BlackRaven Publishing Group Stuff

I’ve decided to move forward with BlackRaven Publishing Group and choose 20 songs from the genres of R&B, Hip Hop, Country, and Gospel that I have written and get five-six of them composed and produced (I’m going to be producing them myself actually).  This way I can begin to push them to artists and A&R persons among the numerous other options for publishing music via Taxi.  I may throw in a rock song or two too now that I think about it.  I will be singing and rapping on a few of the tracks, Bryan will be singing on some and a few other new friends will help with things like the country and gospel tracks.  One gospel singer I’d like to record is this singer named CJ that went to a church I used to attend.  He was ultra talented.  I hope he’d be interested.

I have most of the 20 songs written already and only have a few re-writes to accomplish and I am hoping to have the funding for this to have the five-six songs full mixed down and mastered by the end of November ‘08.  So then I would join Taxi and start submitting my tracks and hopefully sell.  Here’s crossing my fingers.

Peace and Luv,

B. Marcel

Dear Diary: 7-15-08

I have been working on the BlackRaven Entertainment business plan and my clothing line business plans mostly lately.  I had them completed in the past but feel now would be a good point to revamp them.

I have lost 33 pounds so far in my weight loss journey and can’t wait to reach my final goal of 181 lbs.  Once I reach that goal I will have lost 100 lbs.  I started a blog, Fitness Forever, to track my journey and to model to others that may want to do the same.  Who knows, maybe Fitness Forever could evolve into another business for me down the road.  That would be cool to help others lose weight and keep it off.

Musically I am starting to finally recover vocally from my sickness.  It has been lingering for about six weeks in my chest area not allowing me to sing properly.  So I’m recording the final songs to my album I’m working on and moving forward with my songwriting career working on Bryan’s solo project and some gospel and country songs too.  I am going to start recording my songs probably late this year, early next year for the publishing company so I’m excited about piecing the instrumentals right now.  That’s about it for now.

TTYL,

B. Marcel

Dear Diary: 6-30-08

I worked intensely yesterday with Bryan on 5 of my songs.  He really liked the newest one She’s Sexy that I wrote (I’ll post the lyrics later).  It seems like I’ve got the right feel for the album I’m creating and that the album is going to be very diverse.  I can’t wait until we get further down the road with it.  The only big thing now I’m worried about is getting vocal training.  I need to learn breathing techniques the most.  Other than that I should be golden. 

Today I just spent working on my business plans and reading a new book: Screenwriting For Dummies.  I have a couple of ideas for screenplays that I’ve had for some time that I am starting to work on.  One I’ve been working on since I was a teenager in high school called The Sisters.  I’ll keep you posted on my progress with it.  That’s about it for today.

TTYL,

B. Marcel

Dear Diary: 6-25-08

I am rolling along with my guitar training.  I am learning so much music theory it’s amazing!  I love this stuff it makes music make so much sense.  I wish I had delved into it years ago.  My keyboard skills are picking up quite nicely too.  I’m considering taking some music courses at college to really get into this stuff.  I want to ultimately become a great producer so knowing this will truely further my personal goals.

I also completed all of the executive summaries for the business plans that I am working on.  So far so good.  The one that I worked on most today was for what is going to be my fan club and official music/business website.  I can’t wait to get these businesses up and running alongside my other ventures.  The entrepreneur in me is bursting for these ventures.

Finally I’ve almost completed transcribing my songs from my notebook to my computer.  This is important because I need to get them printed and copywritten so that I can begin to operate my music publishing company.  I’m so excited about the Cycles of Love cd project, can’t wait ’til Sunday when Bryan comes over and we start adding other instruments to our arrangements.

Dear Diary: 6-16-08

Been feeling a little bit under the weather today so I skipped out on most of my usual work.  I did however get to play around with one of my blogs.  I jumped from 360+ hits a day to 1100 in one day Sunday to over 3500 hits today (and the days not over yet) just by adding FeedBurner to my site.  Its been amazing how fast this system is working in my favor.  I guess I made the right decision to move this blog to wordpress.

I also did a little gardening, damn those weeds! Lol.  I guess that’s a part of the whole gardening thing though.

Lastly I started the dieting portion of my weightloss plan and am actually starting a blog to track my progress and keep me focused.  I’m going to call it fit for life.  I haven’t decided if I want it to be public or not yet, it’s kinda personal to me and I’m not sure I wanna be that naked about it.

Tomorrow it’s back to the working mill, pumping out musical hits and what not.

Peace & Luv, TTYL,

B. Marcel

Dear Diary: 6-12-08

I have recorded two more scratch vocals today!  My favorite is a song called ‘With You’.  No, it’s nothing like the Chris Brown song, lol.  I practiced the guitar today and am picking it up quite quickly.  I can’t wait til I’m competent with the guitar and keyboard because one of my ultimate music dreams is to be a producer and composer.  I can’t wait to relaunch 2 Divine Productions with more knowledge of music especially.

I also worked on another business plan and completed up to the executive summary of it.  It’s going to take up to 3-4 months for me to compile all of the information for all of the different business plans I’m doing so I’ve got my work cut out for me.  The one I was working on today was for a wrestling promotion i want to launch a few years down the road maybe with some partners.

I am planning on visiting a live show of an indie wrestling promotion for the first time in August, the 1st of August to be exact.  It is being thrown by the AWA at the BCW Arena.  If I do successfully launch my promotion I will initially need to ‘borrow’ both organizations’ wrestlers and to rent the BCW’s ring and arena for my first shows.  It’ll be a lot of work in the early going but I’m totally up for it.

Other than that I’ve just been recently blogging for Marcel MAgazine Blog and The Grappler’s Post blog.  Hella fun to me for some reason, lol.

TTYL,

Brandon Marcel

Dear Diary: 6-11-08

I lost one pound so far and boy am I proud, lol.  So today I started the ball rolling with myIcourse.com creating a “university” called the Indie Music Biz Academy for IndieMusicLounge.Com and IndieMusikChick.Com.  I am going to get instructors to teach on various topics relating to music.  You can even charge per course if you want but for starting out I’ll probably have free courses only.  I am really stoked about this even though it’s going to take some time to set up right.

I also recorded to more scratch vocals today.  My favorite one is this song called ‘If You Believe’.  I’m pretty sure it’s going to make it to album.  I’m going to have a choir sing the chorus.  I can’t wait ’til I’m ready to record my works in an actual recording studio rather than my smaller home studio.

Finally I’ve layed out the executive summary to three of my business plans.  I’m working on about ten simultaneously so I’m going to be swamped at leasted for this entire summer.

 

Dear Diary: 6-10-08

Had pizza for dinner, yummy!  Today I was stumping out the executive summary portion for the record label.  It’s a challenging thing to do.  There is so much to it but I know it’s all worth it.  I also recorded three more scratch vocals for the Cycles In Love cd project.  They went okay but I only really am feeling one of them called ‘Without You’.  Luckily I’ll be able to weed the dudds out since I have such a surplus of songs.

I wrote all of the songs I’m recording so there is a certain amount love I hold for each of them, but sometimes they just don’t work out the way that they did in my head.  So I’ll scap the ones that don’t work and only move forward with the hot tracks.

That’s all for today.

TTYL,

B. Marcel

Dear Diary: 6-9-08

I recently started a fast for not eating breakfast for four straight days.  I am fasting to jumpstart my new diet and eating plan.  I plan on losing 70 lbs. over the summer and into the fall and then buffing up quite a bit using creatine.  I think it is important for musicians to be fit not only for photos, but also for stage performances.  Nobody wants to pay to see some fat slug on stage for an hour plus, or at least I don’t want to do that.

I also am resuming my practicing and learning of the keyboard tonight.  I am speeding quite along through the first lesson book and think that by the end of the summer I should be able to play well.  I am also going to start practicing the guitar again starting this week I just haven’t picked a day yet.  Other than that I’m still recording the scratch vocals of Cycles In Love due out hopefully next November.

TTYL,

B. Marcel

Jealous Guy-Light In Your Eyes