My son just signed a music publishing contract!

[lkingston]

When I was about 18, I started playing in traveling “Holiday Inn bands”. A few years later I went back to college and majored in music, graduated, and worked for 30 years or so doing live sound reinforcement. I was always chasing commercial success but never got anywhere close.

During this time, I got married and raised two children: a daughter and a son. When my son was about 12, he got really interested in writing and recording music, and unlike my own father (who was wonderful in other ways), I took him seriously. Together, we set up a spare room as a recording studio, and outfitted him with a fast computer, a keyboard, decent LDC, DAW, plugins, etc.. I was always helping with things like miking drum kits in this tiny room, or setting up baffles to get the best possible sound.

I must say that he really impressed me with his dedication. I would say he spent an average of at least four hours a day for the next five years writing, practicing, recording, and honing in his craft. He got accepted into Berklee in Boston, lived in a dorm for a year (driving his roommates mad), and the next year we moved him into an apartment so he could have his own room/studio. Over the summer, he lined up a cool internship at Think Loud studio in York PA and got really good at Pro Tools.

Anyway, the point of this story is that he just got a music publishing deal with Arthouse Entertainment: one of the top music publishing companies. They are setting him up with writing sessions with some of the top writers (Michael Pollack, Johnny Simpson, etc.) and where my music never got more than a few hundred listens, my son has several songs with several million plays!

And to think I tried to talk him into going into engineering...

Anyway, I couldn’t be more proud!

http://arthouseent.com/davinkingston

[billyg]

Great story; thanks for sharing. I know you are proud.

[rllink]

That is cool. You have reason to be proud.

[Lkristians]

How great is that! Congrats, you should be proud.

[Daniel Grenier]

Nice to hear a feel-good story amidst these trying, crazy times. Good for you, dad and awesome for your son.

[lkingston]

This is his latest release. 24k listens in about three days!

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai...&feature=share

[Mr. Jelly]

Good for him! Be proud dad.

[TBman]

Excellent, congrats!

[RP]

That's amazing. Congrats to your son for his hard work paying off and to you for being such a supportive Dad....

[catdaddy]

Great story! Congrats to your son and to the supportive father who made it possible.

[difalkner]

Great and inspirational story for both of you - awesome!

David

[jrs146]

Wow that’s so cool. Congrats to you both!

[Glennwillow]

That's wonderful Larry! Good for your son and good for you, too!

- Glenn

[reeve21]

Very nice. That is quite an accomplishment for which your whole family should be very happy and proud

[Mandobart]

Thanks for sharing this, I'm very happy for your son. We normally only hear about the fabulously famous "overnight sensations." Good to hear about regular people who work hard, study and get to enter their chosen craft.