On a warm Arizona summer evening, after spending roughly twenty hours recording, mixing and mastering over several weeks, I was now handed the first ever copy of my new album.
What had been a blank disk minutes before, I now viewed in a whole new light. And while I had just spent hours in the studio listening tediously to every last detail, I could not help but insert the disk into my car's CD player and listen to it again as I drove away that night. It was a grand moment. The feeling of getting your first own professionally-made album and unpacking the final product was exhilarating. That disc, although unaesthetic, almost became magically sacred and will ultimately remain the first ever copy of Carousel.
Don't worry though, the album went on to have a beautiful design and packaging—that will be featured in another post. For now, here's a trailer of the album.