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The empty promises of The Musical Schizo (MUSEDAY MUMBLINGS, Vol. 82)

The empty promises of The Musical Schizo (MUSEDAY MUMBLINGS, Vol. 82)

I find it really funny re-reading old stuff I wrote on this blog. I’m always such a hopeful chap when it comes to producing and releasing my music. So many times I’ve been like, “NEW MUSIC IS COMING THIS YEAR” or “NEW VIDEOS ARE COMING”. And aside from a few outliers…nothing new ever comes. Not for over a decade. Not even since the beginning of this blog in 2000-whatever.

In total, I’ve formally released THREE songs. And you can check them out, purchase, whatever on your favorite streaming service now and BandCamp under the artist “The Musical Schizo”.

One of them is my recently-gussied-up tribute to Adam Schlesinger called “Never Really Saying Goodbye” which sounds like my version of a lost Fountains of Wayne song. Though in hindsight, I really should have harmonies/more vocals in general on it. Missed opportunity. When I finally release an album, that’ll be the version that goes on there.

There’s another potentially empty promise! Such lovely optimism. But anyway…

Another song is a relic from my mid-2000s burst of writing called “We Really Just Don’t Care” – it’s a song about the doubts live performing musicians have – especially those who play in cover bands that cater to an audience that’s mostly there to get drunk and hook up. The way you feel like wallpaper sometimes, that you really don’t have dedicated fans, but people who just happen to be there and who don’t even remember your name. This was conceived before I was ever in a band with an actual dedicated fanbase, so it doesn’t really apply to my life much now. (Thanks, “Chandler”! Love, The Bings)

And the first one I released is one of my favorites and one of my most-recently-written songs (yeah, from 2015) – it’s called “Way Too Long of a While” and is very reflective and touching. It’s more folky than most of my music, but it has a lot of heart.

So that’s it – 17 years of blogging and promises, and THREE songs (and before you start asking about “It’s Gonna Be Me”, that doesn’t count because it was with Chandler and The Bings and it’s a cover).

And then there’s my YouTube channel – which features multiple videos of me unboxing new gear I got and then never doing the promised follow-up video. Multiple comments from randos saying, “where’s the follow-up video?” I’m like – dude – look at the rest of my channel – I’ve got like 10 followers and no consistency on releasing things. So yeah, that always falls by the wayside. But maybe someday?

Between my music and my online content, I consider that a solid stream of empty promises.

But something weird is happening with me – I’m starting to worry about posterity. About what I actually am contributing to the world musically as an artist and creator. I’m starting to think that having a bunch of crappy demos out instead of actually turning them into decently-recorded versions of themselves is pretty lazy. And saying I’m going to go into the features or do a deep dive on something later is foolhardy considering my inconsistency with this stuff.

So to keep it simple, I have a new goal now – taking completed songs and turning them into versions I want to release. Then I will collect them in similarly-vibed albums, and then I will release them as albums. Do I have a timeline for this? HA HA HA HA – why would I do something silly like that and continue to make myself a big fat disappointment? But it will happen – let’s say before I’m dead. How about that?

As for the YouTube content, I’d really like to figure out how to make some stuff I like without a whole lot of fuss, but that will take some planning and effort, which is unlikely. But maybe!

Let the empty promises continue, and hope they are not as empty in the next 17ish years.

Also, I really do want to do more “Bathroom Schizo” videos, but this house doesn’t have any good bathrooms to record them in. Perhaps when I’ve moved to a better place, or maybe I’ll find a means for recording them in random bathrooms.

(heh heh…even more empty promises)

Peace be the journey!
TMS

Never Really Saying Goodbye Got A GLOW UP!

Never Really Saying Goodbye Got A GLOW UP!

Yup. I done did it, finally.

I made “Never Really Saying Goodbye”, my 2020 tribute to the great Adam Schlesinger, sound acceptable enough to me to put it out into the world.

Gonna load it up on all the streaming services soon, but you intrepid readers here get the first listen to the newest version.

Soon it will be available to stream on all your favorite services.

This will be the single cover picture:

A bored-looking boy in a red and black striped pullover jacket and jeans rides a beaten-up playground horse that is too small for him.

I performed every bit of the song. I think that’s rather evident. But I like it, and I hope you do, too. And people who know Adam’s work, especially with Fountains of Wayne, will appreciate it a little more than the average person, I think.

Museday Mumblings (Vol. 79): Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit Amet

Museday Mumblings (Vol. 79): Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit Amet

Graphic design/publishing nerds will get the title of this one. I put it there as filler because I didn’t know what to title this catch-all musing.

Life’s been pretty dang good here through 2024. I released another one of my songs on streaming services, which was fun. I did a remix/remaster of it, felt pretty happy about the overall sound, and then realized once it was posted everywhere that I should have boosted the vocals about 1.5 dB. Ah, well, when I post my next collection of things, I’ll post a remixed version. Until then, just go to any streaming service (and I mean ANY streaming service – I got that sucker on all the big’uns) and give it a listen. It’s called “We Really Just Don’t Care” by your humble writer, “The Musical Schizo”.

I got to see two of my favorite bands of all time, Living Colour and Extreme at one of my favorite venues – ACL Live at the Moody Theater. Thanks to my hetero life mate Ned for snagging those tickets – they were AMAZING seats in the center section of the mezzanine – so basically directly across from the stage and only slightly higher up. The view:

Moving on to other stuff, Chandler and The Bings has been sporadically busy as usual, but with great gigs in FOUR cities (Laredo, Austin, Killeen, and San Antonio). And five if you count Cedar Park/Leander separate from Austin – it kind of is, since almost no one from up there would travel to our downtown Austin gigs. We’ll be hitting Houston and San Antonio on the same day at the end of April, so we’re certifiable. It’s been a crazy year so far, with only more craziness to come for the band. Love those boys.

I’ve been wanting to own an American-made Ernie Ball Music Man bass for the better part of my life as a bassist, and now I do. I saw an ad on Craigslist for a EBMM Sterling 5H, which isn’t my beloved Stingray style, but it’s a little lighter and more ergonomic. The ad mentioned they’d consider a trade for a Line 6 Helix. And wouldn’t you know it – I happened to have one of those sitting around the studio because I hadn’t sold it yet. So I got in touch with the seller, and then weirdly got a call from an old coworker/friend who used to produce my ex-wife’s radio show. I was like, why is he calling me? Turns out it was HIS bass! So we made the trade (and had a great reunion) and after a LOT of tweaking the setup, I’m a pretty happy camper with the ol’ Sterling 5H. I still think there’s some special magic in my cheapo Stingray that’s been my #1 since 2018, but this new one is definitely giving it a run for its money. Kind of hilarious that a $2000 bass is in direct competition with one I got for $330, but magic is magic. And price doesn’t trump magic. EVER.

On a more creative level, I picked the song that I’m going to collaborate with my old pal Dennis C. Miller on – actually, it’s going to be more me driving the bus on it – but it’s his song from about 20 years ago and I’m going to produce a version of it. That should be coming in the next month or two, so once we work that stuff out you should see it appear on a release from him later this year (and I might put it out, too, if that ends up being the deal).

On the mental health front, it’s been a rough go the past month or two. I don’t really reveal it much to most people, but I struggle with depression sometimes, and it’s been a dark time in my brain. Thankfully life has a way of keeping me just busy enough to not be swallowed up by it, and reminding me that I have so much value and I am loved no matter what my shitty-ass brain tells me. Just practicing gratitude daily and trying not to spiral, and it works for me. Meds might help, but my valleys aren’t persistent enough or frequent enough for me to feel like it’s necessary. Thanks to my lovely wife, and my wonderful children to help keep me from falling in the pit. If you need to talk, you know where to find me. I’m a good ear and I will love on you as much or as little as you need.

What else – oh, I’m also rather enamored with Olivia Rodrigo’s songs, and she just released a few more on the expanded edition of her record GUTS, including a BANGER called “obsessed” that you should check out. It’s awesome, and she put it together with the inimitable and excellent St. Vincent (Annie Clark). (The other four songs on GUTS (spilled) are fantastic as well.)

So that’s the update. I hope you have a fantastic day whenever you read this.

Lead with love, and peace be the journey.
TMS

Necessity Being The Mother Of Invention (and all that)

Necessity Being The Mother Of Invention (and all that)

I have a great day job. I get to make audio productions for the largest audio company in the world, with hundreds of radio stations, streams, thousands of podcasts, and just a MASSIVE footprint.

Sometimes this job requires the musical side of me to pop out and do some stuff because whatever resources I have aren’t quite good enough or exactly the perfect fit. This post will be about that.

I’ve been doing commercials for a local annual event every year, and am very proud and honored to have them as a client. The nature of my contract with the aforementioned day job precludes me from using their resources on stuff that falls outside the company, so I honor that. My library of music to use on outside stuff is minimal at best, and I’m not interested in paying piles of money to license music, because, well, times are tight. So, my composing and performing skills bailed me out. This necessity led to the invention of some music!

The first cut I created is a typical country-rock midtempo stomp tune:

Then that wasn’t quite working the way I wanted, so I checked their other ads to see what sort of things they had in them, and it was more rock-oriented. So to kill both birds with one stone, I came up with this one:

Then this client had some ads for a BBQ fest they were having as part of the larger event, and that one was just BEGGING for some Texas Blues. So I grabbed my Strat and made this little ditty:

It was so fun coming up with bespoke music for these ads that I think I might actually start composing more stuff to use for any non-company stuff I work on. It stoked my creativity in ways it hadn’t been stoked in a while. And it was all so fast and easy to make it all sound good using REAPER and my Line 6 Native, iZotope, Native Instruments, and Steven Slate Design plugins.

I’ve also created jingles and little ad sounders for clients for the day job, which I won’t post here, but if you’re curious, I’ll email them to ya – just get in touch with me.

Thanks for reading and listening, and peace be the journey!

TMS

Museday Mumblings (Vol. 78): Life Living You

Museday Mumblings (Vol. 78): Life Living You

I think I’ve addressed this before here on the blog, but I think sometimes you live life, and sometimes life lives you.

You feel like you have choices when you’re living life.

You feel like you’re just following a to-do list if life is living you.

Right now, it really does feel like life is living me instead of the other way around.

To be clear – some of the most fantastic things have been happening the past few months, from my 50th Birthday with surprise visits from my parents and a cousin I hadn’t seen in years to a couple of wonderful trips to North Carolina and Atlanta to see friends and band reunions. And reuniting with my best friend from high school who I hadn’t seen in over 20 years and finally meeting his wife and wonderful boys. SO MUCH LOVE!

But even as it’s been great, everything’s been SCHEDULED. My wife and I haven’t really had good alone time because we have a little kid and no good sitters. Work has been relentless for both of us, and SUPER STRESSFUL for my wife. Gigs have been very sporadic (which serve as a nice salve for my psyche, so that’s not good).

Some days I feel like I’m just driving people places and then sitting in a room for hours on a computer cutting up voiceovers I’m not particularly pleased with and mixing with music that’s ALMOST right for the commercials while periodically being interrupted by questions that have often already been answered.

I’m sure a lot of people go through this stuff, and honestly, I’m usually fairly good at forcing myself to be present and not just muddle through. But right now? It’s not going great. So I’m writing this at 1:41am to kind of put it out there so I can move on from it and take more action in my life.

Recently for the day job I had to create a jingle out of some really questionable a cappella singing, so I threw that pitchy mess into Melodyne (a wonderful software for naturally removing pitchiness), and wrote and recorded music to match the flow of the melody (which was a VERY atypical arrangement). Shockingly, it turned out fairly decent. I had polished the turd to a fine sheen (and they ended up going with the original a cappella…go figure).

The good part about that was discovering how quickly I can throw together music that is a full arrangement (the cleaned-up voice, along with guitar, bass, and drums I played on my Korg X50 keyboard). It really inspired me to possibly use those same techniques to get my songs done and start using my DistroKid account to make them available for people to listen and/or buy on all the streaming services.

So I know I’ve said it before, but I really do think that I’ll actually be finishing some songs in the coming months, and probably releasing them in chunks as EPs on Spotify and stuff like that.

That is, if I can manage to stop letting life live me and turn that shit around so I’m living life.

Wish me luck!

And if you also feel like life has been living you, I feel you. And I’m hoping for your sake you can turn that shit around as well.

Take care, and Peace be the journey!
TMS

Ah, Maaaan…

Ah, Maaaan…

Well, my monthly solo gig is gone now. “First Saturdays with Brian V. at 360 Uno” is no more.

360 Uno is shutting their doors for good in late August and my gig this Saturday was cancelled.

It’s a weird thing – there were things that were kind of terrible about those gigs – I never felt prepared enough, the crowds were largely indifferent about my presence (because it was a restaurant situation with sort of old people and families, not a “bar” bar), the setup by the front door was kind of awkward, etc. The staff and how I was treated as a performer there more than made up for it. I got to play all kinds of different songs, take chances, and scratch other musical itches not scratched by Chandler and The Bings. I played my own music almost every show. I played a PILE of Sloan songs for Canada Day on what is now officially my last performance there.

My lovely and talented friend Mandy Prater got me in there, and it was a great situation for me. I just need to find a new place for it – try to set up a monthly gig somewhere. This time, perhaps, a lot closer, and at a BAR bar, so patrons will be more engaged and I’ll play better – I feed off the crowd more than I ever thought I did. That’s a lesson I learned.

Another lesson these gigs taught me is that I am a pretty ham-handed guitar player. Made me really want to get my technique together to execute melodic stuff a little better than just bashing out rhythms all the time.

Thanks to all my friends (and family) who came out and had some pizza or wine or gelato or whatever and enjoyed a show. I loved that you were there more than you can ever imagine. And BIG BIG thanks to Jamie and all the staff there for being so delightful to work with and always making me feel welcome. Good luck to all of you in the future. You deserve all the best.

If you have any ideas of where I can play in the 78748 area, I’m down…

Thanks for reading, and peace be the journey…
TMS

Museday Mumblings (Vol. 76) – A Case of The Musedays

Museday Mumblings (Vol. 76) – A Case of The Musedays

Well, it’s a Museday. The last time I posted was in late September. Clearly life is having its way with me right now, as I’m not particularly inspired to even blather on here on the blog.

This series was meant to be almost a meditation – every Tuesday (or so) I’d post about some topic, whether it be musical or otherwise (but mostly musical), and it would keep me creating and creative. But a few things happened over the last year or so that really messed with my desire to share much of what’s going on with me publicly. People who are too sensitive. Beloved friends slightly younger than me who died suddenly. The tennis match-like back-and-forth of worthiness and worthlessness that is being a sensitive artist.

I desperately want to WANT to create. I desperately want to FEEL like people I depend on for music-related things are all on the same page. But time creates distance, distance increases anxiety, anxiety breeds worry, worry breeds resentment. I’m not saying anything is REAL about how I feel about the various things I’m doing or my relationships with music stuff, but it’s definitely making me feel less motivated in general, and kind of depressing me (and thus keeping me from working on stuff).

But let’s take stock. Let’s have ourselves one of them certified, Erin-phrase-coined “Gratitude Adjustments”:

In 2022, I played a PILE of wonderful shows with my boys in Chandler and The Bings. And I played my roles as bassist and singer well in the vast majority of them, which makes me very proud. We had a great bonding experience with our trip to Laredo that was only sullied by a bad stomach bug which led to the very first time I’ve ever left the stage to vomit…and then vomited off the side of the stage out of the view of the crowd. It’s quite a story that’s quite gross, and if you’d like to hear it, I’m happy to tell it in person.

My solo shows were mostly pretty good, and I was VERY consistent this year, basically playing every first Saturday except for July. I love the venue, the staff is wonderful, people tip very well, and I really need to grow this side of my musicianship. I think it would be good for my development to have some bigger crowds to play to, though. So I’m going to work towards that in 2023, stacking up the wonderful venue I already play and maybe even finding some more…

I got some very cool new gear and some of my existing gear got an AMAZING update that inspires me to play more, which is good. I keep meaning to make videos about the guitar and little amp, but that’s another casualty of life in general. Just hasn’t happened yet.

My body has held up pretty well considering I packed on an extra 15 lbs this year. Going to do my best to get that off in triplicate this year, hopefully by my birthday in September. That might be too tall an order, but progress toward healthy living is most important. My health is paramount and I need to stick around for my kiddos.

To close this out:

I am thankful that I can still do this music stuff.

I am grateful that my health so far has remained pretty good (gotta figure out the heart flutter, but…)

I am hopeful that I can stay disciplined and make the necessary changes to lead a more healthy lifestyle.

Now that this is turning into a “Goals” post – completely unrelated to the fact that it’s a new year, mind you – my goals are now to get healthy, get better at playing the songs I perform, get working on my ear training and theory knowledge, get the worthy songs I’ve written recorded, mix the old ones that were already recorded better (and improve the performances if necessary), get some new songs together, release some new music (having one song on the streaming platforms seems kind of sad), get my goddamn ass in gear in general, and get some MONEY.

That’d be nice, right? Rent is EXPENSIVE. Shit, everything is.

Anyway, thanks for reading and I plan to get back in this Museday Mumblings habit again. Have a happy day whenever you see this, and may you stay healthy and safe.

Peace be the journey!
TMS

2021 In Review…And A Look To 2022

2021 In Review…And A Look To 2022

The first quarter of the year was pretty lame. Not a whole lot going on that was new.

Started back with gigs in May. (YAY!)

Joined an awesome Yacht Rock band but punked out because I had to accept reality the playing level expected didn’t fit with my current lifestyle. It still makes me sad when I think about it.

Blogged many, many times but got super inconsistent at the end of the year (depression does that to you).

Made many great improvements to my home studio building on all the great improvements from 2020. Hey, I figure if I live in this room for work, it might as well be decked out, right? Upgraded the live bass rig from a little HX Stomp to the HX Stomp XL, which has more footswitches. Very happy with the change.

Went to California for a family vacation. It was more of a trip than a vacation, because it was the opposite of relaxing, but it was wonderful to be back “home” and see some California family and friends. The Golden State is as much a part of me as anywhere else I’ve ever lived, and I still miss it. If I win a large sum in the lottery, I will buy property there.

Discovered great new music – Mammoth WVH’s debut album is EXCELLENT, as was their live show. I Don’t Know How But They Found Me (aka IDKHOW) somehow escaped me when they were the alternative music press’ retro darling a few years back, but now I know who they are (thanks to my bud Dennis) and dig the SHIT out of their stuff. They’re 80s in all the best ways, but current – if you like the idea of Duran Duran and The Cure having a baby, you’ll probably dig this.

Wrote ZERO songs. Didn’t even compose riffs or anything this year. Not sure why…just not all that inspired. I did do some livestream noodling.

Returned to the stage as a solo act thanks to my friend (and excellent livestreamer) Mandy Prater recommending me to the awesome people at 360 Uno.

And I think that’s about it.

Definitely going to get things set up in the studio in 2022 for easier musical creativity and make it a point to make stuff. I might even make videos of the process since I have that awesome-but-basically-unused live streaming mixer. And Bathroom Schizo videos!

Or not. Since I like to believe I’ll do creative things but I rarely come through because life and my mental state often get in the way. STAY TUNED!

One thing that’s definitely happening in 2022 is a return of the weekly format for the Museday Mumblings. I slacked hard in Q4 and I find that embarrassing.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful 2022!
TMS

March Home, Young Man…

March Home, Young Man…

Well, things in our world are officially weird.

I mean, we have a major novel virus spreading quickly around the world, and are trying desperately to slow that spread so that the people who are infected get the care that keeps them alive. As I’m sure you know, dear reader, that means that live music is OVER right now. My full-time musician buddies are shitting themselves about when they’ll have another gig so they can pay their rent, and I hope that they implement a temporary assistance program for them. They deserve to be paid to stay home, just like all the people in the service industry (bars and restaurants), movies, and a lot of retail. Fortunately for me, I’m a coward who has never had the nerve to just do music, so my day job is basically the same, and the only change for me work-wise is a positive one, because I prefer working in my home studio to being at the office. Not playing is CRAP, but I will do what I can to help the vulnerable by staying out of circulation.

If there was ever a time for me to hunker down and really get some shit recorded and done it’s now. I’ll have no real band distractions, except for some awesome live-streaming stuff we’re planning. It’s going to be just me sitting in my studio with all my guitars and keyboards. The unfortunate thing? I’m completely stuck because I really don’t have material. I haven’t written a new song in over four years. FOUR. At my last residence, I did not write a single new song. That is mind-blowing to me. I’ve always fancied myself a songwriter, but almost half a decade of not writing makes it clear that’s not really something I am anymore. That’s okay, but I’d really like to change that.

My plan for the next month or two (assuming this shit’s going to be around a while) is to write at least one complete song. I think I’ll document the process over on social media (I’m musicalschizo pretty much everywhere – YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, MySpace…)

Keep an eye out for that and an eye out for new fun Chandler and The Bings content, because there’s no way the four of us can stand more than a few weeks of not being goofy together and playing some music. We’re going to figure out the technology of a streaming jam. I’m sure there’s some Google thing or Twitch or whatever that should be able to make that happen.

Take care, wash your hands, stay home if you can, do what you can for your friends who are financially hurting because of this stuff, and please stay healthy!

Peace be the non-journey…

TMS

You Can’t Always Get What You Want…

You Can’t Always Get What You Want…

I have a serious issue now. I desperately want a $2100 bass. You see, Ernie Ball/Music Man came out with their new Stingray Special series, with roasted maple necks that have stainless steel frets and updated bodies that are lighter, and updated electronics that are punchier and quieter. Of course, it’s not happening. I don’t have that kind of cash.

Cut to a few weeks ago, where I was doing my normal Craigslist perusal, and I came across a guy up in Cedar Park selling my $2100 bass for a mere $1295! I literally did not have the funds to scrape together to get this incredibly-cheap offering of EXACTLY THE BASS I WANT – Black. Maple fingerboard. One pickup. Just like the Sterling Sub series that I’m playing now as my #1 bass, but lighter and more pro in every single way.

So I’ve been anguished about it for a couple of weeks now. And the ad has finally timed out on Craiglist, so no more drooling over that which I can not possess. I did send the guy an email basically begging him to keep in touch if he still happened to have the bass next month (since I plan on scraping together money and selling things). I’ve heard nothing back. I’m sad.

So what does this tell me? Well, I snoozed and most likely lost. And I simply cannot justify spending almost $1300 on a bass, even if it is the $2100 bass I so desperately wish to own.

But if on the odd chance I do hear back from Allen from Cedar Park…well, I guess we’ll see how my willpower handles it.

I don’t NEED this bass…but damn if it wouldn’t be a hoot to have it!

In other news: Things with The Bings are going as wonderfully as before, better, actually, because my voice has been solid. We’ve been killing our Thursday shows at Stereotype, with people showing up basically just to see us and then clearing out once we’re done (except on the Saturday gig – they hung out – we wish they’d hang out on the Thursdays, too, but it’s nice that they’re there for us specifically). Not sure what the future holds with that. 2019 might be something different there. We’ll have to see. I do look forward to seeing some of my “buddy bands” there, though (like HighRoad, Zoodust, and especially Hit & Run). They’re all being booked when we can’t make the shows.

I’ve been cleaning things up in my studio and getting things all wired up for proper use in preparation for work beginning in earnest on some recordings. I know if you look at the 10 years or so I’ve been writing this blog that that seems like more of the same promised bullshit, but this time I really have all the pieces together and am feeling some creativity, so it might not be any of the songs I’ve already written – it might be writing new ones from all the progressions, melodies, and riffs I’ve been recording on my iPhone for the past six or seven years. I’ve got good software and plugins and I’m raring to go. Now it’s just finding the moments of quiet necessary for getting things down. I think I can manage it. 🙂

I’m probably heading out to a jam night tomorrow to see some friends and maybe rock out a few tunes I haven’t played in a while. I might even see if they’ll let me play drums on something. I haven’t done that in front of an audience since a Slaphappy gig in Georgia about 15 years ago.

On the “gear I actually own” front, the HX Stomp has been PERFECTION for my gigs with The Bings. And I got a new set of quad-driver in-ears for cheap on Amazon that have been perfection as well. It’s crazy – I haven’t even been running a speaker or amp. Just BIG FAT TONE from a teeny tiny pedal.

Thanks for reading my update, and have a wonderful Christmas and New Year – if that’s your thing.

Peace, love, and good happiness stuff…

TMS