On the morning of November 16th, I awoke to a Facebook notification that my good friend and colleague Jen was celebrating her birthday. I immediately recalled baking up a birthday song for her last year, and sure enough, Facebook issued a Memories post featuring that very video. Holy moly, what a change in my home studio in the span of a year! Sparse surroundings, less gear and gadgets. I love Then & Now comparisons in general, and this one inspired me to sing to Jen her birthday song once again, this time from the current TranSan Studio. Of course, I’m thinking: while I’m at it, why don’t I bump up the instrumentation a bit? Give it a beat, throw in some arps… generally modernize it with the help of the latest version of GarageBand on the iPad.
As I said, I love checking out Then & Now stuff, so I decided to start the new video off with a look back at the old one, which transitions into a rising synth intro before the remake kicks in. Immediately you can see the dramatic difference in lighting and colour balance.
The greatest feeling was getting a message from the birthday girl saying that the whole family (husband and three kids) serenaded her with the new video as they brought in the cake. I’m told that the youngest Jen-ling was more enthralled with the video treat than the star herself!
I look forward to revisiting this lovely tune again for a future birthday. Perhaps in a dozen years or so I’ll have re-worked it into a fully orchestrated piece! In case you missed it on the front page, you can check out the video on YouTube. Remember to Like and Share, and if you haven’t already, Subscribe.
