I like collaborating. Occasionally, my buddy Jason and I actually put two and two together and produce something cool. We’ve just released an album called “away.” I’m really, really happy with the way it turned out. It’s funny, we only got into the same room twice and based on the correspondence and timestamps, this collection has taken the better part of a year. That’s kind of a long time and kind of not. In any case, please take a listen. It’s free!
So may good buddy Astra and I are at it again. Here’s a tune that we whipped up a week or so ago. I really love the way her voice telegraphs the unbalanced nature of the narrator. Just love this tune. Enjoy!
He’s Gone by J.C. Wilson and Astra Hemming is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at othertime.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://othertime.com.
Having a little writing project is fun. It’s keeping me busy and satisfied with myself as we work our way through the early months of my daughter’s life. My wife and I have worked out a schedule where she gets two nights a week to do what she wants to do and I get two nights. It’s far from ideal, but something that I’m learning (again) is that the less time I have to do my work, the better and more productive the time I spend on it is.
That makes no sense at all. But maybe it does. I think about music all day long. I have a non-stop stream of melodies, harmonies, and rhythms in my head. I whistle and hum when I’m alone. Stupid things like harmonizing with the drone of my tires on the road or whistling against the sound of the air conditioning. It passes the time and feeds that place in my subconscious where the good ideas start.
This constant thinking about the thing that I love doing also makes that little time that I have more precious. I go into the studio tired and worn down from my day but then I accomplish something, even something small, and I come out feeling like a million bucks. It’s great! And when I’m in the sketching stage of a project, this kind of schedule is perfect. It would be hell if I were trying to get a tune down for release. For that, I need concentrated stretches and many nights in a row to get something consistent. So it looks like I’ll be sketching for another month or so. Works for my family, so it works for me.
The other thing that I have going for me is the Korg iMS-20 app for my iPad. Wow. Tons of analog synth goodness with the added beauty of the Korg Kaos pad. That right there is worth the price of admissions. I find myself sitting in the coffee shop or wherever just noodling away with different timbres. Moving patch cables around with no rhyme or reason. It’s the sonic equivalent of doodling – something that the iPad does very well. It’s a shame you can’t create with that device. It’d be neat. Oh. Wait.
So with my reduced time, I’m making up for it with things that I can do away from the studio and with a baby in my lap. That means a lot of reading, Boggle, and tapping away on my angry little manifesto.
For those who care (all 6 of you), there will be tunes soon. I have a few experiments that I’m trying to make into something worth sharing. The rest of my time is devoted to generating 9 songs and lyrics for a project that I’m putting together with some folks who don’t know about it yet. They’re busy and need to be surprised.
In 2010 I managed to accomplish the following musical tasks:
1. Completed an acoustic guitar.
2. Completed 60% of a second guitar.
3. Released Thought Music.
4. Released Chasing Saturday
5. Collaborated with Astra and Jason on several tunes (in person, even!).
6. Started work on a longer term Cloxco album.
Not. Too. Shabby.
With the impending arrival of a little girl early in 2011, I’m not sure what things will look like, but I’m hoping to do at least as well next year. Big plans include building an electric guitar and composing a couple of serious pieces for the classical guitar. I would also like to release some more of the acoustic noodlings I have been saving and really get the Cloxco project off the ground.
Here’s to getting things done in 2011. Good luck in all of your projects.
Finally! New music! This collection of 6 simple songs has been incubating since the summer. It is primarily solo electric guitar and most of the tracks are chamber like. There are two tracks that my good friends Astra and Jason contributed to without really knowing. I won’t ruin the surprise but there are two vocal only tracks and, well, they fall well within the parameters of my style – if I have one.
So head on over here and DOWNLOAD CHASING SATURDAY! Pass it on! And thanks for listening.