Category: Music

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I had fallen behind. I had Bruce Springsteen shows to go to and a show to play in San Diego and Spring to hike for and just life. So I decided to catch up and recorded the 8 missing tracks in the past two days. All cello based instrumentals. Enjoy!

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#musiceveryday - 75 - cello z
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In honor of The Boss being in town this week I played through as many songs off this album I could pull off. This one gets me every time.

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#musiceveryday 72 - The River (Bruce Springsteen Cover)
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I want to make a new album where I can sing and it’s just one cello part (no overdubs) so that when I play it live it’s something that is as real as the recording.

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#musiceveryday 71 - shtuff
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#musiceveryday 69

This is one where I’m glad that the four track still works. I don’t know when I did this song, but it was very, very long ago. And it was when I’d use a handheld audio recorder to double up the vocals somewhat randomly.

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#musiceveryday 69 - The Great Escape (Light Repose)
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This morning the most tremendous thunder I think I’ve heard in LA… woke me up and admittedly I was kind of grumpy like “what is that rumbling sound argh” and then I’m so glad I got up in the early dawn and saw this wall of hail approach and flashes so close I decided being on the roof maybe not the optimal place to witness.

Also this is another solo cello improvised thingy.

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#musiceveryday 66 - Hail
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#MusicEveryday 63
Playing cello and trying to pull something out of being erh… not the most inspired I’ve ever been. This ended up sort of being like a walk up and down hill which is what I did this morning so there you have it.

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#MusicEveryday 63 - Forest
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#musiceveryday 62
Was practicing for next week’s show at the silverlake lounge and just kind of ended up singing this. and so you have it, all I needed.

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#musiceveryday 62 - El Dia
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#musiceveryday 61 – making up a song on the spot. to tell the truth I really like this way of “writing” lyrics. I’m not saying that *just* because I’m lazy… just that some of these off the cuff lines might be a LOT better than something I could turn over again and again.

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#musiceveryday 61 - New String Theory
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#musiceveryday 59 – I’ve never played this song on guitar… UNTIL NOW

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#musiceveryday 59 - On The Outside In The Nighttime (On The Guitar, In The Afternoon)
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For this edition of Music Everyday for some reason I took two junk guitars and tuned them to the same-ish note (whichever note would hold, they’re not renowned for their intonation) and pushed their backs together while I played, hoping to create a nice drone-y sound from the back guitar. Not too much drone action but made the crummy top guitar very warm and resonant. I might have my million dollar idea: lashing together guitars for a warmer tone. I mean, it’s not like I composed a masterpiece with this setup or anything. But it’s fun to try new things.

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Music Everyday 39 - Pushed Together
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Here’s a raw song idea from a while ago. I’d like to turn this into something someday soon, it keeps hanging out.

*Also I want to explain what I’m sharing here since I haven’t really yet: raw, unedited music that I make shared everyday for the sake of sharing. Not for the sake of being cool or furthering my career or whatever, not to impress, just for it’s own sake on my end. So this ideally will be me each day picking up an instrument or singing something new and fresh and having the um, gusto to share it regardless of whether I am super duper confident in it. That’s the big challenge right there. I just want to find the joy in making music this year a lot more than I have when I’ve been overly concerned with what people think. You know? So take it as you like it, and thanks if you’ve read this far lol. And also thank you sincerely for taking a moment of your time to listen to this music.

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Make Music Every Day 7 - Back To Where
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I’ve been sorta kinda organizing my back log of tracks now that I’ve got a good chunk of my projects sorted out. It’s funny what you find just sitting there.

This is an instrumental that is kinda wandering and pretty. Cellos swirling, as they tend to do, and a kind of trance-y beat. I must have, well I’m sure of it to tell the truth, recorded live with loops.

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I just felt like putting this up tonight.

It’s a fine Summer night. Is it the end of Summer? That’s what I hear. Me and Cinco are tending to the empty home while the rest of the pack is off at FYF Fest. Slowdive is playing. Hmm. I wish I was there. It was sold out.

I’ve mostly finished up on a big buffet of music I’m going to serve up in the near future. I’m happy with the work done and mostly the feeling of the songs.

Los Angeles for me: still and ever just past my fingertips somehow. It’s there, I push at it, brush it aside like curtains. But I have yet to pass through.

It’s a good city after all, and there are just so many surfaces you could attach your mirrors to here. Everyone is beautiful and larger than life, even if just in their own minds.

There aren’t country lanes, nature revery is rare, and the general balance leans one way and then the next, undecided. It’s menacing and inviting at once.

Blah blah poetic yada yada. Meaning: I’m here, making music in my dear studio with my dear cellos and my dear thoughts and I’m not on that damn stage at this damn point in this damn city.

That’s my check in.

Hope this version of this song fits with your time and place.

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Valley Of Gold - Instrumental Version
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Was reminded that yesterday was June 12 and thus of one of my more gut kicker songs emotionally “Week Of June 12”. Decided to put up that whole album “Still Dream” because it was requested and though I was hesitant I was happy to discover I did not hate it as much as I thought. In fact I did not hate it at all.

That might sound a bit weird, hating your own album, but albums can get to be like siblings growing up: you love them, you can’t live without them, you would do anything for them, and you secretly even like them. But you get this closeness and it’s just irritating. Especially when they won’t just go away.

Still Dream is my second full album. I wish I could tell you I remember exactly the true story of its release so I’ll tell you the true myth (I’m pretty sure this is right) of it. It was the end of my first year of college, I should say the end of OUR first year of college because in the Merrill Dorms (and beyond) at UC Santa Cruz we had this kind of incredible circle of friends. Like you do as a freshman in the dorms.

So, Week Of June 12 is a song about leaving all that. Geez I still get kind of emotional thinking about it because the thing is: I wasn’t wrong that all that was over and it was sad. Beautifully preserved in the amber minds but my inkling to resist time, which haunts all my music, was correct.

That said, no matter how much of a terrific disgrace it felt to somehow leave our 18 and 19 year old selves behind, thankfully the fear of what that meant for me transmuted into 1,000,000 other achingly beautiful moments and friendships.

In other words:
“as the lights zoom by and the sunset stalls,
wonder for me child
what we leave inside these walls
and as the passions rest
you can feel it in your chest
take your last breath left
start the breathless quest”

Hope you enjoy the album. As a PS I chose not to include two songs which I am kind of embarrassed by, but they come with the “bonus” version of the album if you buy it.

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You. My friend. Are the first. In the world. To ever. See this video.

Because you, my friend, are subscribed to the podcast.

High fives, to you!

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Take My Chances - NEW Song Live Video
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So, if you read the post I wrote pre-show that was a major spoiler as I quite clearly blew the secret that I would perform an Elliott Smith song.

And believe me I had every intention of recording the actual live performance but among all the moving parts of playing my show I forgot to press record. Alas. You had to be there.

So last night I figured I’d record the songs I played live since my camera crew (myself) blew it so bad. This way you can imagine I’m playing a huge arena… although a cozy brick walled room with loads of friends and listeners in the heart of Silver Lake was, I think, much better.

I’ll post more songs from the set in the coming little while, even trying to get them on the podcast first to give you subscribers your due priority!

Let me know what you think of the cover. It’s such a fine line with songs you love… you want to show your love, but you really don’t want to disrespect them by ruining them either.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnIw_vmPT7g

This one is all yours now. Just an impromptu recording I decided to do as I was working on mixing for my upcoming albums.

This one is a little rare for me in that the bittersweet-ness (not new) is mixed with a little mean-ness (new!)…

Backstory? Hmmm. Well I just wrote it quickly after going through an old box of memories and realizing that some states of mind are better left behind as far as possible… It’s good to forgive and to move forward but sometimes too it’s good to expunge and exonerate yr own feelings.

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Wrote this song a few days ago. Been playing cello again a lot, and wanted to create something using this arpeggiating technique across the strings (string players… what is the technical term for this? Can’t remember!)

Lyrically it carries the same theme as the rest of “The Faraway”. Journeys, changes, destinations.

Funny how I thought that the lyrics for this were just absolutely impossible. I banged my head against my lyric book for a couple days, recorded several scratch tracks of improvised lyrics and then walked away. When I came back it wasn’t garbage anymore, at least not when stitched together.

The real reason I made this was because I wanted to test out my GoPro Jaws Flex Clamp. It’s so simple, yet super brilliant for capturing live music. It worked! Now I just need to get like five more and clamp them everywhere.

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E’ry so often I put ye old iTunes on shuffle and here something perfectly podcast worthy. Here’s an older live on-air performance from KDVS live in studio A. So much reverb! I believe I requested that. I can never have too much reverb.

Got that image from here, you can get a print of it even.

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Owls & Vultures - Live, Rare
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I’m a big fan of interludes and in between moments. I’m a fan of the album vs. the single, and I think these snippets create a glue to hold the other songs together. It’s a fine line and you can kill the momentum of an album pretty easily… But I can’t help myself.

It’s also a way for me to include snippets of musical ideas that maybe don’t ever make it into a song, and the why bother there is that for me albums are more about a certain period of time being captured, rather than a bunch of songs. And those little snippets tend to coincide pretty well with the feeling of the rest of the music.

ANYWAYS.

This one is called “Forge” and it’s a throwback to my ukelele addiction I suffered through last year. I listen to a lot of EDM and somehow someday I want to marry the pulse of that music’s kick drum to an acoustic instrument. For fun and amusement. For justice and glory. And stuff.

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Interludes & In Betweens: Forge
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I’m not entirely sure from whence, but this track has been getting a ton of plays on soundcloud lately. Is it possible people think it’s a cover of an Arcade Fire song? No way! I prefer to believe they are into the quoting of Saint-Saens in a rock song turned classical turned rock quartet.