Love & Pain Go Hand in Hand.

well, lots has been happening in terms of the new album and new writing, both lyrically and songwise. i have been playing a ton of shows and have noticed a little self-improvement along the way. i guess thats what you get when you practice and play shows. you get better. tonight i played at the "after school special". it was a really good show and i am sorry to those of you who missed it. i played a longer set which i am starting to like since i quit smoking. i feel like i can sing forever now. and so much easier and not as pitchy. i really like how the new songs are going over with people.  it is nice to hear good things about the songs you play, and just knowing i can still connect with the human heart makes me not feel so alone out there. i have 3 more songs to finish putting together and then i am off and running. but i may write them in studio with my producer Scott Bartlett of Tonesmith Studios.  It's a great studio and i am very excited to be able to get in there for my recording. i think this could be what i am most proud of in my whole life.  this record. it is going to be extremely personal and i want it to be perfect.

  i haven't been as faithful to the upkeep of my blog as i have wanted. i think sometime i just dont know what to say.  but you keep going and at some point something of importance will come out. i have been extremely busy in life and i am thinking of moving to a place that facilitates music a little more. I may need to escape...no, i NEED to escape.  But all in good time. so much yet to finish and prepare for. But for now, i will be fine. I have to be, because i have no other option. Escaping never solved problem's anyways. as a good friend of mine told me recently, "Just Breathe and find Peace in yourself".   

New Stuff

So i have posted a few new songs on line and i feel like they are becoming better and better as i go along.  I will be recording a few more in preproduction before i take to the real studio. Some of these songs are a little old like "falling for you" but i think that if i am still playing them 4 years after i write them they must be good...or at least i think they're good.  I am going to be planning a couple smaller tours here in the next while, cause i sure feel the need to hit the road with it. Life has been a bit of a struggle lately and i really want to reflect that in my upcoming writing.  Like i said before, i feel like my music needs to be honest to who i am and what i am going through.  Some of the songs will seem as though there is not a lot of hope in life but i don't necessarily think thats true. I feel a lot of hope. there always is and you just have to look hard for it. and then sometimes its hard to see through all the **** that life delves out.  but that is the way life is and it doesn't mean that its not good to go through.  We need tough times to have the good times. no good without bad. i guess what i am trying to say is that we need to hold fast. i'm not sure if there is much other option.

In Case of Emergency

So it is finally the new year.  it happens at the same time every year so i guess that its fairly predictable.  However, every new year i find it is a great time to start fresh with everything.  From smoking to drinking to spending more time with a guitar, or even family... For some reason it feels good to know that everything has a fresh start.  I have been writing a lot lately. A lot.  Right now i am finding both extremely easy and difficult to be honest in my writing.  the best example of this is "In case of emergency". this to me is probably the most honest song i have ever written.  i think it is a song that has helped me both cope, understand and despise my own human frailty and brokenness. I think it also shows my need to be a part of something greater than myself, not in a rich and famous way, but in a human way.  I felt i captured myself calling out and not being heard. or maybe its not that i wasn't being heard, maybe sometimes there is nothing that can be said other than, "i am so sorry..." and then sit in silence.  But then again, it was just what came out when i started writing it.  Honest human experience.  The difficulty in being honest with your music is simple. To be completely honest and transparent, to let people into your life without knowing them, but sharing your love/pain/loss is not an easy task.  As simple as that.  In Case of Emergency and The frailty of the human heart. I came up with that song and album title years before the song or album was conceived of .  I don't even know where i got the idea.  I suppose human life (or specifically the heart) is often a matter of life and death (not in a physical sense, although it can be), our hearts can preoccupy, destroy, give purpose our lives for weeks, months or years.  I don't write these songs just because the radio is flooded with them, i write them because they are honest to who i am and what i take out of life.  I think thats what music should always be but we often get caught up in formulas or writing the next club anthem.  I just want to be able to understand and feel what i sing about, because that is what gives it integrity.  and for 2008 i think thats what i am going to focus on.