Projects Restarting, And Getting Out

The Stoner Rock project I started up with Keith D a year or so ago is on again, I think it is going to be totally bitch’n.
I’ve also have been doing some writing and arranging work for an old guitar player friend, fun stuff (but on the sly).

Scott Taylor and I are still working on some of John Yanes’ stuff, but it is slow going, a lot of year end non-music projects, etc.

I’m getting out more, as that was a big part of relocating to Las Vegas, and I am super happy about it. Had a friend in town near the end of Oct and we went on a tour of The Strip, saw the Harvest display at Bellagio Conservatory & Botanical Gardens, and checked out the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area (planning on a few hikes in there). I had a truly wonderful time.
Mid Oct I went to visit my cousin Barbara and her husband, Scott, in Colorado. We did a few days hiking in the Rockies, saw some beautiful places, and had a great time. They are some of my most favorite people ever.
Yesterday I had a short day hike into the Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area, did the Petroglyph trail (BLM trail 100), was super cool!

10/7/22

Settling, But Still Surreal

It’s been about a month and a half here in Vegas, and I really like it, but some days it still doesn’t seem real.
I’m getting things put away, but there’s still a lot in boxes; some may stay in boxes, or make it’s way to Goodwill. Thelma seems to be at happy (except during the thunder storms), and we are both enjoying this new place.
I’ve been off schedule this last few months, so many things have changed (one of them has really had my attention), but now it’s time to try and get back to a more regular routine.
Workstation is set up again, this room sounds much better than the last one, and it’s really quiet. My hand is not giving me any trouble (knock on wood), and after two months off, playing is fun again, despite being woefully out of practice, I’m feeling creative, thinking more freely.
The John Yanes song I mentioned back in May has started to take shape. John was putting together a solo section and had worked up a nice chord sequence. He’s already outlined a solo for it and has asked if Taylor and I can sketch underneath it and connect the dots; I love this kind of stuff! As per my standard modus operandi, I went waaaaay too busy on my first few goes, and have been pruning it back every day for 3 days now. I guess if he says “maybe a little busier” I will have a lot to draw on.

I also transcribed some Yacht Rock songs to play with Taylor and his neighbor, Paul. I have known these song for most of my life, but was surprised by what was going on in them when I started to dissect. So many great players back in the day, the songwriting was unique and well thought/structured, even if simple.
I love learning.

Last, but certainly not least, had coffee with Mundo. Was so great to catch up, and talk shop. He is a wonderful person, very funny, glad he’s my friend. Icing on the cake, the coffee was stupid good.

8/31/22

And Here I Am

I left my place in Seattle on the 15th, drove 1350 miles (with Thelma) and made it to Las Vegas.
It was a nice drive, as drives that long go. I took I5 down to 99, through the valley into Bakersfield, and cut across the Mojave. Was hot through the Central Valley, 109 in Tulare when we stopped for the night. Got into the desert early, just as the sun was coming up, and avoided most of the heat.
Las Vegas is interesting, lots of people watching to be had, and really good food of every imaingable kind. That first Saturday I saw a Pink Floyd tribute at The Smith Center’s Reynolds Hall, was a heck of a show. The following Monday, Scott Taylor took me on my first hike, Cathedral Rock. I think the base starting point was 7000 ft and top was 8200 ft. The thin air was difficult for me, but I made it. I think Las Vegas itself is at 2000+, it’s taking some time to get used to the altitude.

Last week I celebrated my birthday with Scott and Carina, had Filipino food (was fantastic), watched some football, and ate fancy cake, lots of fun.

I am not sure if the magnitude of what I’ve done has really sunk in, still seems a little surreal, but I am glad I’ve done it. I will settle in soon enough.

7/25/22

Change

In keeping with my annual end of summer upheaval, I have decided to move to Las Vegas.

I went to visit Scott Taylor and his wife Carina in June. It was a scouting trip, toured a few condos, and got a good feel for the area, was fun. I so enjoyed hanging out with Taylor, we laughed nonstop. They had me over and it was felt like all the years apart never happened, totally comfortable and relaxed.
The realtor I was supposed to meet with fell through (long/weird story) and luckily I hooked up with a great person through Zillow. He dropped everything and on my last day there got me into a bunch of units. Found a complex I really liked, and then a nicely remodeled unit came open, so I bought. The process was smooth, and very fast.

So here I am, with a bunch of logistics to coordinate, packing to do, a place to sell, and a big road trip ahead of me. With all the other major life changes I’ve had this year, I’m viewing it as just another part of the larger plan.
It will be bittersweet leaving the PNW, but I know it’s time.
Excited, and a bit scared, doesn’t that usually make for a good adventure?

That ruptured sagittal band took much longer to heal than expected. Still giving me a bit of concern, but I can finally play again, just in time to have no time to play, ironic.
Life sure is interesting, things you never thought could happen, do, and “sure things” turn out to be anything but.

5/22/22

Summer Can’t Come Soon Enough

Took a roadtrip back to my hometown in California at the beginning of the month. It’s a long drive, but was nice to get out and go. It was cold and rained hard from my driveway to nearly the CA border. Once I got south of Yreka, the sun came out and it warmed up.
I went down to pay respects at my Grandma and Pa’s grave for mothers day. The weather was really nice, lots of sunshine, not too hot, and the air quality was better than expected. Had some excellent Mexican food with Robert Jones, and then spent most of Saturday at his place, was great hanging with him, his wife, and his mom.
Drove around town, saw my childhood home, Granny’s old house, my grade school and Jr High. It’s always nostalgic and weird at the same time.
On the way back a storm moved in above Weed through to Grants Pass, so I decided to cut across west at Redding, CA299, through the Shasta-Trinity Nat Forest and on to the coast. It was raining, but so beautiful.

Got an email from John Yanes yesterday. He sent a new version of a song he’s been working on that Scott Taylor and I both helped with last year. It’s a very nice song, both Taylor and I really enjoy it. Looking forward to hearing his final arrangements and rerecording my parts!

Went out last week and saw my old buddy Dave Hill play drums with his trio/collective at Tangletown. Was great to see him, hear him play, and the band was super fun. He has some songs he is working on, and sent a few my way to see if I can find some bass parts, and perhaps some arrangement ideas for. I am stoked about this!

update 5/26/22 Looks like I damaged the Sagittal Band on my right ring finger, so out of commission for a few weeks.

4/30/22

Editing Some Cool Projects

Finished editing and cleaning up the drums for Keith D’s latest project, also did some mix reviews for him. The mixes are good and it’s certainly fun, people will dig it! It’s been nice working in Cubase again, and really spending some time relearning it. I like it for a lot of reasons, but it frustrates me for a lot of reasons too. Cubase was the first DAW I ever used, I think it was back in 1999. I stayed with it for quite awhile, and then made the jump to Pro Tools around 2005. I’ve spent so many years working in Pro Tools that now, any deviation from that workflow seems foreign (and Cubase has changed a lot in 17 years).
Last week I had the opportunity to help with a project that TAD is working on. Again in Cubase, I attempted to align multiple vocal passes for a group of songs. In this respect, Cubase is very handy, the builtin alignment tools are easy to use, and fairly accurate. Still required a lot of listening and some manual adjustments, but seemed to go smoothly, and I think the end results were pretty good.

Speaking of Pro Tools, looks like Avid have again changed the product tiers and pricing. I have been “off-plan” with them for the last 2 years, and sitting on a reinstatement code, waiting for Apple Silicon/ARM native compatibility, and it looks like I will continue to wait. They are moving to a subscription only style of licensing, no longer offering Perpetual Licenses as of April 26th. I guess I really don’t have a horse in this race, but something about it just doesn’t sit well with me. I should be glad there are so many other options in the DAW world, and having spent the last 2 years working almost exclusively in Universal Audio’s LUNA (which is free to Mac users of their hardware) I truly shouldn’t have any complaints.

Haken released a new single, Nightingale, and I really enjoy it. I loved their Visions record, and liked The Mountain, but haven’t cared for the last few releases. This song sounds more like their older stuff, and it sure works for me. Open your song with a mellow Rhodes and I’m hooked, I love a Rhodes…

3/23/22

Yesterday Felt Like Spring

Had a nice afternoon yesterday, sun was out and it was over 60, pleasant surprise. I look forward to the days getting longer and warmer, been a lot of rain and cool temps this last 5 months.
Remixed another TC song, this time one that Robert wrote. It was harder than I imagined it would be, but I took some time to get to know a few of the plugins I have that don’t get much use. Tried using a more of a top-down/hybrid style on this mix, fewer plugins on individual tracks and more use of bus processing, was interesting and I think I like this approach. It’s not mastered, just raw mix, so be kind. Each mix feels like I am getting a tiny bit closer to what I am hoping to hear (and reinforces the fact that I have a long way to go).

Janek Gwizdala is a very intense and motivational bass player, composer, and instructor. His books and video lessons are nothing short of fantastic. Lately he has proposed some interesting and forward thinking ways to make sense of todays music business.
I love that he is willing to take risks, and is very realistic on the odds of success. He has some intriguing ideas on supporting artists, setting up tours, and also a new exclusive buy-in recording project (album, documentary film, behind the scenes, etc.) that I find very cool. It cant be easy trying new methods of addressing the way music is currently bought/sold/toured/consumed, I admire his bravery and passion. Check it out.

Lessons are going well, and I have become fascinated with the song Beatrice. I can’t get it unstuck, it’s always playing in the background, but I could certainly have worse songs rolling around in my head.

2/25/22

Slow, But I Am Making Progress

Beginning of the year has been slow on projects, but I am staying busy.
A few months back, Steve Kim suggested I contact my friend Michael, a trumpet player, and ask him for a set. Michael has been active in parts of the local Jazz scene, is an excellent player, quality person, and considered a good friend. I asked him to pick a set he would like to play out and I started learning to navigate the songs. Some of his choices included unfamiliar players (like Lee Morgan, how did I not know about him?), song structures, and rhythmic styles. I’ve found that I know very little of the writers, performers, or origins of these songs, so this exercise has opened up many new avenues of exploration. It has been challenging, but a treat, I love learning this stuff.
In process of learning some of these songs, I settled a mild angst I had negotiating a minor ii-V-i. The fortunate/unfortunate part of that is, now that I am not as mired by them, the multitude of options in which to address them has become a bit overwhelming. I have a lot of work to do...

I did get to have some fun exercising my editing chops on drums for a project Keith D is working on. I have most always done editing in Pro Tools, but I have not installed it on my new M1 Mac Mini (I am waiting to do a perpetual license reinstatement once they get ARM/Apple Silicon compatibility shored up). So I thought, “haven’t edited in Cubase in 10+ years, let’s try that”. I do shit like this far too often, making something simple more difficult than it needs to be, just for the sake of making it more difficult. Luckily Cubase has some great tool and after an afternoon of Googling “Cubase How To _____”, I had it down well enough to move fast and be comfortable. Editing can be tedious work, but I enjoy it.

Seattle has had some odd weather this year, but recently there have been a few beautiful sunny (and cold) days. Thelma enjoys the sun anytime she can get in it.

1/4/22

What I’d Like To Do…

Was a very nice, albeit quiet, Holiday Season. Everyone was happy and healthy, we all spoiled each other, and we even had some snow.
2021 was not a terrible year in many respects, but I am glad to see it over. And yet again, I am hopeful that this new year eventually brings back a sense of normalcy.

I have a few resolutions to go along with 22’: Trying to exercise more consistently, continue to explore healthier eating habits, and to further my efforts to reduce waste in any way possible. These are all extensions of last years (and the years before) resolutions, and each can be vastly improved upon.
Some of my musical resolutions are also continuations: Focus on my lessons, chart reading, rhythmic feel/meter, and improvisation skills. I am lucky to have a great instructor in Steve Kim, his methods have lead to some dramatic improvements. We have taken the last few months off, so catching up will be a challenge, but one I look forward to!

My fun resolution for the year is to work on some projects, strictly for fun, with some of my favorite players and ex-bandmates. I set a goal of 4 individual projects (hoping to double that number, but 4 seems attainable), choosing one person for each as the focus and lead. They get to choose the material, direction, and pace, I will fill in the gaps.
Something tells me this will be harder than it sounds, and I welcome that.