So I just remembered I had a blog. So I should post another random tid bit of info to get lost in the midst of the vast depths of the interwebs.
First order of business
MoE. A dear friend of mine. We met a year ago at The Mandolin Cafe in Tacoma, WA. Oddly, we both live in Seattle. We've grown to be great friends and we both share an explosive love for the art and experience of music and.... any sounds really (true sound nerds at heart).
Our skills and passions have smashed together at high velocity and created this little moment of glory. I played an 80/20 producer-engineer/musician role while Moe played a perfectly complimentary role of 20/80 producer-engineer/musician. Moe had been wanting to capture the last 6 years of her life, from when she first picked up the guitar/uke in pursuit of writing songs of her own, until now, where she has developed into a furious song writing machine with a unique individual sound. A sound that she couldn't have developed purely by herself of course. That's why this album is dedicated to her amazing family, friends, and "...to everyone who has supported and encouraged me to take my songs, jump behind the mic and sing my heart out!" Moe and her twin sister Jessie were raised by a fellow music nerd and music major, their mom. They practically emerged in to the world singing harmony together. ...and the doctor thought it was crying... HA!
We took one month out of our lives to capture Moe's beautiful songs. a couple weeks for about 6 half day studio sessions, and couple weeks for me to finish putting my final touches on it all. I really enjoyed working with this talented and passionate little ball o' sunshine. We both know each other so well, we both understood where the songs came from, we kept each other in check and we knew just when to tell one another when it was too little or too much. It resulted in a glorious balance of stripped-down heart-wrenching tunes and plenty of heavily layered (yet still simple) thought provoking songs. Some crazy stuff has come out of the woodworks on this one, like the sea-chantey epic, The Krakan's Song, and the song made of mouth noises and common kitchen items, Tea Break. We also left lots of room for you to create your own rhythm on your lap, nearest instrument, or on your steering wheel. I recommend getting a copy.
We could have spent more time on this, more time on that, recorded in a gigantic studio, and made sure the quality was good enough to please every tweak-head audio engineer's expectations out there. But we didn't. We felt that all of the songs properly conveyed the meaning behind them. In the end it is about the vibe and the emotion behind the take. Quality of the recording comes second. This album isn't for the music critics. It's purely for the love.
Us at Revilo Studios in Beacon Hill (Moe, me, and Jessie)
Second Order of Business
I've been recording this goofy yet serious internet radio show every week that airs on The
Northwest Convergence Zone and the show is
The Aquarium. On The Aquarium, we focus on local singer-songwriters (not limited to just folk guitarists) and give them a chance to share their music and thoughts behind it with the listeners. I would subscribe to the podcasts on
iTunes so that you can see and listen to all of the past episodes. We're about 35 episodes in so far, and we've had some really great times. I recommend checking out the website and listening to some radio that isn't controlled by the wallets of corporations, so you can actually hear a good mix of real music that people like right now.
