Hey folks! I apologise for dropping off the face of the planet for a while there… I have no excuse but I’ll make a few… business of life, holidays , cookie baking and New Years partying. Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season , but for now it’s back to the business of the business.
Just want to let you know that in the middle of all this hustle and bustle , my brother and I cut a little acoustic record called Red Meadows. It’s been a dream of ours for a really long time, and I am thrilled to see it actually come into fruition. We did it just days before he flew off to teach English in Saudi Arabia for a year, so it felt like it was the perfect time. It is an 11 song album that is strictly acoustic. My brother picked out 5 songs that he wrote, I got 5 of my own , then a tune we wrote together.
We have all the tracks cut at this point, so now we are in the mixing stages. I will keep you posted on it, and will upload one of the tracks here when I get them in my hot little hand. I look forward to a productive and prosperous new year and I wish all the best to you and yours!
Red Meadows the Album coming 2010
Just had to write about the most awesome show my very dear friend and I went to see Tuesday night, Pearl Jam!!! It meant a considerable amount to me for many reasons. First, Pearl Jam has and will always be an undeniable influence on me and my music. The strength and stamina those guys have was really impressive. They have been doing their thing for so long now, and it shows.
At first, I was a little apprehensive because I wasn’t sure what message they were going to be sending out. I bought their latest record Back Spacer right before the concert and the first song was basically an all out rant about escapism from pain. I was a little dissappointed that the self absorbed angst was still front and center in their songs, but now that I have been able to listen to the record a few times around, and I have found more depth and deeper levels than those initially expressed. I heard about love, family, and hope mixed with dispair and mortality.
I can accept that life is a broad spectrum of both good and bad, and where better to express that than in your music? That’s when one can battle it out in constructive dialouge. No winner has been named , the fight still goes on, it’s yet to be determined, but I think in the end the winner will always be the side you choose to take.
At the end of the day, the show was AMAZING! Solid, fun and a fan’s dream come true. Thank you to my good friend Leona for celebrating my birthday in that way!
Steve and I have spent a few good hours working on tightening up all the vocals and harmonies, and I am happy to report that we are pretty darn close to wrapping things up in that department. I am looking forward to working on something else besides my parts. I have gotten to the point where I feel like I have done the best I can, so I am ready to move on. I think it’s about that time to call up the other players and start talking about what they can add to the project.
The fortunate thing is that I don’t think we need a whole heck of a lot of anything. The way I see at this point, I am looking at putting a little keyboards here and there, some pedalsteel or mandolin, and most of all- some nice dualing trumpets. Even if I don’t get anything else on these thing, I want those trumpets! So we’re getting to the fun part soon….when I figure it all out folks, you’ll be the first to know.
Well, we’ve been in recording this record now for a few months, and I have to say I feel ready to get back out there and start playing again. I guess life just has a way of flying by, and before you know it summer is winding down and leaves are falling… well they are falling somewhere, not so much in southern California. I know of a few cool places to check out and start booking again, even if the record is not completed. What have we got to loose? I’ll keep you posted…
backspacer
If you really want to watch a quick dissection of a record, feast your eyes on this. Pearl Jam’s new record is coming out next month, September 20th ( my birthday…well happy birthday to me!) I found this video and it’s like I’m a kid again. Studying the lines on the faces of these guys, to see where they have been and what they have been up to. Pearl Jam has just been such a force in my life. In so far as speaking the words for me when I couldn’t or evoking the emotion I didn’t have at the time. Manifesting the dream, man.
Even though in this day and age, I usually download music onto my ipod. September 20th, I am going to walk into a good old fashioned record store and buy myself their new album as a birthday gift to myself.
I was so happy to return to the realms of Mambo Records this week. I had quite a bit of unsettled business to attend to. I brought good ol’ Jaggedy Kaye with me, so he could see how the whole operation went down. It was a good night . We filled in a lot of the remaining vocal parts, which was the obvious next step. I am really happy the way it is coming together, even thought it can be difficult to listen to myself over and over- especially when something isn’t working as easily as I had it in my head.
Nevertheless, I think it really great to have such a seasoned professional working on this record. Steve really has a good sense of letting me explore the vocal arrangements, but knows when we are belaboring a part, or if it is not necessary. In fact, his perspective has allowed me to think of my vocals in a new light. I tend to like lots of layering and harmonies through out the entirety of a song, but now I am starting to minimize the use of harmonies for maximum effectiveness. I think it’s worthwhile, because it allows the story to be told without the congestion of too much else. This is a new way of thinking for me, and one that I am happy to explore.
In regards to my last post-I wanted to keep you up to date on some of the independent video projects-me and Jaggedy Kaye are working on. We started combining some of his amazing world travel photos with music and got something pretty cool , I think as well as some live recordings of songs. If you check out You Tube, Jaggedy Kaye you will be able to see what I am talking about. All the pictures we are using are straight from his camera lens, depicting anywhere from the deserts of India, to German pubs to South American waterfalls and monumental rock formations of southern Australia.
You can see why he is , in so many ways , my hero as well as my brother. I have not been able to pull off the same type of things, but am learning to be content with my beautiful little lot in life. We are however, going to take an road trip together into the canyon lands of Southern Utah this September. I have been to Zion , but it was a quick drive by. I look forward to venturing deep into it’s mysterious caverns and crevices. We will be filming live recordings along the way, and posting them up on You Tube, so stay tuned in my friends.
It truly is an amazing time to be alive. The modern marvels of technology have opened doors to artists that have once been closed. With the advent of the internet and all is current capabilities, it gives opportunities to record music and put it online - make videos and upload them as well. Create images , and illustrate the imagination bouncing around in your head, at the end of it all share them with the world. At this point, it is all available- the only thing now is to do it.
Since my brother came back from Honduras we have started playing around with a camcorder and some of the images he has collected from his travels all over the world. I will keep you posted on more videos as they are created. Just search for Jaggedy Kaye on Youtube, and we’ll keep on making them in the meantime.
I was just listening to a little Camera Obscura and was enjoying their song French Navy. It has a good feeling about it. It sounds like a group of people who love to play music, sitting in a room and have a good jam. I can appreciate that, and it makes me kind of pine for the days when that was what a record was- not synthesized sound scapes and digital pitch correction. Back in the days when you had a be a musician to be a music star.
Check out their myspace if you please.
http://www.myspace.com/cameraobscuraband
It’s kind of funny , but I am checking out 2 very popular - pop - bands this week. First I am going to see No Doubt on Tuesday, then the Black Eyed Peas on Friday. Normally, these are not shows that I would particularly be blogging about, but I think there is a lot to be said about seeing the spectacle of live entertainment. What does a big band rock concert look like now a days? Gotta admit, it’s been a long time since I have been to a show like that. These bands obviously have talent and have found a way to connect with people on a grand scale, whether it be through catchy hooks, flashy clothes or 6 pack abs. I think it will be a fascinating case study of mass pandamonium and mass consumption…awwww who knows I might even have a little fun. I’ll keep you posted.
The Record | christa | 
January 13, 2010 11:44 pm | 
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