Hello Blog, family, and friends! Nice to see you again. We missed you guys. Don't worry. We come bearing the gift of new music to listen to:
Sorry we've been so distant lately, dear Blog. There has been a lot going on. Since we last spoke, our vocalist Anthony moved here to Chicago, we've tracked drums with our dear friend Jonah David, tracked piano at the loveliest and most welcoming little church on the Northside, tracked a big ol' pile of vocals in Tony Berg's living room, and did all this while holding down reasonably challenging day jobs.
When I haven't been working on the album, I've been teaching like crazy. Need piano lessons?
Jody, when he isn't busy being the Buddha of this band, has been putting in hours helping set up the new and improved Bass Club Chicago in the Lincoln Square neighborhood.
Anthony has been acting his ass off - he's been an extra in the late "Playboy Club," and is starring as Frank in a new production of "The Rocky Horror Show" which opened LAST NIGHT at the Underground Lounge. Go. See. Him.
Tony has been learning to sail on Lake Michigan, growing huge amounts of jalapenos and okra, and has been working like a fiend on our album. Even more than he used to since we're beginning the mix process.
Since we're getting to the end of this thing, we thought it was about time we let you guys get a taste of it. These three songs are among the "early finishers" on the album, which is to say, they're the closest to being done. All of the songs are nearly finished now, but these few tunes have been there the longest. The next time you'll be hearing these songs they'll have another layer of gloss or two before the final album release, and you'll likely be able to download them and show them off to your friends in the schoolyard.
We're proud of these tunes. They're the result of a lot of hard work from a lot of really talented people. We're lucky and thankful for every member of The Live Debate Orchestra and the many folks who helped these songs come to life. As many of you know, this album has been a lengthy project, but we're pleased to say that we're rounding the home stretch. Stay tuned!
As always, reach out and say hello to us...
Showing posts with label the fisher king. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the fisher king. Show all posts
Friday, October 21, 2011
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
"Three Strangers" and the Passage of Time
This tune is called "Three Strangers." It's the rough cut. The album version will feature live strings and a few more fresh coats of paint. Comments, ideas, and critiques are not just welcome, but really useful. Please keep 'em coming.
You will also notice the lush vocal stylings of Mr. Anthony D'Amato on this track. Anthony is considering moving here to Chicago some time between now and January. He has no idea, but his move is already a done deal. My tazer and chloroform just arrived in the mail.
Here also is a fresh mix of "The Fisher King."
I have always been fascinated by ancient mythology, since childhood. The Greek Gods were an early fave, like I think they still are for kids. One of my piano students dressed as Athena for Halloween last year, after all. But I enjoyed the Norse, Egyptian, Celtic, and African tales quite a bit too. They made an early impression.
So now I write music that is tinged with the religious, or at least, the mythic. This song is about the swift, unyielding passage of time, directly written as a complaint to the goddesses that govern it. Time goddesses are pretty common, even in cultures separated by a lot of space. In Greece, these were the Moirae; in Rome, the Parcae; Japan has a mother-maiden-crone equivalent; as does Norse mythology, the Norns. There are more. All of these civilizations represented time as three women, usually as future, present, and past. They are often depicted smiling, but equally often described as cruel.
In the past year or two, my life has changed dramatically. I've moved in with my true-love boyfriend, I grew a beard, left boystown; I have a shiny new home studio and a new band to use it for, I am jobless and searching in a very uncertain economy, yet I'm more certain than ever that music is my destiny. As much as I love my life and love what it (and I) have become, time moves mercilessly quick, changing my shape, my emotions, my work, my friendships, my flesh. Perhaps I won't be happy forever. It feels out of my control when I consider it, even though I never felt out of control any step along the way.
Do you ever look in the mirror, see the skull behind your face, and suddenly glimpse a person you've never seen before? Perhaps a spectre you'll look like at sixty, or a ghost of what you looked like at six? Or what you would look like if you had chosen everything differently? Did you ever have a choice? Is the person looking back at you from the mirror the person you were always meant to be? Or is the person looking back just a passing stranger, someone you will only be for an instant before the goddesses of Time put all your cards back in the deck and shuffle you up?
Do you ever look in the mirror and feel like a stranger to yourself?
You will also notice the lush vocal stylings of Mr. Anthony D'Amato on this track. Anthony is considering moving here to Chicago some time between now and January. He has no idea, but his move is already a done deal. My tazer and chloroform just arrived in the mail.
Here also is a fresh mix of "The Fisher King."
I have always been fascinated by ancient mythology, since childhood. The Greek Gods were an early fave, like I think they still are for kids. One of my piano students dressed as Athena for Halloween last year, after all. But I enjoyed the Norse, Egyptian, Celtic, and African tales quite a bit too. They made an early impression.
So now I write music that is tinged with the religious, or at least, the mythic. This song is about the swift, unyielding passage of time, directly written as a complaint to the goddesses that govern it. Time goddesses are pretty common, even in cultures separated by a lot of space. In Greece, these were the Moirae; in Rome, the Parcae; Japan has a mother-maiden-crone equivalent; as does Norse mythology, the Norns. There are more. All of these civilizations represented time as three women, usually as future, present, and past. They are often depicted smiling, but equally often described as cruel.
In the past year or two, my life has changed dramatically. I've moved in with my true-love boyfriend, I grew a beard, left boystown; I have a shiny new home studio and a new band to use it for, I am jobless and searching in a very uncertain economy, yet I'm more certain than ever that music is my destiny. As much as I love my life and love what it (and I) have become, time moves mercilessly quick, changing my shape, my emotions, my work, my friendships, my flesh. Perhaps I won't be happy forever. It feels out of my control when I consider it, even though I never felt out of control any step along the way.
Do you ever look in the mirror, see the skull behind your face, and suddenly glimpse a person you've never seen before? Perhaps a spectre you'll look like at sixty, or a ghost of what you looked like at six? Or what you would look like if you had chosen everything differently? Did you ever have a choice? Is the person looking back at you from the mirror the person you were always meant to be? Or is the person looking back just a passing stranger, someone you will only be for an instant before the goddesses of Time put all your cards back in the deck and shuffle you up?
Do you ever look in the mirror and feel like a stranger to yourself?
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Anthony & The Fisher King
The studio is officially "finished," which is to say that we've spent as much money as we could on it without scaring our significant others into breaking up with us.
For a couple of bum composers assembling their first home studio, it ain't a bad setup! A shiny new mac pro (in a ghetto-rigged case), the novation SL62MK1 as our MIDI controller, a beautiful Project Mix ProTools I/O (thanks to James), and a host of really powerful, really versatile programs: Native Instruments Komplete and Superior Drummer, just to name a few. We also got to use a wonderful Blue Cactus mic, on loan to us from the very generous, very dear Tony Berg.
Only two days after we installed the last program, we took the studio on a test run with a new friend and extra-super awesome vocalist Anthony D'Amato.
I seriously believe it was destiny that drew us to Anthony. In the course of auditioning vocalists, we came across a Craigslist ad Anthony had recently posted. He announced himself as a singer passing through Chicago with just one free day. After listening to his voice on a few youtube videos, we had to meet this guy.
It turns out that Anthony D'Amato is awesome,and by awesome, I mean EXTRA awesome. What a nice guy, and what an incredible voice! After a happy first meeting we invited Anthony to come and stay with us for a few days to record some vocals and to have a lot of fun making music. The product is this: "The Fisher King," now freshly redone with lots of bold voices. We have a few more in the can we'll be working on for Mr. D'Amato's next visit in a few weeks. Stay tuned!
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For a couple of bum composers assembling their first home studio, it ain't a bad setup! A shiny new mac pro (in a ghetto-rigged case), the novation SL62MK1 as our MIDI controller, a beautiful Project Mix ProTools I/O (thanks to James), and a host of really powerful, really versatile programs: Native Instruments Komplete and Superior Drummer, just to name a few. We also got to use a wonderful Blue Cactus mic, on loan to us from the very generous, very dear Tony Berg.
Only two days after we installed the last program, we took the studio on a test run with a new friend and extra-super awesome vocalist Anthony D'Amato.
I seriously believe it was destiny that drew us to Anthony. In the course of auditioning vocalists, we came across a Craigslist ad Anthony had recently posted. He announced himself as a singer passing through Chicago with just one free day. After listening to his voice on a few youtube videos, we had to meet this guy.
It turns out that Anthony D'Amato is awesome,and by awesome, I mean EXTRA awesome. What a nice guy, and what an incredible voice! After a happy first meeting we invited Anthony to come and stay with us for a few days to record some vocals and to have a lot of fun making music. The product is this: "The Fisher King," now freshly redone with lots of bold voices. We have a few more in the can we'll be working on for Mr. D'Amato's next visit in a few weeks. Stay tuned!
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Monday, May 10, 2010
Excuses, Excuses
We now graduate from having a Burgeoning Blog to the next stage of blog-evolution: the Neglected Blog. And in only one month! We are quite proud.
There is good reason for the neglect, though! Jody and I have seen the end of a major project, as our dear friend James Mitchell heads to sunny California. I've worked closely with James on a metric ton of music for 5 years now, and I'm really sad to see him go. He was just accepted to one of the nation's most competitive art schools, so we are sad to see him go, but thrilled for his success.
All of our work so for has pretty much taken place in James' apartment. Until last week, his attic was home to a world-class studio. Over the years James has let us camp out up there, sometimes for weeks. He's definitely going to Heaven. But since we knew that the studio wouldn't be in Chicago forever, we've been in there working as often as we could.
So... what blog-neglect excuses have I given so far? Job ending, tons of studio time... Right! Also, I moved. AND, we're going to try and set up a smaller, but similar studio setting to the one James had. Here's Jody chilling in the new studio:
Green! Specifically, Peppermint Leaf Green. So says the paint can.
After a couple weeks of moving and painting, we're finally ready to take a breath and work on whatever we can while we assemble our studio. Currently, we have everything but a computer. It's pretty sad: in 2010, a studio without a computer is like a shotgun without zombies. Fun, but pointless.
During the last rotation in James' studio Jody and I wrote songs at the rate of about one every three days. A few of these songs have lyrics and everything, all waiting for that magic vocalist to enter our lives. In the last two weeks, we created 5 distinct, semi-finished works. None got more than three days' work, so don't judge too harshly.
Please, as always, let us know what you think, of the music, the studio, anything! Thanks for stopping in to see what we're up to. What are you listening to right now?
Share
There is good reason for the neglect, though! Jody and I have seen the end of a major project, as our dear friend James Mitchell heads to sunny California. I've worked closely with James on a metric ton of music for 5 years now, and I'm really sad to see him go. He was just accepted to one of the nation's most competitive art schools, so we are sad to see him go, but thrilled for his success.
All of our work so for has pretty much taken place in James' apartment. Until last week, his attic was home to a world-class studio. Over the years James has let us camp out up there, sometimes for weeks. He's definitely going to Heaven. But since we knew that the studio wouldn't be in Chicago forever, we've been in there working as often as we could.
So... what blog-neglect excuses have I given so far? Job ending, tons of studio time... Right! Also, I moved. AND, we're going to try and set up a smaller, but similar studio setting to the one James had. Here's Jody chilling in the new studio:
Green! Specifically, Peppermint Leaf Green. So says the paint can.
After a couple weeks of moving and painting, we're finally ready to take a breath and work on whatever we can while we assemble our studio. Currently, we have everything but a computer. It's pretty sad: in 2010, a studio without a computer is like a shotgun without zombies. Fun, but pointless.
During the last rotation in James' studio Jody and I wrote songs at the rate of about one every three days. A few of these songs have lyrics and everything, all waiting for that magic vocalist to enter our lives. In the last two weeks, we created 5 distinct, semi-finished works. None got more than three days' work, so don't judge too harshly.
Please, as always, let us know what you think, of the music, the studio, anything! Thanks for stopping in to see what we're up to. What are you listening to right now?
Share
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