Ch-ch-ch-changes

My. Goodness.

So it has been some time since my last update.  Lots to go over, so here's the scoop:

As you guys are aware from my earlier posts, I have officially moved into a great house in Greenville, SC.  There are still boxes and other misc. items strewn everywhere, but that's going to take some time.  I've got an excellent area for a production studio, and I've been getting pretty excited mapping out where everything's going to go.

As far as the album is concerned...let's just say that progress has been made.  A few songs are fully written and others are great skeletons to songs.  I've been thinking of just never coming out of my production room when it's done so as to catch up a bit.  Still no solid release date, but stay tuned.

I have a show planned in the far future.  It's on November 4th at Studio 8 in Greenville, SC.  I'm very excited about this one.  It's a cover show!  Artists and/or bands choose to cover any one artist and/or band.  Each set will be about 5 songs dependent upon length.  So, I'll be performing acoustic-driven renditions of Imogen Heap.  Like I said.  Very excited.  Mark your calenders!

That's all for now.  I'll be booking some more shows soon, so keep your eyes and ears open!  Thanks for reading.

New Toys!

Hello!

Picked up one of these babies yesterday:

It takes pictures like this:

UUUGH!  I cannot wait to go crazy with this thing.

This is but one of the camera's I'll be using for the pictures of the upcoming Sleepy Head record.  I'm also planning on using this:

 This one takes pictures like this:

I'll be using all film cameras!  As much fun as I have with DSLR's and Photoshop, I just absolutely LOVE the rawness and "mistakes" that cheap film cameras have.  My wife, Caitlin, will be taking all of the pictures (and giving me some pointers along the way).  Can't wait for you all to see them!

For all the music geeks, I'm going to be purchasing a Mesa Boogie Transatlantic in a couple of weeks.

I. AM. SO. STOKED. About this thing.

Depending on the direction I go, you might only hear the clean sounds it offers (which are beautiful) on the EP.  We'll just have to wait and see as the songwriting continues.   Stay tuned for more updates!  The ball will be rolling quite quickly, quite soon!

Thanks again for reading!

PS - In case no one's noticed yet, you can now sign up for my new Mailing List, as well as my Street Team on the left side of this blog page.  You can also do so on my ReverbNation page. 

Plans

Hey folks.

So in case no one's heard yet,

WE'RE MOVING BACK TO GREENVILLE! (SC, that is.)

Obviously, I'm excited.  BIG plans to follow the move, too.  Caitlin and I have had a dream for years to open up some sort of crafty type shop in a city with that sort of market, and Greenville is perfect.  For those of you not too familiar with Greenville, SC, it's kind of a miniature Portland, OR.  

As I mentioned in the last post, we've been reading the "Retail Business Kit For Dummies" book for a couple of weeks now.  It's helping us realize that our plans to open up a shop aren't nearly as far-fetched as we thought!  We just need to keep our heads on straight.  One great thing is that the properties that we've been looking at in Greenville are right on Stone Ave and Main, where they're planning on completely revitalizing and upgrading with housing, planting trees everywhere, and opening up new businesses in the area.  The area has been very up-and-coming for some time now, so I feel like time is of the essence for this shop to open.

Let's not forget about the music, though!  My band has been writing for just over a year now and we've narrowed down and re-written our best choice of songs.  We've done all of this with NO bass player, so I'm pretty proud of what we've done, even though no one's heard any of it yet.  If we can get rehearsing in the next couple of weeks, we'll work on getting some shows going.  So stay tuned!

Regarding Sleepy Head: I had a VERY busy work schedule in December, but it's died down rather abruptly due to the lack of retail business in January, so I'll be writing frequently again.  I've got one song completed so far (called Mistletoe).  I'm planning on releasing an EP when I'm done with the songs and once I've figured out what direction I want to go in, sound-wise.  If I go in the direction of Mistletoe, it'll have a very Bob Dylan-ish feel to it.  We'll have to wait and see as I keep writing.   I'll keep the updates coming as I've got more free time in January.  Thanks for reading!

Lately Listening To:

Soft Spoken Army - "Look"

As Tall As Lions - "Circles"

Starfucker - "Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second"

So This Is The New Year

Wowwie-wow-wow-wow!!

It's the dawning of a new era it seems.  I'm extremely excited about the coming year and the plans I have for it.  2010 is left behind (thank goodness) and I'm grateful for all I've learned from it.

There are huge plans for 2011.  For some hints, I've been reading this book for a couple weeks now:

I'll also be purchasing this:

this:

and this:

Needless to say, I'm extremely excited.  Hooray for new beginnings, new resolutions, and new music!  I'm in a bit of a hurry today, so I'll leave it at that.  More info soon!

Good Times

Howdy.

Caitlin and I are having a blast this weekend with some great friends who're visiting us for a few days.  So great to have some company after being pretty much locked away in a cave for the past month or so.  We made pizza from scratch last night (the most delicious stuff EVER) and tonight we're having chili and garlic bread (also from scratch).  Also watching The Shining after realizing I've never seen it.  Don't judge, haters.

I realized today that confronting your problems head on can sometimes be surprisingly beneficial.  I was, shall we say, "disrespected" at work by my supervisor in front of some customers.  I know, right?!  To make a somewhat long story short, I let my supervisor know, later that day, that I didn't appreciate the unnecessary behavior (oh, so pleasantly), ESPECIALLY in front of customers.  Now, I'm honestly a little intimidated by this particular employee and I'm not one for confrontation, so confronting this person wasn't easy for me.  I thought I'd get yelled at, maybe written up, sent home, or perhaps backhanded.  To my surprise, my supervisor admitted that he was totally out of line, apologized about 3 times before I left, and promised to take the situation to heart.  A pleasant surprise, to say the least.   I could have easily just bottled it all up and constantly hated on my boss for...well...ever, but instead I barked back and solved things.  A nice change.  I'm not saying I'm going to go around telling people to shove it, but I think problems in general should be confronted instead of avoided.

Thanks for reading, folks.

Work and More...

I follow only a few blogs so far.  I'm still pretty new to the blog world, really, so I only really follow people I'm pretty large fans of.  As most of you know, I'm a HUGE Thrice fan.  Their drummer, Riley Breckenridge, has a blog called Trawling The Grey Matter, where he mostly posts random sports related findings and music know-how.  Just figured out he's also got a Bandcamp with a musical piece you HAVE to listen to.  Very cool.  

Things have been quite busy lately.  Scheduled for about 50 (ish) hours this week and I'm sure next week won't be far from that.  The guys and I finished a demo version of our latest song called Teeth, which is about the zombie apocalypse.  After resting our ears and brains from recording 4+ hours of vocal tracks, there are things we need to change.  It's funny how much time goes into music.  Maybe not everyone works as hard, but I know we really have effort behind what we've been doing.  I can't wait for all of you to hear it.  When we get some shows going, I'll be sure and post on here where it's at and such.

My next addition to the lineup:

 

For all the gearheads:  It's one of the only delays I've seen with a tap tempo function along with an analog circuitry system.  You can also use an expression pedal for various uses and select between 1/4 notes, dotted 8th notes, 1/4 note triplets, 8th notes, 8th note triplets, and 16th notes.  Pretty stoked to say the least.


Thanks for reading!

Good News!

Hey guys.

 Wanted to take a second and tell you about some exciting news.  Caitlin started her own shop on Etsy called Seventh Hand.  Thought you might want to check it out.  You can also just visit her blog for her shop here.

Check her site often, she's going to consistently add and sell different items as the days progress, so you don't want to miss anything!

Things have been pretty busy for me lately.  I've been working non-stop and trying to write music for both Sleepy Head and my band (we're deciding on a name) while trying to spend quality time at home.  December's just a crazy month for me in general.  I assume it's most people's busy month of the year as well, though.

Off I go to bed for another packed day tomorrow.  Thanks for reading and I'll talk to you all soon.