Hi everyone! My name is Cam. I am a PhD student in cancer research and medical physics in Edmonton, Canada.

I have also been a musician nearly my whole life, and have recently been slowly converting my basement into an amateur recording studio.

The “studio”

So, when I received Earth 16 and was asked to think of an artistic, creative action for Carry the Earth, the natural choice was to produce a song, or series of songs, representing the themes and communicating the message of the Carry the Earth project. I’ve made a Soundcloud playlist dedicated to Carry the Earth, which you can find here:

The song is a slower acoustic soft-rock (with a harder outro…turns out I can’t completely leave my rock roots!). Also featured throughout the track is my dad, an incredible pianist, with a characteristically beautiful solo at 02:20. I am in the process of finding a vocalist for this track (my usual vocalist/lyricist collaborator just became a new father, so understandably does not have the time) but this may take a while. Therefore, rather than delay Earth 16, I’ve decided to share the instrumental for now and send the globe on, and will update the story once the vocals are completed. If you are a vocalist that is interested in working on a Carry the Earth song and have an idea for this instrumental, please let me know!

But why stop at one song? Music is a very powerful method of sharing a message, especially with the capabilities of digital media. I was hoping to find other musicians in the Carry the Earth community to collaborate on this and potentially many other songs.  If there is interest in this community, we could organize and continue filling the playlist with songs that follow the theme of Carry the Earth to help spread the message. We could maybe even produce a Carry the Earth album! The songs could be any style/genre. If there are any musicians that would like to contribute to either this song, or a larger Carry the Earth music project, please let me know. If there is enough interest and content, I could start a separate account dedicated to this and hopefully spread the message of Carry the Earth to as many ears as possible.

For anyone interested in the specific song details, a downloadable file of the song, and the chords/structure are in a google drive folder:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ufG9mdmH8JXvaCm7-o1Kq2j_jQ55_jBS

And if anyone wants even more details, the instruments used in the recording are (with some photos featuring appearances from Earth 16):

• Guitars/bass
  • Takamine G-series (acoustic red)
  • 2008 Fender Stratocaster (white)
  • 2011 Fender Jazz Bass (electric red)
• Keys
  • Kurzweil Mark 10 Ensemble Grand
• Drums
  • Pearl export kick, toms, and snare
  • Sabian hi-hats, ride, and crash

Recorded on a Focusrite iScarlett 18i20 interface into Cubase LE 9.5 software.

The Kurzweil Mark 10. This keyboard is from 1993 (nearly as old as I am, and I’ve been playing it this whole time too!). I’ve had the opportunity to replace this with updated models, but have so far refused since, likely due to nostalgia, I have yet to find a better sound.

The guitars, bass, and drums used for the track. The acoustic guitar was a gift from my dad (the pianist on the Carry the Earth track) when I moved out for university. The white Fender Stratocaster had been my favourite guitar since I began playing at 14, and had finally saved enough money to buy my own shortly after my 18th birthday.

Thanks for reading, everyone!

-Cam