Marigold by Jim Dugan

That's when reality implodes and you begin to wax philosophical about all those real life issues coming at you, you know - like rent, dating, and keeping gas in your car; all the important stuff," he says. "Drugs and alcohol didn't work, so I gave that up and with much help developed an interest in spirituality, writing songs was a way to sort through all the disillusionment."

After high school, Jim moved to NYC, where he attended the Institute of Audio Engineering for two years before moving to DC to start a small studio business of his own. While working as a sound engineer, Jim also played in original bands, continuing to hone his songwriting skills. Opportunities to nurture his creative side were all around him. "My experience in the studio was the best musical schooling I have had. For about five years, I worked at Cue Recording in Falls Church, Virginia," he remembers. "While I was there, I worked with artists such as Shai (Platinum recording artist), Michael Faith, HR of the Bad Brains, DC Talk, and David Rose. I was fortunate to spend a good amount of time with David Rose. He had a project on CBS called Blue Rose, in France, but he was American. He returned here to the States to promote his record, we met, and started doing demos together. I loved his voice and his ideas, so I spent as much time as I could work with him on his stuff and my stuff. He taught me a so much about recording. We worked on all kinds of projects, even the entire ballet score for a rendition of The Red Shoes. It was a blast!", Jim says he will always be eternally grateful for his influence.

After one too many all-night recording sessions, no money, and exposure to too many "wannabe's," Jim says he decided to leave the studio business and music all together for a while. "I had no idea I one day would start over and write a complete album project of my own." As it turned out, Marigold grew into an accurate reflection of Jim's life and creative, spiritual journey. I love pop songs more than any other type of music and I like writing hooks. Good Pop song hooks are like prayer wheels; they persist like a mantra, go round and round inside your heart, and somehow you end up a feeling better about things."

The past 5 years Jim has relocated to Philadelphia, with Marigold set for a summer release, Jim intends to work as hard at promoting his record as he did writing and recording it. "I'm also planting seeds for new songs all the time; that's just my life. My goals are to play this music for as many people as possible -- one person at a time. All these songs represent something powerful for me; something I needed to find and I hope people will find a part of themselves as well. "Joseph Campbell said that artist's have a responsibility to illuminate the truth and that's what I'm striving for" These songs have developed and taken on new life in the studio from the original idea. I am working on putting a band together now, since that always opens it up to a something much bigger. Isn't that what it's all about?"

Look for bigger and better things to come from Jim Dugan

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