2022 In Review
Always good to take stock and review the past before moving on to the future. Here is a review of 2022 at Blue Vision Music!
I had the honor of working with some amazing people. Some I’ve been lucky enough to work with for years. And a few new ones this year including Tom Knight, Beppie (aka Stephanie Nhan), Kelli Welli, Andy Z, Pam Felber and Sulinha Boucher!
MUSIC PRODUCTION
Two artists I’ve had the great pleasure of working with for awhile are David and Jenny Heitler-Klevans. Also known as Two Of A Kind. Over the years we’ve done many amazing projects together. Here are a few songs I mixed and produced recently.
“Sid The Squid”
“Mae Jamison”
“Be Who You Are”
One of the greatest honors is being asked to work on their upcoming production “Hidden: The Musical.” Hidden is a musical by David & Jenny Heitler-Klevans based on the true story of Ruth Kapp Hartz, who as a young Jewish girl was hidden in Southern France during World War II.
The most recent song, “Never Again Means Never Again“, features an all-star chorus including Julie Be, Cathy Fink, Joanne Hammil, Bill Harley, Billy Jonas, Paul Kaplan, Kymberly Stewart, and Elise Witt, as well as Debra D’Alessandro, Mary Lou Fulton, Hope Wesley Harrison, Colleen Kattau, Terry Kitchen, Pat Lamanna, Mariah Leontopoulou-Cochran, David Roth, Justin Solonynka, Dave Tarlo, and Roy Zimmerman.
The music has been wonderful to work on as well as personally rewarding. What a privilege to help tell this story! You can hear the songs at https://hiddenthemusical.com/audio/ as well as find out more about this compelling story.
“It is always a pleasure to work with Jim Coffey! He is extremely talented and creative, as well as efficient and well-organized. He is very open to the back-and-forth process of collaboration, and he communicates clearly and understands what we want easily and completely. He is a wizard with both the technical and musical aspects of music production. Jim helps us realize our dreams for our songs!” – David & Jenny Heitler-Klevans
I’ve been working with Wiley and Debbie Rankin for some time and just this year they released their latest album “Listening Is A Two-Way Street.”
The album is a combination of wonderful styles and genres. Along with mixing and mastering I also contributed various additional instrumentals. Was a real pleasure!
“James Coffey provided a perfect combination of talents and skills for the production of our CD “Listening Is A Two-Way Street”. He is an agile musician, a great arranger, and an excellent recording engineer. His composing and production skills were very helpful in keeping our project on track. This is all great, but Jim offers something more: a style of dialogue that invites deeper communication of our own artistic intent. His patience, encouragement, and sense of organization made it easy for us to step into his process, while sharing our own vision. Jim truly cares about the artist, about the person, as well as the process and the product. We couldn’t be happier with his services. God bless you Jim!”
First time working together with Tom Knight and I love his story! Tom was about to finish his latest album “Look Both Ways” with a studio in Boston. But he wasn’t quite happy with what he was hearing. He contacted me and at first I acted as a consultant advising him on what I believe could be done to improve the mixes and how he might approach the Boston studio. There was really nothing “wrong” with the mixes but he and I both agreed it could use something more. After some back and forth, Tom asked me to take over the mixes and finish the album.
Along with mixing, I also contributed some new instrumental tracks including piano and strings on “Hot Air Balloon.” Tom commented, “This is really fantastic. Great work! You transformed the song into something magical.” That’s music to my ears!
Was a real challenge taking over an album that was so far along. Many of the songs had over 100 tracks with complex horns and percussion. Tom and I worked together and in the end, Tom was very pleased with the result. “Everything sounds great! Very happy with it!”
Check out Tom’s video “Alligator Jump” and hear the whole album by clicking the link below.
https://tomknight.hearnow.com/
“One of the things that Jim was able to do was create a balanced mix where the lead vocal wasn’t way in front of the instruments to make it sound like I was singing with the band, instead of a karaoke vocal added later. Then I could hear my lyrics clearly, but also the nuances of the piano, lead guitar and drum fills to make the whole track sing.
I was also very impressed with Jim’s mastering process where he listened to the mixes on a number of different speakers and rooms to guarantee that the mix sounded great on any system from an iPad to a car stereo to a high end speaker system. I really trust his judgement, taste and his attention to detail. I can rely on him to sweat the small stuff so I don’t have to.
There was one song on my album that didn’t seem to hold together. I asked Jim if he would be willing to add some piano. I was blown away with what he came up with which really brought everything to another level.
I’m already planning 3 other projects now that I want to do with Jim in the future.”
– Tom Knight
I actually started working with Kelli Welli in 2021 and has continued on into 2022. Katherine Dines and I were putting together a podcast and I came across Kelli’s song “Little Ray Of Sunshine” and loved it and wanted to include it in our broadcast. We began to talk more about working together on a song which resulted in “The Multiplication Song.” She included it on her album “Robots Don’t Tell Jokes.” Kelli is as talented as she is kind. And a hoot to work with!
“James took my basic a cappella and minimal info about what I was looking for with this song and turned around exactly what I was hoping for! He captured the exact spirit and energy to convey excitement about Math and the joy of my kids for whom I wrote this song. So grateful!” – Kelli Welli
I want to also mention Stacey Peasley. I’ve had the great pleasure of working with Stacey for several years now. We’ve been working together steadily through 2022 on a new exciting album. Nothing to share…yet! Look forward in 2023 for an album full of fun interactive songs!
ANIMATION & VIDEO
Along with audio projects I also do video and animation production. Early on in my career I wrote and recorded a lot of music for children’s videos and found it useful to learn some of the methods and techniques that animators and video producers use in production. Soon after I started doing my own animations and it is now a service we offer other artists. You can see more examples on my animation webpage. https://bluevisionmusic.com/wp/animation/
Beppie is a multi-award winning Canadian family artist. I loved her sound the first time I heard it. She asked me to create an animated video for her song “Dino-mite!” My first time working with a rappin’ dinosaur.
“I absolutely loved working with Jim! He was able to use some of the illustrations from my children’s book (Dino-mite!) to bring my characters to life in animation. He took my ideas and my vision and knew exactly how to execute them. The video he made is one of my most watched with almost 5000 views after only 7 months. I would highly recommend Blue Vision Music to any artist looking for help with video production.”
Another animated adventure was creating a fun video for Sulinha Broucher. Sulinha is originally from Brazil and has a great sound! She asked me to create an animated video for her song “Zip It Up.” Over the last couple of years I’ve been exploring new animation methods and was able to use many of them in this video. Was great fun working with Sulinha!
“It’s a pleasure to work with Jim. He communicates well and he is so creative and never cuts corners. He is a perfectionist. The fact that he is a musician gives him a plus that other animators don’t have. He aims for the movements to be on rhythm and that is a big deal to me. I had this idea of animating the guitar solo on my song and he took the challenge. The snowman moves his fingers like he is playing the solo. Looking forward to many other projects together.” – Sulinha
And just in time for the holidays I got to work with the amazing Andy Z!! He has created a whole other world…Andyland! And wanted me to help him introduce a brand new character. Flurry, the Friendly Robot. Was great fun!
“I’ve always admired James’ talent and ability in many creative arenas, and attending his CMN animation workshop virtually, actually inspired me and gave me some simple tools help create my own animated video “Stinkamarink”. When the time came to make a more sophisticated video, I knew James was the professional for the job. And I was not disappointed! Not only did he do an incredible job animating “Flurry, The Friendly Robot”, he was very easy to work with, and it was a joy co-creating with him. I definitely look forward to working with him again.”
In 2021 I helped produce some wonderful finger-plays with my good friend and musical colleague Katherine Dines. We began posting them on YouTube in 2022. What I enjoyed most was creating an animated look and brand for these videos as well as loving their simple creative simplicity!!
“Some collaborations seem to work so well, that it’s hard to imagine ever going solo again or even looking around for another connection. So it has been with James Coffey ever since we started working together. First it was my website, then a couple of songs, next a few videos and three years ago, a whole album garnering a Parents Choice Gold. James is extremely gifted. I firmly believe that he can do anything. He gets me so musically well, that the song is ready for mastering after only one or two takes. I hit the gold mine with Jim, and bet you will too.” – Katherine Dines
And More!
Along with music and other media productions, I also help produce events online. One of those this year was the 2022 Conference for The Children’s Music Network. I produced the majority of the main events and was behind the scenes helping things to flow. Is always a challenge directing and streaming out content online for such a large international event but with the rest of the team we pulled it off in grand style!
Along with directing the event I get to have fun creating short videos, music and animations to make everything look and sound extra special. Like this opening!
Over the last couple of years I’ve had the privilege of working on a website that’s a great benefit to children. The organization is The Pickleberry Pie – Hospital Concerts For Kids. Artists from all over volunteer their time to go into hospitals and bring some musical joy to those in need. It’s been wonderful working closely with the Executive Director Jenny Heitler-Klevans. Along with designing this website I created a new website this year where kids can view concerts and videos online as well as play fun interactive games! Pickleberry Pie for Kids. You haven’t lived until you play “Pickle Pinball” or “Pickle Plop!”
This organization has a heartfelt mission so check it out and make a donation!
As mentioned above I often help with online streaming events. Here is one I directed for a combined Pickleberry Pie and Kare Afrika fundraiser this year.
Would also like to thank a few other people I worked with in 2022!
Cheryl Procaccini aka Birdsong (Music)
Joanie Calem (Website)
Anna E. Kravis (Website)
Pam Felber (Songs Of Love)
Cormac McCarthy (Website)
Sammie Hayes (Website)
Pam Donkin (Music, Video & Website)
Mary Jo Huff (Music, Video & Website)
Joyce Rouse (Website)
Jacki Breger (Music, Video & Website)
Looking forward to a brand New Year!
