roll with it.

Of course, that’s just MY take on the songs as I put them together. You’re highly encouraged to think about them however you’d like and enjoy them just the same. Hopefully can appreciate them in any case, maybe even LIKE them!

Look for an update here as I get ready to release these in the coming weeks. Until then!

In other news, I started working on a Twisted Roots cover song yesterday that I think is coming along well enough that I’ll probably post sometime late-January or February, if those guys don’t mind of course. I’m by no means out of songwriting ideas of my own, but I rather enjoy playing around with other songs that inspire me. Twisted Roots, while having an entirely different sound to my own, inspires me. They represent an important part of my life both musically and personally, plus they’re pretty cool guys too. Definitely check out their music if you get the chance, and expect my version to be slightly… interpreted.

Here’s quick teaser:

See all of you in 2010!

Reflecting back on the past ten years, now that 2010 is rapidly approaching. There’s something weird that happens to time once you get out of high school, like somebody hit the fast-forward button! Still, it’s been a great decade, and I’ve inevitably evolved a ton over the course of it.

Let’s hit the highlights in brief shall we?

• 10 years ago, my son was 3
• 4 years ago, I met the woman that was to become my wife
• 3 years ago, I moved to San Diego
• 1 year ago, I turned 30 (ok, almost two years ago..)
• In April of this year, I began writing my own music..

I’m really content with the way things have turned out so far. Here’s hoping that the next decade is even better! Things certainly do feel brighter!

As some of you know, I decided to do something unique with my new song by debuting it inside of a Virtual World platform called Metaplace. That proved to be an interesting experiment and generated a decent little crowd of 20 or so across the event, with a little help rounding people up thanks to Cuppycake.

While some aspects of doing this were a little cludgy (the fact that I’m holding an acoustic guitar in-world, but not actually playing one in the song, just looks strange.. for example), the actual execution of essentially playing a set of my mp3′s for an audience couldn’t have been easier and for essentially NO real planning-time, I’d still call this event a huge success! I may do this again in the future, possibly in a custom-built world and a bunch of actual planning. We shall see, but in any case it was fun giving it a shot!

Oh, and I had my first virtual-world hecklers too! I’m living the life now.. YEAH! =)

For those of you who want to hear it sooner, look for an announcement really soon about a chance to hear the song streaming live over at Metaplace. This is something I just decided to do, so there are details to be worked out as to how to setup the event, in which world to host it, etc. You can be prepared to attend ahead of time by making sure you’re signed up with them over at their website, or if you’re using Facebook, then you can get setup with Metaplace via their app at http://app.facebook.com/metaplace. Either way will work just fine..

Why do this you ask? Well, some of the folks behind Metaplace are really cool friends of mine, and it’s one of the places on the internet that I really enjoy thanks to it giving you the ability to create your own world and explore those created by others. Also, somehow premiering a new song in a virtual world just seemed like a cool idea to me… even if only a few people show up.

So let’s start over, shall we? From here on, you’re getting nothing but the raw unadulterated weirdo that is ME. I’m Nick, and I’m just another extraverted-on-the-internet introverted-in-real-life dorky geeky systems engineer-type. I love my wife/son/family, video games (EverQuest II babeh!), M:TG, playing with various technology (I do SCIENCE on it!), analyzing and learning about all sorts of everything, and of course.. making and listening to music! I *am* very proud of the music I’ve managed to put out here so far, as I had NEVER written my own songs before, and I honestly feel like I’m getting better at it each time. Let’s hope that continues!

You know what else? I really love my friends, whether they happen to be fans of my music or not. Also, since you’re reading this, you should know that I also greatly appreciate YOU for taking the time! Really! You didn’t have to, but it’s WAY COOL that you did! So, THANK YOU! In fact, let’s get coffee sometime.. what do you say? Either way, let’s stay in touch, ok? I’m on Twitter you know, “@NickMcLaren”. Nothing like these interwebs for communimicating!

The next single is still bouncing back and forth between myself and the studio. Hope to have some release news this week! (fingers crossed!)