*watch on youtube* (video will post before midnight ET)
over the past two years, kirk has drawn innumerable inspiration from the multi-talented marc rebillet, so it only makes sense that the law of attraction is doing its thing. in today's fun installment, kirk retells the story of when his phone call into marc's most recent slim zone stream was surprisingly answered by loop daddy himself. the final segment of today's show is an original song produced by 'kirk daddy' himself, this time using clips from his serendipitous and revealing phone call with his man crush and steady creative inspo.
a.t.i.t.a. links
mgroft_edits
*watch on youtube* (video will post before midnight ET)
over the past two years, kirk has drawn innumerable inspiration from the multi-talented marc rebillet, so it only makes sense that the law of attraction is doing its thing. in today's fun installment, kirk retells the story of when his phone call into marc's most recent slim zone stream was surprisingly answered by loop daddy himself. the final segment of today's show is an original song produced by 'kirk daddy' himself, this time using clips from his serendipitous and revealing phone call with his man crush and steady creative inspo.
a.t.i.t.a. links
mgroft_edits
MANIFESTING MARC
What’s up everybody? Today is Tuesday, June 22nd, 2021. This is A TALK IN THE ATTIC, and I’m your host Kirk Ross.
Naaaa, hold up. Let’s try that again.
This is A TALK IN THE ATTIC, and I’m your host KIRK DADDY. **RECORD SCREECH**
That’s right, I’m going by KIRK DADDY now.
Well, at least I’ll be going by KIRK DADDY in the context of today’s show…and hey, if it sticks, then so be it.
In today’s installment, EPISODE 128 for those of you keeping track at home, we’ll look back on a fun and exciting happening that manifested for me this past Friday evening.
And I’m employing the verb “manifested” very deliberately here, because I am certain that what happened.
And as a disclaimer, I should note that I’m not well-read on manifestation, at least not in the broad sense of the subject. I’m not an expert on new-age spirituality…or even enlightened in this avenue whatsoever beyond that which my own personal experiences have taught me.
This past Friday night helped bring a lot of things into focus for me, and the actual event that spurred this clarity isn’t some massive one. It isn’t a significant event to the other folks involved like it is to me, but then again that could probably be said about most things.
Ostensibly, this story is about a mid-30’s dude calling the hotline of an up-and-coming musician and getting through, much to his surprise. On the surface, it’s about a custom bathrobe giveaway sponsored by the sodium-slinging folks over at Slim Jim Enterprises… And from this perspective, most every event that has ever occurred is simply a logically explained confluence of entropy that doesn’t discriminate and that is of no real significance.
But I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t search for import within the everyday happenings of my everyday life, would I? And I wouldn’t be ME if I didn’t tell you about what I’ve learned through this search.
Today’s episode is really about manifesting your own destiny. And it all starts with the multi-talented Marc Rebillet, my most reliable creative inspiration over the past couple years.
Before we can get to Marc. And before we can manifest anything, we first have to start the show. So…
LET’S START THE SHOW!
Jessica & I are huge fas of Marc Rebillet. If you are too, welcome fellow Loop Children. Everyone else, I strongly urge you to check out his extensive body of work. I’ve included a few links in the show notes.
Marc is a former, and I guess current, YouTube-based producer, musician, composer, singer, rapper, comedian, dancer, and all-around sex symbol hailing from Dallas, TEXAS.
He lives in NYC these days, which I must admit fits his aura better than the Big D ever could.
For years, Marc has live-streamed improvisational musical arrangements produced primarily through his M-AUDIO MIDI keyboard - basically the same one I have - and his BOSS RC-505 desktop loop station. This is how he has become known as Loop Daddy.
During these live streams, Marc hammers out fully produced songs all by the seat of his pants. He relies on his improvisational jazz piano skills and metronome-esque timing to pump out one-time-only songs that have never been rehearsed and that will never be played again.
He accepts callers during the live streams, and after a little chat with Marc, those callers suggest song topics, to which he obliges.
It took a while for us to really put a finger on what makes Loop Daddy so special.
Sure, his singing voice is huge and soulful, belying his small frame and appearance. But it’s not his voice.
Of course he’s a wonderful pianist, shifting from classical chord progressions to funky bebop improv in the blink of an eye. But its not his hands.
And yes he can arrange on the fly, knowing exactly when and where certain loops should phase in and out of the song. But it’s not his production.
He’s funny as shit, finding comedy gold in his multi-character back-and-forth conversations often differentiated via pitch control. He’s hilarious, but it’s not his sense of humor either.
And it’s not even his ability to meld all of these unique skills into a live variety act that makes him so special. So inspiring.
It’s his message of love. His message that you’ll never get better at something if you don’t start doing the work. His message that you’ll never grow if you don’t put your work out there for people to love, or hate.
It’s his self-confidence at any cost. Even when he isn’t exactly feeling what he’s building, he stays the course.
It’s his willingness to not take himself too seriously, even though he has the chops and the earning power to go full Diva.
It’s his complete adherence to following through on his commitments even when he’s not on the top of his game.
There’s something about this dude that really speaks to me. He speaks to Jessica and most everyone we hang out with, too.
This very podcast project is still early in it’s journey, as am I. But I can relate so hard to what Loop Daddy has gone through.
I can relate to the freedom and TERROR that come with leaving your corporate life behind and putting trust in your creative abilities.
I can relate to the flexibility that comes with running a one-man show…just like I can relate to the difficulties that come with running a one-man show.
Video, audio, lights, computer interface, and most importantly, performing on top of all those other responsibilities.
I wonder if Marc can go back into the early days of his come-up and relate to my occasional fear of dropping content even when it seems like others aren’t quite buying into what I’m doing.
I wonder if Marc ever struggles buying into himself. I wonder if he ever feels like an imposter.
To be clear, I am comparing myself to Marc only in the sense that I am trusting my creative perspective and that it will come to fruition. I’m not suggesting that I’m even in the same stratosphere as this dude. I just really appreciate what he’s built, and how he’s done it.
But Friday night, different stratospheres or not, the massive ball of energy that is Marc Rebillet intersected so serendipitously with still-small-but-growing mass that is the ATTIC.
Loop Daddy announced a relatively late-notice live event that was to be exclusively streamed on Twitch, and that would be sponsored by Slim Jim - OH YEAH BROTHER.
Marc refers to his apartment - slash - live stream venue as THE SLIM ZONE when Slim Jim pays him to do so.
And when you’re in THE SLIM ZONE, you can throw the typically subtle marketing style of Marc Rebillet out the window and directly on the BQE.
THE SLIM ZONE is loaded up with Slim Jim paraphernalia.
I’m talking artwork, a 5-foot rain stick designed to look like a human-sized Slim Jim, Randy Savage mugs loaded with beef sticks, and more.
Marc keeps a tongue-in-cheek satire about the fact that he has whored himself out to those Beef Jerky jerks, and that’s part of the fun of it all too.
In this rare glimpse into the SLIM ZONE, Marc announced that he was giving away two, COUNT EM: TWO! Custom Slim Jim robes, and that we could be taking just two calls throughout the stream.
He threw his number up. I called. And he answered.
HOLY SHIT HE FUCKING ANSWERED!
Suddenly, the delay between the stream and real-life, which felled many a caller in steams past, wasn’t so easy to overcome.
I was listening to 5-seconds-ago Marc on the studio TV screen and accidentally ignoring the actual Marc on my phone.
PLAY CLIP.
This may come as a surprise, I know it did to me, but I was fighting back a lot of emotions when my call got through.
Marc was the guy who had helped us through Quarantine. Marc was the guy who through his very existence had given me permission to chase my own offbeat niche despite the difficult odds of success in the traditional sense.
So for a split second, I almost teared up - not that me tearing up is a rare event…I’m proud to be a crier.
But some other feeling was overriding my desire to sob like a baby: it was the sudden realization that I manifested this into existence.
I know, I know, I’m talking about a branded bathrobe giveaway like it was some epiphany, but it wasn’t the bathrobe. And it wasn’t some fanboy star-fucking moment either.
It was the verification that we control our own storylines. That we attract what we think about. We experience that which we put our energy into hoping to experience.
Just a few weeks ago, when I was feeling really down coming off the unexpected passing of two people close to me, I made the conscious decision to start committing more time to visualizing the outcomes I plan to make happen.
I visualized landing Marc Rebillet as a guest here in the Attic. I’ve put tons of time into learning music production, music theory, sound engineering. I refocused my general energy to match that of Marcs: love-forward and positive and encouraging and more than anything: being myself.
On Facebook, we’re part of this loving online community of Marc Rebillet fans who regularly post loving affirmations and encouragement to one another. One poster in particular, Mark Groft, regularly posts badass Marc-themed Photoshop edits, which inspired me.
So rather than continuing to passively learn photo editing when I had time, I committed a chunk out of every couple days to actually produce an effective edit. I figured that I could provide the Fan Group with some positive material while also improving my photoshop skills.
My first post received over 500 likes - by far the most any organic post of mine has ever garnered. I’ve since posted several more, to varying totals of LIKES. But i’ve also begun interacting with other people’s posts. Started some real friendships.
I don’t believe that there is some magic link between Marc’s phone answering interface and my amateur photoshop attempts.
I don’t believe there was any divine intervention that landed me a Slim Jim bathrobe.
I don’t believe that Marc has any special love for me just because my call got through.
But I also don’t believe that this just happened, either.
No effing way, people. Because I am certain that I was heavily involved in making this happen.
It was my renewed focus on what I’m trying to build. It was my commitment to maintaining a positive disposition. It was the intense energy I put into photoshopping Marc into shit. And the sharing of his links with friends. And at the end of the day, The Law of Attraction.
I can’t say exactly how or why The Law of Attraction is a thing, but it certainly continues to bear itself out in my day-to-day life.
Including when I was on the wrong side of doing the right thing. You reap what you sow. You attract what you are. The energy you put out is reflected right back at you.
And to that end, I’m going to proceed a bit further into this idea.
I’m going to continue to manifest Marc, this time by making use of audio captured during our brief encounter and turning it into a song.
You’re hearing the instrumental in the background now, in fact.
I created the instrumental track by sampling the piano loop that Marc had been playing when he introduced us into THE SLIM ZONE right before opening up the phone lines.
I also sampled his scat / beat-boxing from right after the call.
Then I added a basic drum loop, one that I fashioned after my newest groove that I’ve mastered in my own acoustic drum education. It’s probably not a surprise to anyone, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how much easier programming drum loops is the more you know on an actual acoustic drum kit. Come play in the attic if you’re looking to get some energy out!
I created a basic bassline off the chord progression from Marc’s piano loop…added some old school drum machine toms set to mirror Marc’s scatting…added a few more hype FX…and finished it off with a synth layer that I built into the song in a steady linear fade start-to-finish.
You’ll get to see and hear our vocal samples in the mix too, but let me wrap up with some closing thoughts first.
What exactly am I manifesting by committing an entire episode to my man crush and creative inspo?
I am going to interview Marc Rebillet.
I am going to continue to work my ass off on my vision, on my production skills, on my writing, on my confidence.
I am going to spread a message of positivity and love and prove that being yourself is always the right move.
It makes perfect sense that I will interview Marc Rebillet. So I’m making it happen.
That doesn’t mean I feel I deserve it or that landing a conversation with him will be easy: I know both are false.
It just means that I am certain that I will continue putting all the time and energy it takes into making my visions become reality.
By rearranging the vocal samples from our phone conversation, I’ve created lyrics that are already laying the groundwork for the day that TEAM REBILLET & A TALK IN THE ATTIC work together to create something special.
And one last thing, I decided on KIRK DADDY as the custom text on the back of my ultra-rare SLIM JAMES Long Boi bathrobe.
And you know I’ll be rocking that motherfucker in 3-6 weeks.
Much love, y’all.
Peace out everybody.