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Apr 27.2009
Just want to mention that I have a couple new improvised pieces on exhibition at luvsound.org, a really awesome netlabel run by good friend and musician hecanjog.
The song is called Wood Smoke, and it’s an edit down from 12 minutes to 3! I really like this one, it’s peaceful and feels a bit summery.
The second is my new video Crater Lake, which is an unedited 14 minute journey. It gets kind of intense if you give yourself to it.
Anyway, great thanks to hecanjog for including me on his wonderful site! They have a great many wonderful artists released in the past. Make sure to check some of the previous releases out.
Entry number two of my trial by fire!Apr 25.2009
But first, I have added three new rectangular videos in the last month to theturn.tv site. Red States international cluster - this is one we did live with Autopilot shooting their voices in Manchester, Scalde shooting his in Lyon and me shooting mine in Woodstock. Then I have uploaded two improvisations - Crater Lake and an Untitled one. Both are relatively trippy. Crater Lake gets extremely disturbing musically and it’s very long, so be warned! Soon I will add these videos to this site as well.
OK, so where were we? I had just arrived in Manchester, met Jasper Wilkinson for the first time (forgot to mention that, he’s the only Autopilot member I hadn’t met, and he’s loverly!) We’d spent a grueling, but highly satisfying two days practicing several new arrangements of songs and now it was off to London to perform…
The UK… somehow I’m not quite feeling the love there yet. I’m hoping for it. Obviously most of my favorite pop music has come from there. So I went off with two of the members of I Am Your Autopilot hoping for the best.
First we played a radio show called Q. It was pretty strange. Not as scary as I thought it would be (yes this was a first!) Actually the only thing I would say is it takes some getting used to singing in a seriously dead quiet room! While there I shot a little circular souvenir video, and here’s an image from it:
While in London the schedule was quite tight. I had a full day of what I thought would be interviews but ended up being little performances for different websites! Because of the misunderstanding I didn’t have any musicians there to support me, so I ended up just doing it similar to how I used to in the hallway on 14th street. And all in all it went well.
Now, I had been told that Jasper, with whom I was meant to share a room while in London, was a noisy snorer. Seeking to avoid a sleepless night, I asked my friend Lucas Howe who was also visiting London on work if there was any space on a couch where he was staying. Lucas was staying at his friend Rory’s flat and said I was welcome to come and take the second room. The place was so swank! Here’s a shot of Lucas in Rory’s flat, followed by one of us in a cab testing out my new camera.
Anyway, it was lovely to see Lucas, but I noticed he was just coming down with a horrible cold. I’m actually a bit of a hypochondriac and worried instantly that I would get sick.
Still Lucas and I had a grand old time. In fact, the last radio gig I did there, which was LIVE (yes, another first) I invited Lucas to come and play some hand percussion. This was a bit crafty of me, because while it was fun to have Lucas on the radio with me, it also strengthened me to know somebody was more nervous there than me! Anyway, that was the John Kennedy show, and the interview and performances went well! We were all so excited when we left, and it was quite late, around 1AM.
We had to pick up all the equipment from Jasper’s room, move it back to Rory’s where we would be leaving at 5AM the next morning. This left us about 3 hours to sleep. Ever tried sleeping when you have to get up in 3 hours? Impossible. I had about an hour of restless rest that morning before we hit the road to do another first: perform 5 songs on a TV show in Manchester. Despite being absolutely bushed and truly running on fumes the show went pretty derned well. Especially the first three songs.
But directly after the show I suddenly felt like I was getting sick. The next morning Ben and I were meant to go to Paris ahead of Graeme and Jasper to do a special show called One Shot Not, with very amazing drummer Manu Katché. So it was super important that I didn’t awake sick. I hit the hay early that night, and the outcome I will save for the next installment. (But keep in mind, I’m calling this my trial by fire, so you can imagine what happens next!!!!!)
Till next time!
UK and France: Entry OneApr 14.2009
A month ago I took a two week trip to the UK and France to do some promotional performances. That may be a very normal part of every musicians’ life, doing various kinds of performing, but for me it has been anything but normal. Actually, I have been petrified, absolutely terrified, about even the idea of performing. I knew I had to do it, so I have been practicing steadily, but… I suppose when the fear is great enough, really nothing can prepare you. You just have to do it and hope things work out.
So I did. I met up with the great band I Am Your Autopilot and started rehearsing with them in their home town of Manchester, England.
The first two days
First of all, Manchester is lovely. The people are so friendly. I mean, jokey too, of course. In fact, on the airplane ride over I was seated next to a rather heavily inebriated Mancunian who suggested that for this red eye he was going to get me drunk as a skunk. Of course that was out of the question for me as the following two days would be filled with very intense rehearsing. No way I was going to go into that hung over. He was a kind guy and decided that he would instead just drink my portion of alcohol, and proceeded to play me whole albums by some of Manchester’s most famous musical treasures. For hours. It was nice, but… I needed to sleep!
Well, anyway, the next day I met with I Am Your Autopilot, who are Ben Evans, Graeme Brooker and Jasper Wilkinson. These guys are all great musicians, but also extremely nice guys. And what I discovered, after freaking out about having to prepare 7 songs in 2 days, is how fun it is to play music with musicians. Again, this seems like a really basic truth for most musicians, one that perhaps is even taken for granted. But for me, I’ve been a headphones musician, working alone, constructing my music like… well, I guess a bit like an alchemist (or at least a pharmacist!) It was extremely inspiring to discover another spirit to music. And it was very moving to hear my songs played by somebody else!
While I was there I stayed at Ben’s house with his lovely, friendly family. Ben has a lovely wife named Rebecca and two children, Noah and Charlie - Charlie is a really talented bass player. So it was really a warm environment to come into.
We ended up rehearsing for 7 hours each day and prepared 5 songs… Red States, The Turn, Robinson Crusoe, The Original Man and Friendship Is…
The place where we rehearsed was super cool looking too! At the top is an image within the actual studio, and below that is a shot of Graeme (on right) and Jasper. And just below that a shot me Ben, Rebecca with Lee, who is another artist I have known only through the internet! Finally on the bottom you can see a shot of the outside of the studio which was fascinatingly bland.
I’ll post the next chapter of my trip next week with more picts. Next up: a trip to London with some live radio performances and a visit with my New York friend Lucas…
warming up to looping
Jan 24.2009
Hi folks,
Sorry it’s been a little while since I’ve written. I’ve been extremely busy, as I have finally finished setting up my studio in my new place in the country and have been settling down to business. Why did it take so long… well, that’s another story! But rather than gripe, I’ll keep positive and talk about what I have been up to creatively.
So the album is being formally, and physically, released in late March. It’s actually been available on iTunes, but for a number of problems originating either with my label or iTunes I haven’t wanted to make an announcement. Looks like soon I will have to be performing some of my music and I’ve been trying to develop an interesting way to merge the sound experience of multi-vocals and some of my visual techniques.
It’s slow going though. Video is very difficult to stream live. That’s just a fact. But I have been practicing my live looping technique and have had some interesting results.
I’ve been a bit on the fence for a while about live looping. Why? Because I like structure! A lot! I like key changes. I like the transformations a finished piece of music makes. Looping live seems a similar, but at once wildly different aesthetic. It’s constantly growing. The repetitions are a bit of a challenge for me, frankly. But I’ve been having a lot of fun and will soon have some new videos.
Here’s a tiny image:
Anyway, I’m heading off to France next Saturday to do some promo and possibly a first tiny performance. I’m QUITE nervous! hahah.
My new studio…
Jan 08.2009
I’ve moved back to the countryside! I now live back in Woodstock again. I’m so happy, and slightly sad as well, as I have left several close friends and creative acquaintances… and all that lovely energy of the city. But it’s quiet here. And I can sing at the top of my lungs without worries! I have to say, the first night I spent here I had a very schizophrenic night of dreaming. The first was a horrible nightmare, which I won’t recount as it will wig me out again. I awoke almost screaming. But when I went back to sleep I dreamt a lovely new song sung by a female soprano, and recorded it immediately into my cell phone!
I’ll post some pictures once the room is done. It’s lovely. The house came with all this great, colorful Danish Modern furniture. Piles of it. There were some down in the basement that I dragged up to my music room and it feels so great.
By the way… how could I ever have avoided hearing the music of Moondog??? I recently came upon it and really love it so much! Such a strange eclectic mix of styles, and a wonderful sense of rhythm and… well the word verve comes to mind, hahah! But I guess it’s appropriate. Anyway, the ones that caught my ear instantaneously (and set my imagination on fire Viking 1, Pigmy Pig, Sea Horse, Do Your Thing, Frost Flower. It’s outrageous. Gorgeous. All the -geous words!