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12.10.03 4
pm I had my pea-coat dry-cleaned and all the buttons melted. So I am going on a button quest. I think I'd better get metal buttons. I got an iPod. Right now it had 2000 songs on it with room for about 2000 more. It is awesome to be able to hear whatever I want wherever I go. And it's all about what I want, right? hee hee No really, if you love music, this is quite the little device. I am on the cusp of buying the MOTU 828MkII firewire audio interface. Tired of trouble shooting my Delta 44 control panel. The dream is a rock-solid stable I/O interface that will WORK whenever I want to record. Solving tech problems becomes like Chinese water torture after awhile, killing creative inspirations and exchanging them with urges to lie comatose and prone for extended periods of time. Of course, now I'll have to learn a new interface and I hope to have a new recording ready for 2012. No really, if I get everything working well I want to bust out 3 albums in one year. Not get too obsessed with self-production, just go with the flow and get them out. All my songs right now are like a million fish eggs, waiting to be hatched. All I need to do is look after them and they'll be born. I just hope a shark doesn't come along... 12.02.03 12
am Much as it would seem that I have left the planet as far as all this is concerned, it is actually blinking rather largely on my radar. Between managing my work and my frequent travels to far off exotic places in my head I have been trying to keep this ball rolling. But have you ever had a dream where the faster you try to run the slower you go? It's very frustrating. For instance right now I have about 5 partially finished recordings, and 4 new fully written songs that want to be recorded and a million other ideas. So recently I decided to make a push and record one of my new ones from the ground up. However I've been having technical problems with my set up. I decided to try and solve the problems and then start this new song. Well after three hours of battling technical issues I had to walk away for the day, it was so irritating. I had decided to bypass my current tech problems by installing and running Cubase SX 2.0, with OSX versions of The Grand and Battery - it would have been plenty to get me going. But I can't get SX to recognize MIDI input from my PC-300 controller keyboard. I will figure this shit out, but in the meantime the ideas stay imprisoned in me (perhaps fate is telling me something here??) The point is that overall I'm feeling very enthusiastic these days and when the planets align I will get back on the horse I rode in on and ride it somewhere new. In the meantime, you get a 'blog'. Best wishes to all well wishers and I hope you're staying warm. I got a hot new scarf tonight from Hollywood and I'm quite chuffed about it. 11.12.03 1
am Is it really November 12th? Time for the Gypsy movie. The air is getting cold. The people are getting quiet. The ghosts are creeping out of the woodwork to taunt us and ask us how far we've come. It's a long way back to where we started from. I recently finished Al Franken's new book. This book was as funny as it was disturbing. American politics. Brutal. I guess I shouldn't talk politics here....I wouldn't want to offend. Would I. Would I? Did my first bit with my new piano. I like the sound so much. It reverberates me away to somewhere easier. Remember those caps I set to detonate at the door when you came through it. The sound was a surprise. You laughed just as hard as we did at your fright. We loved you for it. I remember. A room with no walls, no ceiling, no floor, stretching to infinity. That's where we live. All we know takes place here. Congratulations David Miller. I have no idea who you are but apparently you are going to block the airport and I say 'no more airports!' Spaceports! Some descendant of mine is sitting in a spaceport in the year 2173, 200 years after my birth, doing genealogy research under my surname and, glossing through old 'internet' caches, giggling with wonder imaging a pre-spaceport reality. Or, it's just quiet. 10.27.03 1
pm I finally received Steinberg's 'The Grand', which will be making appearances on new music, no doubt. There is music being made, as usual. I'm just not finishing any recordings (except the covert deposits I make late at night on answering machines). You can really smell the leaves in the park. Guess it's that time of year. I wish I could float. In my dreams I can. I can float forward in some dreams fairly fast by stretching out, tipping down a bit and holding my arms out. I have not yet figured out how to go really fast. But I have seen some beautiful vistas. Ron Sexsmith was in the Starbucks near my place yesterday. You've got to love Ron Sexsmith! You've got to! Check out Whereabouts if you need a place to start. I like that one. 10.20.03 1
am Art-rock on a Sunday night. Spiritualized at the Opera House with Jim Morrison (a fine follow-up to Sam Roberts and Interpol, which I also saw with the Lizard King). Very good show, very interesting, still digesting it. Spaceman didn't look at the audience, or speak to it, even once. It was as if we were being permitted to see something that was for them, not for us. Unanticipated endings to songs. A baritone sax appeared at one point. An art-rock gospel rave-up for monkeys like me. Gypsy pawed my face and I woke up and remembered where I was :) 10.09.03 11
pm I eat sheep in cloud formations above my head when it is time for bread. 10.01.03 9
pm I can't believe that they are considering going back to the Apollo-style technology for space missions (you know, a launchable capsule that falls back to earth and lands in the ocean). I guess it's cheaper. It just feels like a step backwards. Although the Russians have exploited that technology successfully for awhile. I'm considering putting music out under my own name, now that I am truly creating on my own. I never saw myself that way, but I think I'm starting to accept that it would be a more appropriate way of going about things at this stage. I just want it to be about the music, not 'me' as a 'personality' or someone who 'entertains'. We'll see. Matthew Jay died in England last week. We was a young, gifted singer-songwriter who made me feel like there is hope for popularly heard music. Check out his music, you won't regret it. I recently watched Solaris. I love this movie. A psychological exploration of love and death. Seriously good. I also saw Lost In Translation which I really enjoyed. So there you go... some movie recommendations. I have an order in for a Steinway grand piano VSTi which I'm excited about. I'll get to ring out some big, full, booming piano chords into some new songs (Watch out, classical music purists - I can play this 'piano' whenever, however I feel like it. No rules. Roll Over Beethoven). I wish I was as musically productive as my friend Scott Cooper. He's got a new album, 'Popfizz' almost ready for us. Be sure to check it out. Oh well, I'll do my best and it'll be ready when it's ready and that's all I can say. Only thing I know is it's going to be an odd album (but satisfying, at least for me. My tastes are getting weirder).
09.08.03 11
pm I can't believe it has been a month since I wrote here. Obviously my business rules my roost. But what kind of a roost is ruled by only business? Despite my truancy I have been at work on things more sublime than advertising design. For instance, I have a new song called 'Moscow' that came to me all at once, lyrics and music (synthetic violin). I am getting excited about putting out more music officially. I did get my new studio monitors, and they are great. I also upgraded my processor, which mean I can run more virtual instruments at the same time! Love it. Right now I am listening to the Doors' 'Riders On The Storm'. Thank you, Jim Morrison. I am trying to get my kicks in, because you never know...... 08.07.03 7
pm In the middle of a week-long hiatus from work. Went up north to the cottage and absorbed sun and played in the lake with arms and legs and head submerged, looking for the remote-controlled boat that I helped destroy in a nautical disaster. Back in the city, I have put in my order for nice new studio monitors so I can get a little more serious about my mixes for newer and older material. I don't want to get hit by a bus and leave behind muddy mixes! I don't want to get hit by a bus! I have a few more days in my own little Xanadu and I can't wait to get straightened out in my studio and keep working on new stuff. In the meantime, I often pick up my accoustic guitar and sing love songs to my special girlfriend, Bell Call Answer. She's got a great voice and she always picks up the phone and remembers what I say (as long as it's under 5 minutes). Mars is getting very close, it's super bright in the night sky. 32 million miles is barely a flap of the wings as the crow flies, in a great infinite void. 07.29.03 10
pm I am now reading an Orson Welles biography called Rosebud. I love this book. This guy was such a prodigy, he had done more by the age of 25 than most accomplish in a lifetime. What swagger. What energy. It's contagious to read about his enthusiasm and it makes me want to do more, as much as possible, while I can. To that end, what am I doing tonight? Work-work, not music-work. I saw Seabiscuit last night with Hot Dog and quite liked it. I have some DVDs of old movies beckoning. And some songs that need tending. Soon I hope! Oh yes, and I was invited onto this insane new website called Friendster, by which I am now connected to 125,000 people who want to be friends with one another. Let's go for group coffee on an airstrip. 07.21.03 9
am I had the most vivid dream last night. I dreamt I lived in some future city. My apartment was on the 300th floor in a Manhattan style area, totally Blade Runner style. I was in a corner apartment and all the walls were glass. Looking out you were facing the windows of thousands of other apartments all stacked together closely, sky high. You could see hundreds of other people moving around in their own glass boxes. The only thing interrupting this view were two gigantic billboards, perhaps 500 ft wide each, that were showing 'blue' movies. Who knows, maybe this was foreshadowing for some apartment I will live in when I'm 80 (if i make it that far). That would be the year 2053. I have been swamped with work. Chances to develop the music have been too few and far between lately. The new song I have been working on is coming together well, except for some frustrating technical problems I have been having with my set-up. My processor is under too much strain on this track, and as a result I get random hiccups that cause blips and put everything out of time. It has been extremely irritating. So I'm doing section takes and hoping for the best each time. In the meantime I revisited an experimental track I started a while ago, and am cheating on my other new song with this one. It is seven minutes long, echoey and stringy with a sparse beat. I came up with a vocal part for it yesterday that pretty much relates the conflict and anxiety I feel when trying to rectify human issues with the awareness that we are floating in space and that everything in that context feels like an absurd abstraction. I feel giddy when I realize that I can put out an album, if I want to, that has all this different music on it, without trying to develop a shtick to promote. My shtick is saying what I want to say, how I want to say it... relating snapshots of vibes, with no over-riding style or image mandate. It may not be technically perfect, but none of us are, right? 07.11.03 9
am A new song is well under way, tentatively titled 'When You Call My Name'. The best way I can describe this song is to say that it sounds like it's sung from the perspective of a schizophrenic ghost on drugs. I'm not sure why it happened that way, it just did. It's got a slow, heavy, atmospheric vibe. It's not going to be a hit this Christmas. And you're not going to hear it while you buy jeans at Thrifty's. But if you believe in Jung's collective subconscious, you might hear it if you pass through one of my dreams one night. Or, you could just download an mp3 when it's ready. Please don't pass through my dreams. I have to go before the Thought Police sense my distraction from the Cause. :) 07.09.03 9
am It's been a few days since I wrote here. I've been a little busy and haven't had time for much of anything outside of work. I did fitfully start a new song but decided the tempo was all wrong, and it was hot, so I said fuck it. I do have a new air conditioner coming though. Let's see... how inane can I get with the details of my existence... 'I have a new air conditioner coming next week'. Good. Good for you. Although I suppose if it means I'll be writing and recording more then it's relevant. But maybe what I write doesn't have to be relevant? The world is full of weasels desperately trying to be 'relevant'. I am reading George Orwell's 1984. It's 'relevant'. I had never read it and knew I was destined to. My god, it's creepy. It gives me a sort of Blade Runner meets Brazil meets Kafka vibe. I am starting to feel nonsensical so I have decided to stop. The broadcast tower is ending the signal. 07.02.03 5
pm I'm running on about 2 hours of sleep right now. When things are like this, even a trip to Starbucks for a 'tall' (why-can't-they-just-call-it-medium) coffee, becomes slightly hallucinogenic... I believe that there is cat revolution brewing in the city. At 7am this morning, going for a walk, I observed groups of reconnaissance felines training in the streets. Swat teams of 3 or 4 cats each, were frantically running up and down sidewalks and across streets, for no discernible reason. I saw cat doing a drill where he would run out into the road in front of oncoming cars and barely escape being crushed by a tire... he did this three times... what is that, Xtreme sports for cats? Is he the neighborhood 'cool cat', the Leader? Do the other cats clamour to sit with him coughing up furballs and discussing park politics i.e. 'there's that fucking squirrel again, taunting us... pretend like you don't see him... we'll get him next time he's counting his nuts in that shrub.' Valerie wants to name her new cat 'Bill'. My cat was named Bill when I was 10 and I was devastated when he died. I think she should name her cat 'Valerie' instead. If the cats get me, will I become the first Martyr of the Cat / Human Wars? Work is insane right now, but I am gleefully plotting the next song in my head. It feels like I'm always plotting the next song in my head. Of course they never turn out quite like you had imagined, but that's part of the fun... 06.30.03 7
pm OK, 'It's Alright If You Do' is up in the audio section. Finally finished. It had originally been intended as an exercise in quick-turnaround, idea-to-completion working – which might have been fine if I happened to not be an obsessive-compulsive detail freak. I nearly had a fit arriving at this mix (#7). I redid a few tracks just because I had a new idea, or felt they could be a little better. Some of the 'mistakes' led to new ideas for the recording, which shows how much can change in the process of exploring options during recording. I guess that's why these superstar bands take years to record albums. Hope you like it. I'm not going to say much about what this one is about (it's about a few things though). Maybe it'll make you think of something in your own life, who knows. I'm ready to start something new. Somebody who lives beside my building is learning to play guitar. Lately I have been treated to the same chord progression over and over and over and over and over. Their roommates probably kick them out of the house to play, and it drifts into my place. One night I woke up at 4am and heard it coming through my window. It sounded pretty much the same as it always does, though perhaps with a slightly drunken lilt. One of these days I'm going to 'hulk' and go over there with a chord book, begging the person to try a new chord. 'You can do it! You've gone E to A and back again 50 million times at the same tempo with the same strumming pattern! Sit in your closet and try this chord!' I of course have no problem with someone learning to play guitar... it's just that there seems to be a universal dopiness that affects everyone who achieves the level of being able to play a clear chord or two... the person becomes so excited that they are 'playing guitar' that they assume that everyone around them in the house and they neighborhood can feel the joy. I know this because I went through it when I was 17... how many times did I play the chord progression to 'Satisfaction' in a state of bliss... annoying the fuck out of my family. hee hee. Just don't wake me up, and I'll be fine! Happy Birthday Ben! 06.29.03 1
am Drinks at the Devil's Martini last night for Sarah's birthday, and then a bit of cavorting around town. Went to bed extremely late, got up way too early. Did a bunch of walking and listening to music. Ariella got me a deal on a new silver necklace (thanks!). Had a blast with my 16 year old brother Ben (when I was 14 and he was tiny I used to carry him around in a papoose to the comic store). Now he's a soccer star thinking about university!! We walked around a lot and looked at graffiti. A controversial Golden Federoqio match ensued with Leo that resulted in a 3-way tie... outrageous! There must have been chads in the controller. Thanks so much, Katherine Harris. Late at night Friday we watched 'For All Mankind', a DVD with footage from all the Apollo missions, edited into one 'summary' mission, with music by Brian Eno. Absolutely flabbergasting. I might attempt to finally put the new one to bed tonight, I just have a few more things I have to do. Why am I procrastinating by doing work-work... I'm so much happier when I'm producing music. Pop another Advil and smile! 06.27.03 1
am Well work has been very, very busy and it has been so damned hot, I have not fired up my music equipment for fear of melting. It, me, the music. The second verse of the new one currently has a layered 'fast-picking' track on accoustic guitar. I am debating using my refurbished Casino to redo that part, just for the tone. Also needing more time to explore whether this tune is calling out for a bass track. Other than that it's ready to fly the friendly skies... I was disappointed to finish my Gene Krantz book, and have moved on to another, one that documents someone who is grappling with an interesting existence. A fishbowl reality. Do you ever wonder if your dreams foreshadow the events of your life? Rise up, rise up, the clouds are your Observer Friends. 06.22.03 1
am The new song 'It's Alright If You Do' is almost finished. I don't even know what to think about it except that it feels right. It's very hopeful, I think. Just like all the other new songs, it is completely independent of it's siblings stylewise. There has been no 'style' mandate with me other than exploring an idea in a way that feels true to the initial impulse. The mellotron has creeped in again. I love you, mellotron. I think the song is about taking a sad situation and accepting it, and seeing hope in it even when there's no indication of hope. Although thematically there are a few dimensions for me, I really don't like to get too deep into explaining literal meaning. It means whatever you think when you hear it. So if it makes you think of cogs, then it's a song about cogs. It's been a full weekend. Just in from the Bovine, celebrating the birthday of Mr. Steve Smith. In all my years of knowing the lead singer of the Ginger Minge, I may have never seen him that smashed. Happy Birthday, Viking Nutbar. We were impressed with your brave tequila fortitude. I'm off to dream about seeing the earth from space. Monkeys with knives can't get you when you're sleeping, can they? 06.19.03 9
pm Who would have guessed that my new song would end up with a Reggae Drum Kit played live out of Battery. Not me. Yet that's the option that screamed at me when I was experimenting last night. So that's what it's got. It's a satisfyingly selfish feeling, producing your own stuff... you can do whatever you want, at your own pace. Of course the flipside is that you can get lost in your own tunnel and never finish anything... not that I know anything about that... ;) I was at my friend Marina Dempster's art show last week... there was so much wonderful art there... you can check out her site here. I keep feeling like a phone is ringing, but it's not... During the day when the phone is ringing it's because a client needs something and when I'm juggling a lot, it leads to a slightly frenetic feeling. A brief reprise in the form of a weekend is on the way. Of course I need to do some work over it... Somebody left more Doors on my answering machine again... 06.18.03 10
am I did start a new song last night. Worked out the arrangement for awhile and then lay down a basic accoustic guitar track, revised lyrics etc. The core of the song is a very simple progression and a simple melody, nothing too involved. It's tentatively titled 'It's Alright If You Do'. I want a very laid back, relaxed feel in the recording. I will definitely experiment with other sounds, but it may very well end up a basic recording with only 5 or so tracks happening. Gene Krantz has been describing how cranky Wally Schirra got on Apollo 8, the first of the manned Apollo missions in the race to get to the moon. He got a cold in space and couldn't stop blowing his nose and was pushing back on every request from Mission Control. This was at the end of 1968, and it's incredible to me that they managed to do the moon landing 'within the decade' as JFK had challenged. The Apollo modules were like Cadillacs though, compared to the Gemini and Mercury spacecraft. Imagine crawling into a tiny trunk with a friend and staying there for 2 hours, let alone 2 weeks in space (Gemini 8). Then there was Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space... what was going through his mind as he sat in the tiny capsule on top of the booster before launch. If I was out socially, this much talk about space would not be acceptable. People's eyes would glaze over. Perhaps your eyes are glazing over. My apologies... 06.16.03 11
pm I'm officially addicted to Blur's new album, Think Tank. It's got these weird synth sounds that I haven't heard since Frank Sinatra was advised to hit the disco market with the song L.A. Is My Lady: The
music she moves to, is music that makes me a dancer I have had a nice evening at the Irie Food Joint on Queen West. Apparently there is a party this Friday at HUSH bar+lounge this Friday – 70s R&B and House music. I also got the Sam Roberts album today which I had been meaning to get since it came out. Very cool recording. It's time to watch some old movies and stop worrying about the black holes. You turn to stone if you think about them too long..... 06.15.03 10
pm I ran into Jaxon Gleed today on Queen St. Hadn't seen him in a very long time. He played bass with me during the m-1 time, and contributed his expertise to arrangements and production. He is involved in a project with dance music artist Hatiras, called Hatjak. He has also just won a songwriting contest for an ad agency that will see his song performed by some of Canada's most well-known music artists. Full props are due. I am currently reading Failure Is Not An Option by Gene Krantz, Flight Controller for the early space program including Apollo and it is a fascinating book. It took me a little while to get into it as it can get fairly technical, but I am now way into it and marvel at what they did with the technology and time that they had available to them. Although the television has not been on for days, I may fire it up at midnight for Walking With Cavemen on the Discovery channel at midnight. (Although I was at Midtown on College St. walking with cavemen last night, so it's not like I'm going to learn anything new...) Pinstriped Suit has been uploaded to Umbrella Music in the Next Level section. Check it out, there is lots of great music there to be heard. A great site. 06.15.03 11
am There is a nice cross-breeze going through here and it makes me wish I could float away, really high up. Just float up into the breeze way up high over the city. I've been having dreams about that lately. Slightly ominous, fantastical dreams. Since Rival Universe was relatively involved for me from a technical standpoint, I'm itching to do something more straightforward.... I have about 14 hours of recorded notes for music ideas... melodies, bass lines, harmonies, chord progressions, choruses, verses – sung or strummed into Bell Call Answer and dumped onto the computer when the mailbox gets full. Despite this library of stuff I want to develop, I end up ignoring it all and starting from scratch each time. And I know that there are quite a few new songs that I can remember that should be finished... I have musician friends who have the same tendencies. Nevertheless, one way or another, a new song is imminent. I've been obsessed with the idea of space lately, in terms of living. What kind of space do you occupy in your life... Do you give yourself enough space to do the things you want to do? etc. Finding the right space that lets you create something new that properly documents a feeling or a sentiment is an amazing feeling. Digesting the new Radiohead... when I first heard it I wasn't sure, but like any great album the layers sink in and thrive on repeated listenings. However, I warn you that 'We Suck Young Blood' is a little tough to listen to walking in the park.... all these happy dogs bouncing around and you feel like a bomb is about to be dropped on them. Somebody has been calling me and leaving 'Roadhouse Blues' by the Doors on my answering machine. I wonder who it is?? 06.13.03 2
am The server was down, the buggers declared bankruptcy without warning the clients. We are obviously live on a new server. A weasel in Starbuck's today was talking way too loudly into a handsfree set on his cellphone. I think we were all supposed to think how clever and progressive he is. Instead we think 'arse', over and over in our heads until our heads fall off. Don't worry Mummy, Kyoko's only looking for her hand in the snow. Or something like that. Let's make weird songs and send them to the UN. UN! U.S. patsy! We love you anyway, Let's be a global melting pot. I nominate the drunk robot to head the commission. I'm hoping to have good dreams tonight, last night's were epic. Night. 06.07.03 1
pm I wish I had a drunk robot. I'd be like, 'Hey, drunk robot, bring me some earl grey tea?' and the robot would be all belligerent saying in a monotone voice 'you don't know what it is like to be a robot' and trying to make it my problem. I'd say, 'I didn't build you, you just are' and it would start to smoke and stumble around... I don't normally listen to my own music a lot after I make it because it's so familiar. I listen to it sometimes (playing is different, I'm constantly picking up instruments and messing around). But I had this song on my walkman when I went out to buy grapefruits this morning and discovered that it is a good walking song. And it's optimistic, which is hard to feel sometimes when bad things are happening everywhere. Drunk Robots Anonymous meeting at my house tonight. 06.06.03 3
pm Johnny Moondog came over the other night and drank gin and tonic with me. I got him into a game of FIFA World Cup on the Gamecube. Scotland vs. Ireland. Lots of fun. Actually, Pon Tuna and Uncle Charley also came over and played last Sunday, and we larfed and larfed until our heads fell off. I have done a lot of work on Rival Universe over the last few days. Having difficulties getting a good mix. I changed where the drum pattern comes in and the song started to come into itself. It's a weird, trippy song. It is not party music - unless you're having a party in space. It is a song for headphones and jazz cigarettes. I imagine it will be the lead song on whatever I put out next (can't decide between doing an EP or doing a whole album). Cheers to pants and good times. 06.04.03 1
am Oh yeah, everyone should check out my friend Scott Cooper who has been putting out so much quality music over the last year it's incredible. First, a great album called Strumming, then an album of really cool covers, a side-project called Metaphive for more experimental stuff, and he's still going strong. Check it out! Goodnight. 06.03.03 9
pm First of all, thanks for being at this site and reading about, and hopefully listening to, my music. Any time you spend connecting to what I'm doing is meaningful to me. Because connecting to what other people are doing is what keeps me feeling excited about life and creativity. So if I can give something back in any degree to someone else, then I feel lucky. I'm doing music because I absolutely love music and love making new things. I'm in the privileged position of being able to experiment in my own environment and I have been enjoying that. Since I came to Queen West to live I've been having a lot of fun and meeting some very cool people. I have no gameplan right now other than creeping back into my own skin and I'm having fun doing it. I plan on using this space as a small dumping-ground for my brain. So if I contribute something at, say, 2 in the morning on a Friday night... it may get a little abstract. Lately I have been listening to so much music, from Dr. Noh and the soundtrack to Blade Runner (good for late-night park-walking), to Interpol, Daniel Lanois' new one, old Gretta Garbo, the original Duran Duran album, classical, Muddy Waters and Buddy Guy, Pete Yorn... the list is endless. Also, wandering around newmusiccanada.com yields some fabulous discoveries. I went and saw Che Dubois the other night at the Bamboo and it was a great show. Che did a remix of Pinstriped Suit and we have both decided we'd like to see it in a movie someday. That's it for now, I may add more later. Peace |
