I’ve moved all my recording equipment back to my parents house, so I won’t be able to add any new songs for a while, not that I’ve been adding any recently anyway. It’s been pretty difficult to record new things while having a full time job, which is why I’m quitting in a month and moving home to record a new album!
Actually, 2 albums. I want to split up the sound so that I can focus on things more efficiently. I’d like to do one album of all folk songs, with singing and cello accompaniment, but keep it pretty sparse.
The other album would be instrumental and more heavily focused on layers with beat production. I’ve been really inspired by the band Ratatat lately, and I’d like to do something in that vein of electronic beat production with live cello on top.
I’ve been finding tons of cool old folk songs and cowboy/western songs that I want to adapt for the cello. I think I’ll probably include some original stuff too, but it’ll be fun to rely on the traditional stuff since it’s so rich.
I haven’t decided if I’ll include vocals on the electronic album. I’m just excited about the possibility of being able to perform both in acoustic and laid back environments, and louder more club like venues.
I took a pretty big break there for a while, but I’m back. I actually put the cello down for a few weeks, and it was nice to be able to come back to it fresh.
I’ve written this new song and hope that you like it. It’s about life in the city, and generally just being part of the crowd.
This is still pretty much a demo and I plan on adding some simple percussion in the future, and maybe a mandolin or something. It’s pretty tedious to worry about the production aspect though so I think for now I’m just happy with getting back to writing.
SO yea, I’ve been lazy, but only in terms of updating the blog. I’ve actually done a couple new things, I just haven’t gotten around to posting them. Neither of these songs contain any cello - I did them all in Logic, but they still have their merits I think. The first one was more of an exercise to see if putting a poem to music really works or not. I think it does more or less, but I’d like to redo the vocals at one point, and my slight dissatisfaction with them probably explains my instinct to put them so low in the mix.
This next one was very fun to make with my roommate and two of his friends from home. The goal was to make some sort of David Bowie-esque futuristic space song. We made the whole song in an evening, and if it seems thrown together it’s because it is. If it seems incredible then that’s just because we are futuristic space geniuses. Doing this one made me realize how dumb and simple pop songs are, but at the same time how fun they are. I think I’d like to do something like this, with a heavy beat I mean, but instrumental, with some cello - maybe kind of a trip hop type of song like DJ shadow or something rad like that. Who knows, I’ve been pretty uninspired lately, but I’m going away this weekend and maybe it’ll revamp the creative juices.
This is an instrumental song. I’ve only performed it live a couple of times so far, and originally it was written as a pizzicato piece. I think it works much better arco and lends itself better to expressive interpretation that way. I’m posting a link to a Finale Notepad version of the sheet music, but I’ll be able to print out and write in the bowings at work tomorrow and scan it as a pdf.
I’m calling the piece Black Stallion because it’s one of my favorite movies, and because it just reminds me of the music in that film.
2/29 UPDATE: Here’s the PDF. I was going to put in bowings and fingerings but I’m not sure if it’s necessary. If you want me to do it please let me know, but otherwise I’ll just let you figure it out and assume that’s ok. Sheet Music PDF
My friend Andrew alerted me to this awesome poster of Obama done by Shepard Fairey (the guy behind the Andre the giant Obey images). I’m very excited for super-Tuesday and hope everyone will participate in any way they can!
This week I wrote a song about my friend Splinter. Some of this song is imaginary, but there’s plenty of real stuff in it too. Especially the part about him driving. That guy was one crazy driver. He had this old subaru that he would just go flying around in. If you are a skier you’ll know what I’m talking about. At 16, Splinter was the highest ranked skier in the world for his age. I once saw him jump off an 80 foot cliff into lake George like it was nothing. I think there’s some correlation between driving, skiing, and jumping off insane cliffs. Splinter also loved speaking German and reading Hegel, but that’s not in the song. He disappeared to Eastern Europe a few years ago.
Last week Mike Chris and I drove up to Albany to record a radio interview/set for WAMC Northeast Public Radio’s Performance Place with Michael Eck. The show went extremely well and will air Monday 1/21 at 11:23 am EST. Please tune to your local NPR station if you are in New England, or go to wamc.org and click on “Listen Live” in the upper right hand corner. Hope you can tune in!
(Update 1/22/08)
In case you missed it you can listen to the whole show right here
I’m a big fan of HBO’s the Wire. The show’s title theme is Way Down in the Hole, written by Tom Waits, however the recording artist changes from season to season. Steve Earle’s interpretation is used this season, and past performers include the Blind Boys of Alabama, The Neville Brothers, and DoMaJe. This week I thought I’d post my newly arranged and recorded take on it. It’s too bad that this is the show’s fifth and final season, but I can appreciate David Simon’s decision if he feels his work is complete after creating such a rich and encompassing portrayal of the city of Baltimore.
