By Michael Gilbride, Mad Records | A reflection on what makes music…. music. I have a student in my music program named Janice. (Everybody say “Hi, Janice…”) Janice had a brother by the name of Tim. (Everybody say “Hi, Tim…”)
Tim was a pure eccentric… and a lifelong musician under the band name The Psychoholics – a power-pop band from San Antonio known for their absurdly captivating live performances.
But in 2020, Tim was dying.
Tim had suffered from kidney disease for over 30 years (despite the average life expectancy of ~5-10 years), and now in his late 50’s, his condition was rapidly deteriorating.
Sweet Janice offered to donate her kidney in a last ditch effort to save his life… but Tim kindly declined.
If he accepted the donation, Tim feared that Janice, now left with only one kidney, might suffer from the same fate as he did – a life of worry, dialysis, and countless trips to the hospital.
And for Tim, that was unacceptable.
What Tim did need, however… was a producer.
Though his health was quickly declining, the relentlessly creative Tim had spent the last three years working on new music, and he needed a partner to engineer and produce his magnum opus…. a concept album called 1000 Yard Stare.
So at 60 years old, despite no previous experience…. Janice decided to become an audio engineer.
She promised the ailing Tim that – somehow, someway – she would get his record out to the world.
Janice managed to complete a single song before he passed… playing it for him in his hospital bed as she promised to finish the remainder of the album.
On July 4, 2023….. in classic, larger-than-life fashion…. Tim Mrak passed away from kidney complications at 8 pm, just as the holiday fireworks began outside the hospital.
Suddenly, Janice was left alone.
Drowning in a sea of unfinished audio files and bonded to a promise she wasn’t fully sure she could truly keep…. Janice continued work on Tim’s album.
At face value, the album is the story of a soldier who is shipped off to war, ultimately returning home to find that he is changed forever… an all-too-familiar narrative for many of today’s veterans.
But just below the surface, there is a deeper story.
It’s the story of a dying man relentlessly pursuing his creative vision, even as his voice begins to fail him as the album wears on.
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What has this to do with AI? Read the rest of the story here:
https://madrecords.substack.com/p/why-ai-will-make-music-more-human