Musician, producer, and teacher Barry Blair is looking to create a jazz Christmas album and has taken to IndieGogo to raise funds. BREATHEcast had the chance to chat with the guitarist about the creation of his new record Noel Volume 2: Jazz Christmas, as well as his work in scoring the film 'Hope Bridge', and the perfection of jazz.

Blair is most known for his work as the Audio Adrenaline guitarist on the band's first three albums, leaving after 1996s Bloom. After adjusting from the stage to the producer's chair, he is looking to make a followup to his 2008 Christmas album Noel: Instrumental Christmas Favorites.

(Photo : Facebook: Barry Blair)

The musician said his first album was more folk or classic folk with acoustic guitars and mandolins. He had all of the traditional religious songs including "Silent Night," "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear," and, "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem."

This new album will be more of the contemporary Christmas classics such as "Winter Wonderland" and "Jingle Bells." Musically it will be more of a jazz combo featuring electric guitar, drums, upright bass, and piano.

Blair said he is currently working on songs but can't complete the whole project until he gets it funded "in order to get all the way through the mix and mastering, manufacturing."

Realistically he is thinking the release will "be [in the] fall, probably October before I actually have it in people's hands."

He is also working on getting it into distribution and in retail stores, but admits the project is "more a labor of love, more than some sort of commercial endeavor."

Blair intentionally wanted his albums to be instrumental. He said he personally loves instrumental music especially "around Christmas, some of those old familiar songs. It's just cool to hear different versions of them."

The guitarist said the album is a "collaboration...I guess you can say I'm kind of the band leader. I will have final say on things but I definitely have input from my piano player who really has a great ear for different chord to be in this kind of music."

As he explained, his first Christmas album was more folk, and now this one will be jazz. Blair believes jazz music has this wonderful way of being effective without needing vocals. The music almost serves as an expression itself.

"I think it's open to so many more complex structures and chordal arrangements. That just lends itself to expression. Where most kind of rock and pop music, you kind have to keep things fairly simple," he explained. "So it's a chance musically to kind of step out. I think that's what makes it very expressive. Something that is not always easy to listen to, you kind of have to digest it a little bit, but it takes you somewhere. The chord progressions and the melodies and the music itself actually kind of takes you somewhere."

Blair is using crowd funding to try and get his album completed. Sites such as IndieGogo, Kickstarter, and GoFundMe have really helped these independent artists create good work.

"A lot of things have changed since I first started in music, and it's a great one for artists. I think we are reaching a point where being independent is not a bad thing, it's actually a very cool thing creatively, and there's opportunity and there's freedom to directly reach out to your audience," he explained.

He said it is also a great way to work without having to "jump through a bunch of hoops" and getting a host of other people involved.

As with every crowd funded project, there are rewards for people who pledge. The lower perks of funding Blair's album are the album of course, a copy of his old album, and your name in the liner notes. The top two perks involve him actually giving away the jazz guitars he used to make the album.

Aside from the album, Blair has also cracked the film industry by being enlisted to work on movies scores. Recently, he worked on the PureFlix film 'Hope Bridge' which is out now in retailers and online.

"Scoring films is a new thing for me and it's a blast. It's a lot like what we were saying about jazz, it's very much out relating emotion," he said. "The restriction is you are charged with relating the emotion of what's going on in the story, so you have to follow the story. Still, you're writing music that's just pure emotion. It's a lot of fun to take a scene and try and follow the characters to understand what the emotion is, then try to write music that really propels that."

He said the film is about a teenage boy who's dad commits suicide. The movie follows him as he tries to reconcile why this happened and along the way he gets introduced to faith. The character then begins to find his answer for purpose and meaning in that.

'Hope Bridge' stars BooBoo Stewart (X-Men Days of Future Past, Twilight) and Kevin Sorbo (God's Not Dead, Hercules).

Blair hopes to obtain more film scoring opportunities but in the mean time is working on his album and teaching at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky. He teaches audio engineering, and says the school has a "great media and communication program, film, and audio production."

Look out for part two with Barry Blair where he talks about Audio Adrenaline and the power of music. Be sure to check out his IndieGogo page here.