Broadway actor and singer Tom Rocco, a Pittsburgh native who wanted to record and produce his own CD of 12 eclectic tunes, decided to do it himself.

He chose to do it in his hometown instead of New York, where he lives. "I certainly had lots of options in New York; but I know the talent that exists in Pittsburgh, and it was important to me to do everything here," he said. After choosing musicians, a West End theater for rehearsals and a North Side studio for recording and mixing, he picked a Carnegie firm to design, package and duplicate the CD. He talked about launching his CD with the Risk Diary.

What led to your decision to do the CD yourself? In my business, you have very little control over your employment situation. I'm an actor who does mostly theater, along with some commercials and a few television things. You have to wait for calls from somebody else saying they want you, or you have to wait until the right thing comes along. Well, I thought to myself, "Let me do something on my own and create a project for myself."

It all started about a year and a half ago when I began doing fund raising for the Pulmonary Hypertension Association. At the time my nephew had pulmonary hypertension. It's a life threatening illness affecting the heart and lungs. My family was pretty devastated, and I tried to think of something I could do. So I did a fund-raising cabaret show at North Allegheny High, and it was a huge success. And that's where my CD, "Matters of the Heart," got started.

Tell me about the decision to do the album here. I started doing my homework and began talking to people in New York City. The main person who helped me was a former Pittsburgher, Jamie deRoy -- she had produced a number of CDs for herself and other people. I called her and said, "Can I take you to lunch and pick your brain on how to do this?" I didn't know anything about producing a CD. Not one thing.

She guided me through the whole thing. I knew I wanted to do it in Pittsburgh because the musicians that I used were based there, and I know that studio time is much less expensive in Pittsburgh than in New York. And artistically it made sense to do it in Pittsburgh.

What was the biggest challenge? The biggest challenge was not having ever done this before. I'm at a point in my career where I'm very seasoned as a stage actor. I also know my way around a cabaret stage, but this was all new to me. You get halfway through a project like this and you think, "Oh my God, what am I doing?" There were moments when I thought I couldn't believe how much there was to do.

Was there anything else that was difficult about what you did? I really had to wear the hat of producer, too. I thought, "When do I say that I am happy with this CD artistically?" But then, as a producer, I would have to say to myself, "OK, it's time to move on. We can't spend any more time or money on this." You can keep going and going as a performer and think you have to get it just right. But as a producer, you have to say: "That's it. We have to use this as have it now."

Were there big financial risks involved? I spent somewhere in the ballpark of about $7,000 doing the CD. I had to use my savings, but I didn't mind. It's good to have a product.

Now that you're on the other side of this, so to speak, what are your thoughts? For one thing, my nephew is doing well, although it's a day-to-day thing. But so far, so good. He does wear a device that pumps medicine in him 24 hours a day, but he's able to go to school.

And now, [with my own CD], it just puts me in a different category. I look back and think to myself, "Five years ago, I never could have done this."