joe next door: News

MoodSwings.aiff

Well it has been an eventful holiday season. I had shoulder surgery on the Tuesday before Christmas. I have had a rotator cuff issue that has plagued me for almost 7 years. It has caused me much pain and discomfort. It has now been fixed, and I am recovering well. I'm sure there will be some painful rehab in my future as I rebuild strength, but I look forward to having full use of my arm again. It has been a long time. No need to worry about musical consequences. I still have all the same agility of finger that you have come to expect at a joe next door show. We have not scheduled anything yet since we did not know how long recovery was going to take, but now that it looks like a short recovery, there will be some shows forthcoming.

There is a new posting under the music section, and I want you to check it out! It's called Last Night's Panties on the Floor. It has a provocative title but, don't worry, it's not an x-rated song.

Happy New Year everyone!
zoo

We are up to 10 songs, of 16, that are finished with post production. This process involves mixing down multiple audio clips into single tracks, and cleaning them up with some techincal processes, like a little hard limiting to tame the peaks of the files, and some basic editing out of extraneous sounds between takes and things. A song may have 70 or more audio clips in it to start with, and I get that down to about 10. Makes it cleaner to look at, and easier to edit and mix. After postproduction there are Chad's harmony vocals, and then mixing. Then we have a CD, folks! I can't wait. I have been working on this so long. I know I am going to be proud of it. I am going to be so excited to get it to all of you who have waited so patiently over the years for me to finish this debut. Hang in there, we are almost there. I predict that I will be posting a completed post production bulletin within the week...

Thanks Muchly,
zoo

This is not exactly news if you were at our last show. That means all 8 of the crowd know that Scott played awesome bass lines. We were a little rough that outing, and I have a CD to prove it, but there were plenty of good moments, and we have been practicing hard. It is always an education to listen to a recording. Recordings are always honest. Good news and bad news, you know. Anyway, it has also been hard trying to get new bassists up to speed all the time. We are very grateful for Scott, and he has been amazing at learning the songs, and if there’s one thing this band has, it’s songs. No shortage of material here! Chad and I have been working on new material, and we hope to showcase some of it at our next show. We’ll be playing at a new coffeehouse on Peter’s Creek in Winston-Salem. Check the calendar for details. I think that Scotts brother Kevin, our former bassist, will be joining on guitar that night, so it should be a lot of fun, and a big sound. I am halfway done with post-production on “Open All Night.” Chad’s been threatening to start recording the harmony vocals for several weeks. The end is in sight. I guess we’ll have a finished record around February, or so, stay tuned. Having a crowd helps us play well, so please come out and hang with us at our shows. We’ll pour it out if you’ll show up!

Love,
zoo

Been a few weeks since I updated. In the interim, Jamie and I finally got a house, and we have been busy moving in. I have had to do a lot of around the house stuff, like learning how to install cabinets, sinks, and countertops, and work on drains and the like. It is SOOOO nice to finally be improving something that is actually mine. Been a long, long time in other people's spaces. Been paying for it, but getting nothing lasting for it. Now, when I improve or fix something, it helps my family by creating equity, building wealth for the kids I haven't had yet, and security for my lovely wife. I am sure there will be difficulties, and I am not looking forward to them, but right now, I am basking in the sunshine of ownership, and the deep sense of peace that comes from it.

We had so much fun playing the show last night. Thanks to all of you who came out. The new band feels really good to me underneath the songs. We have been practicing, and will be doing more of that over the next few weeks till our next show at Tuscany coffee house. Don't miss this folks, Kevin will be going back to college in NY after this show, and it may be a little while before we get to do the full band thing again. We are currently planning to play every time Kevin is in town. Who knows, maybe we will be able to play the occasional show in NY too. That would be cool. Musicians understand that it is impossible to shut up the music that wants to come out of you, and it is unhealthy to try. It doesn't always serve the purpose of filling your wallet, or of being a vehicle for another agenda other than itself, like worship music, but there are other purposes than money and worship, even deep ones that don't like being quantified, and it is not wrong not to let them be what they are. It is not wrong to be a musician; to be the human God made you to be. When people callously dismiss someone else's creative purpose, it always makes me sad. Art does not take on more value when it is done in the name of God. Unholy men are not made holy by creating art for the church. Honest art is worship because it is creation, and that is in the image of God. It is worship and reference to the creator regardless of the intent of the artist, and it need not be about God to be such. It is by definition. Spray painting God's name on your songs doesn't make them better songs, nor does being employed by a church make your music more acceptable to God. If God is real, then surely he is at the real places with his creations, the places where your heart won't let you be silent, where feelings make decisions for you that your mind doesn't understand until later, sometimes much later, or even never at all. Surely he is present in the turmoil of the birth of ideas, of realizing beautiful potentials he created within you. If you are going to believe in God, it seems only reasonable that you believe a real one, who is at least as real and genuine as someone you might know. Who of your friends sits behind you keeping a list of all the things you have done and giving you petty little rewards for what you did "for him" and withholding success from your ventures done from the passion of your heart? Does that sound like the action of a friend? Why would anyone worship that guy? If he created us out of the passion of love, and we are made in his image to be passionate creators, how can some people presume to declare that frustrating that creation is the path to glorifying God? It sounds dangerously like an abomination, a burlap blindfold blocking out the blatant, simple truth. God made us to make things. Not just church things, human things, real things. He told us stories, and it's beautiful for us to tell stories too. One of the biggest lies out there in Christianity is that you can do anything to make God love you little more, or like you a little less. Either he's holy and you're totally screwed without Jesus' sacrifice, but you have that and it’s cool, or he's a big alien monster that you can never please so you might as well die free in rebellion, or he's a figment. Make the best decision you can and realize that everyone is faced with the same questions, the same choice, and that decisions and awareness do not come to every body in the same time or the same way. There may be things at work in someone that you cannot see, and will not see for years to come. That process does not lessen the meaningfulness of what someone else is experiencing. And, you never know, you may be the one in the dark, in process of coming into some light of your own.

Post production began tonight! This is the exciting part. This is where I get to work on really making the performances shine their best. I am busy editing out all the little garbage sounds before and after takes, and getting things ready for real mixing. I am energized about it. I have high hopes that this record may get me signed, and change my life from one of constant striving into one of accomplishment. A tall order I know, but I am hopeful nonetheless.

The time comes, be ready,
zoo

Jamie and I are out of our old house now. We had just been renting, but the landlord let me build a recording a studio in the basement. One of my music student's dads built it for me. It was very cool, in spite of how many black widows there turned out to be down there. Jamie's running total got up to 28. The last one, right in the control room where I spent a lot time working on the record, was the biggest I have ever seen. They are usually fairly small little guys, wicked looking, with a wingspan about the size of nickel. This guy was at least the size of a quarter. At least. The body was as big as a jelly belly. Scary bugger. Dead now though. And if there are any more down there, they are no longer my problem. Actually, the widows and I lived in peace, they keeping to themselves, and me working on woodworking projects, and recording, without a fight between us. Still, I won’t miss them. We finally got moved out in total. The new owners of the house were really cool about letting me finish the record. I was down to about 4 or 5 lead vocals left when the house sold. I worked really hard, and Chad helped out a lot, and we were able to do it. We moved out all 2 weeks ago, but the new owners let me leave the studio set up downstairs, and have access to it so I could try to finish this 3 year project. We got it done, and finally got everything out last night. Feels very weird having no home of our own. We are in what seems like a constant state of limbo with our home buying attempt. So, we may find out any time now that we have a house, or that we are totally out of luck. I say out of luck, but we have actually been very blessed by the kindness of others, and without adversity, that kindness wouldn’t have a chance to show and to soothe our hearts. I am so grateful to the people in our lives who have chipped in to help us get our belongings moved into storage, who have helped me finish recording Open All Night, and who have opened their homes to us in these unpredictable times. I never would have thought I had such a network of love around me, and it is humbling, and I hope to get someone who can be the sharer of myself and my home to help someone else in the future. Right now, we are on the other end of that, and it is a mix of peace and stress. I feel oddly peaceful about the house thing, since it really is out of our control, and we will just have to make the best decisions we can when we get information. The stress was mostly about moving our things, especially my studio stuff. Now that that is done, I feel relieved and free. Our things are in storage and taken care of for a while, so we are just out on our own now, we could leave and go anywhere, really. I don’t plan to relocate, but you never know. I did get a little sad leaving the studio for the last time. I have felt more at home there than ever before in that space. It made sad to think of never being in it again. It doesn't seem real. After we left, I actually turned around and got permission from Joe to cut a piece of the rug that lined the floor of the instrument room. I recorded a lot of music standing on that rug. It was far too large to take, even though Joe offered it to me, so I cut a piece out of the center, and I intend to use it in my new studio, wherever that may be, as a familiar place to stand, and feel under my toes, a place to remember some of the inspiration that happened in my first real studio. I'll post of picture of it sometime. That'll be fun. Jamie is going to update all the photos. I love the pictures that are up, but she has more current shots, and we will be doing an overhaul soon, so keep your eyes open.

Up in the air, flying or falling, it remains to be seen,
zoo

Whew! I can't believe I am posting this. I can't believe it's 5am. I have been working on this album for 3 years now, and now I am finally done making sounds. There are still Chad's harmonies to record, and mixing/mastering /production, but this is a milestone, yes it is. At least, it is for me. I can't wait to share it with you all. I'll post more about the sessions later, I just wanted to get something up here marking the actual moment of completion. Now it is a high pitched but descending whistle as I crash...

zoo

I did a marathon solo session last night (6 hours) and I got the Right There Beside Me choruses finished. Good grief, it was a lot of high "ee" sounds! I also redid Autumn, but it did not pass muster with Chad, my vocal producer. I was disappointed but he was right. It did count as practice with the song though, and hopefully the next series of takes will show the benefit. That song is a huge song, it has a lot of parts. But after that, there is only 1 more thing to do, and then the studio is ready for crowbars! That of course is Bruises and Cuts. I was trying to make it sound pretty, and I ended up making it sound wimpy and whiny. I am gonna have another go at later in the week. I think Tomorrow is the Autumn do or die session. I am running out of time hard core! Keep me in your hearts, loyal fans, though there are only a few of you, I cherish you all.

Zoo, a bad singer recording good music.

I worked with Chad this morning on SW, and we got a little more than halfway through the song: up to the solo. There is still a chorus and the last verse, and a long “oh” to end the song still left from that spot. I decided that since time was scarce, and I had the night off, I ought to be trying to record, even though Chad couldn’t do it with me. I was nervous about it, because it seems that there is a level of pitch precision that I just don’t seem to hear, and I was afraid I might work on it and think it was good, only to find out I had wasted my time. I spent around 4 hours on those last bits of the song, punching and re punching until I had phrases and lines that I liked. I just didn’t know if they were actually good. Chad agreed to stop by for a few minutes, and he listened and exclaimed, “I retire!” That was his joking way of giving the thumbs up to my work. I got the chorus and the last verse, and the “Oh’s”. Those are the first vocals on the record that Chad hasn’t supervised the creation of. They took a long time, but still, I feel like all my work with him has helped to improve my ear for pitch, so I can hear when it is in tune much better now than I used to be able to. I had hoped I would eventually be able to do stuff on my own, but I totally did not expect to on this record. That is an exciting development. I grew! Yea!

Well, this means that She’s Waiting, once in the can, then rejected, is now placed firmly back in the can. We have the choruses of Right There Beside Me yet to do, and Chad wants to redo Autumn. The studio countdown has reached 9 days. Tick tick tick. I sure hope we can get it finished.

Hope with me, my listeners, my friends,
Zoo

Chad and I were at it again tonight, and we managed to get the verses and prechoruses of RTBM recorded. We had to give up on trying the choruses because we were both exhausted by the time we got that much done, and it was almost midnight. We are gonna try to get the choruses done later this week, so hopefully there will be another update soon! We still have 2 songs to revisit after we accomplish this one.

It felt different in the studio this time. It’s not my house anymore. The new owners were nice enough to give me a few more weeks to finish the record, which was awesome of them. However, the basement is now pretty empty, and they are working upstairs, and the studio feels like it is in a foreign place, some industrial site I have never been to before, not a basement I lived in for 3 years. Feels odd. The recording is a lot more like work, just business now, there is a little comfort that has evaporated. I don’t mean in the end product, just in the feeling of getting to the end product. It is just about getting it done now. Time is limited, and I am in borrowed space. It’s a little weird, but you do what you have to.

Stay slinky my beloved springs,
Zoo

This is probably the heaviest guitar song on the record. Chad had been saving it because he really likes it, and wanted it to be a good vocal, with a little rasp. I think it came out sounding good. That brings us down to 1 song left, sort of. We have been listening to Autumn and She's Waiting, the first two tracks, and Chad thinks we need to revisit them. He is basically my vocal producer, so I do what he says. I also think he's right. She's Waiting is hard to sing, and I think I can do better than what we have, and the chorus of Autumn is a little warbly. It was new material, and I think it will sit a little better in my throat the next time. Almost there, loyal fans, almost there.

Caffeine, Desire, and Casual Affection has been consumed! It has been drunk like the wine that helped me get these takes. That’s right folks, for the first time while recording vocals, I tried some wine. It was white, a Yellow Tail Pinot Grigio. It was quite easy going and tasty. I was drinking it so quickly when we first got started that Chad actually hid my glass from me! Still, it got me relaxed in a way that usually takes about 30 minutes of singing. Cool trick, gotta love those sneaky spirits. Anyways, we recorded one of the oddest songs on the record tonight. Structurally, the song is unlike any other I have written. A A A A. It has no chorus, just a series of verses, telling a story. In the flow of the record, it is actually a diner story being told to our hero by a patron. A warm story of love returned and cherished. Well, not really, but anyway… The session went well. The song has a lot of opportunity for dramatic vocal expression. It is both one of the oldest songs on the album (compositionally), as well as one of the most unfamiliar in my throat. I have no recent history with performing this song, and when I say recent, I mean like maybe 3 years or more, not since before I learned how to sing. So, it had some challenges. Really, everything came pretty easily except one vowel. E. I struggle with singing long “e” sounds, especially higher in my voice. Give me an “ah”, or an “eh” sound and I am all over it. E, though, is tricky, and that is where all the takes went tonight. I think we got it. I hope you think so, too.

Wow. Only two songs left. Last Night’s Panties On The Floor, and Right There Beside Me. Those two titles would make for some fun medleys, wouldn’t they? Last Night’s Panties Right There Beside Me on the Floor. As for that, there are a lot of fun possibilities when you start mashing up titles, like “She’s got a little less than panties open all night on the floor there beside me. Right? Caffeine, desire, and the weight of the same porcelina trouble delusion. I could go on.

There is so much happening in our lives now, I feel like a spectator to our circumstances. Days are flying past like minutes it seems, with our move out day hurtling towards us like a oncoming car. Only when this one hits us, I don’t think we’ll die. It may be a celebration coming down the street towards us. Or a funeral. But I don’t think so. Without good reason, but with, perhaps, faith, I think I am still optimistic. Hey, no reason for being down in the dumps. I am not alone, I have friends, I have a dog I love, I am almost done with a big project, I’ve got reasons for joy. Also, more than just perspective, I think my faith is healing out of the turmoil it has been in for the past few months. Thankfully, not because I am getting what I want, but in spite of that, and beyond it. I can at least see peacefulness, the rest coming from surrender. Hard to describe without sounding like a bad preacher, but trust me, it is not bad preacher stuff.

Take the care, wash the car,
zoo

Chad and I worked for several hours tonight on the title track of the record, Open All Night. This song is actually split on the album. It begins on track 13, and then after the second chorus gives way to the intro of Kerri, and then after the next track, Caffeine Desire and Casual Affection, it starts up again as the closer to the album. It will all make sense when you hear it. Anyways, this was a challenging song because it demanded me to sing notes well in the chorus that I had never managed to really nail before. It was hard. God bless Chad, the chorus must not be more than 15 seconds of music, and it only happens 3 times on the whole record, but we did 65 takes on one of them before we got it. That notwithstanding, we almost "one taked" the entire reprise. My first shot was so close, all the way through it. Because of a few shaky syllables peppered throughout the take, we ended up redoing all of it, but there was magic in the air. I started feeling it earlier this afternoon thinking about the upcoming session. I could feel ideas forming, like the little creative improvisatory phrasing and lilt of fragments that comes out when you are working on expressing the ideas behind the words in a lyric. I was excited to do this session. The chorus was the part I had to really work hard at. This album, while played entirely by my fingers, is going to be as much Chad’s as mine, because without his critical vocal coaching, the performances that give voice to this huge project would never have existed. Then when you add in what he is going to contribute in the way of harmonies, well, we might as well be a band or something! (wink :-D)

This leaves three songs! Of course we are under the gun because of the impending destruction of my studio, but with Autumn and Open All Night/Reprise finished, I feel like it is smooth sailing ahead. All the really technical stuff is behind me. Famous last words, right? But I am confident. Caffeine is an little artsy sad thing, Right There Beside Me is a staple of my live show, and is very comfortable in my throat, and Last Night’s Panties on the Floor won’t be too hard (I hope!). Anyway, There are 27 days left till studio destruction, and only 3 more Tuesdays (my current night to work with Chad.) Wish me luck loyal fans! I promise to one day deliver something that you can actually listen to on your own time, in your car, on your iPod, on your private jet. I hope that when I am finished, you will think it worth the wait.

Love,
Zoo

I can't believe it! Autumn has been the hardest song yet to get down good sounding vocals. It required a rewrite of the chorus, and 2 spots of total improv in the studio. But, it is finished. It is important song in the scope of the album. It will be the first sounds you hear on the record, and it may well be the first time many people hear my voice at all. I felt that pressure on me for a long time, and the previous three attempts to record did not produce results. No other song has proven that difficult to record. Finishing Autumn is really leaping toward the end of the lead vocals. There are 4 sessions left. Right There Beside Me is the biggest song left to do. I've been unconsciously saving it for last, I think. Then there's also Caffeine, Desire, and Casual Affection (a longish song, but I don't anticipate much trouble), Last Night's Panties on the Floor (a gritty rock song), and the Open All Night (intending to split up the song into two tracks on the album itself, but will be recording them together). Hope good things keep happening, even if they are slow.

Gonna be moving soon. Gotta pack of all my stuff and get out. One day I got stressed about how much money I was paying in rent. I complained to my landlord. Oops! He decided to sell the house. We made an offer. House got sold to someone else for 6% more. 6%. My wife and I are displaced, and I gotta tear down my best studio ever for 6%. I sold a guitar and traded a year's worth of piano lessons for the construction of this studio. So the hunt is on, because we are hurtling towards homelessness. We barely have 5 weeks left. We have been frantically trying to buy a house for over 2 months. We must have looked at 50 houses by now. We have had the worst luck ever. We got screwed out of our first house attempt by some really weird agent stuff that got ugly. After the dust settled the house sold for what we bid, but to someone else, and we were strategically not notified by the selling agent so we couldn't bid again. One down, and a month lost. House number two we tried to buy for asking price, but the seller kept stalling a response to our bid, stringing us along for 10 days! When they did finally get another offer, they tried to leverage us. I felt like they weren't to be trusted and walked away. Another 2 weeks and an amazing house lost. Got a bid in now on another house. Not gonna mention anything about it, so as not to jinx anything. Who am I kidding - we are so jinxed. If we weren't, this wouldn't be happening to us.

Anyways, Chad and I are gonna really try to get vocals done before we have to demo this studio. But I don't know if we are gonna make it. There is so much going on... But never fear, my few fans, I am still a writer, still an artist. It is the only thing that makes any sense to me. I completely hate the world of real estate, and money. Friends can turn their back on you for 6%, and strangers can deal with you over and over again from a position of pure, greedy, cutthroat, underhanded selfishness, and no one cares, even thinks it's wrong. People think it all works out just because everyone can work for their own advantage at other people's expense. It's called business. Well, business sucks! It is considered weak to not be concerned with absolute bottom lines, with 6%. I don't want to be in business. Carving out a tiny little edge to secure for yourself something that you can't even keep, and which is just a response to the inevitability of death and the illusion of wealth (we all rot the same in the end), doesn't seem like strength to me. It seems like blindness. It seems foolish. Art doesn't behave like that. Art comes from the wispy world of feelings, ideas. It gives to those who create it, and to those who experience it. It is a net gain. It adds to the bottom line of everyone involved. It is not a zero sum situation. I write and perform, and it gives to me when I do, and it gives to others when it hits them in the heart. I don't always succeed in reaching people, but when I do, it's much better business than business, and the payoff is worth a lot more than 6%. I hate real estate.

Worked with Chad tonight. We've been running into a brick wall with Autumn. Several sessions with no results, and this nagging feeling inside me that there was something wrong. It finally came out tonight, I realized that the chorus melody was not good enough, that it was holding the whole song down. A new one started coming and now there is a shiny new chorus for Autumn! I have high hopes that this will make our future sessions on the song a lot more productive. I can't wait to get it recorded. That song has proved hard to nail, and getting it on tape once and for all will be a big accomplishment. Wish me luck!

I have always wanted to play this place. I was so excited to see that the Songwriter's Association showcase was going to be in Cupid's Theater. It is a small theater on the very top floor of this crazy house in Kernersville, and it has very steep ceilings and absolutely awesome acoustics! It reverberates in a very musical way all through the house. It sounds so cool up there. Chad, and Jeff and I played three songs, and it was awesome. I always sing better in a place with good reverb bouncing back to me. It inspires me to reach for something beyond the notes, it affects my timing in a soulful way. I always thought Cupid's Theater would be a great place to perform. I was right, and we had a lot of fun. I have imagined doing my CD release party there, for invited special guests and friends. More word on that later. I am sure that I will be able to swing it now that the Songwriter's Association is connected there.

There is an earlier entry in this journal where I claim to have finished this song, but it was before Chad was helping me, and it was long before my vocal breakthroughs. I even had another one tonight. I discovered that I needed to do this little dance while I am singing. It makes my intonation better. Chad eventually had to laugh at me, saying that it looked like a cross between Salsa and ballet, but hey, whatever works. I got another song done. That makes 9 that I am happy with. If things go well, we can be done with lead vocals in 6 more sessions. Trashcoat is a pivotal song on the album, and one my personal favorites from a pianistic perspective. I hope you all will enjoy the fruits of my labor. And believe me, I have labored. I checked my older journal entries, and I have been recording vocals for over a year now – whew! Good things are coming. I know it. I have been listening to 90.9 and I totally think I could fit in on college Radio with the product I am making. My performance and production and writing is within the range of what I hear there, better than many, not as polished as others. I have high hopes of fitting in somewhere, so that I can play and produce and perform my music for my living - even if it is a meager one. I don’t care about massive wealth; I just don’t want to have to do anything else to the exclusion of my songs.

Today I went out with Lee Adams, an amazing photographer, and we shot the first session of photos for the CD art. We found this great little diner in Walkertown. Turns out they are tearing it down in a few weeks, so we were lucky to find it at all. It didn't look like much from the outside, but we found some great people inside, good coffee, and got some awesome shots. Lee has a way of getting the picture. He takes it and you don't see a photo, you see a subject. It's like magic. I don't know how he does it. We are going to stage a photo too, perhaps for under the Cd in the case. I am excited about this one, but I won't say more now. I will be posting some of the photos from our shoot on the site as soon as I have some copies.
Be one,
Zoo

Foothills Juice and Java accidentally double booked March 8, so we have moved the show to April 12. Hope to see you all there!

zoo

Last night, Chad and I reconvened in my studio and set to work on a song that had proved troublesome last year. I tried to record this one first, and it did not go well. It was hard. There were a lot words and a lot of vowels, and that meant a lot of ways to sing poorly. I shelfed it after a bunch of failed tries. This was before my recent break through, of course, but also before Chad was helping me. So we went to record it and "Boom!" It went fast, it was easy. There was one thing, that I have to do 3 times in the song, that was a little problematic, but it was nothing like what happened before. So, She's Waiting, which will be the second track on the finished album, is mostly done. I may be working on those 3 sounds, again, but the whole of the song is completed. And in something like 2 hours. I am excited about the progress, both on the album project, and also as a singer. I am learning how to execute music with the instrument that God created in all of us. It feels good. I hope that you all will enjoy the fruits of my labor soon. That makes 9 songs done, I think. Although, even though I put Bruises and Cuts down as finished, I may do it again, post-breakthrough. I am still largely happy with the rest of the vocals, except for one sound in The Same Delusion, and I am not sure what to do about that.

But the end is in sight! I can see my way to the finish.
Zoo

Well, a lot has happened personally over the holidays, since my last update. There was Thanksgiving, where I started teaching my nephew how to skateboard. This culminated in our getting him a Spiderman skateboard for Christmas. He is very athletic, and took to it well, and quickly. It was cool to watch. Then there was a recording session, and we failed to get Autumn finished, but we had a break though, according to Chad, in my singing. I was working in front of the mic, and making certain kind of resonant sounds to hear the notes before each take, and then trying to sing. Chad asked me about those sounds and told me to sing that way for the take. It was very different from I had been doing. I had always thought that those sounds were ugly, or too loud, of whatever, but I think I actually found my real voice. It has been a lot easier to sing since then. We had a test gig of the new band (read more about them below!) last Saturday, for mostly friends and family, and Jamie, my girl, said it may have been the best I ever sounded vocally. She would know, as she has had to listen to tons of my attempts at singing. Then there is my new band! Chad and Jeff. Chad sings harmonies and plays guitar, and sometimes bass. Jeff is a great drummer and percussionist. He is playing tabla, conga, djembe, and mandolin! So we have a cool lineup. We are playing again in March, so check the calendar. I'll be sending out an email too. I have not done too much in the studio since the break through, and what music time I have had I have spent rehearsing with the band. I hope everyone's holiday was spent with people you love. Life is too short, even when it is as long as it can be. Most of it seems to be spent in distraction from the important, real things. Perhaps this is so because looking at the important, real things is so painful. You look into the eyes of someone you love, when there is no artifice, just communion, and it strikes you that this moment is like a debt of love that calls for payment out of your soul, and your entire being is inadequate to actually pay it, even with pouring all of yourself out forever. And that is just in one moment. They keep adding up every second. So I think turning away and coasting, in intentional oblivion, is a kind of natural defense mechanism against such realizations. But I desire to know the debt, and to become empty paying it. I encourage you to, as well.

Love,
zoo

It was a good show. I played with Chad, and we did Kerri and She's Got a Living. He sang harmonies and played guitar along with my piano parts. I got to play that awesome Yamaha again, and it sounded great. So supple, and rich. I ran sound for the event as well, and that was fun. The room is a big box, with what look like 20 or 30 foot ceilings, and brick walls. I brought an EQ and cut a bunch of lo mids out, and it sounded pretty good. Songs were nice. I didn't know many of the other writers this time. I did find out about an open mic at the Garage every Wednesday, so I will be doing that, soon.

Thanks for coming out, those of you who could make it.

zoo

I worked in the studio last Friday with Chad, before Jamie and I left for a weekend in Georgia, and a trip to Ikea - I love Ikea! Anyways, Chad and I worked for about 4 hours and got Kerri finished. Back when I was in Suitcase, in my spare time I was working on the composition of these songs. I brought this idea to Joe Tappe, one of my bandmates, and we fooled around with it, and wrote some more of the song together, and then I finished it a couple of days later, fresh off the inspriration of that session. The result was a crowd favorite song called Kerri. It is also the only co-written song on the album, and I love it especially for that reason. It was on the harder side to record, but not as hard as say, Autumn is going to be. But anyways, Kerri is done. I logged some time mixing it before we left for GA, and listened to it on the way down. I am very happy with how it came out. I can't wait for you all to hear it! That makes, how many... wow! 7 Songs! I can't believe this. There are still harmony vocals to record for everything, but that is going to be like putting icing on a cake. The hard work is done, and you are just decorating. Mixing is going well after the acoustic treatment of my room. My mix for Kerri sounded good elsewhere after the first attempt at a mix. BTW, anyone who wants to hear a cool, thumpy, punchy kick drum sound in a ballad setting should listen to "So Cruel" on Achtung Baby, by U2. Slow, delicate song, but a kick drum from dance music. I love it. Porcelina may get similar treatment. OK, gotta go feel good about myself for the work I've finished so far, and get geared up for the coming challenges.

Please join the Committee for the Liberation of Terrifying Organisms and their Reintegration Into Society.

zoo