It Came To Me In A Dream

Let me start from the very beginning. I have always had music around me. My mom introduced me to the music shows on PBS which was channel 13 in Ct the state I was born and raised in. I remember watching Arthur Fielder and The Boston Pops on TV. I remember watching Pavarotti sing with such splendor and Kathleen Battle with the passion of any Rocker I may have fallen in love with. I grew up with Motown ,R&B, Soul, Country, Rock, Jazz, Reggae the world of music. I also sang in chorus throughout my school years from elementary to high school. During my younger years I did try to play musical instruments but I did not have the support or encouragement to do so. I tried the flute and violin. My great grandma brought me an acoustic guitar and the man in the store said I was not strong enough to play so I never tried. I was under 7 years old. Being a musician was my dream so I took to singing. Growing up in New Haven Ct I began following a certain DJ. Dr James Jordan aka Jazzy. He was a DJ at WYBC FM the college radio station at Yale University. That was where I first heard him and I followed his career to WNHC AM and FM until he moved on to work in the music industry. I met my mentor when he was program director at WNHC AM. He was at my school Hamden High School for career day when I was a Jr. That was when my dream changed to being on the radio. I would be years later while working as a classroom aide helping with children that have special needs when I would finally work at an Urban Contemporary Radio Station in High Springs FL in 1998. The call number was 100.5 FM. It was the only Urban station in the area covering Lake City FL to Gainesville FL. That station was owned by Mr. Martin. He was a friend of my teacher that I worked with. I loved my day job don't get me wrong but working at that radio station was the first time I ever worked at a place and it did not seem like work. I was the person that recorded the six our show that was used when the station would go into automation. I also came into that job when Mr. Martin had decided to sell the station and get out of the radio business in our area. We have not had a good Urban Contemporary station in our area since. There have been a few people who tried locally in Lake City but they only lasted a very short time and then they were no more. I had longed to work in radio ever since that experience.

Fast forward to 2012. I was trying to figure out something I could do online that married my love of music and writing. A few years prior I was part of an online community called Ebony Voices. It was a chat group and we met live online on Sunday mornings. It was how I would unwind after a long week of work and dealing with life as a single mother of two children. I met online the owner and operator of this website plus he had an online radio station called Mikey Radio. He was out of Detroit Michigan. We would all laugh and talk about everything from Life to Music. He asked me to be his Program Director because he loved me for my musical mind. I found him to be handsome but there never was an online romance just a friendship. We would talk on the phone and online about the show and the music oh the music. I found out he was also a medical Dr and Bass player. It was during that time that I met one of the very people I would end up writing about in 2012. Well back in 2012 I was going through some old emails I found on my Yahoo account from a musician named Anthony Larkin. I emailed him and told him who I was and I said I wanted to do an interview and write about him on my music blogsite. The week prior to that faithful day I was having this dream and in that dream the name Metronome Theory came to me. I told my brother and he said I'll be dog gone that is a great name and he built and registered my Metronome Theory for me in my name. So when Anthony responded and said he remembered me I almost fainted. I was excited and nervous because I was talking to him and several members of the band. My daughter was in middle school at the time and here we were online via skype and I did my first interview for the first of two carnations of MetronomeTheory.com My daughter was freaking out and said my mom is cool she knows rock stars. The guys all laughed thought she was cute but reality was they all had day job still. Some of them were doing work for other musicians as well. They did not feel like rock stars and I was feeling like they should have been because of the skill and talent these men have. That was then I decided to do something but what????? My blog site began picking up momentum and people began to read it. It finally hit me that I could make a living at this but how???? I did research and I had musicians ask me why was I not charging to do this? That's when the wheels started turning in my head because if a musician was part of a music label and the rest of the music machine they would owe the label their lives and creativity and more just to have someone write a bio and put in links to where the music can be found. That even includes video and mp3 of music and pictures. I was doing all of that for free. The work I put into the story was not gathered from information the record label wanted me to write I got it directly from the artists. The articles on my blog is about them and for them and if they needed to use it to put in an EPK(Electronic Press Kit) they could. They could use the article to get work , grow their fan base and all. I was only going to start charging $10. I did not want to take advantage of anyone. It was during this time around 2015 I tried that Idea and it failed miserably. No one wanted to pay me. Some even said they would not pay me. They did not feel it was a good idea to pay someone to interview them. I said ok but the interview was me gathering information to write the story. They could use the story in the manner in which I mentioned previously. I was crushed because at the time I was out of work and and the following month February 9th my beloved step dad the man who raised me from the age of 7 had passed away. I was really going through it personally. I also tried my hand at creating EPKs and I did it for two artists charging $50. Only one artist paid me. He not only paid me what I asked for he gave me an extra $25. Talk about a blessing. I was so broke and feeling really discouraged. The other person I am still waiting for payment. In fact I have a bunch of empty promises from different artists after I have written something or done something other than the blog. I find it amazing how people can take advantage of you just because of you being new at something yet that new service you provide gives that person an opportunity to make a living or buy new gear but they don't think to pay you any money or even offer. So I decided to not do anything more than write my blog. I still desire to be paid for my writing but I believe that will come in time. I have waited this long what's another year or so. I dream of the day when my blog will become the way I make my living. I dream of the day when the regionally popular artists become household names and they can quit their day jobs and tour the world. I dream of the day when I can say I remember when and that somehow I played a small part in that happening for them.