In a few days I’ll have a proof of the Liquid State and 42 Shades of Gray packages, followed by the Inglas package not to far behind… nice, eh?
Looking forward to having them in my hot little hands…
Archive for January, 2008
Thanks to a comment below from Thomas Svennson and the insistence of Karl Mueller, there are THREE CDs coming. If you have spent any time here at all you know Liquid State is ready to duplicate and should be available for purchase soon. Aside from that, my CD from last year’s RPM Challenge is at the duplicator right now, and the upcoming Inglas CD “Intelligent Design” is coming too. So that means three new CDs… all in the month of February. Wow.
I just received an email telling me that the Inglas CD artwork is 100% complete… I just had a look at it, and I agree. This could be great… releasing two CDs in the month of February! This CD has been hanging around for a couple of years now, completed and ready to go, so it will be very nice to see it out in the world.
I am going to build out the music section of this site soon… maybe have a different page for each of my musical projects, including music samples/etc. It seems right now the site is not so user friendly in that area… look for that change in the near future.
As for Liquid State, as I said, the music is done, Jennifer has just one more thing to fix on the artwork and it can go off for duplication. Jennifer thought she would be able to do it over the next day or so.
It’s pretty funny how long it takes to get the artwork together… it can be a royal pain doing the design, putting it in the appropriate template for the printers, etc.
Friday is the kickoff for the RPM Challenge….
I was thinking back to the road trip when I wrote “Destination” and a few other songs that ended making their way on to the Liquid State CD… I went back and pulled the photos from the trip, and decided to create a slideshow. But I didn’t want to simply create a slideshow, I wanted to make it a bit different and hopefully match the mood of the song. Below you’ll find the video.
Today I’m on the couch trying to get rid of this gold that hit me yesterday… I’ve had more colds this year than ever before. Unless I’m just imagining things.
Earlier today I spent a little time doing some paperwork and planning for the CD release. Now that the recording and mastering are all done, I’m just waiting for the final artwork from Jennifer, as we just had a few tweaks to make before it was right.
I’ve been considering offering digital downloads here on my site… so I’m investigating some companies who do this sort of thing. Things have changed quite a bit since my last “Particle Salad” release, and there are a lot of options out there.
Now I’m getting mentally ready for the RPM Challenge… trying hard not to go in the studio and lay down a few ideas as a head start. Nah, I’m going to keep it pure, a full CD in 28 days. Looking forward to getting started, though it IS nice to have a little downtime in the meantime.
As I’m wrapping up the Liquid State CD, I received an email the other day about RPM Challenge 2008. Plenty of information is available at their site, but the idea is to create a full CD worth of music in 28 days. I did it last year, under my 42 Shades of Gray moniker and it was a lot of fun (and a big headache at the same time).
I was not considering doing it again… until I received the email. This time, though, I wanted a full partner in crime to help carry the load if I was going to do it. So I sent an email to John Rose, expecting him to say no as a result of other commitments in his life… but alas, he’s good to go. So it looks like we’re on for 2008.
We’ll each start creating on 2/1, and sending it back and forth over the ‘net to cover the ~100 mile difference. I will update you on how things are going. Yet another reason I want to release Liquid State ASAP!
Well, the smell of completion is in the air… whatever that means.
The Liquid State CD is just about ready to go out for duplication. That will probably happen at the end of this week or early next week. We will have two different versions for sale. One will be a standard retail package, the other will be a bit fancier “Special Edition” package. The retail package will be available for sale all the usual places… CD Baby, Amazon, etc. The Limited Edition package will only be available here. I will have details on how to purchase the CD in the next week or two.
As I alluded to below, the beginning of this music came many years ago when I took a drive down the california coast to write and meditate. I brought my guitar and a laptop and came up with the bare bones of what would prove to be “Destination,” “Resignation,” and “Beyond The Tide.” Part of what made the writing come so fast and furious is the fact that my longtime guitarist friend Rick Escobar (aka “Guitarro) was the last one to play my old Epiphone acoustic, and left it in an open tuning I had no experience with. Actually I had spent very little time experimenting with alternate tunings, so it was a big eye opener for me.
Jennifer came into the picture and helped complete those songs (including writing all the lyrics for “Resignation” and “Beyond The Tide” based on some of my ideas), plus she came up with a few on her own, especially “Breathlessly Waiting.” Most of the others were true collaboration, with two exceptions… both “Lost” and “Perfect Blue World” have been sitting in my head and my hard drive for many years in some semi finished state. Jennifer’s vocals on “Lost” propelled the song into a different and much improved direction, while “Perfect Blue World” was improved by a stripped down, more acoustic vibe. The music to “Summer’s End” came during a family camping trip in the Sierras, as I watched my daughter play among the trees and rocks on the last trip of the summer just before the beginning of school… Jennifer wrote excellent lyrics that evoked the feelings I wanted. “Unraveling” began with a lyric and rough melody of Jennifer’s, I contributed the chord progression and arrangement. “Unseen World” started with a chord progression that Jennifer wrote to. Closing out the CD, “Beautiful” started out as a track for my contribution to the RPM Challenge 2007. Mike Claire came up with a piano piece, Jennifer wrote lyrics, and Rick Escobar and Farhan Mohamed added a string arrangement for the prelude which really helped the song gel.
The end result is a strong body of work called “Late Bloom.” The concept of the CD is both Jennifer and I felt we were late bloomers in life… and that we were just getting started in creating the best creative work of our lives. I hope you agree… I know we are extremely proud of how this CD turned out.
Mark Kozelek has been a huge influence these days… I just bought “Ocean Beach” (surprised I didn’t buy it before) and just turned on this song. What a perfect song for this morning.
There’s something about a Mark Kozelek CD that seems so San Francisco… or at least west coast. It’s one thing I think the Liquid State CD has in common with Red House Painters/Mark Kozelek/Sun Kil Moon.
so much that i can’t say to you
my voice shakes from the hurt that i hide
ashamed of my existence
and of my petty often wounded pride
i’d like to come home to see you
and to catch your sickness by the bedside
but then you’d know how much i really need you
all the love in an instant
makes my life stop
but then my hate for you
makes my feelings altogether drop
if only i were blind to your selfish fling
and your desperate cause
and didn’t press you for the details
that threaten my physical flaws
i’d like to come home to see you
and embrace your illness under soft light
but then you’d know how much i really need you
all the love in an instant
makes my life stop
but then my hate for you
makes my feelings altogether drop
so much that i can say to you
with affection that i burn inside
you’re aching from the distance
avoiding strain that’s running still alive
if only i could heal you in the sprinkling of the ocean side
but then you’d know how much i really love you
all the love in an instant
makes my life stop
but then my hate for you
makes my feelings altogether drop
Thanks to the words of a few friends who I’ve asked to take a listen (shout out to Karl, Michael Nold, and John), I’m doing one more round of mixing and mastering. Yahoo… then it will be all done, and I’m confident all will be sounding the best it can. In the meantime, I wanted to give you a preview of the CD cover artwork, done by Jennifer of course.
I should be all done with the final mixing and mastering this weekend… then on to the duplicators.
In the meantime, I have a little more clarity about what my next project might be. Michael Nold has talked about doing something, and I will be helping John Rose with his solo project as well. I also met a great vocalist, and we’re going to try out some collaboration. I will let you know how it’s all going.
Check back next week to see if the CD is done…
Hello everyone… thanks for your patience. The Liquid State CD is now DONE. You will be able to buy the CD probably in February. We’re shooting for a 1/31 CD release date. Watch this space for more information!