When my girlfriend heard me play the early version of this she said “that’s pretty is that a Bruce Springsteen cover?”, which I took as a compliment. Nebraska is one of the most beautiful albums ever recorded. I didn’t intend to have the influence be so obvious, it wasn’t conscious, and also, if there is a sound I’d love to pay homage to it’s that one.
A song:
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Came across this early version of “You Can Get Far” (video from the album REDWOOD SUMMER here).
And it reminded me of when I recorded it, at Canyonlands National Park, sitting up on a cliff’s edge. As you can hear not a lot is different in the studio version, just perhaps a nicer mic and the absence of the sounds of rocks scraping underneath my shifting weight. And the view I had was incredible.
I truly don’t even know if we can do a video as part of the podcast, but we’re gonna try.
This video is long overdue. The ardently talented Ramon Garcia and I spent a couple days shooting footage for more than one music video idea. Honestly, the shot that takes up most of this video was one of the last ideas, taking a cheap projector lens and putting it over the lens of his super fancy camera and seeing what happened when we shot at half speed and then sped it up to normal speed in editing.
I think it’s cool the intimacy that comes out. Just a face, singing, the instrument too. A few shots are added overlaid in for the 99% of us who suffer from modern era ADD.
Though the album is more than a year old, it shall not pass! Much more to come from this and new ventures. Etc. Tell yr friends.
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Here’s an early version of a song I’m working on.
Last week, for Christmas I got both a new guitar and a ukelele. I was ecstatic. And immediately tried recording with them. It was nice, I was out in a little ‘casita’ a two room adobe house in the middle of some beautiful Northern California (where I’m from) vineyards. The inside was mostly tile so the sound in there was very bright and reverby.
This is what I’d call a ‘scratch’ version… The guitars are pretty good for now, though I might have to fix some issues. The vocals will be replaced. And I’d like to hear it with cello, which I’ll add soon, and maybe, just maybe some Nashville sounding drums. Good thing I know a drummer from Nashville I could call!
Lastly I may tweak the lyrics, especially the chorus, a little bit… I’m still trying to sort exactly what I’m trying to say there…
I suppose this is the first song of 2013 (kinda). Cheers to many more.
Thanks for listening…
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This song is made famous by the lovely Skeeter Davis.
We made a version of it a while back, with vocals by the also lovely Katy Unger.
Here’s an update from a song I posted a couple weeks ago. I added a cello solo in there. It was imperative to shred. I also added backup vocals toward the end. And hand claps. Always more hand claps. Also as always I prefer the original, what do you think?
I’ll let music do the talking for me.
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The podcast was my main delivery about five years ago. Then facebook happened. The thing about facebook for me now, is that it feels WAY less personal than it somehow used to.
Also, I don’t need to share ALL my random songs with ANYONE who likes my facebook page. You, my friend, are here because you are (amazingly) dedicated and I appreciate that.
So we’re going to try to get the podcast back on its feet.
Here’s a new old song. I wrote the lyrics/melody quite a while ago, and stumbled across it in my lyric book, which happens when I’m playing little mini-concerts of old material.
It’s a bit rough, but I like the way it turned out. I’m thinking of adding a little more bowed cello, and perhaps more vocals at the end there…
As is the habit lately, sadly, this archive is rarely being updated, which is too bad for me perhaps more than for you, as it is such a good record of my music persona and all the things “that” does.
You could easily deduce that on the music front I am more a crockpot on warm than a roiling boil. Nonetheless the pilot light is lit. I have this project that feels very organic, an album that, go figure, is a return to what I’ve always done. Guitar based acoustic based songs earnest and emotional. I would like to keep the production very minimal with it. Meaning: instead of writing a song and recording the main parts, then adding and layering and tweaking from there, I’d like to have all the songs under my belt and record them in a space I’m comfortable with and that sounds good. I’m not terribly concerned with having other musicians on the album, I would LOVE that, and the more the merrier, but if I go forth with just cello, guitar, and singing, then that is great.
So yeah, the songs are mostly there. I go back and forth on the lyrics. What happens with my lyric writing generally is that I kind of spew out as stream-of-consciously as I can, as little editing as possible. This sounds easy, but for me lately it has been the hardest part. I suppose I would say that the more you TRY to “craft” your music, the more you hold a certain standard above your own head, ironically the more difficult it can be to just produce the raw materials to work with. For me at least.
So, but, ideally I’ll take that pile of lyrics and if I’m really really lucky I won’t touch a thing and I’ll make the guitar or cello parts underneath it as interesting as I can make them while still being able to perform them while singing. Usually it’s not quite that easy, and my literary editor declares that what I’ve created is nothing short of a horrible embarrassment to the history of songwriting. What it is is that I am fully aware that I am not writing heady story-telling songs, and I’m not even actually aiming for high literary achievement… I aim for honesty and I tend to believe that rock and roll is better for it, from me. In other words, the type of music I love walks the razor’s edge between profound insight and simple truth. And, unlike a lot of songwriters, I don’t allow myself to rely on pure whimsy and irreverence. This is a very, very common songwriting “technique” that I hear ALL THE TIME in indie music these days. It sometimes works. It works for everyone, apparently, but my tastes lean to actually abhorring the smug indifference of pretending not to care, or not caring. I just feel that the music that I am aiming to make is all about emotion and the transference of. I’m not saying that all music has to be uber-emotional, and obviously it can be quite terrible/embarrassing when it is. But it’s what I resonate with so it’s what I attempt to do.
Woohoo.
Anyways yes, so there is an album in the works. My songwriting is just SO SLOW lately.
It’s because I’m not playing. I’m really not playing as much in L.A. as I hoped/expected to. I just can’t seem to crack the shell of the scene or find my happy place in it. I suppose that’s the nature of the big pond. I really need to play it turns out. It’s truly what I feel I am meant to be doing. And I’m not! Yeesh. That has to change. Even if it means returning to small towns to play.
Ok, I’ve got to paint a box I made now. Yeah that’s vague but true. Tonight my lady is putting up an installation for a Twin Peaks based art show/cocktail party at The Falls in downtown Los Angeles. I made the box and stand. It’s neat.
Thanks for being amazingly loyal considering my own lack of enthusiastic input into this here weblog. Rest assured though it shall continue, and be more exciting soon!
Tonight:
Luke Janela & Dan Mele
Artshare LA, Downtown Los Angeles
321 S Hewitt, Los Angeles, CA 90013
Starts at 8pm, FREE.
This one is weird and fun. I’ll be playing a lot of old songs that I haven’t touched in ages. I was intending to play new songs but just wasn’t feeling confident that I would actually remember the lyrics. So, I’m dusting off some old stand-bys and that is really interesting for me personally. Hopefully for you.
Dan is a fantastic guitar player and singer, and he’ll have a very talented mandolin player with him.
It will be fun.
I’ll see you there or I’ll just have to tell you all about it after the fact.
Had a good rehearsal yesterday. Me and Tripp played at Bedrock Studios over in Echo Park. A big room, horror movie posters on the wall, huge amps, and a little time. We haven’t had time to play lately and so it was good.
If you are a musician out there trying to get better, let me tell you, if you can book a gig, any gig, that is the key. Basically you are forced to get your act together, literally, and it will speed up the process of developing your material exponentially.
Also: rehearsal studios = good. Never thought I’d be a fan, but now I kind of am. It’s nice, for one thing, to get away from the house to play. It’s nice to have all the equipment set up and ready to go, and then to walk away from it. And it’s also nice to see and occasionally meet all the other musicians in your peer group coming and going from their rehearsals. You can hear them through the walls and get a feel for where other bands are at.
Opened up the book of songs we’ve been playing. Six or seven tracks off of “Tomorrow Was” that are manageable live and that are propulsive. Good to play those but wow they take a lot of energy. Playing a super fast song for three minutes is one thing. Playing a string of fast six minute songs is different. So we kind of played around with new “material”, improvised is why it’s in quotes, and it was exhilarating.
I feel certain that if we work together on a new album, making material from rehearsals and live shows, that we will be onto something really cohesive and cool. Recorded part of it too. I’m not sure that it warrants sharing per se, but you know that I’m always down to share stuff that is borderline fit to listen to. I like raw. So I’m ok with it. So yes, a show Tuesday night near downtown LA at The Airliner. Midnight Door plays at 9ish. Cover is $5. I think it will be a really fun night out, given that there are DJs and other rad bands and live painting. I’m looking forward to it.
MIDNIGHT DOOR (Shooting scenes for what could be a music video…).
So, yesterday I went out with the sharp eyed keen minded Ramon Garcia to shoot some scenes. He originally had the idea of shooting potentially illegally (we don’t really know) down in the subway and we did it guerilla style and his shots turned out great. So yesterday we did more of the same, a little bit of filming at the caves up in Griffith Park. It was funny, another film crew, much more professional and moneyed was already there. We just acted like we knew what we were doing and, oddly, had the cave to ourselves for a good 20 minutes. We shall see how the shots turn out, but it’s refreshing and fun to just come up with ideas on the fly and make them happen like that. And it’s nice to work with Ramon. He’s cool.
Just as I started getting busy with writing blog posts it all fell off a cliff. Not sure why, but I feel a conflict about it.
Mostly the conflict would just be that I want to have things to share with the ethereal internet, new shows and rad news and all that cool making stuff. Honestly I just don’t right now. Have that much. To say.
I’ve been in a period of transition. I’ve become accustomed to not expecting too much. I’ve been not enthralled with the music world in general. It all has added up.
Transition just being more work. Time less cloudy.
Accustomed to not expecting too much meaning that well, I haven’t been super involved or am not receiving a ton of feedback/awesome news on the music front so like, ok. If what they say about successful people dealing with many many failures than I am sure to be super successful soon! Music blogs ignore me, venues don’t write me back, and festival submissions rejected. It’s been rough, if I’m honest. But (thankfully?) it’s to the point where I’m a bit numb about it. I am too stubborn or full of belief to really accept or believe that it means the music isn’t GOOD per se. It’s just not landing smoothly. Um. I don’t know. Whatever the reason, be it that I don’t jive well with the contemporary indie-music thing, be it that it is not produced well enough, be it that it hella sucks, there’s a whole lotta nothing going on. So I’ll just admit that. Yes it bums me out. Yes it leads to a bit of a personal crisis. No I don’t feel sorry for myself.
Not enthralled with music world in general. I just don’t love where music is at right now. It’s all so major key and irreverent. It’s all so brightly colored raybans and skinny jeans. It all feels like it would fit well in a gap commercial. Not all. But so much of it. There are cracks in its armor. But it’s hard to be doing really passionate wild loud music right now.
When we play out though it’s not hard at all. People respond. I’m glad to have found a drummer to play shows with, Tripp Beam. I feel that when we play it is awesome.
I’ve been attempting to record some video takes of songs real raw. But man it’s hard. The second the record button is pressed my brain can’t process words and then, sadly, I have control over the edit and I decide I look dumb and no-one will ever see these takes. But soon I will get it all straight. And I’ll be recording live raw takes of old and new songs and putting them out on the fly.
So like… that’s it. I guess you could say that more is to come. I guess you could probably bet on it. Hope this post isn’t a downer. It’s just honest. I say onward. I say on to more and better and music and thank you. Thank YOU for reading. I will talk with you soon, I hope.
Oh blog of mine, which hath been updated irregularly and regularly since 2004. I’m glad you exist my sweet blog. Although you make me nostalgic too.
But yeah, I’m reminded that documenting moments of time has a purpose, perhaps a hell of narcissistic purpose, but purpose nonetheless. It’s a night like this, last night of March 2012, where I am sipping cheap whiskey on my roof deck, lamenting that Kate is out working for the evening, teaching painting to a group class which must be terrifying. I am listening to Thao and the whosiwhatsits, which isn’t a common choice lately but it fits for now. It was really too quiet in this sweet orange ish apartment. Cinco is sitting on the orange chair making the scene all the more orange.
Life has been really kind of brutal in a non complainy way the last six months or actually year. No breaks man. No big hearty moments of smiley ness. A bit of confusion stew with generous sprinklings of self-doubt and repetition. What a weird time. Ugh. I don’t know that I could have lived it better, in fact I’m willing to bet I couldn’t have. But yeah. Aimless, hopeful and heartbroken.
Well, I mean I finished those albums about this time last year. After endless silly revisions. And then… wha happend? Weird mastering issues, time just passing in such an uncomfortable way, expectations built, and then shattered. Then reality set in.
Thank god for walks and brothers and family, lovely girls and dogs. Thank god for cheap whiskey and a night where I have the balls to write a journal entry that could be read by someone wondering who I think I am. I don’t know. I would love to personify the super cool musician to you, and seduce you with imagery from the special mind of a special musician. But that’s all obviously a bunch of scaredy cat bullshit. There aren’t any musicians out there that are really better than you, in your quiet apartment. They may have the perfect hairstyle in their press pictures, and they may tweet cleverly, and on stage they seem invincible, but they aren’t invincible, and they certainly aren’t cooler than YOU, who, incidentally, are the coolest ever. Music has a purpose, but it oughtn’t be to maintain the egos of its makers. So sayeth I.
Whatever.
So yeah. Turned a corner. Thank god for April. I am starting a new job on Monday. That’s right, a job. Well, yeah, I know. I hoped to break through with the new album enough to not worry about such trifles as “money” and “groceries” but it didn’t happen that way. It’s ok. I like work. I hope to be able to work as a musician and I think this job will give me breathing room. Maybe it will remind me how imperative it is to play music as the thing. I am really really really not interested in giving up. Even though at times, scary sad times in the past year I have actually thought that perhaps I ought to. Give up. Let’s face it. If you are reading this, you are the few and the proud. Unless I have indeed “made it” and this blog becomes a hysterically stupid piece of the legend dispelled of this music. Or what. This music. This… life.
I miss my friends. Gonna say it. Getting older you miss everything. And it’s important to realize the utter and complete sweetness of each phase. I would say “of each day” or “of each moment” but really I can’t keep up. I would just say that each phase of life is insanely sweet and poignant in its own lonely lovely way. Not that you are lonely, but that those phases are lonely. They want you to appreciate them. Remember first break up phase? Remember first apartment phase? Yeah. Those phases are lonely/lovely.
Ok. that’s my check in. Thanks for reading. You are rather patient.
Thanks life. This evening is cool. On to the greatest raddest most fantastic adventure yet!
Today I recorded some cello tracks for an indie film. They were nice, and lovely parts.
Sat in a recording room with the director and the composer watching over me and listening to every note. Thankfully I’ve been through this before, and know to take deep breaths, that every take isn’t going to be perfect, and to push through.
What you are going for is nothing less than the perfect take. That little bit of emotion that pushes the movie to the next level. And getting that is not going to be easy, even under the ideal circumstances (which may or may not ever be the case).
I don’t have much wisdom to pass along re: the perfect take. What I will say is that taking control of the situation on some level is essential. If your take wasn’t perfect, be the one to say it first, even if their ears hear it as alright. Go back and record it again. And again. It’s not like tape is being bought for each take. In the digital realm, re-do’s are a blessing for the perfectionist.
It won’t be perfect. But it will be yours. It will be personal, and honest. And that will give the recording you make something special, which is why you are there and not a synthesizer.
A big storm passed through LA yesterday. It kind of ravaged this desert city. I heard that an inch came down in a couple of hours. The streets became rivers, rushing downhill almost over the edges of sidewalks, and the drains to which all water rushed were big loud vortexes one would not want to slip into. Especially while unloading a guitar amp.
I witnessed all this as I was loading-in for a show at the Universal Bar in L.A. (It’s called the Universal Bar & Grill, but for some reason my pride allows me to play bars, but not bar & grills). The rain made the load-in more exciting than usual.
This venue was on the shore of the LA river in North Hollywood, which is not really as rustic sounding as it could be. At that point the river is a concrete slough and last night it was really raging, with no trees or grasses to slow it down. The rain was relentlessly dumping.
There was something kind of charged to the atmosphere outside and inside of the bar. Red light mixed with black lights and a cozy warmth. The smell of damp jackets and beer. Everybody had braved the elements a bit to make it out, and, as only some bars can do, it felt like THE place to be in case of emergency. So it was good. People were happy, the previous bands put on a great show and brought in a good draw and all was well.
We (as Midnight Door) played with abandon, as has been the case for all three of our shows thus far. Last night I felt even more the need to exorcise, and the feelings behind the songs felt pretty spot-on to me in my life. Being emotive wasn’t particularly difficult. More importantly though, the small crowd was TOTALLY into it , which is something that you can feel viscerally on stage. It is important and amazing when a crowd is wrapped up in every note… you can be exponentially more interesting and interested as a performer.
Then a rainy drive through Hollywood, which, at the risk of sounding like a farmboy, still impresses me greatly. I don’t know what Hollywood is or means, but it has a certain energy and excitement in its present that just being near is undeniable.
My brother came all the way up from Orange County and drove me to the gig and back which was amazingly cool. And my girlfriend as usual was present and super-into the whole thing, including carrying heavy equipment. Some good friends showed up for a meet up at the bar before and after, and my new partner in musical destruction Tripp played drums so excellently as only a pro can.
The night before, Saturday, we played in Echo Park at Pehrspace, which is this cool, funky venue that sits inside of a strip-mall type area. On both sides there are tiny hispanic churches whose buildings would be equally fitting for a laundromat or a travel agency.
Pehrspace is run by incredibly sweet and kind people whose real purpose seems truly to be allowing for art to happen. The opening band was a duo of drums and synth/beat/sounds and they brought a bunch of their super supportive crowd out. It was really great party jam music with thick beats mixed with urban psychadelia, and their drummer played live with a fury and a precision that is very difficult to pull off with electronic stuff.
There weren’t a whole ton of people there, but the ambience was supportive and great and wide open and so we just rocked it out. To tell the truth, circumstance made it such that we didn’t rehearse prior to the performance, but I had a feeling we could pull it off and we did. It was great. I was sweaty and sore after.
So now as is the usual though I just try and filter out what it means. To play great shows for a few people. To not actually have anything booked. It’s a mix of accomplishment and what now? It feels good and bad at once. I want to play more shows and reach more people and just, be able to do that. And that isn’t always easy to do. Ideally some clarity will come about, some natural career-ish evolution will become inevitable, and I will not have been spinning my wheels on a stationary device. Regardless, it was good great fun, and a solid workout to boot!
I’ve always been the “passionate” cellist. Early on I probably leaned into the strings a bit heavily to overcome my lack of practice. I might have even used the “I am passionate” card as a justification for not practicing as much as I should have (I never practiced from age 13 until college, I would show up at the lesson and class and sight. I’m not proud).
I still am the passionate musician. My music requires it, and I’m more than happy to be that person. Um, you know, I’m still not the world’s most fantastic cellist in general, especially not technically, but I can hold my own. I have technique now, I get it, I work it. I practice!
But I BELIEVE in feeling and passion in music and I will until the day that I die. I can’t stand dry flat deliveries (hello most indie rock of the last several years).
And yet! And yet… I have noticed this thing that is important, and I have noticed it especially when I know I will have to get on stage and perform, and it is this: a little less feeling, a little less bombasticity (now a word), a deeper breath or two, and yes, a few more thoughts given to the angle of the bow and the curvature of the fingers really really helps. It makes the passion come through in a more sophisticated way.
via CELLO. LESSONS! – Once more, this time with less feeling..
Played a show in Echo Park yesterday and the little room at the little cafe was nice and close and intimate and good and the daylight shone through the window which is not all that common for a music gig. Improvised set means you don’t have any basis for judging the performance. Actually, you never do.
I have two gigs coming up this weekend. Didn’t mean for that to happen, that’s usually a no-no, even in a big city, because you you know, use up all your pulling people in power. To be honest I don’t have a ton of that at the moment so every show played out is a chance to reach people. I’m… well… I hate to admit this but I’m desperate to play more. And so if someone says “will you play?” I say “Yes!”, no exceptions (almost).
So I’ll be revisiting Tomorrow Was, which is good. Playing through those songs, which are still full of a meaning I don’t even know that I understand yet. I’m happy to stick around with them a bit, though I’m always anxious to write and create more. Perhaps now that I’ve split my persona in two (Midnight Door and Luke Janela) I can write under one and continue on with the other.
Spring is really here. LA is so ridiculously lovely weather-wise, to the point that it creeps me out at times. I loved the big and rare storm that roared across the basin and blew down my wind chimes. It is essential that break, that chaos.
Anyways, the point is that I will be practicing this week. And that will be good.
Today I hope I can inspire myself to put on a few sweaters and brave my little studio. I actually really need to, I’ve got a show tomorrow and two the following weekend. And in the midst of that I’ve got some other “real world” responsibilities that are pretty pressing, needing my every bit of extra attention.
I will be working on this ambient set that I’ve been performing for a long while now. Beats + Cello + Effects.
The Process?
I write the beats first thing. I’ve always been a fan of big beats and while I can’t say I am any kind of expert, I enjoy the act of creating beats. I don’t use canned beats (Canned beats are free-to-use beats that somebody already wrote and recorded a sample of, for anyone to use).
Most of the “songs”are quite free-form, and I enjoy that freedom. It’s like electronica/jazz, that openness. But a lot of times I will, no wait, I always decide on a key initially, whether it be b minor or C Major or what-have-you. Sometimes if I can think that far in advance I’ll go modal, though really if anything I play in Dorian and tend, sadly, to not explore the other modes too much. Some of these “songs” over the years have in fact developed their own melodies or themes, and so, in that sense they are not completely improvised. But after those things are out of the way (beats + key + theme) I just see what happens.
The most difficult thing about that in a live context is self editing. It doesn’t take much at all for one of these songs to turn into 30 minute self-aggrandizing tombs. It’s extremely important to try and think quickly and move forward quickly, in my opinion. I’ve seen far too many musicians wanking over how awesome they are for too long and I don’t want to be that guy. A helpful thing for me to keep in mind is that less IS indeed more. In fact that is sort of a mantra I repeat over and over as I perform (less is more… less is more…). I think Miles Davis is the master of that and everything else, and I can’t count how many times his face has popped into my head while playing as a way to remind me to let things breathe. It’s a startling vision that snaps me back sometimes.
That’s the process. As technology has changed the process has changed, the performance has changed. My first attempts at doing things this way was in Portland playing some random loft parties. I had my trusty Korg Electribe ER-1 and a delay pedal. I played loud and feedback was rampant. It was great!
Music device fiends: My favorite favorite thing about the Electribe is its “audio in” feature, which is hard to describe in words, but allows you to create a rhythmic pattern for your external input to actually be outputted… So that the notes I play on my cello beep through with the beats in a set pattern. It is a nice sci-fi sound that makes it sound like more than one instrument is playing. I am bummed that so far the electribe is the only device I’ve found that does this. Even software like Ableton doesn’t have this feature. You can hear that effect in “Everybody Is Dreaming“, it’s the synth sounding rhythmic noise going on throughout, especially audible for the verses.
The Electribe is still with me, even though I don’t really need it. I’ve found a way to integrate it via midi into my current setup. My setup is not all that different now, I just use my laptop with Ableton Live + Electribe + Effects Pedal + Keyboard Synth + Launchpad.
Using a laptop live does have its drawbacks… 1. software glitches and computer malfunctions (they happen, I can attest) 2. It’s your laptop, which, in my case, is the most valuable thing I own second to my cello, so that’s not ideal to have on a stage at a club, but in the end it takes a solo act to levels probably impossible otherwise.
So yeah, time to stop writing and go practice! Maybe I’ll record some snippets and post. Maybe!
Seth Godin is a universal delight. This is a topic I’ve been kind of obsessing over, whether it matters to please everyone (you know the answer).
Invisible is an option, of course. You can lay low, not speak up and make no difference to anyone.Thats sort of like dividing by zero, though. Youll get no criticism, but no delight either.
via Seths Blog: The mathematical impossibility of universal delight.
There is no set career path.
You can blow up big and be gone from the scene in less than a year. You can trudge away for years and years and that does not by any means guarantee or even increase the odds of a “promotion”. You can start off playing punk clubs and end up at the county fair. You can become a huge hit only playing people’s living rooms. What that does to the psyche is simply that there is no career guidance that fits for every musician. There are very few things you can share with each other as musicians that sort of point to the “proper” way to go about being a musician.
The paradox of taste.
Most of the bands that I adore also have people who adore them, but were I to lift the needle off of “Baby Baby” and drop it on a song I will eternally love, say, “Drunken Butterfly” I would likely be pummeled with scorn. Faces would contort. So that can be an odd feeling, knowing that some people love in a real way the music you make, where as others actually, sincerly, hate it. I imagine that is even more weird but probably less concerting the more popular you become.
The Endless Crescendo
Career wise and/or skills wise, there is never a point where you put up your feet and say “I am finally a ‘good enough’ violin player”. Inevitably there will be another goal to push through. You might play your dream show with your favorite bands and most likely that will inspire you to think “this is only the beginning”.
More of these to come. If you are a musician let me know yours.
Well, oh well.
This blog was once a place where I would sit and write about life, because life and music were intertwined. I think I felt like I needed to become more distant, more cool, in order to be a successful musician, because that is how most bands that come to mind present themselves. Also I just wasn’t sure it was appropriate to be personal here of all places.
But with tumblr and facebook and my “official” site, there are plenty of places where I can act like I’m cool. Here I am reclaiming as a place to just write. If you don’t like it, I’m not sorry to say I really don’t care.
Smiley face.
There’s a lot of catching up to do… I moved to Los Angeles after all! The short story is L.A. is not a bad place. The long story to be written at some point may indeed be that I don’t know where I fit.
I’ll stick with right now, to bolster my sense that writing like this is right.
Right now I spent the day cleaning up this blog. I played some old songs on guitar. I’m really lying. I updated my resume. Music is wonderful. But in reality I can’t feed myself with it yet. Not even close. And so I’m at another crossroads in my life.
I won’t go into details, because one thing I will not do with this blog is pump up the jams at my pity party.
Right now it is almost Spring. I LOVE Spring. Every year I act like January and February do not terrify me, because of the depths of introspection I tend to go into… and every year I come out of those months unable to believe that I couldn’t protect myself from waves and waves of Winter’s big… feeling. Big feeling. The Big Feel. That is what January and February are to me.
So: here is a toast to re-invigorating this blog. Which, if you look at the archives, has always been remarkably honest.
In the next few posts I’ll catch up on what has all been going on in the past two or three years.
In the meantime, welcome back, I’m really glad to have you here.
It’s been a while since I have practiced Bach. It kept getting put aside because I had my own music to prepare and also because well, you know, I fell off the wagon.
Today I jumped on the wagon as it bounced and barely rolled along on misshapen wheels.
And I just had the simple revelation while playing that pretty much EVERY TIME I have sat down in my life to play a Bach Cello Suite thingy I have begun with the statement in my own head: “This is really difficult”.
I mean, it is difficult. But why state the obvious? Why make that the thing that begins every measure? I’m not saying that instead I should say “This is really easy”. If only. If only that were the magical cure to everything. I could get used to that.
I’m just saying maybe it’s time to acknowledge the intricacy, but instead of fixating on it, to keep in mind “let’s do this” instead. It’s a different mind set.
It’s more fun. And I played better. So. Time to try applying this in other areas of life I think.
One last thought… the other idea I noticed has lodged itself like a weed deeply rooted in my mind while playing is “other cellists can do this better”. Again. Duh. Yup. No argument there. So WHY fixate through every note on that thought?
The answer? No idea. But maybe just fixate on every note as much as possible. Not the idea that someone else can play it more rad-like.
Here’s the piece I play (and is standard repertoire) and this is most definitely not me, just one of the better youtube versions I’ve found:
The other day I had a freak out over my posture with the cello. Was my cello at the right angle? Was my posture producing the best sound? Was it what I was supposed to be doing?
Posture is… well… it’s the basic of basics with playing cello. You generate power in your bow arm, you encourage your fingers to dance rather than trudge, you can play for a long time without fatigue, you don’t develop tendonitis as easily, it’s the basic of the basics.
So how could I, after all these years of playing, be questioning the basics of the basics yet again? How could I not have this figured out yet?
At the time I chalked it up to being a bit frustrated with my playing as of late, not feeling confident with the music I was working on.
But I think now, a couple days later, that it’s because it’s ok to question the very basic elements of our endeavors, of our lives even.
How do you walk? What does your gait say about you? Is it good for your back? What does your smile project? How do you say your name when introducing yourself? How often do you tell those you love that you love them? Do you look into people’s eyes when talking to them?
These are the basics. And I think it’s important to return to them as much as is necessary. We are always re-learning the basics.
There is something so very critical about repetition to the brain. Repetition is my only rock-solid method to realistically and successfully take on big challenges. I also value repetition as a way to get the little but important things done.
I’ll get to how repetition applies to the cello in a few paragraphs but since I must not have read my last post (“get back to it“) and have been traveling recently and meeting lots of new people, I have a non-cello example that shows how valuable repetition is, it involves introductions and names.
I hate to admit it but I am terrible with names. It is such an awkward and lame trait to have. I think it is probably more common than is let on so I try not too feel too guilty about it. I try to cope or be honest. I have learned to say “I’m sorry, what was your name again?” within the early stages of meeting someone as opposed to having that mortifying moment of uncertainty upon meeting them a few months down the road.
It’s not an ideal way though. At this family wedding I recently attended I was swamped with dozens of new names to learn. A new friend was talking about how to remember names effectively and it works so well! You guessed it, repetition.
“When you meet someone, say their name out loud as many times as is natural in the course of conversation, try to say it at least three times. You won’t forget their name from there on out.” It’s like magic for me!
I should have known this. With cello and with life, repetition is the only way to tackle a large piece of music, to inspire a new piece to come about, to get past technique and into feeling.
I will post about my tried and true method: “How To Practice” in the near future, but, spoiler alert, the basic building block is repetition.
Take a new piece. Play the first several notes. Stop. Repeat. Move on to the next batch of notes (measures), repeat. Now go back to the beginning, repeat the first few notes again. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. It sounds tedious. But it isn’t. Repetition of small tasks is like having a 50 shelf organizing system in your closet instead of just a hanger and a hamper. It’s efficient.
So, if you are facing a monumental task: a speech, starting an exercise routine, learning a new piece, beginning an instrument, starting a diet, studying… I suggest breaking the big task down into tiny little pieces and running through them and repeating.
I know this is not the revelation of the century, in fact it’s really just common sense. But you wouldn’t believe how useful it has been for me to become aware of the value of repetition.
I’m starting a blog series called “Cello Lessons”. The idea is to take the lessons I’m learning by playing cello everyday and relating them to other aspects of life.
Having discipline is good, maintaining discipline is even better. I’ve gotten to a point where taking a day off of practicing cello feels like a vacation, especially if I am busy, or as is even more often the culprit I just don’t “feel like it”.
It’s fine to take a break from routine. I’m of the mind that if I need a break I need a break. I’ve had a lot of sessions that were just bad before I even started, and continued until any gains in technique and finesse were mitigated by frustration and impatience (more on this in another “Cello Lesson”, I also happen to believe there is a time to push through).
The problem happens when that day off turns into two, and then there is a big holiday or life just happens (as it tends to do) and now you’re into a stretch of non-action.
Getting back to it is the thing though. Today I’m getting back to it, truly kind of worn out from a long weekend and a hot long day. It’s the re-establishment of routine that matters. The question is, how to convince my wily mind to actually do it?
I tend to feel like I’m collecting feathers on a windy day, after a week or two of solid practice I’ll have a good collection and then a big wind and whoosh I’m back to where I started. There are probably other better metaphors*, building a sand castle right at the edge of the waves, painting clouds… whatever.
Really though there IS a gradual growth that happens, one that a strong wind can’t blow away.
I happen to believe that a day or two, or even a week off (if it comes to that), can be a good thing. I think the brain needs to process things. A great episode (from a fantastic show, Radiolab.org) on sleep kind of re-affirmed this for me: http://www.radiolab.org/2007/may/24/sleep-deprivation/
What I took away from the episode is that there have been studies that imply that musicians in particular can benefit greatly by letting the music rest overnight and returning to it the next day.
I notice that when I return to playing after a week off there can actually be a fluency to the techniques I’d been working on. I actually can’t preach that this is due to my brain processing technique in the time off as much as that I am simply not as self-critical upon returning. I’m usually amazed that I can still play halfway gracefully. I’m not constantly questioning whether my elbow is moving in an elliptical shape or not. It happens on its own it seems.
So, get back to it. The pain of having to work your way back up to where you left off will not be as bad as you think. You might even be delightfully surprised that you’ve improved in your time off.
*(oh yeah, Sisyphus, there’s the better metaphor! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisyphus)
It’s suddenly spring in LA, at night the jasmine smells waft over the city, people are taking off their sweaters that were in use for 2 weeks, and everything is growing in a lush way.
I’m loving spring and the feeling of rebirth that comes with it. Honestly you get so deep into the things you are working on and sometimes you just reach a sort of wall. I was starting to feel that way with the new album, and so strangely so, because I really really love the thing. But for whatever reason I’m feeling rejuvenated and the album is too.
Some of it may be outside inspiration… I was playing cello for my friend and fellow musician Molly Allis in Boston, and we had to figure out how to get the cello parts I recorded transcribed and performed with violin, cello and upright bass, as opposed to three imaginary Lukes. It was a really fun process and reminded me of the lovely depth that strings bring to chords. Since then I’ve been looking at the album and finding moments that could be more lush and composing little ditties for that. I actually wrote a cello quartet that I’m really happy with the other day. It’ll be an interlude.
Some of it is the weather. More hours of the day. I don’t know about you but I can’t really be bothered to start playing the cello at 9am. For whatever reason my creative work just doesn’t happen until the afternoon. And in the wintertimes that means it’s just dark suddenly when I emerge from the cave of my recording studio.
Oh and I think some of this newfound push is getting over hesitations… also again tell me what you think but for me the closer I am to putting something out in the world, the further faults I find with it. Nitpicking I suppose you’d call it. I’m real keen on that one too as honestly if there were one thing I would change in my music career it would be to not have released several early albums in such blatantly tawdry states.
Lastly perhaps, or at least just for now… I want to get the thing done! I’m ready to move along and create more music and play these songs live.
So if you are having a hard time getting out of winter perhaps this’ll help. Spring is around the corner. Let’s go!
I have been really not writing blog posts lately if you haven’t noticed. I kinda thought I’d lean on twitter and facebook to keep things updated, especially in this new attention span world the internets have developed. But I’m missing my real posts and keeping score on how things are going with the music.
As you may know I’ve been working on a new album “Tomorrow Was” for the past several months. I had in mind an album that I can perform live that is an amalgamation of the styles of music that influence me heavily lately in a visceral way: electronic, punk, classical, and jazz, all leaning on the pillars of that rock and roll that Neil Young rightly proclaims “can never die”.
It’s been intense, many hours, ten songs, constant reworking. I feel an obligation to have no regrets with this one, and to give it my all. There are a few other albums that I can’t wait to make next, the all acoustic one, the next instrumental cello one, the all electronic beats + cello one, but for now I’m locked in. The lyrics ought to be my own, I try and get layers of meaning into each line, I try to avoid that ever-tempting chasm that is being trite, I try to make them coherent and mysterious at the same time. It’s going well. I’ve never had so many rewrites of lyrics. The cello can be tighter and bigger always, the layers of sound can be less dense and more complex. This is why it takes so long.
I had the amazing opportunity to record with Adam Carson (AFI) on drums and we banged 5 songs out in one day. I replaced a lot of the electronic beats on those songs and have learned a lot about getting an organic but lively drum recording. It sounds incredible, I can’t wait for y’all to hear it.
So yeah, the months are cruising along with further work on what I intend to be by far my best album to date. REDWOOD SUMMER was awesome to work on, Midnight Door was a triumph for me personally, and all those other albums feel like good stepping stones.
I’ve gotten further away from worrying what the world might think of my own particular brand of music and more concerned with meeting my own very high standards of (subjective) quality. I never have been great at following the latest musical trends, and frankly I have no idea what drives the pitchforks and college radio stations of the world to make kings and queens out of new musicians. I understand that my earnest, emotional, raw and honest music that is heavy on sound and (attempted) musicality may not be the current THING in music. I could get more ironic, more irreverent, more silly and less dense. I could try to catch the wind of popular trends but you know what? I don’t want to and it probably wouldn’t be that pleasant or necessarily successful. No, I figure I’ll keep doing what I do best and I’ll push it and work on it and disassemble it and keep trying to get it out there just as is.
Like this very un-edited blog post.
Los Angeles has been very good to me and mine. The weather is pleasant, our neighborhood exciting, my musical inspiration exponentially expanding. It’s a massive massive blanket of humanity spread out widely over the desert-y ocean-y southern part of California and it is different for me and thus refreshing and invigorating. I come from Northern California, where mere mention of LA brings involuntary sneers, but honestly I feel like it’s one thing to look down upon it from afar, another to actually live here. I love the energy, I love the go get it attitude, and I love feeling like people are involved in their art very passionately. It’s a place to come and get down to business, get to work, get yourself out there. I am timidly sliding my foot into doors, and occasionally I have been met with great opportunities working with music video directors and other musicians. I feel like though I’ve been here a year now I’m just getting my feet underneath me.
My days have been filled with more cello, almost out of nowhere I rediscovered an intense desire to play Bach, to practice exercises, to spend a chunk of each and every day with this nuanced, gorgeous, frustrating, endlessly potent instrument I play. I’ve been playing the same cello since age 14, been saving for that fancy-pants cello some day, but for now, me and my beginner/intermediate cello spar with each other and I learn how to play it in particular. I can only play Suites 1 and 3 of the Bach Suites for Solo Cello, but I figure it’s time to expand that and delve deeper. Getting into Suite 2 every third day and eventually will have the courage to jump into the last three and their menacing keys and fingerings.
I read this book “The Cello Suites” by Eric Siblin and it got me all fired up to embrace the instrument. This book came into my life a couple weeks after deciding to practice seriously again so I feel like it’s a sign. Read it, it’s great, whether you are a musician or not.
In other projects I’ve been recording cello for Molly Allis’ new album PILGRIM, performing with Jessica Ripka, and juuuust started working with film composer Lior Ron. All of these activities are really really fulfilling. Between that and conspiring with Adam Carson on my own music I’m gettin’ pretty close to that true vision of being a musician that I have fought for for 15 years.
So that’s the update. All is well down south, all shall be revealed. I’m going to make an effort to scratch around my life for enough interesting things to write about to make it a very regular thing. I’m ready to come out of hibernation I suppose.
I sincerely hope you are well, and I sincerely thank you for checking in on my blog and my life and my music.
Words.
Luke.
It’s hot in the studio today. By studio I mean shed, and by shed I mean it has a floor and carpet over the floor and frankly it’s perfect for me right no, cozy, but there is no insulation.
I’m not complaining… kind of keeps me on my toes and the sauna like atmosphere is maybe clearing out my pores? Besides, music is always made better under duress. Also, I’m not complaining for real… I love and am thankful that I am working on this album and fully appreciate that it is great to have that be the day’s priority.
And it’s hot in here.
I decided unfortunately that I hate all the lyrics I previously wrote/recorded for my current batch of songs. They’re just not… hmm, how do I say it? Sharp. Last night I watched this movie from 1950 “All About Eve”… if you haven’t seen it I highly recommend it, won’t get into details but the dialogue is so SNAPPY. You get whiplash from the cleverness and the intelligence. Songs used to be that way too. I’m not saying I haven’t contributed or at least bought into the modern use of lyrics as purely emotive, but man, a little subtlety goes a long way. So that’s something I’m trying to work into my lyrics.
Also I want to be certain that my lyrics are honest. It’s interesting, honesty is actually a difficult thing to pull off in lyrics, for me. I suppose if I had an alter-ego (do I? Maybe.) I could jive on all kinds of things with no consequence to whether it meant anything to me personally. That might arrive at certain truths more quickly, actually. By honest I just mean not false. As in, I could tell you that I feel hopeful about this thought, or nostalgic about this memory, or that these words in a string in melody actually mean something. And I would really want you to trust me that it’s true. Nothing new for my lyric writing conceptually, but always a challenge to pull off, as life and the world changes. etc.
Also, mean, it becomes tricky too in that I’m not a storyteller in the traditional sense. It’s not that I don’t want to write a great Dylan-esque story about a relationship like Tangled Up In Blue… it’s just that frankly it’s not my forte. Or I’ve convinced myself it’s not at least. I lament every single story-based song I’ve put out into the world, and that’s true. I prefer stories that kind of disintegrate the moment they are told, stories that are true for the listener with just a hint of the plot.
Anyways, hope that doesn’t sound pretentious. I’m pretty sure it does, but trust me I’m not trying to be over-intellectual. Just rambling out some thoughts as I take a break (can you say procrastinate?) from writing lyrics. Tying knots in ink and thoughts.
Bye!
(This is me in the studio. It is hot… did I mention that already?)
I’ve put up a new video off of REDWOOD SUMMER.
It takes a simple performance of the song You Can Get Far and layers a whole year of photos (I take a lot of photos) streaming over the top of it. It’s cool for me, I hope for you too… all the places and people flying along… I thought it fit the song well.
Enjoy!
Easing along the coming albums. An epic trip to the middle of the Atlantic is plenty to get the inspiration going. I’ve been banging through new tracks these past few days since returning, and I’m excited about the progress especially.
Also in the works: a music video for Summertime Nights. Got some real amazing real talented folks down here in LA want to work on it, and so we’re going to have at it. That’ll be coming your way.
In the meantime I’ll bring you some jams soon. I’ve got a lot laying around, even if I just end up sharing the ideas and not the finished product, it’ll tide us both over until them new albums drop!
So I took down Summertime Nights from the site as you’ll see, it will be coming soon to an iTunes near you!
In other news I am off as of this evening to the Azore Islands, the middle of the Atlantic. I have family roots there and I really look forward to returning. The music especially intrigues me, along with the incredible beauty and wonderful people. I’ll be gone off the radar for a couple weeks. Upon my return I’ll have lots to share…
Hope your summer is treating you right. Enjoy!
This post, you’ll notice is not generally in line with my typical posts here, which is good, in my opinion, I’m trying to open up the content, be more… honest, I suppose.
Tonight I’m overwhelmed. I’ve spent all afternoon working on three electro-cello tracks, and that is fine, only to realize that I have a huge pile of work I’ve already recorded just waiting for me to sort it out. I’ve probably got 25 pieces at least partly recorded for that album. And that’s the problem… partly is the key word. Sorting through them is like going into an old storage unit full of stuff. Some of it is really cool, but doesn’t quite fit into your life now. Some of it you can’t let go of, but never get around to dealing with.
And on top of that, I have probably 15 songs partly recorded for my other albums. Three are done. Three. That’s it!
It’s daunting to be working on new albums again. I’m sure most artists go through this, but after you finish your last one you forget that that isn’t… it. You always push out more.
New albums breathe new life into my purpose, both musically and professionally. I get that drive to get this music out there the more it gets actually finished. So I suppose I’m pushing for a finished record that I can get behind and give what it deserves now that I am in such a crazy city, where crazy things happen.
So… overwhelmed in a good way. Too much material… there are worse things to complain about certainly!
As I was walking along I was thinking about how much I want to release an album on vinyl. Vinyl sounds good, and almost without realizing it, I still to this day record my albums with the album format in mind: short and sweet, with a definitive Side A vs. Side B.
So that’s what I am going to do, is record my ultimate vinyl record. Whether or not it gets released as a record, I’ll keep Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska” in mind, as the tone. It’s not all mellow, it’s not easy listening, but something about that album with its hiss and feeling is perfectly suited for that vinyl sound.
How many of you would be interested in a re-issue of REDWOOD SUMMER on vinyl? I’ll gauge the interest and see if I can make that happen. I think that album would sound good that way…
SO… today I tidied up three songs for that album. Mostly recorded some new vocal tracks for one of them… that came out of the “point of view” question I tend to always have with the narrator of the song… should I sing “You were standing there, and you saw all kinds of rad things…” (great lyrics right? just an example 🙂 or should I sing “I was standing there, and I saw all kinds of rad things”. I am choosing the latter on this day. I feel like, despite how it makes me feel like it’s a bit more revealing, it also is more natural. I feel like people listen to songs and put themselves in the position of the person singing it, I know I do. I don’t think that I’m not actually Willie Nelson or the dude from Muse as I sing along, I just can relate to the songs more easily if I can sing along saying “I saw awesome things…”
So we’ll see. Recorded that. What do you think? Any thoughts on the lyric writing/listening process for you?
Added some drums to a big build at the end of another song. It’s kind of epic, with tons of backup vocals and lots of open chords. I suppose that’s becoming my acoustic sound.
And then I tightened up one electro-cello song. Re-recorded some cello traxxx to make them more in tune, and tidied up my arrangement, so that it is good and long and trance-y, but still interesting.
Tomorrow I get serious about a few totally new recordings… as I’m itching to get those going…
Well it’s probably a few months late but last night I was thinking I ought to keep a little better track of the process of making my albums. The process is so important, and I feel like by writing about it here it will not only keep you up to date but help me keep track of what’s going on.
After REDWOOD SUMMER, I started writing new songs pretty much write away, but very casually. I like to have an audio recorder on me at all times (lately it’s my phone) and when an idea comes up I’ll record it for later purposing. The lyrics at this point are improvised but what I like to try and capture is the feel behind the idea. I’d say that since last summer I have between 10 and 20 sketches for songs that I revisit to see if they are album worthy.
Before REDWOOD SUMMER I had been performing a set of about 5 or 6 songs accompanied by my beats and effected cello. Those actually came about before I even started writing REDWOOD SUMMER but somehow I let it sit long enough that they ended up on the backburner.
So, to the present. Right now I’m working to not only bring those back to life, but also to add some fresh material to that set. The tone and sound of those songs is comparable to my album “Midnight Door”… but my personal challenge and caveat is to be able to perform those songs live, using the parts and pieces to be able to improvise around them in a live setting. It’s tricky when you do it solo, without a band, and with more than just your primary instrument involved, but I like that challenge and I like the end result. Also the marvels of modern technology allow me to give it a shot and so I’m doing that.
As a result of my stubborn insistence on performing these epically layered pieces live, I tend to lament the days of simply picking up the guitar or cello and just play, the way I would for a more simple live gig. The artists I admire the most can do this with so much talent and subtlety that a wall of sound is not necessary for them. So I’ve been working on pulling that out of my hat as well. Sitting down, playing and singing. Practicing it a bunch and then recording it pretty close to that pure sound of one person, one room.
And then, as I cannot seem to stick to one persona musically, I have developed a set I’ve been performing at art galleries and parties that is electronic music influenced, the cello, some beats, no vocals, lots of effects. This music works well for all kinds of settings and I enjoy the luxury of not needing to sing, and of going deeper with my cello playing. I’m working on recording these as well.
RIght now the electro-cello stuff is closest to being a hole album, mainly because I’ve had a full hour plus of music together already for performing live. The parts are in place and all that’s left is to lay down my lead cello parts.
I’m getting the arrangements together for that and my goal is really to create an album that is best suited for long drives, long walks, long sessions of work, that can be listened to over and over again. It’s tricky with electronic music to not get too repetitive or even too complex. My favorite electronic music gets folks dancing and sets the right tone, and it tends to sit in one music scale for a good long while, long enough for it to become hypnotic.
The acoustic album is in the works and I like where it’s going. I was real influenced by working with Chuck Ragan recently, he’s a great example of a guy and a guitar putting great songs out there with no frills and nothing lacking. Also, his vocal strength reminds me that sometimes to get the right feeling you’ve really got to belt it out. The only problem with making that album right now is that some of the songs end up being catchy enough that I want to add layers to them and some beats and move them over to my “Midnight Door” style album. So I constantly am producing, and diverting the songs into where they need to go.
Anyways. That’s where it’s at. Today I’m going to retouch the last three songs I recorded for the acoustic/solo musician album, and I’m going to get deeper with the electro-cello album.
This post is kind of a leadup to upcoming posts where I’ll be more specific about what I’m working on, and share some snippets of what I’m getting done each day, in true blog fashion.
Thanks for checking in, can’t wait to share the music with ya… Take Care!
Luke.
Life has been rolling along. All the sudden it’s May. It’s not even May, it’s the middle of May. Wow.
That slip of the tongue of time has happened (for me) because I’ve been buried in music. Culminations occur tomorrow night, Thursday at the downtown art walk in Los Angeles, where I’ll be playing some jams at the Annex Gallery. Basically I’m playing cello, mixing it up with beats, and making rad action happen all the time. It’s cool, playing music in the center of one of the biggest cities in the world. It’s why I’m here.
On the other fronts, I’ve been writing new songs and nostalging about old ones, culminating in at least a couple new albums by the end of this (very busy) Summer.
Life is good, my fingers have callouses, I’m deeply inspired.
Still awaiting, I suppose, the big break, but I’ll just keep making this music, like I always have, and that will do it, I think.
Let me know when I should come to your town and play a gig.
I sincerely hope you are well. Thanks for checking in. You know I’ll post some new music here when I feel it is deserving of your ears…
In all things, do good, be well. Etc.
Luke.
This Friday, April 9, I’ll have the honor of again joining Chuck Ragan on a few songs at the House Of Blues in Anaheim as he opens for the legendary, highly influential Bad Religion. Considering how many hours of my life Bad Religion’s music has consumed, I’m really excited to get to play at this show!
Tomorrow night, March 30th, I’ll have the pleasure of playing cello on a few songs for the ever awesome Chuck Ragan at The Troubador in Los Angeles.
I’m real excited. I’ll let you know how it goes. If you are in LA, be sure to come out, as it is a benefit for Haiti concert, and Chuck is amazing.
I’ve been putting off basically everything working on some new music, so much new music in fact that I’m needing to break it down into its respective pieces.
This one is on an album I’m putting out that is basically electronic music meets cello. I’ve done that in the past, but the key with this one is that I more or less be able to play it live. Or some semblance of it. With looping that is possible!
So without saying much more, here is a new electrocello song. I’m likely to take it down soon, as I don’t want to spoil the fun, but love rewarding you my faithful readers…
Take care, enjoy…
People have been asking me for the past several years what looping software or hardware I use. And I say “I actually don’t use looping software.” Or they ask me if I’ve heard of such and such, most often Zoe Keating, and of course I have. I’ve found that these days there is this very common thing for string players to use looping software/hardware.
Looping is when you play a part, a little device (a foot pedal or a laptop) records that part and plays it back in rhythm. You can then play another part, and then another part, and then another part on that. It’s quite the spectacle, and I’ve seen one guy perform a whole big band piece by playing all the instruments one by one into the looper and having the sound build into one big unified sound. It works really well for string instruments, because, as in the case of symphony orchestras, the more the merrier, sound wise.
I’ve tended to avoid it, but now I’m in the belly of the beast, as I’ve finally thrown down for some Launchpad/Ableton Live action.
To make a long story short and to spare you the music geekery, with Ableton Live, you play your instrument into your laptop and on the spot you can chop it up and spit it out musically & rhythmically, the idea being that it is seamless and smooth.
So, for casual observers this post basically ends. I’m looking forward to adding this capability to my electro-cello sets and I want to tell you to look forward to it. Pretty exciting the possibility. Oh, and do check out Zoe Keating, and also, please drop me a line on any other amazing cello playin’ musicians you may have heard of that I might not know about.
For those more interested in the Launchpad, read on for my “first impressions” review.
Pretty much everyone seems to hype this thing to death, and when you get it out of the box and plug it in and all its pretty lights light up you kind of feel like you are going to understand why. It feels very capable, and is very compact.
Getting used to the basic basic functions takes approximately 5 minutes. Not even being a rabid Ableton user, I was able to get the gist and to see WHY people go apeshit over this thing. It does make a pretty clean translation from the software to the hardware.
My big question was and is, can I play it with my toes? (seriously). If you’ve seen me live you know I operate my current two drum machines (an Akai XR20 and an old school Korg Electribe) with my toes. I cue up parts that I’ve pre-writ and set them off when I need them, like when the chorus is coming up.
Tangent: Why not just set up the song and play along to the whole thing? The answer for me is that, yes, even though I do in the end tend to play the songs pretty close to the same length each time I play them, I really believe that the essence of music lies in its possibility. And so I must have the option to repeat a verse or to have the bridge go on for ten minutes as opposed to 30 seconds.
So back to the toes. I think I can play the launchpad with my toes. What I hope to use it for is to NOT replace my drum machines that I currently use, but to loop and shape sounds on the fly over the top of my beats. I think that less is more with this type of thing, so for the time being I’m working on being able to create a bass line for myself for a solo, as opposed to layering out the whole song.
With the Launchpad, though, you can preload your parts of songs (using your laptop as well of course), and I could in theory have rich textures live. I just don’t want it to ever cross that “karaoke line”, the place where you are just playing along to pre-recorded music, as opposed to creating it every time you go out there.
Back to my “review”. The only complaint I have is that there is a LOT that can be tackled by this thing, and I quickly found a plethora of youtube videos that demonstrated people tearing it up with them. BUT, there seems to be this assumption that you already know how to do some pretty basic stuff, like understand user functions, midi programming and even simple audio editing in Ableton. Also, Ableton claimed/claims to have a “whole chapter dedicated to the Launchpad” in its user manual for Live 8, but after searching around and downloading the newest versions of the manual, such a thing does not appear to exist. So there’s a little bit of assumption that you already know how great this toy is and thus we don’t need to spell it out for you.
Otherwise, I’m really happy for it. One of the main selling points for me, consciously or otherwise, is price. I wanted a few things for my live electronic set arsenal: a looper, some more effects, and another drum machine. With a $199 investment, I essentially get all those things and a LOT more.
The only thing I am trepidatious about is the notion of using a laptop live. The only folks I’ve seen really pull this off in a non annoying manner are DJs. Otherwise there tends to be, with laptops in a live performance, a lot of technical problems and a lot of noise posturing that is really, in my ever so humble opinion, not music.
Alright. Well. The point is you should look forward to some new sounds on the coming albums/live performances.
Also, if you are interested, and want to use Ableton Live, and have $200 burning a hole in your pocket, I give you permission to go out and buy a Launchpad. And also, I wish someone were actually paying me to endorse this thing.
Also, as a pre-emptive comment, I DO in fact feel strongly that a musician and an instrument (voice is instrument yes) is all you will ever need to make the most beautiful music ever. But if you are like me, and like to take many side roads off of that main road, using the modern worlds’ many technological bounties is not necessarily a bad thing…
Right now I’m putting together new material while promoting REDWOOD SUMMER, preparing for some new recordings. In that vein I’m broadcasting somewhat regularly over at ustream.tv. You’ll notice that it’s very casual, and is not meant to be taken as a performance or anything like that. But it’s a cool thing to broadcast live. And soon I’ll schedule some “concerts” and let you know when I actually have the material together.
You can watch the videos (and notice that I’m still trying to figure out the camera angle 😉 at
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/practicing-cello-vocals-chaos
Also, those will be uploaded to the YouTubes, where you can make them viral and whatnot. Or just subscribe to the channel. And leave me comments. I like to know you’re out there!
Alright, enjoy, take care, more music to come…
A couple of props to give out, I’m moving forward with new recordings and new shows (news soon), but in the meantime:
My bro and his photography. He’s based in the bay area and does incredible work with people and places. He also has a vast, extensive background with bands and music photography in general (can’t wait til he publishes a book from his deep archives).
Frank Zio. He made sure to find me immediately after my set opening for AFI in Santa Cruz and gave me this poster. It’s now framed on my wall. Super nice work, super nice of him to do that.
MiseryXChord: Check out photos from the AFI show (and lots of other rad shots) here. Thanks for posting them, they are amazing
I’m thinking of remixing all the tracks off of JUNEAUREVOIR, my all cello instrumental album, or having other electronic musicians give it a go. This song is my first foray into it.
For any purists out there, this track is not pure anymore!
Which leads me to a quick note about what I do. Currently I am making music across a broad range of genres, here is my quick summary:
1. Garage Rock With Cello, Punk-Folk Action (ala REDWOOD SUMMER)
2. Highly orchestrated dark electronic influenced with vocals, cello, beats and lots of other sounds (ala Midnight Door).
3. Cello instrumentals, kind of classically influenced, kind of not, it depends (ala JUNEAUREVOIR)
4. Dark dance electronic beats with cello, instrumental and mainly live at parties and whatnot. (Album on its way)
OK, so that’s out of the way, below is the track, enjoy, and thank you.
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PS – Click here to listent to a sample of the original on iTunes
*warning = this is a loooong rant.
Photo: Pete Geniella
Last Thursday, January 28th, I got to open for AFI, one of my favorite bands. We played The Catalyst in Santa Cruz, and all the pieces fell into place for a great great show.
The show had been big in my mind for too long, I knew it was on, but the band I had recorded REDWOOD SUMMER with wasn’t to be available. I thought, ok, we’ll just make it happen for a good long while, and yet the band wasn’t nailed down, even just a couple weeks before the show.
My own fault, because the obvious choice for the best drummer was right in front of my face; I finally realized that I needed to call one of my best friends and bandmate of many many years Mr. Keith Feigin. He was with me for my first show ever, he recorded Blue Star, he recorded The Key, he is an amazing drummer. However, he hadn’t played drums, literally, for 5 years. Nonetheless, he was open to the idea. We’d jam on the songs, and if it worked, great. If not… welllllll….
My brothers pointed me in the direction of a guitar player they knew also in Ukiah (Keith lives there now), my hometown. A really talented guy who knows the business, touring all the time with his band, Luke Slinkert. Fortunately for me, Luke is also a huge AFI fan, which meant that the expenses and time spent practicing and traveling, especially when compared to the nominal guarantee we were getting to play (standard for opening bands) were worth it.
So I headed up to Northern California with less than a week to prepare for the show. A new band, I didn’t know Luke S. that well, and I didn’t know if Keith was going to be comfortable playing drums at all. I didn’t know how well my cello would play live, if my amp would even do the trick, if this was really realistic at all, or if it would all sadly implode.
I was optimistic, however!
Got into Ukiah, really really excited and anxious for our first practice that day, stopped by a friend’s apartment, bent down to pet the cute gigantic growling pit bull and promptly got bit in the face by said dog. Everything was suddenly chaotic, the dog got pulled off, I looked down at my hand and blood was dripping everywhere. Asked where the bathroom was, went in, and saw my lips looking pitifully mangled, kind of hanging there, as if confused, in all kinds of directions.
We rushed to the hospital, Keith was there, my brother Nate was there, my Mom showed up soon. I was sitting in the emergency room and I was on the verge of tears not because of the pain, which was pretty intense, so much as the idea that we would not be able to play this show. I wanted, I needed to play this show. It mattered to me.
The doctor stitched things up and took his time. He was great because he seemed to care and methodically put 28 stitches in my lips and face. He did a nice job. I went home, high on morphine and still wondering about the show.
The next morning things were good enough in my face to go ahead and schedule a practice, albeit without vocals from me. We’d play through the songs and kind of evaluate if it was even conceivable to go up on a stage in front of 1,000 people in less than three days. Things went well. I don’t know how, but Keith could really really bust it out still. Luke S. had memorized all the songs quickly and instantly was laying them down. The first time through the set was a little scary. The second time, the songs already sounded great.
So we had two more rehearsals to go. And they went really really well. Our set was only 6 songs and went like this:
True North
Strobe Light
The Unattended Ball
Time Is Near
Closure
Fever Saved Me
It clocked in at about 25 minutes, and we played it over and over again, just one song leading into the next. The last rehearsal we played through the set 5 times straight. That’s all we could do.
And it sounded good. I can honestly say that I wish I could re-record a version of REDWOOD SUMMER with the songs recorded in this raucous, garage/punk style that we had formed together in few days. Cello, Acoustic Guitar, Drums, Vocals. Simple, sweet, short.
There’s a kind of crummy sounding/looking recording of it available for the curious here:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/4262515
We drove down to Santa Cruz the day of the show. I went to college in Santa Cruz and knew it oh so well. I learned to really play cello there. I played the clubs and coffee shops (mostly coffee shops when I was there) often, it was my town. It was epic to return to the big venue in town and be loading my stuff in.
AFI’s bus and equipment truck were there, and the equipment had been unloaded. To me, it was an impressive setup, boxes and boxes of gear and stage equipment. The stage was already setup, with AFI’s huge banner tied like a curtain behind the drums. Davey Havok was walking around talking to all the folks at the Catalyst (he is a verifiably super-nice person by the way), Adam, their drummer was there. I love Adam, I don’t think I know very many people, musicians or otherwise, who are as cool, kind and humble as he is. Smith was running the show, Fritch was selling the merch. Much of the AFI crew was intact from the last time I had seen them play, only since then they had gone on to sell millions of records and land a #1 billboard debut. And yet they are still real, down to earth, nice people. No BS. And they are GOOD if not AMAZING as a band these days. I watched their sound check and they now have this amazingly fluid sense of their own sound, super super tight and just, in their element. I suppose the countless weeks of touring will do that for you.
My nerves were crazy. I was still on antibiotics for my wounds and couldn’t really eat well so I had been on a liquid diet for the whole week. It was an enormous and woozy feeling. All my favorite people in the world, my family and my girlfriend to name a few, old college friends, showed up pre-show.
At one point me and Keith walked around the block to go grab a protein shake for me and a bite to eat for him, and the line to get in the club was already around block. That recognizable AFI crowd, dressed in black, non-conformist, devoted. Then we were scared… would they boo us off the stage? Also, up on the marquis, my name alongside AFI and Ceremony. Really cool for me, a good image, unexpected, and great.
Then we just tried to be not nervous. And soon enough it was time to get on stage. And we’d have to not blow it, of course.
And we got up there and just tore through the songs. The crowd was amazing. They were kind and into it. There were a lot of people in there too, 500-1000, I can’t really say a good estimate, but a lot. And the sound ruled, and my bandmates NAILED IT. And it was fun. This was it, a good show, good music, that euphoric state that musicians live for. It really was… yeah. It was great.
I had a lot of people to talk to when it was over, and thus I missed Ceremony. AFI put on an incredible performance, as they always do. Those guys play their hearts out EVERY TIME they go on stage, and that is often. They give everything to their fans, which is how it should be, in my opinion. The songs were so tight and so good, they played a couple really old ones, and a couple new ones off of Crash Love, and a few from in between. I was kind of in heaven, I had a great view, and I love seeing AFI play.
My brother took some amazing pictures of AFI that night, check them out here.
So the night settled down, nothing to crazy that evening, as my stitches were still healing and that was a good excuse to kind of get to ruminate on the whole thing. I couldn’t have asked for a better show, with better people around me. I’ve already directly said my thanks to all mentioned, but to my family, my girlfriend, my friends, to that crowd, and to AFI, I have a lot of gratitude.
Now it is on to the next big show. I’m eager to get it all going. I’ll let you know as it unfolds… Thanks so much for stopping by…
I’m happy to report my first gig since landing in Los Angeles, this Friday, January 15th at Pehrspace. 8pm (ish). It will be a lot of fun, and gives a chance to air some stuff out. I’ve been wrapped up in cords, connecting drum machines and effects, working on the set. And that’s about all I’ve been up to, so, life is good.
And obviously. This one, hard to believe, was very close to making it onto REDWOOD SUMMER. I like it. I was playing around polyrhythms, where you have different rhythmic times all stacked up on top of eachother. A lot of African music gets crazy with polyrhythms.
I used weird instruments on this one, one in particular called a ukelin. It’s this very odd looking beast, which mysteriously was given to me by my physics teacher in high school. I can’t even really explain why h would just give me such a gem, and why it was given to me by my physics teacher and not my music teacher, but I’m not complaining. It has like 300 strings. Ok, it has like 60 strings. I haven’t ever figured out how one is supposed to tune it, let alone play it.
The other instrument you hear is a mandolin. And frame drums. And weird lyrics (per usual).
It didn’t make it to REDWOOD SUMMER because it didn’t fit. The album is kind of all over the map emotionally as it is, I didn’t feel like “super whimsical” was what was needed to be added.
So yes, enjoy. Thank you for stopping by. And happy holidays. Oh yes, I forgot, that is the reason I went ahead and published this now. It could, in some parallel universe, or exotic country, or in your stereo perhaps be some type of holiday song somehow. It has the timber, I suppose.
Stardust Is Stardust
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