Notes On A Record

an elemental understanding of guitar amps

2011-09-08T20:38:00.003-04:00

We've been tweaking the rough mixes as of late, and it looks like I might have a finished record by early November. Last session, Tom and I addressed some of the lead guitar sounds I'd made on a couple songs. Something was just a bit off with the guitar tone in the mix, and it needed more Orange and less Fender. Let me explain... I've gotten in the habit of performing with two amplifiers: an Orange AD15 and a Fender Deluxe Reverb. This came about because, when playing with Dogs on Television, I create loops and wanted to isolate them in their own channel. Using one amp only, the samples get kinda squashed when I played over them. It was just one speaker after all. So, the solution was to get a second amp and an A/B switch so that I could have an isolated signal just for the loops.

Over time though, I've really grown to like how the Fender and the Orange sound together...two very different tones. The Orange is an earthy, warm, dark, overdriven sound. Sometimes growly, but always rich and luscious, spilling currents of sweet rumbling energy. I use the Fender as the main lead amp, often over the loops coming from the Orange..and it has a lighter (yet still warm) sound, airborne, even piercing at times. It can cut through a storm of loops with unrelenting perseverance! The Fender can soar and swoop, with a tone that rings like a bell over mountains. Ahem. I'm getting a bit carried away here... So the bottom line is that these amps really work well together, and it led me to an elemental analogy. Orange = Earth. Fender = Air. To complete the analogy, I plug the amps into the wall socket (Fire!) and I plug my guitar in and play them using my body (which is 90% or more, yup, you guessed it: Water!). Ha! So, I've got all the elements (of my sound) in place. Each has their proper place in the universe of music. :-)

Anyway, a lot of the phrasing I was playing in the studio was (to follow the analogy) more earthbound, and my fingers were relying on the Orange tone more than the Fender. So, we dialed back the Fender here and there, and I think the guitar mix is vastly improved now. You can hear a lot of the weird nuance I was going for... In sum, I think 2 amps are better than one. You just need the right balance. And, to pursue another analogy, when mixing, one often needs to put on the Sherlock hat when revisiting the scene of the crime. To (re-)solve the tonal mystery. "It's elemental, my dear Watson."*

(*yes I know the original quote is "elementary"...but that's how i roll)

wrestling with names

2011-08-13T12:59:00.008-04:00

I now have rough mixes in hand. After a long session of sorting through a lot of basic tracks last weekend, Tom and I have now finished the important step of getting the roughs. Next step will be mixing the record into it's final shape...and that will happen over the next couple of months.

Recently, I've been consumed with naming the record. Naming things can be tough! Be it a song, a project, or a dog (!), offering up a name can be a difficult challenge. There is the opportunity to clarify elements within the named, but also the danger of obfuscating, or distracting the audience. For this reason, I like to trust my subconscious when it comes to naming things. My subconscious seems to operate according to an aesthetic logic that often trumps my waking mind. An idea will pop into my head, and then my conscious mind will find all sorts of cool reasons as to why that idea is good. This is the ideal situation, as sometimes the subconscious mind can turn out some pretty terrible shit! So, it's a balance I guess, between synthesis and analysis. All elements of the mind need to be working together, like tag-team wrestlers hungry to get back in the ring.

The first name I came up with was "Gallery of the Graveyard Heart." It fit my idea of this record as a series of character-driven snapshots, and directly dealt with the heavier subject matter of the songs. But then, as this title stewed in the noggin, I came up with alternatives...first was "Misfit Melodies." Now that seemed to be a lighter title, less laden with the darker aspects of the songs. More like an invitation, a hook, to invite the listener in. But Tom remarked that it reminded him of the cartoon series Merry Melodies...and seemed to him perhaps too lighthearted.

Randomly, the title "Book of Shadows" popped into my head one morning, while I was at work. That seemed cool, until a Google search let me know that it's also the title of a key religious text for Wiccans (!) and also the title of a solo album by Zakk Wylde, former guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne (!!). Nothing against Wiccans, or Mr. Wylde, for that matter, but I needed to look elsewhere.

So then I went fishing in my songs for titles. This ploy can often prove successful, as the landscapes of my tunes are littered with curious phrases and verbal jumbles that might "have legs" (as they say in journalism). I flirted with the lyric "prayers of fortune" (from "New Year's Day") but it seemed too pedantic and borderline pretentious. Seemed more like the title of a magazine for mercenaries! (ha ha) Then I came across the phrase "shook the shadows in the heart of night" from "Song for Janis." That seemed promising, especially when shortened to "Shadows in the Heart of Night." A Google search of "heart of night" revealed that it was the title of an episode of the television series Miami Vice. Awesome. That made me laugh! Also, it is the title of a poem by a Canadian poet, William Bliss Carman. I'd never heard of this dude, and was thus intrigued:

O doubter of the light,
Confused by fear and wrong,
Lean on the heart of night
And let love make thee strong!

(from "The Heart of Night")

Cool. Light and dark, love and fear, weak and strong...Carman seems like a legit player when it comes to the world of dualistic struggle. I can dig it.

But I keep coming back to my original title, "Gallery of the Graveyard Heart." Even though it's one syllable longer than "Shadows in the Heart of Night," it just seems to flow better. I dunno, maybe I need to trust my instincts more. Whatever the case, I plan on delaying this decision as long as possible! The wrestling match continues... If you have any thoughts on this, let me know.

When Animals Talk...

2011-07-13T20:58:00.005-04:00

Everybody loves a talking animal, right? Ha ha. One of the songs on the new record, "Fallen Tree Song," is basically a conversation between a man and a little bird. The man has become trapped under a fallen tree deep in the wintertime woods, and he enlists the help of a bird flying by. I'm really excited about sharing this song once it's finished. The arrangement is shaping up great, into a kind of train-beat folk-romp hootenanny party-vibe of a song...lots of instruments just loosely playing along as the story progresses. Last Friday, my friend, the ever-talented troubadour Greg Klyma, laid down some mandolin on the tune. This coming Friday, Abbie Barrett will lend her vocal talents to the song. I'm excited about that last fact, because she has a voice so smooth and warm, it could bring peace to the Middle East. :-)

But: talking animals. They're everywhere. From that YouTube dog that says "I Love You" to the most recent Disney film...it seems like they are an enduring part of our culture. Folk music has its share, of course (the traditional song "Henry Lee" comes to mind with it's taunting bird). I don't know where the idea for my song came from, exactly, but I can say that talking animals have played an important role in shaping my worldview. A talking seal, to be exact.

When I was a wee lad of 2 or 3, my mother took me to the New England Aquarium one fine day. We were greeted outside by the seals in the seal tank, one of whom jumped up to actually greet us with a big "Hi, how are you!" I kid you not. A talking seal. That childhood memory followed me around for a long time, and when I'd mention it to friends, I was often met with disbelief and/or mockery. (Go figure.) In particular, I remember an entire college party screeching to a halt, as one friend loudly confronted me about it. Ah, fond memories! But I decided that I knew what I'd seen, and I made a fundamental decision: it was better to live in a world where a talking seal was possible, versus a world where it was not. And the disbelievers could go suck it. I could make room for that kind of "magic," if that's what others wanted to call it. And how glorious a day it was when the Boston Globe ran a story a few years ago on talking seals at the Aquarium! Apparently, Hoover, the seal I'd known, had had a grandson who could also mimic speech to some extent. Wow was I elated to read this! The seal had actually existed, and I had solid proof! And you can bet I made sure all of my friends saw that story... May Hoover rest in peace.

So, anyway, back to the song. It's nearing completion and I'm thrilled about it! Here are the lyrics, in case you'd like to check out the story yourself:

dear little bird on high
please bend to hear my cry
this old oak tree
has fallen on me
go tell the world what you see
go tell the world what you see

my wings are good and strong
and i will sing the song
from every height
from noon to night
i'll tell the world of thee
i'll tell the world of thee

pray, fly, as storm clouds come
i hear the thunder drum
and cannot last
while held down fast
beneath this heavy tree
beneath this heavy tree

with a heavy heart i fly
through stormy bands of sky
i'll fain to speak
though i grow weak
to tell the world of thee
to tell the world of thee

now tell what word you've brought
dear bird, is rescue sought?
in this cold and chill
my heart grows still
pray, have you news for me?
pray, have you news for me?

I flew both far and wide
and from every perch I cried
but there was not a one
who said he’d come
to end your misery
to end your misery

oh woe is lonesome me
to face death’s honesty
and alone with you
I wish I knew
a song to make me free
a song to make me free

come join your voice with mine
and sing with a heart sublime
a verse that spins
through stormy winds
in love with eternity
in love with eternity

in moonlit shadows soft
a song was borne aloft
and through heavy snow
the winds did blow
a hopeful melody
a hopeful melody

Crazy Sounds and the Big Picture

2011-06-13T20:27:00.001-04:00

Last night we tracked some accordion courtesy of Mr. Jake Bush, a member of both Pesky J. Nixon and the Baker Thomas Band. (I encourage you to check out their music!) During the session we got some really crazy accordion loops that created quite an effect: cavernous echoing, spooky undulations, and other sonic adventures that may or may not end up in the final mix. It got me to thinking about how this record is different from Seven Years Now, and what I'm actually doing with music. The Big Picture. I will confess right away I don't know what the Big Picture is, exactly. (It might not even exist! HA!) Seriously though, I don't really know what I want my music to sound like in 20 years. Or 40. All I have are a series of little pictures, snap-shots of where I've been and where I want to go, but on a more gradual basis and smaller scale. I feel a certain necessary impulse to continue on with all this, despite not knowing exactly where I'll end up with it all. So in a sense the Big Picture is very important and in another sense it is a distraction. Music has become necessary for me, in a way that tends to dominate all other aspects of my life, for good or for worse. And right now the focal point of my life is this record.

So what's going on with this record? Well, to put it bluntly: it's going to be a little weirder than the last one. Certain desires of mine to incorporate new sounds and vocalizations are surfacing here. I tread slowly in this direction, though. Whatever we add or change in the studio must be necessary to the song. We're not going to add a lot of really neat sounds just because they're fun... They must contribute to the expressive potential of the original musical/lyrical idea(s). The core of any song must be illuminated by any arrangement, effects, etc., and not obscured.

This is something I often mull over, chew in the ole brain. As a spry lad in his early 20s, I had long been suspicious of how electronic sounds and studio manipulation could alter or change music to the point where it became the dominant force within the creative dynamic of a particular sound. In other words, by using certain sounds (not made by humans), the humanity of the music was lost somehow, in my ear. For me it somehow obscured whatever was at the core of a song, or rendered any expressive potential mute and lifeless. What was supposed to be a peripheral element ended up defining the sound for me. It was like eating a cake made entirely of frosting. Yuck. Gimmick.

This all changed about eleven years ago, when I first heard the Radiohead album "Kid A," in particular the track "Idioteque." The record overall was definitely like nothing I'd ever heard before, and I was initially overwhelmed by all the sampling, loops, crazy sonic textures, etc. And this song specifically was quite jarring at first. A spastic drum loop colored with an almost disorienting chord progression. Weird blurps and frenetic percussion sounds move in and out. It was like some kind of apocalyptic disco music. But there was a certain point during the vocal track: right where Thom Yorke's voice slightly cracks singing ""this is really HAPPENING..." where everything seemed to change for me. Something about the passion in his voice and the intensity of his delivery really got to me. It was a bit of rock and roll leaking through all that electronica. The song came to life in my ear. And all of the crazy samples seemed to work in support of that energy, like all of those sounds needed to be combined in just that way to help reveal that passion in Yorke's voice at just that moment. It was really happening! This was a revelation for me: that electronica could be put to work in the service of an artistic vision and (human) expression. The more I listened to Kid A, the more I heard how all of the looping, sampling, etc. was completely necessary to the sound of the songs and the record overall.

Since then, my ear has been to some crazy places via many other bands and performers such as Wilco, Tom Waits, Pink Floyd, Kinski, Bon Iver, A Place to Bury Strangers and My Morning Jacket, to name just a few off the top of my head... But I can trace back to that moment hearing Idioteque, a profound change: the beginning of the death of the purist in me. All bets were now off. Any sound was now game.

I hope to infuse the current record-in-progress with a bit of this adventuresome spirit. Of course, some tunes resist being warped and manipulated into seemingly unrecognizable contortions of mad beauty. But other tunes welcome it... Overall, I am trying to stay focused on what each individual song wants, and what seems possible in trying to bring the listener into the heart of each moment, each idea, each image. Hopefully when it's done, and the dust settles, it will help on the way to understanding the Big Picture.

From Yeats to Janis...a new solo record is in the works!

2011-05-24T21:26:00.005-04:00

This blog rises from the dead once more! I've begun work on a follow-up record to Seven Years Now. Working again with Tom Eaton up in Newburyport, I hope to have a finished record by sometime in the Fall. It is looking to be a collection of nine original tunes, plus a version of "Wandering Angus," a folk song based on a poem by William Butler Yeats. I first heard this tune at a David Gray concert, as an encore song...and it was one of those songs that I immediately fell for. I had to know everything about it: who wrote it, who had recorded it, etc. The lyric concerns a fisherman whose newly-caught trout shapeshifts into a woman, sporting apple-blossoms in her hair. Catch of the day, to be sure. The woman calls his name and runs away, and he spends his entire life searching for her, in vain. Beautiful. Fruitless wandering? Endless searching? A life optimistically devoted to searching? A fish turning into a woman? This was a song I needed to learn, perform, and share.

"Wandering Angus" fit right in with the other tunes I wanted to record. Overall, it's a very different collection of songs from Seven Years Now. Where that record was more introspective, and concerned with the twists and turns of the interior life, this new project is all about other people. Some of them real, some not. But the binding thread is interactions between people. Connections made and lost. In "Wandering Angus" the Other flees and becomes a vision of beauty and meaning, for which the searcher embarks. Other tunes spin similar tales of searching: a landscaper who quits his job to sail the ocean with his wife. A female poet toasting existence in a crowded bar with her new love. A soldier en route on a dangerous mission dreaming of his lover. A man alone in the winter forest, trapped under a fallen tree, calling out to a bird for help... All kinds of desperation and determination, a reaching out, a recognition of the need for another.

I mentioned that some of the songs are actually about real people. By "real," I guess I should've said historical. This includes a country folk ditty I wrote about the author Gerard Nerval. Also, it includes a song about (or for...) Janis Joplin. The Nerval tune ("Crooked Line") isn't entirely new...in fact we used to play it in my old band, The Jody Grind. You can check out a video of that here. (Please forgive how my guitar is slightly out of tune in that video...yikes...)

But the Joplin tune is only about a year old. I was in L.A., April before last, attending the ASACP Expo in Hollywood...trying to build up some professional development skills in this here songwriting pursuit. Anyway, I did not stay in the official conference hotel, as it was a bit pricey. Instead, I opted for a cheaper room nearby at the Highland Gardens Hotel. After having booked a room there for four nights, I was suprised to learn that Janis Joplin had died there, in room 105, of a drug overdose in 1970. Holy rock trivia, Batman! While I didn't stay in room 105, I felt like this was an interesting experience...further compounded by the fact that I visited the Grammy Museum in downtown L.A. only to find a special exhibition on Joplin! It featured her painting and personal letters to her family. Reading her letters, she was filled with such excitement at her success. As if the world was just beginning to understand her...

So anyway, during my stay there in the hotel it occurred to me that I would probably end up writing a song about Joplin. It just seemed like the thing to do. Or more accurately, it just seemed like a song was something that was going to happen. A song would arrive, and I would need to jot it down. I just needed to be open to it. All of my internal radio stations needed to be getting good reception, at the very least. And, wouldn't you know...my last night there, after hitting the town and partying it up with a friend, I found myself in the 4am hour, alone, with bits of lyrics and melody falling into my head. I grabbed the guitar and wrote out five verses in about 30 minutes or so...then I passed out asleep.

The next morning, I looked over the verses expecting to cringe at some mindless drunken nonsense, but all in all it looked pretty good. While I tweaked the order of the verses a little bit, it looked like they had all arrived, safe and sound. I had me a new song. Strangely enough, it was actually a song to Janis, like a calling out to her ghost. I had expected something different, something perhaps more like my Nerval tune, where I am describing aspects of a life. But I was pleased with what I got. The best you can do is to bait the hook and drop it in the water. What you catch is a curious mix of chance, luck, fate, what-have-you...

The last session saw us record "Song for Janis," and I look forward to being able to share it with you when it's finished. In a few days it will be back into the studio for a mammoth session with Steve Bankuti on drums and Tom Bianchi on bass. Hopefully that will finish most of the basic tracking. Knock wood, it's all coming together.

Release (for) the HOUNDS!!!

2010-06-03T21:34:00.005-04:00

This Saturday! At Church! The album goes out to the world! Be there if you can!

adventures in demonic impersonation

2010-02-07T15:47:00.007-05:00

Doggone it. This record is approaching the end of the recording process. Which means, in fact, the beginning of everything else...artwork, duplication, marketing, reviews, promotion...all in a giant snowball tumble towards a Release Show!

The record is now officially mixed, and almost ready to be mastered. Shane and I endured 2 back-to-back 10 hour mix-a-thons last weekend...between which I managed to play a late-night solo set at an art show in downtown Boston. When Sunday night rolled around, it was safe to say that my brain was a pile of melted garbage. But, I think we nailed it. We rolled through all 11 songs and Shane created some really cool mixes, with a bit of my feedback here and there.

Before we got to the mixing, some last-minute sounds were added to a couple of tunes. There is a song on this record called Dumbstruck (some of you may remember this ditty from my old band)...it was a song I wrote awhile back that has been re-adapted to a different groove and feel in DoTV. The plan was to take the DoTV vibe up a notch with a heavy-hitting blues-punk kinda thing, and this song totally fit the bill. Anyway, I wanted to add some spoken word to the intro, and Shane had recommended I borrow from the recordings of this woman named Jane Roberts...apparently she would get possessed by a spirit named Seth in the 1960s and 1970s, and she (as Seth) doled out self-help advice from the beyond. I initially thought this was a joke, but it seems New Age-y types take it seriously. Let's just say it's not exactly my cup of tea, philosophically speaking. Regardless, I liked how she sounded as possessed, with this eerie declarative rhythmic delivery. I wanted this sound to be the sound of the spoken word part on Dumbstruck.

But, then my practical side took over...I could put something together and do this spoken word thing myself. I grabbed some lines I had written a few weeks ago from a poem called "Fragments of an Alternative Bible" and added some more lines, in the spirit of the song. Then I got to stand in a room with a megaphone and do my best demonic impersonation. What fun! It's just a tiny detail when you think about the DoTV record overall...but it is all these details that add up and compose one entire project as a whole.

So things are getting to the point where a release show will soon be booked. Stay tuned for info on the upcoming release. DoTV is collectively stoked at the prospect of getting our music out there into the world! I think this record shows a band growing into multiple directions at once, taking every chance to evolve and benefit from all that surrounds it...like an expanding supernova bursting in the dark stretches of the universe. Like a giant sponge soaking in water. Like a pigeon trapped in a crouton factory.

OK...that last comparison might be crossing some kind of line. Sorry. I'm not even sure there are crouton factories. In fact, that might be pretty weird...an entire factory just making croutons. Let's just say the band is excited and can't wait to share our music...

Snow problem is no problem.

2009-12-29T21:04:00.008-05:00

What is the motto associated with the U.S. Postal Service? "Neither snow nor rain..." or something to that effect... But I know the gist is that the mail gets delivered regardless of the weather. I was reminded of this on my way to the studio in the middle of a blizzard the other Sunday...I had to get there, regardless of the swirling white insanity engulfing my car. But I am getting ahead of myself. The good news is that the weekend before last was another productive weekend for the DoTV record-in-progress...but no thanks go to the weather. Saturday was OK weather-wise and the band got the last of the basic tracks for three songs.

I also got to finalize some guitar parts...which was a relief to get through. Sometimes it is hard to get out of your own head when it comes to recording, and just play. So much self-analysis and self-criticism seem to come to the surface when your music is under a microscope. My solution has been to wait 24 hours before passing judgment on guitar sounds that I make. Nothing is ever good enough at the time. But after awhile, the dust settles and I start to see the method in the madness...things seem better. I start to hear things I like and it might even sound...(gulp)...good...

A blizzard was forecast for Sunday, but I figured we would play it by ear (no pun intended). We were fortunate to have scheduled Stephen Konrads to come in and lay down some keyboard parts for a few tunes. But getting to the studio was quite the challenge. My car becomes a glorified Go-Kart in the snow. It handles like a toy. And so I slip slided my way on a prayer to Brighton... Stephen managed to make it, too. And WOW can this guy play. He played some Wurlitzer and some Hammond sounds on Ben Riley, I'll See You, and The Jailer. He was really easy to work with, he came prepared, and he was adamant about doing it until it was right. You should check out his music if you get a chance. His new band, Sleepy Very Sleepy, is incredible.

So then the snow stopped mid-afternoon, and we were elated. We took the rest of the time to add some noises here and there. Stephen was also a help here too...we were in a similar mindset when it came to sonic texture and ambient adventures. Fun with Sound 101.

Next month should see some of the final touches to the (as-yet) untitled debut from Dogs On Television. There are some vocal parts left to do, and a few odds and ends to address. Will 2010 be the year of the dog? We will have to wait and see...

Happy New Year!

Dogs...in the studio.

2009-11-18T20:09:00.009-05:00

A new recording project has begun! OK, perhaps a little background is in order. About a year ago, I decided to put together a band...along the lines of a garage-rock, blues-infused, occasionally noisy kinda thing. At the time, I was heavily into working on my solo record "Seven Years Now" and needed an outlet for raucous, visceral explosions of face-melting bliss. You could say that I had all the yin I could handle and was out shopping for a mad dose of yang. Thankfully, I had the good fortune to befriend drummer Brian Arnold and bass player Sam Sanders. And thus was born Dogs On Television. In this pic, Brian is on the left and that is Sam on the right:

I already had a bunch of songs ready to be rocked...in particular, the songs "Start A Fire" and "The Jailer" left over from my old band were clamoring for attention. And I knew down the line their pleadings would turn to dreams of being recorded. I dug the idea of writing for DoTV and song after song came along. Some hung out, and seemed to work...others seemed to come and then go.

Anyway, this past weekend DoTV began the recording of a full-length record at Taylor Barefoot Studios in Brighton, MA. After two 10-hour sessions, the Dogs had barked up a storm. We were...dog tired...

Seriously though, it's going great. We are fortunate to have as engineer and co-producer, Shane O'Connor. He definitely has a knack for going after the right sound. Plus, anyone who breaks out a theremin is after my own heart! Spooky electronics aside, we are finding all the sounds we need at this studio.

It's a little early to say when this will be done, but it is a much simpler project than "Seven Years Now." So my guess is a CD will be available by Spring 2010. But don't quote me on that. Much work to do! Stay tuned Dog-lovers, I will post more soon.

P.S. A super big thank you to Fallon O'Brien for snapping all the photos!

Videos posted from the CD Release Show!

2009-04-20T18:38:00.002-04:00

Some videos from the CD Release Show have been posted on You Tube. See below for the first song from the evening... The rest are viewable here: http://www.youtube.com/jahoulah

Album for sale online!

2009-02-14T14:31:00.003-05:00

"Seven Years Now" is now available online at CD Baby:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/houlahan

You can purchase it in CD or mp3 format. Please feel free to leave a review or comment on the album at CD Baby. Or, you can leave comments here, on MySpace, Facebook, etc. I welcome your thoughts and reactions!

(flier from the release show featuring original artwork by Dan Blakeslee:)

not exactly solo...

2009-01-11T17:59:00.003-05:00

I keep referring to this record as a "solo record." All that means is that it has my name on it. In fact, it is anything but a solo effort. Many exceptionally talented local musicians lent their time, ideas, and manifold skills to make the music possible. I want to say that I am totally humbled by all the awesome contributions made by the following people:

Tom Eaton: Producer, accordion, melodica
Mike Null: Producer, guitar, back up vocals
Tom Bianchi: Upright and electric bass
Paul Schultheis: pump organ, Hammond, Wurlitzer, and all keyboards
Andy Plaisted: drums
Jake Armerding: fiddle
Kevin Barry: lap steel guitar
Kristen Cifelli: backing vocals
John Curtis: banjo, national guitar, mandolin
Kristen Miller: cello
Sara Colb: backing vocals
Daniella Colb: backing vocals
Dan Blakeslee: backing vocals
Scott Aruda: trumpet
John Aruda: saxophone
Jeff Galindo: trombone
Paul Ahlstrand: saxophone

You should follow the links and check out their music!

Dan Blakeslee, Mike Null, Tom Bianchi, and Kristen Miller will be performing at the CD Release Show in Somerville! It is going to be a lot of fun. Come check it out!

Seven Years Now CD RELEASE!!!!
Sunday, January 25, 2009, 8PM
The Burren
247 Elm St., Davis Square
Somerville, MA

All done.

2008-12-21T17:30:00.003-05:00

DONE. All done. The record is now at the factory being duplicated...I will have copies for sale at the release show at The Burren in Somerville, MA on January 25, 2009. Soon after that copies will be available online in both digital and CD formats.

Phew. It's been a wild ride! I don't have much else to say right now...while it may be a violation of blogging etiquette, I just don't have much more to say about this project. It now goes out into the world, and will be there for your consideration. I hope you like it.

More news and info will be forthcoming concerning the release show and purchasing information. Happy Holidays!

CD RELEASE DATE & VENUE!

2008-11-26T18:01:00.005-05:00

Sunday, January 25, 2009
8:00PM
The Burren
247 Elm St. (Davis Square)
Somerville, MA

Please join us for the release show for my solo album "Seven Years Now"! There will be a guest set from Mr. Dan Blakeslee, and other special guests...

More info coming soon! Save the date!!!

whales & angels

2008-10-12T21:37:00.004-04:00

About half of the record has been mixed so far...at this rate I should have a finished product by December. After it gets mixed, I need to finalize the artwork and send it off to get pressed (i.e., mass-produced). So, optimistically I should be able to do this before Christmas. Also, plans are in the works for a release show early next year. But I will announce those details as they become available.

Tom Eaton has an interesting computer program to clean-up vocal issues. Apparently, whenever I (or anyone, I guess) pronounce the letter "p" into a microphone it has a jarring result. Too much percussive content in the sound. It pops. So Tom has a program that he uses to clean these things up...file it under "studio magic."

The program is called Izotrope RX and it basically presents a graphic representation of every sound frequency inside a given vocalization. For example, if I sing the word "you" the program shows a variety of different sounds as individual frequencies that all go together to make the complete sound. This completely blew my mind. I had no idea there there were that many mini-sounds within a simple vocal sound. And, what's crazier is that you can hear the component sounds played separately! So, each frequency can be isolated and heard on its own. This also blew my mind! Within a simple sung word were so many different sounds: some lower frequencies sounded like whales, some higher frequencies sounded like angels, and other deeper frequencies sounded like evil noises emitted from a dark subterranean source. I could not wrap my brain around the fact that they all run together to make a sung word.

I asked Tom if we could break down the frequencies even further...get even more mini-sounds, perhaps components of the frequencies themselves. I was met with a blank look. We were at the edge of science, and being the naive person I am, I did not realize there was not a deeper level to access. You may say I am a dreamer, but I am not the only one. Seriously, someday they will break down audible frequencies and unlock smaller component parts. Nano-sounds. Or something like that...

So the mixing is ongoing, and updates on album progress should be coming soon! Stay tuned for information on the official release show and the possibility of getting a copy of the album before the show!

into the mix...

2008-09-19T23:18:00.008-04:00

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! It faintly yet confidently glimmers in the darkness. In other words, it shouldn't be too much longer until this project is ready for the streets. The rough mixes are done! Now we roll up the sleeves and get to work making one last analysis before the mixing begins. From my perspective, I am only listening for glaring mistakes and/or slight edits...the basic picture is firmly in place. And I think it sounds pretty damn good. Here is the track listing (song order subject to change):

1. Seven Years Now
2. Full Speed Ahead
3. Atlantic Street
4. Rest Here Easy
5. Paper Man
6. The Last Thing
7. Dreamin' Ghosts
8. Bound to Go
9. Diamond Highway
10. Rocketship
11. Every Stone
12. Walkin' (to wake)
13. Riddle In My Suitcase
14. Empire

You might recognize some of these songs, some might be a bit unfamiliar...I am not sure how it happened, but the songs left standing seem to work well together. There is a lot of reflection and interrogation, image and fragment, and a respect for the past overtaken by a hunger for the future. And some hoots and hollers. Barbaric yawps and rough, cursory attempts at knowledge. The whole shebang. A taste of everything I can muster at this point.

Last session saw a bit of backup singing. I had the pleasure of adding the lovely voices of Dan Blakeslee, Mike Null, Sara Colb, and Daniella Colb to the songs Every Stone and Diamond Highway. It was a lot of fun, and the vibe during the recording was casual and fun. Sara came up with a great call/response part for Diamond Highway that seems like it came straight out of an old Appalachian aesthetic! Very June Carter. Cool stuff. Dan Blakeslee brought his great vocal talent and his amazing energy. If you are not familiar with Dan's music, I suggest you check him out. You will not be disappointed. There are few songwriters and performers of his caliber playing out there on the scene. Here are some photos courtesy of Tom Eaton's cell phone:

From left to right, that's Dan Blakeslee, Daniella Colb, Mike Null, Sara Colb, and myself.

I will be sure to send an update on how the mixing process is going. Right now, the album could be done and available by mid-December with an official release party/show happening sometime in January. Oh yeah, I almost forgot: I posted a couple of rough mixes on my MySpace site. Shhhhhhh....don't tell anyone...it's a secret. (ha ha)

drums on the other side of the speaker

2008-08-11T20:44:00.005-04:00

Tom Waits did it to me again. A few years ago, I was casually listening to the song "Jockey Full of Bourbon" off Rain Dogs (one of my favorite albums). And this drum sound, something like a large frying pan being hit with a steel rod, just popped out of the mix and landed in my room somewhere. What I mean is, it sounded like it was not coming from the speaker, but maybe something had fallen off my shelf...or a chair fell over...or a smoke detector fell from the ceiling...anyway, I jumped. It was odd. Music is supposed to stay inside the speaker and when it does not abide by that standard, things get weird.

So it happened again. This time I am listening to Tom Waits sing "November" off The Black Rider album. And, towards the end, BANG. There it is again. A bit more wooden sounding this time. But I was totally caught off guard. Looked over my shoulder. BANG. There it was again. This time I was at work...so I had to maintain composure. God forbid the guy in the next cubicle thinks I am...well...hearing things. Fear not, kind reader, I kept it together.

Speaking of arbitrary divisions, I initially thought all the tunes on my record would be clearly either band tunes, or not band tunes. Which basically means there is a drum set or not in the mix. This is still basically the case, but almost all of the songs now have many instruments on them, making for a much fuller sound. So this dichotomy is much less apparent, to my ear anyway. It is totally exciting! So many great players have come in and made so many great sounds! The instrumentation includes bass, cello, fiddle, banjo, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, mandolin, steel guitar, lap steel guitar, accordion, pump organ, electric piano, electric guitar, an assortment of percussive sounds, and of course...a drum set....well you get the picture. Songs are blooming like wildflowers. I feel like a kid in a toy store the day before Christmas!

In sum, we are almost done with the basic tracking. A couple of vocal things, a guitar part, some edits, and then WHAM we are into the mixing phase. Where we assemble the chaos. Parse the exuberance. Organize the sounds into one big beautiful Whole. While I can't promise drum sounds that will pop out of the speaker, I think it is going to sound great! Stay tuned.

rhythm to the rhythm!

2008-07-30T20:12:00.003-04:00

The work continues...hopefully things are on track for an autumn release. Leaves will fall from the trees, and albums will fall from the sky! Ha ha. Anyway, last session saw the recording of a horn section for one of the tunes. I had little, ok make that NO experience recording with horns before this. But one tune in particular had been quietly whispering to me all along that it wanted some hot, horn(y) action. [sorry, i could not resist...] In particular, the trombone was standing out in my head as fantastic idea.

I had little in the way of direction for the horn players as they arrived, all I could muster was "Think jazz funeral!" I wanted a kind of rollicking, free-wheeling melee of joy. A street carnival blasting wild in the face of death. Or something... [ahem]... Anyway, the guys (Paul Ahlstrand, Scott Aruda, John Aruda, and Jeff Galindo) laid down some sweet sounds...and I think we have something really cool on our hands.

One thing I noticed about recording horns. It is such a quick-paced, fragmented affair! They run through one line, stop, go back, hit one note, stop, play the next line, stop, play half the next line, stop...well, hopefully you get the picture. And there was this crazy synchronicity with Tom [one o' the producers, on the board] as he clicked on the track, deleted the bad note, cued them up again, hand signals back and forth, back and forth...it was kinda like if you had never seen baseball before, and you were perplexed as the catcher was giving hand signals. And you missed the beginning of the pitcher's wind-up. And then your eyes race to catch the ball as it hurtles towards the plate...I felt unaccustomed to the pace of the action. The rhythm of the process. For me, recording a vocal part or a guitar part, it's been more of a "big picture" situation...where I try to avoid going back and re-doing. I try to get it all at once. To find the vibe or the energy or the feeling and not let it go until I am done. I suppose the horn players and Tom were doing the same thing, but the process was so very different in its choppy, stop n' go kinda way. But that is how it is done, that is how things work among the horns. And I think I got my jazz funeral after all!

falling in love with a pump organ

2008-05-27T21:54:00.004-04:00

Last Saturday's session was notable, mainly for the fact that I think I have finished (knock wood) my vocal tracks on all tunes. I will be paying careful attention to each playback to any possible vocal issues I overlooked, but it is safe to assume that this part of the process is finished. No big deal, I don't fancy myself much of a singer...in fact if I did not write songs I am not sure I would have even attempted singing in the first place. (OK...there was that appearance in the musical Bye-Bye Birdie in the seventh grade, but I digress...) It is enough for me to have communicated the song the best I can and to leave it at that. I want to get better as a singer but when you boil it down I think the recording process is about capturing things that have already happened.

When I initially came to the conclusion that I needed to start recording a bunch of my tunes, I thought that there would automatically be three distinct projects/directions I would go in: an album of singer/songwriter (rootsy, folky) stuff, a hard rockin' in-your-face up-tempo garage rock-fest of an album, and finally, a more experimental ambient and quirky project. This just seemed to result from the fact that I have a bunch of material that seems to want to divide itself into these categories. I hear things in my head. And to borrow from Sesame Street, sometimes "one of these things is not like the other." Sometimes I think certain songs could never be on the same recording...and while this might be correct I also need to keep challenging my assumptions about what belongs and why.

Which brings me to my point: I am falling in love with the pump organ. It is a mournful, quietly desperate, aching carnival sound that I have grown to love through many songs, especially on numerous Tom Waits recordings. While I heard this in my head, I was unsure if this sound would "belong" on the current project. But all is fair in love and war, and so I hope to use the pump organ wherever possible on this project. It is going to add a lot to many of the songs, especially those recorded without drums (i.e., 9 of 15 tracks)..it suffices to say that the easy divisions in my head of what is appropriate sometimes blur...and blur they should...that is how we make new colors.

and the band played on...

2008-05-07T15:27:00.004-04:00

Last weekend we assembled a session band and got some really good takes of six tunes. Joining us on the session was a group of really talented local musicians. On drums we had the amazing Andy Plaisted, known for his work playing with the likes of Tim Gearan and Dennis Brennan (FYI the latest Tim Gearan album "No Remedy" (w/Andy on drums) is unbelievably great!). Andy brought a solid steady groove to each of the tunes, and contributed many valuable ideas as we arranged the songs. On bass we had Tom Bianchi, local musician and entertainer extraordinaire. Currently playing locally both solo and in the duo Vagabond Van, Tom brought a variety of sweet bass sounds to the tunes (both electric and upright) and had some great ideas to tease the best out of each song. It was also a pleasure to have Tom on the record because it is through his excellent weekly open mic at Lizard Lounge that I have gained a lot of great experience and had the chance to try out many of these songs, as well as meet a ton of really talented songwriters and performers. On keyboards we were grateful to have Paul Schultheis, known for his work playing with Superhoney and more recently, Club D'Elf. Paul has a knack for digging inside each groove and painting beautiful colors with every stroke of the keys. Strangely enough, it was Paul who played on The Jody Grind's album as well, so when his name came up I knew from experience we would be lucky to have him play with us. Finally, Mike Null, while primarily in the role of co-producer on this project, laid down some smooth guitar lines on most of the tunes. When not producing or teaching, Mike is busy playing with many great local musicians including the legendary Toni Lynn Washington.

All told, we cut six tunes: Atlantic Street, Paper Man, Dreamin' Ghosts (Ocean Song), Riddle In My Suitcase, Diamond Highway, and Every Stone. The rough tracks sound really good, much better than I anticipated (i.e., much better than they ever sounded in my head)! I am very excited to finish the vocal tracks on them, and get them ready for your ears. It was a privilege and an honor to have such great talent in the studio helping me bring these songs to life. These last sessions will surely go a long way in (hopefully) making this project a worthwhile success.

a few words concerning Leonard Cohen

2008-04-07T17:17:00.005-04:00

There are a few songwriters who really seem to stay with me as I get older, both as a source of inspiration and as source of continual fascination. Leonard Cohen is one of those. He came to songwriting as an established poet, and it was Bob Dylan's success that convinced him that there was room for poetry in popular music. The songwriters who drift between the roles of poet and songwriter have always been the ones that draw me in the most. On this current project, I have tried to put together a track list that highlights some of my tunes with the biggest aspirations, poetically speaking. Whether they succeed or fail is for the listener to decide. As Cohen himself often says: "poetry is a verdict."

Recently, I have been working on a cover version of Cohen's "Hallelujah." I tend to avoid covering really popular songs, because I find it difficult to find a new way to sing them...when so many different voices have already mined every aspect and turned over every possibility in a given song, it gets harder and harder to bring something new to the table. The more popular a song is, it seems to me to be harder to find a "way in" to the song as performer...maybe that means I am not much of a performer, I dunno... Anyway, many people are familiar with Jeff Buckley's cover of "Hallelujah": in terms of cover versions Buckley basically hit a home run. He took the implicit melodic dynamics in Cohen's version and took them into the outer reaches of music-space. In other words, his version drips with intense emotion and unbridled passion. I have long avoided approaching this song because I know I could never sing like that, and I did not see another way "in" to the song...until now...basically I am mellowing out the tune a little, strumming it a bit like Bob Marley might (or maybe like Daniel Johnston playing his song "True Love Will Find You In The End"), sort of a bouncy rhythm that takes the drama meter down a bit. Mellowing it out a bit allows me (and the audience) to focus on the lyrics more, and oh what beautiful lyrics. Here is Leonard performing the song:

Leonard almost speaks the words, and all of that melodic potential bristles just beneath the surface of his voice. That is probably a big reason performers like to cover him so much: the original versions suggest so many possibilities regarding how to emphasize/rework/stretch out, etc. the melodies in the song.

Anyway, recording of my solo album has been a little delayed recently, but we will be back on track in a couple of weeks. I am excited and hopeful to move onward with the process, and optimistic that more album-oriented updates here will follow very soon. Enjoy the beginning of Spring!

P.S. For you Cohen fans, he is actually touring this year (!)...more info can be found here.

eight songs in

2008-02-17T17:45:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, after an evening spent whooping it up at an "Anti-Valentine's Day" party, it was back to Newburyport for more vocal tracking. Fatigue and hangover were weighing on my head, but let's just say that I have learned to love a challenge, no matter what form in which it appears...on the plus side I managed to get the vocal/guitar track for a new tune that has proven to be more difficult for me than other tunes. Called "walking (to wake)" it was one of those tunes that, when I first heard it in my head, it had a couple of vocal parts where I said to myself "NO WAY you can sing that...give it up...". Usually, I would resign such song ideas to a mental box called "Come Back and Sing Me When You Learn How To Sing" but I got stubborn this time. Actually, went out and took a [dramatic pause...] voice lesson...yeah...weird... And then I relentlessly practiced the tune (and the voice lesson) for a couple of weeks until I began to hit the notes I had in my head.

Kudos to Mike Null for spontaneously composing an instrumental bridge for the tune, too. It will definitely add to the ambient impact of the song. You can read more about that on his blog.

So I got that tune down, plus two others. Then, the voice began to fall apart (after 4 hours I will quickly add...) Compared to the previous session, I will admit that a night of celebration can lead to a day-after of lessened productivity...but we are making good progress nonetheless. This project can loosely be divided into two parts: solo songs and band songs. [Note to Reader: "band" songs do not necessarily mean songs from The Jody Grind's (un-recorded) catalogue...in fact almost all of them are not Grind tunes...it merely means there might be some percussion in the mix, which changes the whole dymanic...] The solo songs all now have vocal tracks, and now they will be put through the ringer of sonic wizardry courtesy of Tom Eaton and Mike. Textures, ambience, and the occasional fiddle or accordion will round out the sounds...I can't wait to get started on that part of the process! I feel like a kid in candy store! Let me revise that: I feel like a kid WITH NO FOOD ALLERGIES in a candy store...

First Day In The Studio!

2008-02-12T19:55:00.006-05:00

Wow. It has been a long crazy trip to this current predicament...but I don't want to focus on the past, I want to look with diamond-like focus on The Present. Last Saturday, February 9, marked my first day in the studio, beginning the actual tracking for my first "solo" album. Five basic vocal tracks were completed, along with some acoustic guitar backing, laying down the groundwork for a good chunk of the album.

For those of you who don't know, I was devoted as a songwriter to my first band, The Jody Grind, for many years since I (along with Mike Null and Sara Colb) founded the band back in 2002. But for the past 6-7 years, I have also been writing material that did not really fit into the band mold very well...where The Grind was more uptempo and jam-band-esque, many of my songs were downtempo and melancholy, lonely, shy, quiet, the kinds of songs that remind one of late nights, midnight musings, lost chances, squandered opportunities, quiet reflections on a dead rat in an alley, its corpse grinning back at you with gruesome confidence...

[Note to Reader: I have never actually written a song about a dead rat in an alley...]

Seriously though, I came to this project with 23 songs in consideration. Songs are like children. Some know exactly what they are and they develop quickly and BANG! off into the world they GO. You see them go and you feel like the proud parent. Other songs seem to take more time to coalesce, to "get their shit together" so to speak...but as years pass the ones that remain standing still plead to be recognized, to be released, to be let loose into the wide universe. So most of the songs being recorded now are of this latter variety, and I have also thrown in a couple of new ones just to keep it interesting. It is going to be a wild ride!

Recording is taking place at Tom Eaton's studio in Newburyport, MA. My initial impressions of Tom and the studio are that I could not have picked a better place to do this project. Tom seems to already intuitively understand what I am looking for in the songs so far, and he brings to the table many impressive skills as an engineer and as an architect of recorded sound. Overall, the record is being co-produced by Tom and Mike Null. I have been friends with Mike Null for many years, and we have a particular musical chemistry that cannot be easily found. His contributions to the project have already been indispensable. I very much look forward to the next session (this coming Saturday, to be exact)!

However, I forgot how challenging recording can be...I was very excited to finally get the ball rolling after many weeks of pre-production (where we whittled down the 23 tunes to 18) and when I finally found myself in the booth with four microphones pointed at me, I remembered how recording can also be quite a test for your head. Your state of mind becomes dramatically affected by the process and you really need to dig deep within your head/heart and focus on what you are doing, lest the anxieties and unwelcome analyses gain ground and wreak havoc. Recording in some sense is like bringing forward a jar of beautiful, multi-colored beetles that you found in the forest. You bring them to the studio and one by one they are removed from the jar. A pointed nail is riven through their backside and they are placed, in the final squirms of near-death struggle, under a glass case. The glass case is then locked and you are handed back the now-preserved specimen. You know that this is for the best, because now more people will be able to experience the beetle in its present state. Research can now be done, students on various field trips can now walk by and gape in total safety at the dead insect, progress can be made on how we relate to this multi-colored phenomenon of the forest. And who knows...we might actually learn something about our world (or even ourselves) as a result of studying these dead insects! But you (as beetle collector) know that now there is no going back, and that something has fundamentally changed. The beetle no longer belongs to you (not that it ever really did for that matter)...it now belongs to anyone who happens to walk by and glance through the glass enclosure.

You might think the beetles in the previous analogy are songs...this is partially true. But the metaphor can be extended in that each beetle represents each detail of every song: every phrase and the way it is delivered, the way words fall over the chord changes at the exact moment of recording, the precise strum of the guitar at each moment, the random extra note that all of the sudden appears, etc., etc.

Recording pressures aside, I am excited and optimistic about this project! Together with Mike and Tom, I think we are going to have a great time making this record. Once finished, I hope it will be a collection of songs that walk confidently and gracefully into the big blue world.