« May 2004 | Back Home | July 2004 »
June 24, 2004
June 22, 2004
Friday night in the studio
Friday night TBTSRN (the band that shall remain nameless) recorded at Danny's. I got there at 5pm - I was late, had a totally fucking shitty day. Was in a super dark mood when I got there, and desperately wanted to have it magically lift away, cause I know it's just weak when people bring their crappy vibes into a creative (or any) situation, but I couldn't shake it. I was looking forward all week to getting in there and tracking, but once I was there I was a massive downer. I didn't get to track until late, first we did the drums, the bass and a bunch of guitar tracks, then I worked on some vocals. After laying down my main verse vocal, I hated it, then DN gave me a great idea for a spookafied high harmony that got me all excited, so I took a shot at it. After that - everything got really fun again. Music is so strange... you can be so focused on one thing and it can color your perception negatively, then a new part can open all kinds of creative doors. We got a rough demo together and left around 3am. There is a Canadian Hip Hop group (they have the extra advantage of being able to rhyme with "aboot" over US rappers) in Danny's studio making a record, so we won't get to track again for a week or so. So the plan now is to do some more writing, then head back in when we can and lay final guitar, vocal, and icing tracks on the first three songs.
(closed)
June 18, 2004
Back in the studio
It's late, I should be in bed, I have been having trouble sleeping lately as it is, but I am finding it hard to turn my brain off. You know when you get a song stuck in your head? I get that really really bad sometimes, and with the new songs coming out, and recording them, I would kill to shut the loop off upstairs. I have started trying to take a bath and listen to radically different calming music to kind of clear my mental cashe. It's working ok so far, when I actually do it.
The new musical project which shall remain nameless for the time being rehearsed yesterday and today, we are trying to finish the arrangement of a song called "The Loophole" that we are going into the studio tonight to lay down. It's just a demo, and kind of exploration-session for the song, and I am excited to get back to Danny's studio, we had a great time last week demoing out the first two.
We opened up www.6767.com tonight, Dave's old URL - it is a morphing, shapeshifitng web presence that will grow along with the music. At the moment, it's a blog like this one so everyone can communicate together. We are going to add to it, and who knows what it will become.
Christ, it's 2:50am - I have to work tomorrow, then record all night... I gotta get some sleep.
I wish I never had to sleep. I wish I could just stay awake.
Never sleep again.
"the fountain's floor is blackened with all the wishes that I've thrown in-
I found what I was searching for has been what I was searching with..."
June 15, 2004
To Jane's Fans
What a Monday... well, after Dave talked about us jamming last week at the MTV Movie Awards, it seemed all quiet, then yesterday MTV posted a news article with him talking about our new band. It took about 5 minutes for the news to start spreading through the web. All of a sudden, a Jane's Addiction fan message board went crazy calling it the end of Jane's and posting a picture of me in Skycycle and saying I was "effectively the new Jane's Addiction singer". Let me just comment on that.
It's totally fucking nuts.
No one in the universe could replace Perry Farrell and for anyone to try would be ridiculous. For a long time, Jane's music was very important to me. Perry's words gave my feelings a voice, and the rage and beauty of the music gave my youth a soundtrack. I was at Lolla 1, saw Jane's at Universal Amphitheatre for the Ritual Tour (with NIN opening), and last year at the KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas. When I worked at MTV, I stole a "Ritual de lo Habitual" gold record off the wall of the studio, and it's hanging on the wall at home. If they ever play again, I will be there too. Perry is an absolute one-of a kind, and I think the world is better place with him in it creating and making music and art.
I don't know what the future of Jane's Addiciton is, but I do know from being in a band for 5 years, that you yearn to play with other people and see what making new music sounds like. Life is beautiful, magical, and way too short, and to spend time not making music makes you die a little bit inside. I know about that, too.
Dave, Stephen, and Chris are unbelievable musicians, and musicians want to play. It's a warm wonderful summer in Los Angeles and we found that we like writing songs, so that's what we're going to do: be creative together. I have found that it is pretty special when 4 people can be in a room and write songs, it's more rare than you would think... so when it happens, go for it.
(closed)
What's been going on
Adventure. Intrigue. Mystery.
With my DSL being cut off, the updates weren't coming at a pretty interesting time in the last couple weeks. I will try to recap. The Musical Project Without A Name has been jamming for about a month in the drummer's garage and we have 3 songs, they came really quickly. They all just kind of fell together, a sign for me that something good is happening. Right away the guys got some studio time at this guy Danny Saber's home studio in Laurel Canyon. It takes up the whole top floor of his house, and the walls are painted this dark dreamy bluish purple color with the same color drapes covering the ceiling. He has Logic on a Mac (with Pimpy Cinema Display) running and loads and loads of great vintage gear: need a Les Paul? no problem, need a Strat? Here you go...but be careful it's worth 25 grand... It was a great creative toybox environment and we fleshed out 2 of the songs - 1 day per song (they still have rough guitar and vocals). We head back in this week, I am really excited to get the third song down. It was a blast recording with these guys. In the past, I had a both good and bad experience in the studio (with Skycycle), I can overthink things and lose the fun part; just over-focus and hate everything I lay down. The chemistry was right on, and it was just fun last week putting these songs down, and I can't wait to get back to work.
Dave worked at the MTV Movie Awards last week and told me that he had been talking about the new project. On Friday Dave and Stephen called and asked me to officially work with them on this new band. A great day.
(closed)June 14, 2004
Starting a Band
Well, that "musical project" I have been hinting at looks like it's become a band, check this out:
(closed)June 03, 2004
Back to the Mac
Well, this waiting for the dsl is driving me nuts, so I hooked up the ol' dial up for this post folks. Desperate times call for... dial up. The decision has been made, I am switching back to the Mac. I plan on selling the Dell to work, and moving everything over at home. Have my eyes on a new G5 and 23" cinema display. Might wait until the end of June to buy, seeing as Apple is rumoured to bust out with a new G5's, and if it's one thing I have a weakness for, it's the NEW shit. I make this move in a pretty calm way - I don't hate the PC - it's been very good to me.. just all of a sudden felt like I was in the wrong place... my Mac years were all about art, music, creativity, and communication. The last three PC years have been about earning a living. I don't think that the machine is really to blame, but I do notice what I DID with the two different machines was very different. And if I am not on this planet to be creative and artistic, then I really don't know what the hell I am here for at all. Creating stuff has been the only thing I was ever really good at. So for better or for worse, I hooked up the old G4 and put OS X Panther on it, in preparation for the new G5 and moving all my old files, songs, websites, and artwork over. I'm expecting all kinds of trouble, it's incompatible with my old machine, all this stuff, yadda yadda.. and wouldn't you know it, it installs like a frigging dream, and is running really sweet! I started up the dialup, and here I sit typing away on OS X. My full circle is completing, going from super-Mac zealot, to Mac hater, back to thinking that the Mac is just wonderful. The jury's still out on weather it will take on my whole work load - Flash MX 04, Dreamweaver, tons of files, etc. I will keep you posted... right now I am very excited to go back to what feels oddly like...home.
(closed)June 02, 2004
SBC still sucks
OK, still offline at home, still can only post at work - so no steady postings for a while longer. In the news:
SBC sucks my ass in the most sincere way - if anyone knows of any viable alternatives for DSL in the LA area, please let me know / Wrote a new song last night called "Only Ghost" / Interviewed Zach Braff from Garden State on Memorial day for the movie website, he was super cool, wish him the best of luck with the movie's success / getting the dinero together for my G5 - I'm switching back to Mac / Playing in a musical project without a name, writing songs and doing some recording this weekend, very excited...
