Saturday, March 27, 2010

Introducing Brooklynn...and The band!


It's 9 am, which is really early for me, and I stayed up til about 2:30am. I have an adorable new daughter (She looks nothing like the skeletal zombie ultrasound pictures of her-whew!), Brooklynn Maisie. She is keeping us up at night with her feeding and diaper changes, but we love her just the same.

I have finally formed a full band (although, we are still trying out guitarists-it's about to become a running joke), I have two and a half good recordings finished, and I have around twelve album-ready songs, most of which the band has added incredible dimension and energy to.

Eric Wells, the bassist is a Jersey transplant, who like myself, spent some time gigging as a bassist in New York City. His overall musicianship is spot on; great tone, feel, articulation, and bass lines. Exactly what I'm looking for in a bassist. He moved to the land of hops and barley for love. What's not to like about that?

Luis Santana is a dread-headed ball of energy behind and away from the drum kit. His enthusiasm and dedication are inspiring and help me stay motivated on writing and pushing the band forward. His rhythmic innovations add surprises that I wouldn't necessarily think of on my own. He and Eric have a great deal of experience to draw from in their years of experience in other bands.

That's one of the reasons I wanted this to be a full band, not just the "Glenn show." Sure, they play the parts I've recorded, but with the new songs, their instincts are spot on with the way I hear things in my head. This means I don't have to pull teeth to get them to understand the sound I'm after.
In other news, I can't stop listening to Dr. Dog! Their cover of Architecture in Helsinki's "Heart it Races" is a must listen.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

NEW BLOG

Hey everyone, its been a while since I've posted because I've been busy writing/performing/recording new songs. I've started a new blog/mission statement called I am an Orchestra.

I'm working on final mixes of two songs right now, Alone Together, and Get Away. "til I found You" is next, a song that whose ending is somewhat inspired by the film "500 Days of Summer."
This album is a blend of my favorite things about music and steals heavily from my favorite artists in ways that may or may not be obvious to the casual listener.
I get tired of hearing people describe their music as something new and unlike anything else when at first listen their a bland copy of The Dave Matthews Band or yet another acoustic guitar playing loop pedal abuser.
I am listening deeply to music to find and learn to recreate the essence of what I love about artists like Cat Stevens, Dr. Dog, Spoon, St. Vincent, The Beatles, Counting Crows, Van Morrison, Tom Waits, Thom Yorke, Gavin Castleton, Danny Elfman, Elbow, and Elvis Costello.

here's some lyrics from the unrecorded gershwin-esque "The Right Combination"

I've tried candy, I've tried flowers, I've tried staying up all night on the phone for hours
but I still don't have the right combination to unlock your heart.

I've tried champagne, I've tried roses, I've been standing next to you striking handsome poses
but I still don't have the right combination to unlock your heart.

Was it two turns to the left, one to the right, or was it three?
Were my love songs out of tune, or did I just forget the key?
What were the secret words to make you fall for me?
Did I stutter "I love you," did I mutter "marry me?"
well, I still don't have the right combination to unlock your heart

I'll try begging, but not stealing. What's it take to give you that funny feeling,
cuz I still don't have the right combination to unlock your heart.

Lyrics

Love is the answer to the question that sits
on the tip of my tongue to the touch of your lips
What do you want? What have I got?
What are we gonna do with it?

Love can take your heartache and trade it for bliss
in the blink of an eye, with a wink and a kiss.
what do you want? what have I got?
what are we gonna do?
I'll tell you: Love

Monday, October 5, 2009

After the Gold Rush

O California, I never did trade my black boots, blue jeans, and fitted shirts for you sandals, cargo shorts and dude-bro apparel. I never had my teeth whitened, and the only tan I keep is from my olive skin, just part of being Italian.
I did get a motorcycle, I have been saying "dude," "legit," and unfortunately "no worries." I even thought about a tattoo.

By the same token, I'm going try best not to say "yah, eh?" or put an "a" before any vowels sounds that start with "e" and vice versa. That would be the Midwest "eeaccent." I picked up on my friend Paul's british accent when we lived together in Boston, and even parts of my friends Noel's Massachusetts vernacular, but when I moved to New York, I did my best to cover my redneck past, and speak geographically neutral. Even still, I did utter the occasional "naw, son." When I found myself delivering packages in the projects in Bed Stuy, Flatbush, or Canarsie Brooklyn, I did my best to fit in where I clearly stood out.

I am considering moving back to Wisconsin. I'll have a drumset or two, room to record uninterrupted (for the most part), and I'll be a lot closer to my sister, with whom I run Spitting Image, our self-designed clothing line.

Anyway, I can't stop procrastinating lately. I am midway through finishing a very dramatic version of Alone Together. I love how its coming out because originally it sounded like it could have been on John Mayer's pandering Room For Squares album ( I must say, I do love parts of Continuum, I'm just not a fan of his earlier work). Now it will sound at home among the birds and monsters.

My sister Amy has completed the lovely artwork, which will eventually be on our myspace/t-shirt/album cover. Its hand drawn and handmade. DIY as always.

Matt Reyes' production of my song "Get Away" had been nearing completion, but his computer crashed. Fortunately its backed up, but I don't know when we'll get to hear all the work we put in on this favorite of mine. He has really helped keep me moving. I tend to get caught up in experimenting so much that I have trouble putting anything to "tape."

well, its time for work. Au revoir mes amis.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Can we start again? lets just START

My routine has been broken. I took a shower at 1 am and shut the water off when I couldn't shut the warm rush of thoughts off. Here they come, this blog will be the absorptive towel (I had to check, it's a word, and I spelled it correct).
I'm introspective again, which was the way I spent my single years.
I am braver, singing in front of strangers, full volume, on my bicycle, knowing full well, they can't hear the (probably obscure) music I'm listening to.
I'm ready to try and fail and try again.
I quit silencing the performances of my music while customers walk into my store.
I am ready to reflect on the events that got me from Milwaukee to Boston to Milwaukee to Brooklyn to Orange County.
I am willing to admit I miss the change in seasons, despite the knowledge that the admission of this could increase the persistent urgings from my mother to move back to Wisconsin.
I am on a precipice, about to be a father for the first time.
I can't wait to play with toys and abandon my dignity, get caught up in the imagination I promised not to lose.
I want to be honest and vulnerable.
I'm tired of being to cool to display my excitement for the geeky things I enjoy that few others will/can discern the greatness of. That makes me more excited in some ways. Like when I used to delight in hearing a jazz musician quote another jazz song, or more obscurely, someone else's solo, within their improvised solo as I sat up alone at night in my room in the basement. I experienced this same feeling enjoying a performance by Gavin Castleton this weekend. I got even giddier when he busted out Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer."


I looked for my old blog and put in the wrong address and swiped this rumination from the site:
"I've learned that I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy it. "
Why else am I driven to leave family, familiarity, deny material abundance, find new friends and support, and reinvent myself for the sake of music not once, but thrice?

Am I delusional? egotistical?
did my grandmother overinflate my esteem and the sense of uniqueness that I want to share with others.
Am I buying into the hype from my teachers?
If that were so, I'd be farther along in my career now.
You see, I've been playing it safe. Sideman in countless bands, assistant engineer, music teacher, short-film scorer, front of house sound tech. All of these things have the scent of what I love to do, but they don't contain the essence. They need to be funneled, channeled into what it is that I have to do, which is to be a performing songwriter/musician. I have to do it because its who I am. To deny that is to deny being me. I struggle to balance this out when remembering that I must deny myself and take up my cross daily. It is easy to use this scripture to excuse my inactivity and mask my true paralysis: fear of failure.

But then we played a show in Long Beach and Gavin Castleton performed first. It woke something up in me that lay dormant. As amazing a performer he and his band were, the depths (of which I am increasingly appreciating the more I learn about his craftsmanship), he doesn't get the full credit for this mind-altering shift. It was in me, he just helped wake it up.
His performance was in the league of hearing Jeff Buckley for the first time, seeing Shara Worden(Awry and My Brightest Diamond) live in Milwaukee playing guitar with a pencil stuck in the bridge, or watching Annie Clark (St. Vincent) at school, still relatively unknown, playing otherworldly music in our cafeteria.

I was angered by my friend's inability to appreciate the craft, the deft storytelling and wordplay and tasteful rap(?! yes, and it didn't bother me at all), the groove, the mix of aural influence. Like a Sigur Ros, elbow, Peter Gabriel, J.B. , Postal Service, Notwist,Beck/Prince mashup- and it worked. If she found the music too challenging, she didn't understand me very well. This is the kind of artist I am, but I haven't been upfront with this side of myself, offering palatable pop and pushing my darker eccentricities aside. I've let the polite face be the ambassador of my inner self for too long. And now I realize that California has undone the hardness of New York living.
I started Midwest, went east, toughened up (too much), moved west, softened up (too much)


Two nights later my wife and I found ourselves scrambling to find songs to play at a gig that had been handed to us the morning of. I pulled out all the stops, and slowed down time onstage, living in the moment of it, playing with the audience, inviting their playfulness, joining in their fun. It was the culmination of "effortless mastery," the amazing book that taught me to laugh at my mistakes, that music isn't hard- its eather familiar or unfamiliar, get familiar and it just comes out of you naturally. It wasn't Glenn versus the audience anymore. I had underestimated them for too long. They aren't the enemy.
We were rewarded with much applause, many kind words (and the encouragement is food for the soul of a musician plagued by self-doubt).

And when I got home I started to read Gavin's wincingly soul-baring blog. Like a diary. He reminded me that it is the work of the artist to share what we have gone through not simply for our own catharsis or process, but for others to learn from. And I learned a lot about myself through his experiences and I will now pay the favor forward.

Instead of being jealous of all the skills he posseses, or Elliott Smith has with chords and melody, or the octaves of Jeff Buckley, or the whatever of anyone, I need to take stock of and utilize my assests. This is not vain braggings, but a reminder to the artist in me that has been stifled by self doubt for so long;

I have a way of presenting things in ways that people have not been able to articulate, and I'm doing it in my music.
I am writing the kind of music I like to listen to without sounding like a blatant copy of the music I listen to, yet I've reached the level where I know how to do that too.
I write clever and intelligent lyrics that are universal, even when drawn from personal experience
I am proficient on the saxophone
I have lots of software, plug-ins, and synths/drum machines
I can play guitar well, and have finally connected it to my ear the way I had with saxophone
I can play bass even better
I am playing drums better than I ever have before, although I should improve
I have gotten better at the piano, and some of my best songs are performed on it.
I am finally getting better at singing and braver at it.
I own several guitars, a bass, two keyboards, and have access to laptops. I need to start sequencing backing tracks so I won't feel naked on stage
I'm okay with being naked on stage.
My wife is an amazing vocalist and an even better encourager.
I have a lot of friends everywhere I've ever lived, even California, with many amazing skills that can be tapped with mutually beneficial results:
a party promoter/co-ordinator, a photographer/rock journalist,
a graphic designer/web design guru, video directors, other musicians who have been where I am and are where I want to get to.
I have a pool of students who are interested in my musical comings and goings, and its time I let them in on what we're doing.
I CAN get enough people to do a pay for play club,as much as I hate the idea of paying to play.


Now here are some things I will need to get to the next level:
Photos of us.
a band, be it people I know, or a laptop, or an ipod.
I could use some work in arranging
to let people know what it is I do and who I am
To accept who I used to be and start letting Chelbie in on that world without fear of shame or hurting her feelings.
Some more gigs

Ok, this is my dream here it goes, watch it grow.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Valentines Day



I've been away from my blog for some time, but I thought I'd come out of hiding long enough to unveil our latest shirt. Just in time for Valentines Day!




I have been busy trying to become a Guitar Hero. Since I went to a well known music school to be a jazz saxophonist only to drop the sax, focus on songwriting, and change my prinicipal instrument to beginner guitarist, I never really went through the "learn to play smoke on the water/stairway/crazy train/(fill in overplayed riff based song)" phase that most teenage guitarists do. So at 28 years old I bought a book of transcriptions and I'm working my way through Queen's "Killer Queen," having finally mastered the classical intro to Heart's "Crazy On You" and Dick Dale's "Misirlou." I'm also teaching guitar part-time again, and my students want to learn to play things like "The Beast and the Harlot," "Pinball Wizard," or "Don't Fear the Reaper." That means I have to figure them out first. So if you don't see me on blogger much, thats why.










Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Woke Up Alone

I made my first short film/ music video, pairing a song a wrote on ukelele with a script I wrote. I was a bit worried about presenting it to my three classmates, because, although I knew one of them was into Eraseread (as am I), I didn't know how far I could push the envelope of weird and whimsical with the other two. It turns out they were all about it and aside from our actor having to cancel one day of shooting due to an emergency trip to Tijuana to bail his brothers out of a Mexican prison, the shoot went quite smoothly and the film turned out pretty much how we imagined it.





It started with the song and this papier mache' candy bowl kit by Martha Stewart, which I reappropriated into a mask.

Then when I really got the hang of making solid masks, I made these other two papier mache' beasties

This is the costume I donned for my performance as the band leader, obviously inspired by my love of day of the dead folk art




This is my favorite, partly inspired by the weird baby in David Lynch's Erasherhead, which I gave to Cameron, who played the drummer.


We also made a fake toaster with a working light that we timed out just right to look fakely realistic. Best of all, I got to use my Cassette Tape (a big inspiration in this project) from Etsy artist Analog Park ( Itraded a Spitting Image shirt for this awesome canvas tape):


We used lots of fake stop motion effects in which we made a filmed sequence appear to be stop-motion ever though it was shot in one take. For an example of this, watch the potted plant sequence. Its filmed in reverse, then sped up and frames are extracted from the sequence to appear choppy.


Theres an entire DVD worth of outtakes and bloopers which are probably only interesting to us so I'll spare you all. Without further ado, I present to you, "Woke Up Alone."