The Musical Schizo

I mentioned a few months back how excited I was to be starting this new project called Yacht Z with my eager and wonderful friend and a real murderer’s row of talent to play the great Yacht Rock songs better than anyone out there. I worked really hard at first, making time as I could, then stuff happened during July and August that really slowed my progress, and I just never felt like I had enough time to get things together at the level that was expected. I even blogged about the lack of time. Well, it never got better, and I came to the realization that there was basically no room left in my life for me to be a properly-contributing member of the band.

It crushes me that I can’t do it, because I really love these musicians and want to play with them, but I have to respect my limited time with my family and my responsibilities. I really hope my departure doesn’t completely derail the project, because I still believe in the concept and will be their biggest fan. It just doesn’t fit with my life right now. Toddler + Day Job + Wanting A Happy Marriage are all more important. And I know I’m making the right choice. But I’m really sorry that we all devoted all that time and energy to the project and I had to bail on them. I hope it doesn’t go to waste and they find someone brilliant to replace me.

Striking a proper balance between work and family is hard for everyone. In the world we’ve entered because of the pandemic, a lot of us are working from home now, too, and man does that really blur the lines and make life all smeary. It’s too easy to start taking on work responsibilities during non-work hours. I like working from home, mostly, but I do find it really isolating and odd. I never considered myself to be particularly extroverted. I fake it well from growing up “the new kid” every two or so years from 5 to 18, and generally being a ham seeking others’ approval and trying to make them smile, but it’s very draining, actually, which definitely indicates I’m more introverted than extroverted. But I still feel like I need a little camaraderie.

Had a really fun show at Speakeasy with the Chandler and The Bings boys, and then Saturday evening, BRIAN V. RETURNED…to play to his daughter, his friend, and his other friend, and then a few people who showed up five minutes before the end of the show (so he extended it another half-hour – worth it for the amazing tips…).

It wasn’t particularly well-attended (UT football game was happening at the same time) but it was FUN and my voice held up super well. Here’s a little footage of that from my YouTube channel (GO SUBSCRIBE AND RING THAT BELL SO YOU’LL BE NOTIFIED WHEN I POST NEW VIDEOS)…

Brian V. at 360 UNO – A Couple of Songs for Erin

And speaking of the YouTubes, here are a few musical things I enjoyed this week on that wonderful platform:

Walter Ino’s YouTube Channel – based on the songs he covers on his channel, I feel like we have quite a lot in common musically. AND I didn’t even realize it until I saw a couple of familiar faces in his videos, but he’s in a band with an old internet pal of mine, August Zadra, called Waiting For Monday – they released their debut in 2019 and it’s like arena rock for a new age. If you like the Journey-Boston-Foreigner-Styx era of radio rock, you’ll almost certainly love that band.

Phil X visiting Rick Beato (with Rhett Shull hanging out as well) – just a silly but kind of informative video of Phil showing some crazy Bouzouki licks he’s adapted to guitar, and some other neat stuff. It’s fun watching Rick and Rhett react to Phil’s shredding.

METAL – speaks for itself. (HAHAHA)

Thanks for reading and take care of yourselves and the people around you. It’s been a haul and we all deserve some kindness. Sorry again to Heath, David, Chris, and Matt – I hope it works out where we get to play together at some point when I have proper time to devote to it.

Love y’all…

Peace be the journey!
TMS

I’m turning 48 this Thursday.

I feel EVERY SINGLE second, minute, hour, day, month, and year of this age. Often, I actually feel older.

The majority of the reason for this is purely my fault. I don’t take care of my physical health. It’s something I’ve struggled with my entire adult life, because I really don’t get the same “kick” from exercise that most people do. It doesn’t make me happy to work hard physically – it just makes me want to lay down. Even in my most “exercisey” periods of my life (shut up – I’m going to use “exercisey” if I want to – I know it’s not really a word), I got smaller and more fit, but it never really made me feel any better than sitting on the couch (and before you suggest it, I REALLY don’t like people trying to motivate me, so having a trainer isn’t likely to help me over that hump to the “I LOVE TO EXERCISE” feeling that so many get). So I’ve just gotten fat and old. Of course, I hide it fairly well, since I’m of above-average height and my limbs are slim and athletic, but I’m a solid 65 pounds overweight based on my height. Even factoring in the fact that my family tends to run a little heavier than most people anyway (we measure a good 10-15% heavier than people who look exactly our same size – and it’s true of my dad and all my brothers, too), I’m still a solid 45-50 pounds overweight. The stress this is putting on my body is really becoming apparent. I hurt. Often…OUCH.

So that’s a long paragraph about my fatness. Why is that popping up here on this blog? Well…because I just spent the last 90 minutes singing and playing guitar standing on the comfortable carpet in my office, and my back and legs are killing me. I’m actually considering sitting down to play Saturday’s acoustic gig – which is something I just DON’T DO. And of course, I won’t sit at the show unless I must (I had an unfortunate gig back in 2015 or so that necessitated a “lean on a stool” performance because of a tweaked back, and that’s the only sit-down gig I’ve done since the “Brian V.” era started). So…OUCH.

Worse, my voice started shitting out on me about 20 songs in – you could hear it getting tired and raspy. Not good. Also…OUCH.

And I was having trouble matching pitches I played on my guitar while doing the “sing the guitar melodies you’re playing” thing I like to do to help keep my voice and hands in sync. With my voice, I was physically doing what would normally feel “right” for those notes, and I was just missing them. Sometimes a complete half-step off. It was very disconcerting. It’s been kind of an ongoing thing for me, though. So that’s more of a brain or spirit “OUCH”, but still…OUCH.

Well, I’ve got a physical on the 29th where I’ll address all this stuff with my doctor and maybe get another referral to an ENT who has specific skills related to those of us who depend on our voices for a living (my day job depends heavily on my voice being healthy, too).

Not trying to be a bummer or crap on myself or anything, just musing honestly about my health and how it relates to my music. I’m going to get better. I think. Because honestly, I don’t know how much more I can take of always being so wrecked when I play music. There will come a time when it won’t be worth it. But wouldn’t it be better to just lose some weight and give my joints a break? Then we can stop dealing with the OUCH.

Peace be the journey and take care of yourselves better than I take care of myself.

And please come hang out with me Friday the 17th with Chandler and The Bings at Speakeasy in Austin OR Saturday the 18th at 360 UNO up in Westlake for my solo gig.

TMS

So the band I mentioned in the previous post – this casual project by my “eager and wonderful friend” is REALLY SOMETHING. I mean, we’re doing a specific kind of music (Yacht Rock, with some “friendly to the smooth vibes” songs thrown in), but it’s the very first time I’ve ever been in a band where the entire band geeked out about tiny little details during rehearsal, trying to get them right, and not one person in the band sat back and checked their phones or tuned out. Everyone participated in trying to figure it out. It was WEIRD. But kind of weird good, you know?

Now, I’m not in any way saying that it’s wrong when tune-outs happen in other bands – for sure instrumentalists dialing down on some subtle nuance when rehearsal time is at a premium is annoying and possibly kind of boring to everyone else not involved in working out the part. I totally understand that and have, on occasion, been “that guy” (though honestly not that often). But that didn’t happen a single time at this rehearsal. We’re all music geeks…and all excited about getting the parts just right.

To be CRYSTAL CLEAR: This new band isn’t planning on taking up massive amounts of anyone involved’s time, as we all have tons of other stuff to do musically. We’ve got five songs in process, and are working on the next ten for a rehearsal set for August. This is a SLOW process, but it’s definitely worthwhile. The best we’re hoping for is playing on a semi-regular basis and bringing the smoothness where no other band in Austin really does.

Rehearsal went better than it had any right to. We all complement each other very well. There’s not really a clashing of styles or attitudes so far, and some stuff came together so easy it was surprising. Of course, there were plenty of things that were disastrous, but it was the first time I’d ever played with any of them, save the one or two shows I played with David. Playing guitar again was a thrill. You never really know how much you miss something until you get to experience it again. It happened at Speakeasy when that crowd started singing with us. I almost started crying. Woodshedding guitar parts is really challenging, but it’s the kind of challenge I think I need to keep my mojo as a guitarist. Working on tight multi-part vocal harmonies is also insane and amazing, since I’ve never really done that to any large extent in any band I’ve played in. And Yacht Rock and the 70s stuff we’re tackling has SO MANY VOCALS. It’s great – I love the music, the song I can’t stand is growing on me pretty well now (this seems to be a trend the past few months) and I appreciate the opportunity and the challenges ahead.

My musical life is an embarrassment of riches. I adore my brothers Patrick, Alon, and Jay in Chandler and The Bings, and we’re working to make that experience even more awesome for people. And I feel like I’m set to make my relationships with my buddies Heath and David even closer and better, and forge new friendships with Chris and Matt as we take our “Gaggle of Geeks” to new levels of Yachty smoothness with Yacht Z.

My music meter is very full and happy right now, and I’m so excited for the next Chandler and The Bings show at Picks Bar in San Antonio on July 10th. I absolutely love that place.

I hope you’re all doing well. If you’re into the prayer thing, please send some out for my dear Aunt Eileen – she’s fighting cancer right now and could use all the universal help she can get.

Peace be the journey!
TMS

So Saturday night marked the band’s first “official” show back. We played at our favorite bar in San Antonio (Picks Bar), and it was a pretty good show all things considered. I did a multitrack recording of the show with my laptop. And there are things about it I absolutely love – Jay and I are LOCKED most of the show, which is pretty surprising considering how little we’ve actually played together this past year. My vocals are spotty, as always, with my lead vocals almost always being 100% better than my backing vocals. I can’t fully figure out why I keep mucking them up – I did notice that when I really went for it on the backing vocals, I was more consistent, so there’s definitely a lesson there. I know that part of my vocal issues were caused by the nagging cold I’ve been fighting for weeks, so it was almost impossible to rely on muscle memory. Hopefully this Saturday’s show will go better in that department. But enough of the Monday Morning Quarterbacking…let’s get weird.

Like, it’s super weird to be out again. It’s super weird to return to a place we played TONS of times and it’s completely different (they started a remodel literally the day after our last gig there in 2020). It’s super weird to be around other vaccinated people and to feel “normal” enough to shake hands or give a hug. It’s good, but WEIRD. I’m looking forward to giving my mom a hug when she comes to visit in June. That won’t be weird – it’ll be lovely.

Back to the experience of getting back out there – another part that you forget when you haven’t played in a while is the physicality of the entire show experience – loading the gear into the van, loading the gear into the venue, getting everything set up, then the performance – every limb involved, singing, then once the show is done, unloading the stuff from the venue into the van and then driving home and unloading there. It’s all so incredibly draining. And that’s before you consider the mental toll of trying to remember everything so you can actually give a decent performance. I think all four of us were sort of wrecked for a few days recovering.

I’m happy we played, the crowd was nice (though different than before the pandemic), and we had a lot of fun. Tons of smiles on stage – fans even mentioned how much we were smiling. Little did they know half of those smiles were us laughing at mistakes.

Doing it again in San Antonio this weekend at The Amp Room. It should be weird and exciting – new venue, unfamiliar audience that’s younger and perhaps more rock-friendly…I’m pumped. But also thinking about how tired I’m going to be.

But I’m so grateful that we get to do it again. Seeing those smiling faces and watching them sing along is the ultimate analgesic.

Thanks for reading and peace be the journey!
TMS

P.S. If you’re not vaccinated, what the hell are you waiting for? GO GET THAT JAB, YO!