James Lugo
Active member
Hey guys,
I just wanted to let you'all know my wife and I have decided to move back east to Raleigh, North Carolina. I have lived in LA for the better part of 25 years with no family and honestly having no family has never really been a major issue for me until we had our son, then all of a sudden being on the west coast just started to feel weird, the thought of my kids growing up with no family members around just felt wrong for us. Then a series of family tragedies happened capping off with my dad's death have just changed things. It has been a rough year or so emotionally. Now my wife is 16 weeks pregnant with our second child and it is time for a change. LA has been good to me on many levels but it's time to go, I will still have to travel back to Hollywood from time to time for work. I have spent some of the past few months figuring out a career/work game-plan. My career is cranking in full swing out here so I just have to get some of it to translate to NC. I teach voice, produce and write a lot now on Skype.
We found a beautiful house with a perfectly built out 1200 sq ft brick basement for the studio with a bedroom, kitchen and full bathroom with shower in it, so out of town clients will have a place to stay with it's own entrance. We'll have a large control room and 2 live rooms to produce, mix, teach voice, write songs etc.. One of the live rooms is big, it'll great for drums. So I will still be able to make records in the fashion I am use to. I have gone back and forth with what to do with my SSL console and I have decided to take it to Raleigh. I have a new business model for online mixing, something I can do in NC and stay connected to music world.
http://www.sslmixingonline.com/
I am also really excited about playing again, Raleigh has a great cover band scene, I already found a working cover band in the Raleigh area I will be singing and playing guitar for. Gigging in LA is torture to me, I just want to play in a fun/make a few bucks cover band that sounds good. No drama, no pay to play, no have to bring 60 people a night etc... I have lived in the studio non-stop for a decade and need to sling a guitar, sweat a little and have some damn fun. I miss playing music so bad and this is another reason for the change.
Anyway, this is a heavy experience guys and I vacillate between being excited and terrified. One of upsides is my bills are going to go down by about 70%, which honestly is exciting. My overhead right now puts me in a position where I have to eat, sleep and drink work. Which has been energizing to me for many years but has gotten old the past year or so now that we have kids. I'm hardly ever home.
We will be in North Carolina November 1st. Brad and Rig-Talk have always been good to me so I just wanted to let you guys in on what's happening. I need to hook up with the NC rig-talkers and get my crew going in Raleigh. There seems to be a cool music scene in NC, so it will be an adventure navigating through it and finding my way. If anyone on here is in the area hit me up.
Your friend,
James
I just wanted to let you'all know my wife and I have decided to move back east to Raleigh, North Carolina. I have lived in LA for the better part of 25 years with no family and honestly having no family has never really been a major issue for me until we had our son, then all of a sudden being on the west coast just started to feel weird, the thought of my kids growing up with no family members around just felt wrong for us. Then a series of family tragedies happened capping off with my dad's death have just changed things. It has been a rough year or so emotionally. Now my wife is 16 weeks pregnant with our second child and it is time for a change. LA has been good to me on many levels but it's time to go, I will still have to travel back to Hollywood from time to time for work. I have spent some of the past few months figuring out a career/work game-plan. My career is cranking in full swing out here so I just have to get some of it to translate to NC. I teach voice, produce and write a lot now on Skype.
We found a beautiful house with a perfectly built out 1200 sq ft brick basement for the studio with a bedroom, kitchen and full bathroom with shower in it, so out of town clients will have a place to stay with it's own entrance. We'll have a large control room and 2 live rooms to produce, mix, teach voice, write songs etc.. One of the live rooms is big, it'll great for drums. So I will still be able to make records in the fashion I am use to. I have gone back and forth with what to do with my SSL console and I have decided to take it to Raleigh. I have a new business model for online mixing, something I can do in NC and stay connected to music world.
http://www.sslmixingonline.com/
I am also really excited about playing again, Raleigh has a great cover band scene, I already found a working cover band in the Raleigh area I will be singing and playing guitar for. Gigging in LA is torture to me, I just want to play in a fun/make a few bucks cover band that sounds good. No drama, no pay to play, no have to bring 60 people a night etc... I have lived in the studio non-stop for a decade and need to sling a guitar, sweat a little and have some damn fun. I miss playing music so bad and this is another reason for the change.
Anyway, this is a heavy experience guys and I vacillate between being excited and terrified. One of upsides is my bills are going to go down by about 70%, which honestly is exciting. My overhead right now puts me in a position where I have to eat, sleep and drink work. Which has been energizing to me for many years but has gotten old the past year or so now that we have kids. I'm hardly ever home.
We will be in North Carolina November 1st. Brad and Rig-Talk have always been good to me so I just wanted to let you guys in on what's happening. I need to hook up with the NC rig-talkers and get my crew going in Raleigh. There seems to be a cool music scene in NC, so it will be an adventure navigating through it and finding my way. If anyone on here is in the area hit me up.
Your friend,
James
)
I imagine NC has got to be a lot cheaper to live in than LA. I spent 2 weeks in Raleigh in 1998 and thought it was a nice place. There's also a place called Indoor Storm that carries a lot of high end gear.
