My new calling?

I have a new calling... or is it just a new obsession/hobby?  We'll see.

A friend of mine, DJ Kaze has introduced me to the fun of DJ'ing and music mashups. I'm not a particularly well trained musician but I've been dabbling in writing music for ever. But I found myself having more fun doing music with other people's stuff (pre-recorded material, remix kit, ready-to-use loops, etc.) I've "written" a few really cool pieces of music using ready-made loops and I got a lot of enjoyment doing that.  In a way, it's kind of cooking with pre-made ingredients instead of doing everything from scratch... so I can't call myself a master chef (or master songwriter), but music making is music making....

Anyway, I was just introduced to the world of harmonic mixing and mashup and I've been experimenting with software and the concept, and I have had so much fun over the weekend. My first few pieces were really crappy because I had no idea what I was doing. I was picking songs that didn't match, or they had no relevance to each other. Or I was mixing tracks that overpowered each other, or just overdubbed. But after a day of mucking with the tool and the songs in my library, I started to get a hang of it. My first mashup was a mix of Kelly Clarkson's Dark Side and David Gruetta's Without You (with Usher), and I was SURPRISED how well the two vocals and backing tracks mashed together, as if they were meant to be together. Clarkson's voice and Usher's also mashed well together and the songs' lyrics were perfectly matched too. I was like, wow, it's perfect!  Can I be so lucky?

My second project was mashing up too chill/techno pieces and wow, I was blown away. The result was amazing.

I am certainly hooked.

(I will post some of the remixes soon on my Podcast site -- stay tune, and give feedback, please)