Now Back to the music..

What I have been working on.

Come here and lemme pick your nose...

It is a fine Spring day and the temperature is the best yet. The sun is shining and the air is fresh. So I figure I'll stay indoors. Stay indoors and experiment musically that is, with some new instruments. No, I didnt give up playing the guitar. I just got into other things. A Korg Piano and a MicroKorg synth. It's a growth spurt. In part from my experiences in EARS, partly from my collaborations with Jon Chambers, and partly from my solo time doing 'Solos.' Ive always enjoyed producing my own stuff, and I like playing keyboards too. People always ask me if I used any synths on 'Solos.' No, those are all guitars; guitars in different tunings, and different mic recording arrangements. I dont know how you hear synths in there. But anyways nevermind. These days, experimenting with some electronica and other instruments, sounds like fun to me.


Clowning around is hard work. But, yea I have been sketching out some new stuff. Definately. I will post some of it for you to listen to soon. It will be a departure from the all-guitar stuff from the past, so be ready...
 
 
 
I have to be honest. All this work makes me tired as a matter of fact. I am feeling sleepy right now. This is tough stuff.. Its all just too much for me.....I must rest..

Mmmm..must eat every morsal.

First I took a photo of it, and then I ate it. Then I had another plate and another one and... Friends and I got together for the sushi special at Ringo, on Lincoln Avenue in Chicago. Why does my tummy ache? 'cause it was soo goood. hmm...

Woah - gotta back it up...

The following three blogs are me catching up and making good on writing about current events...

OK the first thing that I should tell you is that there has been some progress made with the 'Five Thousand People' CD. For some of you who dont know, the 5Kppl project "Five Thousand People" is an ambient collaboration between Jon Chambers and myself.
The recordings took place in September of 2006 in a small mountain town in Colorado called Alma. There he is in the picture playing the drums back at his place.


Jon did a lot of keyboard work with his Nord Lead 3.


The Nord. It's Swedish, and it's amazing.


Listen: Mountain Bike, a jam we did with the Nord.





(You can listen to more music and read about 'Five Thousand People' and the trip to Colorado here.)

In early April, Jon Chambers gave me a call to say he was going to be in town. We met up at Shula's Steakhouse where we ate football-sized steaks. Kansas City Strip mm mmm... Even the menu was written on a football which was funny cause it conjured up ideas of telling the waiter to go for a Hail Mary. But overall the food was great. We agreed that we were going to start getting things ready to go into a studio to edit and remix our tracks.

The studio that we are focused on is SOMA Electronic Music Studio, in Chicago. It is owned and operated by John McEntire, who aside from being an accomplished producer and engineer, is also the drummer for Tortoise.

See article by Jim DeRogatis: Tortoise’s JOHN McENTIRE: Post-Rock’s Sonic Genius

and check out the studio here:

Soma Electronic Music Studios

The studio has a lot of history. Stereolab, Tortoise, The Sea and Cake. You've heard 'em.