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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

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

Welcome!

Welcome!

I Just wanted to welcome everyone to my new Musical Schizo blog.

In this blog I’ll introduce new songs, talk about inspirations for my songwriting, reveal the methods I use for writing and recording my compositions, and share “war stories” about my various gigs around Austin and elsewhere.

I hope you will enjoy it as much as I will creating it!