on by

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?)

on by

Oh the world is so complex these days. So many social medias to look after, especially as an independent musician. And so I want to keep it simple and narrow it all down. You as a faithful blog reader will have noticed that my twitter updates (I personally can’t really bare the word ‘tweet’ but that’s just me) are now integrated into the blog… as blogs go, that’s pretty unconventional, but in the end I feel like it allows you to come to the website and see what’s up all across the social spectrum.

AND! I don’t know if this will work. Let me know what you think, I’d appreciate being aware of it making you insane or insanely happy.

Done dorking out on internets. Now I make some music!

on by

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!

on by

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!

on by

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!

on by

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!

on by

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…