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Category: inspiration

TRIUMPH!

TRIUMPH!

And I’m not talking about the band, no matter how awesome they are. Saturday night’s gig with Roman Holiday was a triumph. It was a fun show, everything worked (well, once we swapped out the power amp on the mains), we all played well, and the trainwrecks were minimal, which is amazing considering we literally played together ONCE since our October gig. Playing with Ned and Lee is like breathing. I love those guys. I sang well (for the most part – Don’t Stop Believin’ and Sweet Child O’ Mine were a little “raga” at times), I played bass REALLY well, and we were a machine. Plus we had awesome people come out and see us, and amazingly, one of the people had been friends at different times in different cities with two of the others and somehow managed to see each of them for the first time in decades. It was a freaky reunion! But I’m so happy that it happened on such a great night.

I’ve placed an ad on Craigslist to try and finally get an original band off the ground. I decided I want to go for something like Fountains Of Wayne – power pop with a sort of modern edge. I’ve had three good responses. One guy has stepped back after hearing my music and saying we’re not a fit, which is fine. Still waiting to hear back from the other two. If for whatever reason I don’t manage to meet anyone to get the band going, I’ll figure out a different strategy and maybe book a few shows and hire some mercenaries.

I still need to get my solo acoustic thing off the ground…just have to finalize a song list, record some new demos more indicative of my current skill level, and start hounding venues for shows. It will happen this time, though. I need to establish as many revenue streams as possible because I need to make more money, and I don’t imagine seeing any sort of bump in salary for my day job. I might actually start trying to teach guitar or bass because that’s another way to make money with music. So if you have anyone who wants to learn the basics of guitar or bass, or even basic music theory as it relates to composition, send them my way.

Thanks to my Roman Holiday bandmates and our friends for helping make Saturday a triumphant return. If you’d like to see more from us, come see us in South Austin (FOR THE FIRST TIME PUBLICLY) at Third Base on March 15th. Hopefully there’s more to come in that department, and with MY music, and as a solo artist. We shall see.

It’s all happening!
TMS

A 4th Of July post

A 4th Of July post

Just because it’s 1:42 PM and I’m home on a Wednesday, I figured it’d be cool to make a little blog post about my musical pursuits. First, a happy 4th of July to my American readers. I hope you have the day off, too. Happy birthday to my musical brother Caleb Rose (aka Salib Ali Baba from Jive Town Jimmy and the Knights of the Purple Cadillac). Now to musical stuff.

I was going through my book I keep of lyrics for songs that I perform acoustically (as rare as that particular event happens to be), and I happened upon some songs I thought I still knew. Sadly, there were chunks missing. I’ve always had a very good musical memory, so I started to play through the tunes and eventually figured out most of what was missing (I think), but the fact that it was even absent made me wonder if I’m starting to lose that skill, that steel trap of a brain that remembers how things go even if I haven’t even thought about the song in years. Probably not, but as I age, I don’t feel as fleet on the fingerboard as I once did. I sweat profusely from pretty much the first lifting of equipment before a show all the way through the end of the show, no matter what the temperature or how I’m dressed. Even though I haven’t been cursed with the graying or the loss of any hair, I think I’m finally getting a little old. Of course, that’s okay. It’s just a weird thing for someone who likes to play pop music, which is so focused on youth and vitality, to start to feel old.

Of course, then I think about the guys I see in “grandpa bands” having fun while being stunningly boring, and I realize it’s what you make of it. Who cares if you’re feeling old? Just rock out the way you know how and to the limit of your ability, and you’re still serving your audience and yourself, and being honest. I still endeavor to put on a high-energy show with Roman Holiday, and being the youngest dude in the band (and the most mobile), it’s my job to do my part to keep it moving. Thankfully I have two great foils in Ned and Lee, who both love cranking up the energy level.

As for writing and recording music, if I can get everything cleaned up and rearranged in the studio to foster creativity, then I think I’ll be able to make some progress. I recently acquired an electronic drum kit that sounds great and has USB so I can record parts into the computer more easily (and fix them because I’m a shitty drummer). Once everything is moved around a bit and streamlined, it’ll be a place where I can finally bring all the old songs to life the way I hear them in my head and hopefully write some better, newer songs that represent who I am now. As I finish projects, I’ll start releasing them on iTunes, Rhapsody, and stuff like that. But I have to finish stuff for that to happen. We will get there. 🙂

Thanks for reading, and have a great 4th of July!
TMS

So what do you want to do?

So what do you want to do?

This is a question that’s been plaguing me for quite some time now. I’ve been relatively content just kind of dragging along playing covers for the past twelve years, never really succeeding in making time for my own music. I’m not sure if it’s a defense mechanism of some sort (you can’t fail if you don’t try) or if it’s just the fact that I’m not very organized and I’m a husband and a father of two children. At times I’ve kicked around various original ideas, and I’ve written about 20 songs in the past decade, but when you compare that to my output before 2002 (and before children), it’s been literally decimated. Again, I’m not sure if this is a result of poor planning or fear of creation. It’s probably a mixture of both. Navigating a metaphorical path back to being creative is something I’d like to achieve sometime in the near future, but I’m not really sure what type of creativity I really wish to pursue. Do I want to write more songs? Do I want to take the songs I’ve written and complete my first album? (Obviously I could do both.) Is the reason I’ve had so much trouble with writing a result of crippling self-editing or a genuine lack of inspiration? Is the creativity I want to reach once more even musical? Do I want to pursue my love for comedy as a stand-up? Or is there something else out there that will allow me to express myself artistically?

It all boils down to this question, which I keep asking myself: “So what do you want to do?” Right now, I really have no idea. Roman Holiday is about to get busy, with a pile of dates booked. Four shows at Carlos & Charlie’s this summer, Two booked up in Temple at The Green Door, and a bunch of private parties. I know we want to take the band’s live show to the next level (it’s good now, but it could be better), so I know that’s going to be sapping some of my creative energy as we work our way towards that goal. For sure it will take my TIME because there are a lot of cool party-type things we’ve been meaning to add to the show, and that will be the plan over the next month and a half or so.

I’m going to do my best to capture whatever ideas and inspiration I have and write it down or record it so I don’t lose it. Even if it doesn’t end up being something useful or usable, the very discipline of capturing these ideas might lead me on the path back to being a creative person again. Thanks for reading!

TMS

Of Art Shows, Acoustic Guitars, and Headset Microphones…

Of Art Shows, Acoustic Guitars, and Headset Microphones…

So on Saturday night I had a fun gig. In preparation for the gig we discovered the area we had to set up was very small, so I decided I’d use my headset microphone. When I opened up the ziploc container I had been using to hold the mic, I discovered something horrible – the mic element must have reacted with moisture in the windscreen and it corroded it out completely, making it useless. Thanks to my wife’s relationship with a local music merchant, I was able to replace it (with some trade we had there, at the hefty full price of a new mic) and I was back in business.

I had been concerned all week as to whether I’d be able to play my acoustic and sing well for the crowd, since I didn’t really know if they’d appreciate the sort of solo acoustic show I tend to do (which is a collection of popular songs from the 60s to now rearranged for solo acoustic and voice), but I was “wallpapery” enough for it to go over very well, and I got a lot of compliments. And Lee helped me out on a bunch of songs hitting the kick drum or tapping out rhythms on the snare, and singing some backing vocals.

Partial song list:
Hello
Baby One More Time
Bus Stop
Elenore
Can’t Buy Me Love
Superstition
Drift Away
Bad Moon Rising
No Such Thing
Sunday Morning
Hole Hearted
I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight

Once the crowd thinned some, we played as the full band, and the wireless headset combined with the wireless on my bass was a dream come true…I had forgotten how much fun it was to be able to run around and sing…and I didn’t even mind that I looked kind of dorky. Neither did the crowd – they weren’t a dancing crowd, but they had all kinds of great things to say during and after and seemed to really love us. Here are some pictures of me in action:

Me, Ned, and Lee. Ned's just standing there.
Garth Brooks with a better shirt and actual hair
Me singing with my eyes closed, as usual.
Rocking out
Truly "into it" and singing with my eyes closed. Again
Yes. I'm a DORK.
I'm a total ham for the camera. As usual.
My favorite shot of the party.
My favorite shot of the party. Through a door into the room where I was playing.

It was a great time, and thanks to them for hiring me and the band, and to Ned and Lee for being awesome, as usual.
TMS

Life’s “noise”

Life’s “noise”

I haven’t been inspired to write anything in a long time. I’ve sat down on so many occasions, trying to some up with something neat, and I think maybe I’ve written one riff/chord progression that might become a song at some point in the last six months. It drives me up the wall, because I used to be such a prolific writer. Of course, that was a LONG time ago (we’re talking over a decade), and before I had a family, so my life was quite different and I was not the same person then. I was lonely. I had a lot of time on my hands. Now I have almost no time on my hands, and the time I have, whenever I try to do something musical, just makes me sad because I can’t seem to come up with anything. I think my mind is suffering from a lot of “noise”. My day job isn’t inherently stressful, but I make it that way because I care far too much about it. I have a really weird focus when it comes to certain things, and my reactions to life seem sort of out of whack. I get really mad and frustrated at little things that are often out of my control, and am almost numb and emotionless when things more important to me or life in general go wrong that were in my power to shape. I haven’t been able to figure out why this is, or how to change this upside-down way I react to things, but at least I recognize it’s there, which is the first step to dealing with it.

This relates to music because this noise is drowning out creation and inspiration. There have been times when I have felt truly inspired in the last year – one day when I took the morning off I wrote a song. It came really fast and seemed really good. Now when I listen to it, it’s basically way too wordy to work, though I still LOVE the chord progression and feel. I just have to modify/rewrite the melody it to make it workable, and I haven’t been able to muster the energy to do it. I have a lot of older songs that basically need new words (the music is great), but I haven’t been able to find anything I really want to say that doesn’t sound forced or cliche. It’s kind of driving me nuts, because the words have always been EASIER than the music for me. Maybe it was just that I didn’t care as much about them then, and kind of let whatever come out come out, but it’s still frustrating. Sometimes they turned out really well (especially on the songs I wrote from 2004-2006), other times, well, I’m embarrassed to even sing them now. Considering how I feel about lyrics, and how much more important they’ve become to me as I’ve grown older, I think the combination of the aforementioned “noise of life” and my own paralyzing self-editing are crippling my creativity.

So what is the way out of this? I honestly don’t know. If you read this and have any good ideas, I’d appreciate them. But I will eventually find something that inspires me and allows me to create. I think I’ve mentioned before how much the setup and cleanliness of my studio frustrate me now. I definitely need to find a way to reorganize it so that it’s more functional. I also need to get rid of a lot of crap that lives in my garage and set up a comfortable place for have people over to jam, because I think I derive a bunch of inspiration from just jamming out ideas with people. Maybe I can put together a band and shape my existing songs, because that might inspire some writing as well. All I know is that playing in the cover band is fun and easy, and has been quite a salve for the pain of not being creative when we’ve had regular gigs. I just need to make the time to play more, get together with the guys a little more, even if we don’t have gigs, and maybe even explore some other fun musical projects with some friends with whom I haven’t yet really had the chance to work.

Thanks for reading this long message…although I doubt anyone would get this far, if you have, you’re a special person and I am grateful. I have an art show gig with Roman Holiday at the end of the month that should be fun, and hopefully a rehearsal or two before that, so things should be ramping up in that regard. We also should be booking our spring/summer shows soon, so knowing we’ve got stuff coming up will be a good cure to the winter doldrums.

It’s been really rainy the past few days, and it feels like we’re in Seattle. The upside of this is the cedar and mold pollen are pretty mellow right now, so my allergies aren’t screwing me up and making it so I can’t sing as well as I know I can. I do need to practice that more so I can improve my consistency and control, but when is that not the case? Singing is really fun. On that note, and as a followup to my last blog, I haven’t heard a peep from the Capital Suspects guys, so I’m not sure what’s up with that. I guess they don’t need me to fill in…which is okay. I hope they find someone great for their position, but I did have a lot of fun being “The Singer” for a night.

Happy New Year and all my best in 2012!
TMS

New Toy…hopefully it inspires creativity…weird gig

New Toy…hopefully it inspires creativity…weird gig

Played a private party down in Gruene. Nice crowd – not much energy – but it was fun. They asked us to play longer and paid us for it, which was cool. Not much more to say about it except that it was a LONG show.

On to the real part of this topic. I got me a Roland GR-55 guitar synth…and I’z excited!

Except that I don’t have an AC adapter. I think it got nicked at the music store, so I’ll go see them tomorrow to work that out. Of course, it could be sitting on my desk at work, but I find that to be a rather unlikely scenario, since I didn’t take anything out of the box. You never know, though…I’ve been stupider.

That’s about all for now. I hope that when I get the synth going I can get stuff set up so I can play some piano and organ parts and really flesh out my non-guitar-sounding ideas on an instrument I don’t completely suck at (like keyboard).

Peace!
TMS

So, no new work on the album…

So, no new work on the album…

But the dead band came back to life this past weekend, and we had a great show.

It’s kind of amazing that we could go four months without playing together and sound better than we did the last time we had a show. Weird…but seems to be par for the course.

I was just happy my voice didn’t give out and my hands made it through the show.

Love to all – hopefully more to come on album #1 here soon. I’m kind of inspired, so let’s see if that translates into some new songs that are better than the crap I originally wanted to put on the record. Pieces!

TMS

Inspiration

Inspiration

I find inspiration in the weirdest places – it could be a touching scene from a movie, the look on a child’s face, a fruit display in a grocery store…it really doesn’t matter.

The challenge I have is taking that inspiration and turning it into something before I destroy myself with self-editing.

Too many songwriters participate in the folly of denying their gift.

Even if what’s coming out is crap, you should let it out. There is time later for editing and fixing things – turning them into something great. Let the inspiration take you to a place that allows you to create – don’t crap all over an idea before you allow it to come to fruition, or you will end up dazzlingly unsatisfied with your ability to create, and with a healthy helping of writer’s block, because you’ve gotten into a pattern of intentionally blocking inspiration because you’re judging it before its job is done.

Being open to everything gives you far more material from which you can create a masterpiece (at least for you – we can’t all be Lennon and McCartney or Randy Newman).

Personally, I’ve been working past my inherent need to self-edit when it comes to songwriting, and it’s freed me up a lot. Getting ideas out is much easier when you aren’t artistically constipated by your own fears that it “won’t be cool enough” or “won’t be good enough”.

Considering how happy I’ve been with my wife and family, it’s been hard to write things that are emotionally raw, because they feel sort of dishonest (as I’m not really sad) – but we all have things in our lives that drive us to create. And we all have topics that we find easier to write about than others. Heartbreak is an easy and obvious one. Concern and pain for someone you love is another less obvious choice, but that often comes across as preachy. Writing about a subject works well, but only if you’re a good storyteller or good at description.

Basically it all comes down to allowing something to move you to the point that it creates musical inspiration, whether it be a cool chord progression (I’ve always been fond of the motion and tension of C#m-A-E-G#7), some assholes you know (see the song “Miserable Bastard“), certain world leaders, or just your favorite bass or guitar.

Don’t kill inspiration before it has a chance to take bloom. That’s my songwriting tip of the week.
TMS