The idea is not to live forever, but to do something that will

Whitney passed away almost a week ago but we refuse to let go. Her videos on Youtube, songs on the top charts of itunes and last night's interview on Oprah got me thinking a lot about life. Many seem to think that money and fame are the ultimate goal, while for others (like Whitney) it is the recipe for self destruction. It was just too much.
We seem to forget that icons are human beings too. They have fears and insecurities and they make mistakes.Whitney had a treasure and we loved her more than She loved herself.

Two things come to my mind right now:
1. I'm so grateful that I've gone through experiences that brought to me the conclusion that life is about love and not about money.
2. "Learning to love yourself, It's the greatest love of all"

We are here temporarily. I remember Broadway's musical "Avenue Q" when they did the last song. It's called "For now" and it's such a great song: http://youtu.be/XJdcROXeaW
I kid you not, I listen to it every time I feel my head is going in circles about little problems.

Whitney was here temporarily, but she did something amazing. It will live forever.

So that's it. My two cents and a message: We don't know what will happen tomorrow, "besides from death and paying taxes, everything in life is only for now". We might as well enjoy it and do what we love. By doing it, we will leave something that will live forever. In a way, I feel like I'm accomplishing that with my album. My voice is there and it will live forever.

How would you like to live forever?


Mao
http://www.maoplanet.com
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PS: I will continue my story in the next post. I just wanted to pay my own tribute to Whitney.

PSS: A great medley tribute to Whitney here:
http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshhA7T8aI9WRI1MD2US

Put yourself out there!

I've been pretty busy the last three weeks working on my website (www.maoplanet.com). I launched it on Feb 9 and I have to say that I am blessed. More than 800 people have visited and slowly but surely I'm doing what I always wanted to do, share my music!


Today I read a tweet by @mattchevy where he wrote "No one got anywhere without putting themselves out there and making (more than) a few mistakes". He's so right! 


Overcoming the fear of showing others what we're capable of is ultimately the purpose of our existence. When we are able to let go that fear of being judged (or stop judging ourselves), is when things start happening for us. We are all connected and people will feel your energy. They will like what you do if you believe in yourself 150%. Let me tell you, there's no better reward than getting someone to tell you they like what you do! I'm feeling the love! 


Conclusion: Put yourself out there! Don't be afraid to get out of your confort zone. Quit your job if you need to. Move to another city. Meet new people. When we take a step forward, life shows you where to step next.


Now let's get going with my story! We left in the part where I came back to Canada from Miami after writing my future hit songs with Daniel, my producer, and the amazing Songwriters Cesar Franco and Dani Blau ( who sings with me the song we co-wrote: I want more). Daniel kept working on the demos while I spent the last days of the summer figuring out how to put on a concert in Montreal. I was dying to play live and I needed a band.


In 2009 I went to see a local artist at a bar. I loved the band and I was able to get in touch with the musical director @Porioux. He is a great musician and after meeting with him and sharing my demos he showed interest in working together. We scheduled the show for November and he was going to put together a band. He'd let me know when we had everyone on board.


The demos Daniel kept sending me got better and better. Those arrangements were so good that I couldn't think they could get any better. They did with each new version of the songs! 


At this point I was really motivated. I had the band to do my first concert in Montreal and the EP was a reality. 


I flew back to Miami in early November to record the final vocals for all the songs. That week was amazing!!! I didn't feel I was working, on the contrary I felt the joy of doing what I like the most. We worked for around 5 days in a row and we had everyting: lead vocals, back vocals and the collaboration with Dani Blau. Now we had to let Daniel work his magic. And he did! He got the best musicians in Florida to work with him (Lee levin in the drums for example, who has credits on albums from world superstars). 


Back in Montreal I started working closely with P.o (the musical director) to select the repertoire for the concert. We had a month to put on a great show!


It's time for me to get ready for an appointment so I'll stop here. I'll see you next week! feel free to comment below if you have any questions or if you want to just share something with all of us.


Happy St Valentin's!! Remember that there's nothing more important than love!


Cheers family.. see you soon!


Mao
www.maoplanet.com
www.facebook.com/maoplanet
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Patience.. good things come to those who wait!

Welcome back folks. Before I continue last week's story, I would like to make a little introduction about patience. It's just one word but it's heavy, difficult and most of all, rewarding when we learn to put it in our favor.

I have been working on my new website (www.maoplanet.com) for the past three weeks and it has not been an easy task. Tweaking took a whole new meaning and photoshop became my new best friend. I'm really happy though. It's nice to learn new things and most of all, it's been rewarding to work on my patience (I must admit it's something that I lack in many situations). I learned that being patient is easier when you do something else in the meantime, something that you care for. While I waited on some technical problems,  I started to get frustrated. The first two days I was just waiting for that email where they would tell me the problem was solved. That email did not come so I used my time to work on new templates instead so that I had many more options by the time that problem was solved. That email came yesterday and even if it wasn't the solution I had expected, I have figured out another way that is now being implemented in my final template.

This story is not supposed to win an award, but it can be translated to so many other situations in life where we are "waiting" and being patient becomes difficult.  In a relationship, at work, waiting for the bus, doing a line-up or counting the hours to receive a box with 500 CDs of your first EP (in two weeks!!!). There's always something that we can be doing in the meantime that will bring us something extra and will make time go faster. Remember, Einstein was right, time is relative!

So let's get back to my story now, the exciting part of this blog!

I was back in June 2011. I kind of new that the next step was to work on my EP. I didn't know what that stood for so I 'll explain for those who don't know: EP stands for Extended Play and it is a recording with   more than one single but not enough songs to be considered a full album. This "format" is used by emerging artists like myself to introduce their style and put in a recording their best material.

At that time I was taking a course online with Cari Cole, who suggested to find a good producer. I already had the attention of Daniel Betancourt in Miami, who accepted to work with me in this project. He's an ASCAP award winner and his co-productions have been nominated 7 times for the Latin Grammys. At that time I went on my online banking and did my math. I didn't have enough money but I didn't care. I was going to get it no matter how and I was going to make this EP.

I flew to Miami in early August and met Daniel and his family. He's an amazing person and a talented musician. I couldn't be working with someone better. Together we wrote two songs and he introduced me to other songwriters in Miami. We co-wrote another two songs. The foundation for my EP was there: 4 songs in Spanish plus "Vuelve junto a mi" (The spanish version of "Take me back to you"). At that point the EP was going to be only in Spanish. My trip to Miami was over after a week and I came back to Montreal flying in a cloud. I was beyond excited and it was just the beginning. Even the demos sounded like finished songs to me.

Daniel started working on the Demos. I needed to learn more about the music industry so I used that time to take my courses with Cari Cole. We decided to translate the songs in English too. This dream was getting bigger and bigger!

This stage of the creative process took some time (refer to the introduction about patience... lol). the next step was to go back to Miami to record the final vocals but  I'll stop here. This entry is getting too long :)

I'll continue next week and I promise to write every detail I remember. Details make the stories so much better!

I wish you all a great weekend. Keep dreaming!

Mao
www.maoplanet.com
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