Thank The Universe

Thank the universe for the economic downturn. My freelance money-earning machine is idling and I have suddenly found myself with time for the important stuff. As a reminder to those of you that may have met me outside my musical artistic quest, I am first and foremost a self-produced songwriter. Although, now that I have some more perspective, I should have dropped the songwriter part long ago. I believe songwriters tell stories. What I do, is create an unusual musical landscape, and then let my thoughts out vocally. Whatever comes out is recorded these days, but originally I had to stop strumming and use a pencil. Then I keep what I like and discard the rest. I guess it’s called introspective. Radiohead is one of the most famous bands with introspective lyrics.

I am pleased that technology has finally caught up with my desires. I never wanted to rehearse to a metronome because they were always so rigid and ugly sounding. Now, I basically tempo map my tunes in logic, and then dropped in a groovy high hat with feel, or a ride cymbal. SO MUCH BETTER and inspiring. (I wonder if Justin Timberlake would lose points in sex appeal if he said things like tempo map and bounced down) Then I bounced them all down and put them on my iPhone. so when I want to rehearse, I just dial up the song title. it gives me 4 bars or 4 and a programmed a triangle to cue me on the 5th bar. Some tunes slow down or speed up in the chorus, so It’s important that I start n measure 5 and play all the parts in order.

I really missed playing my tunes on acoustic guitar. I haven’t really rehearsed or played regularly since I moved to NYC and toured across the country. After a 4-week tour, I really noticed my chops had improved. It’s not that I haven’t wanted to play or haven’t had time; I’ve just been concentrating on recording all this time. What a project it has been. Again, technology has finally awarded me the easy to access and affordable and versatile drum loops I have been longing for. Recording drums and dealing with drummers is such a pain in the ass. When you find a good drummer that’s easy to work with and fun to be around it’s like a dream come true, but those guys are few and far between. The good ones are in demand. There are a lot of ass holes that think they are drummers because they can keep a few beats. But I suppose that same logic applies to me, I think I’m an artist because I can finish a recording. Wait, I am an artist. OK, so you guys aren’t ass holes if you can only keep a few beats. I guess my syncopated dynamic style just requires quite a bit more experience from a drummer.

I am so happy with Beautiful Self-Destruction. After shutting down the machine for a year and then coming back to it with fresh ears, I was delighted and inspired to finish it. It’s still so disappointing to hear it on small systems or as poor quality mp3’s. AND I completely burnt out on it by the time it went to mastering that I hated it again. But I’m pressing forward with promotion. I’m not going to ever stop promoting this album. I’ve got some truly original dynamic hand crafted tunes on this record. It’s flows perfectly, it’s got a little bit of everything I like, and it sounds good.