CHALLENGE

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Imagine a sunrise in the mountains, the fluffy clouds beneath, the sky clear and blue. The surrounding mountains are bathed in golden red colors.

There is a lonely tent and a man stands in the cold wind looking up to the peak…

His voice begins telling the story “It was breathtaking and literally brought tears to my eyes. But all that beauty didnt fool me - I knew i was facing danger. I was at the point of no return and i needed all my power and will and still it would be a hard struggle. Finally i took my courage in both hands and accepted this personal challenge…”

You then recognize that the speaker is sitting in an interview and has become a lot older. His face is tanny and wrinkeld but his eyes are wide awake and piercing. “This decision - to accept the challenge - has changed my life. Since that date all problems were mere adventures to me and i started enjoying tackling them.”

The two main aspects i kept hearing in the song were NATURE and POWER. But i didnt just want it to be something powerful of the nature, lika a storm or a giant waterfall.

So to me this song was about how you change when you accept a big challenge. You could also think of a composer/producer trying to forge an emotional and still energetic album… with hundreds and hundres of hours of work, some great moments, many regresses and sometimes even despair - but finally a result that will change his or her life…

For the next weeks i have thought of a way to give you more insights into THIRTEEN STORIES… each week i will concentrate on one song and first ask you about the stories that play in your heads and then reveal what i had in my mind and give you more inside infos…

Nevertheless i also need some good ideas to “promote” the album… If you know of a magazine, blog, website, forum that might be interested in THIRTEEN STORIES just let me know… simply write it down here… or even better get someone from that mag or blog or whatever to get in contact with me -> rolfmb at rolfmaierbode com

Id really like to hear what you think about THIRTEEN STORIES after you have listened to it several times…

And what are your favourite songs after some days…

In the meantime i will be enjoying life - thirtyfive

If you got the CD and at least listened to it from ONE to THIRTEEN in one pass once i would really like to read your first impressions here…

…and if you have an myspcae account i´d really like to get some comments there as well

and i am very happy with the design in actual print… 

Yesterday most of the songs have been mastered each for its own by Steffen Müller… Today the album as a whole will get finely tuned… It will be the final day concerning the music… Artwork needs to be finished the next days though…

12.2.09.: The Final Day #2

The fine tuning was more work than we thought… like always

First there were two songs that sounded a bit harsh in comparison with the rest of the album an we decided to do them with “fresh ears” the next day… but i got the chance to listen to the 90% mastered album in a quiet minute from start to end and i thought that it should be softer in the soft parts - against the “loudness war” madness most of the “industry” is going through (if you dont know what i mean just search for “loudness war” in youtube) and so we increased the dynamics but kept the harder parts relativly loud and i am VERY pleased with the final sound

Today i will listen to the master again just to check it for burning errors or the like and send it to the pressing plant… The only thing missing now for production is the artwork which still is in the works but will be finished on the weekend… Due to the german “karneval” the first day i can start to mail cds is the first monday of march… thats a bit more than two weeks from now… with all the music being finished it seems rather long to me

Next week i will post how to order the cd in detail. You should from now on save all the money you might waste for food, drinks clothes and other unnecessary stuff to buy cds for each of your friends

There will be THIRTEEN songs on the album

here is a post to answer the question “how do i get the cd ?”

UPDATE: simply click the “ORDER ALBUM” button on my homepage and leave your email adress

www.rolfmaierbode.com

(edit: paypal will also be an option)

those who have entered their mail adresses here or personally wrote me a mail will get an email automatically.