February 2nd, 2015

Well today has been non-stop. Woke up, got ready for work, then had rehearsal with Meet The Beetles from the moment I got home until around 10pm. It's been a long day, and I'm glad it's finally over. Sunnie's been here with us since Thursday, and it's been so great having her here again! I just hope I get to spend more time with her tomorrow since Ada may be picking her up at night. Other than that, not much else to write about.

Well today was very interesting. I was told by Jason on Saturday that the pawn shop had a vintage Hofner, and I finally had the chance to check it out in person! It looked great from the picture he sent, so I was really imterested in looking at it seeing how much they wanted for it. After stopping at UPS to get my hours for this week, I went straight there and briefly got to play around with it. The whole time I was there, I pretty much gave them a history lesson on the changes the bass went through throughout the decade of the 60's. Since the bass they had had blade pickups and a decal on the headstock, it's pretty safe to say it was at least a '66. I would love to someday own a vintage one, but it has to be a '64 or '65. I love the raised logos they used during those two years as it really makes the instrument attractive. After the pawn shop, I went to McDomalds to get a Frappi, but I had to hurry back home because my mom needed the car to pick up Christina at 1:30. I was a little late due to a wrong turn and some red lights, but everything turned out alright in the end. I started filming Terri's music video later on, and so far it's going great! All I need to do now is record the drummer angle, and then I'll be ready to start editing! Yesterday I did some last minute touches with the audio. I also added a tambourine to finish off the overdubbing. Overall, I'm very satisfied with the way it turned out. Terri will definitely enjoy what she has coming! ;)

Tomorrow, I have a dentist appointment to have a couple cavities in the back filled. I'm not thrilled that I have to do this again, but at least it'll all be over with once I'm home. I also finally heard from Angie regarding the music video I did a couple weeks ago! I wasn't going to say anything about it at first, but I figured it's been long enough and I decided to text her and find out if it made her uncomfortable at all. Luckally, it didn't. She told me it sounded great and she meant to comment it but just never sent it. I feel a little better about things now, and I hope I get to see her again soon so I can give her a hard copy of the song. I did it for her, so it's only right to give it to her in a physical form.

Until next time, this is me singing off.

January 21st

Well Words of Love is all done now! At least recording it is. Now I just have to film the music video. Shouldn't take too long to do. The editing is the hardest part. I had work today from 3-6, but other than that, not much else has been going on. 'Hopefully the videos will turn out good and it'll all be done by the end of next week!

January 19th, 2015

TodayI started working on Words Of Love and got s good portion of it done! Everything is done except I still have to add the drums. Once that's done, I'll start shooting the video. I never realized how hard it is to sing the John part as his vocal goes VERY low. I managed to do it though, and I'll have to do it again when I do the final vocal track for Terri's video. The vocals I did today have the regular words to the song, so I'll have to re-do them as well before I start filming. So far, things are going great! Looking forward to adding the drums and finishing up this song!

What a weekend this has been! Friday I had a show with the Johnny Burnett Band, and Saturday I played with Bobby Midnight, and Sunday I had a bit of a break other than playing Journey. This week, I'll be focusing on recording my parody for Words of Love and filming the music video for Terri Hemmert. Let's hope it turns out good and that things go well!

January 13th, 2016

Woke up a bit late today, went to work 3-6, and had rehearsal at Johnny's house for a gig tomorrow. A bit non-stop today, but this is only the beginning of it until the rest of the week. Other than that, not much else to report.

January 12th, 2016

It's been a few days since I last updated the blog. Typically, I would try to make them up by doing one for each day, but I'll just recap everything that's going on in this one.

I finished the keyboard track for Build Your House of Bricks, but decided to put it aside for a while to make my first music video of 2016! I had a cover of Kiss Me (by Sixpence None The Richer) lying around that I recorded for my friend Angie, but I never got the chance to give it to her since it was finished in December. It's been snowing pretty good the past week, so I figured this would be a perfect time to shoot a video for it. After three days of filming, and just a couple days editing, the video turned out EXACTLY how I pictured it! I was able to get some great lighting even though I shot everything late at night, and I was also able to put some stage lights to use that Jason dropped off at my house. The stage lights came in handy when I shot the angle from my bedroom window, and it really added to the overall mood I was going for. I was very happy with the finished product, and I was very excited to get the video online. Angie hasn't responded since I uploaded it, but I'm not going to bother her about it if there's a chance it made her feel uncomfortable. I thought it was something nice that would've made her happy, but I guess not everything turns out the way they're expected to. Maybe she'll tell me in person what she thought of it, but even then, I'm going to wait for her to bring it up herself.

Now that the video for Kiss Me is done, my next video is going to be for Terri Hemmert as I found out recently she's battling some kind of cancer and just had surgery to help get rid of it. Since it has to be a Beatles parody, I decided to write something to Words of Love. Not only is it a song I wanted to eventually cover anyway, but it seems like a simple song that would be easy to write lyrics to. I'll probably start it next week since I have so much going on right now, but I'll be using this time to think of lyrics, learn the song, and figure out what I'm going to do for the video. I plan on having the whole thing done by the end of next week. Let's hope it turns out good!

January 4th, 2015

Today was supposed to be my day off of work, but I got called to come in 2-6. After a busy day, I finally got to add the keyboards to Build Your House of Bricks! I'll be recording the solos tomorrow, but most of the keyboard track is now done. I'm honestly not in a huge hurry to get this track done as it'll be a while before I'll be able to add the harmonica, but it'll be good to have everything else done so there won't be much left to do once it's finally on the track. I spent the rest of the day playing with Sunnie since she's here until tomorrow night. She's been staying at our house this past week, and everyone (including Penny and Pepper) is going to miss her after Ada picks her up. We always enjoy having her here, and we know she does as well.

January 3rd, 2015

I spent most of today working on my upcoming track, Build Your House Of Bricks. It's a song I previously had online for a while, but I took it down because I realized there was more to be done, and I wasn't as happy with it as I wanted to be at the end of the day. I re-did the vocals which needed the most attention, and now that's finally finished after spending a good amount of time behind the mic! I wanted to keep the original version though just to have it as an "anthology take", so I made sure that was saved before I began to record anything new. My next step with this song is to add some keyboards, and I plan on using my "new" Wirlitzer to get the job done! ;) Once that's done, my last revision will be to add a harmonica. I'll need to look for one in the key E though since the only one I have is in C. This song will sound so much better now that I'm finally getting around to it, and I look forward to having it on my blues album assuming that's the record to be released next.

After I finished working on the new vocal tracks, I decided to pull up some older mixes and take a walk down memory lane. I pulled up two songs that I recorded for Theater Class, including "The Balled of Karen And Kaden", and another track called "(Remember Me) Stephanie", which was a song I didn't necessarily write for the show, but more so as a personal song to Stephanie Burd who played the character Donna. I havnt heard this track in YEARS, and it was honestly the first "older" song of mine I listened to in a while in which I didn't cringe when I heard my original vocals! I remember I DID work very hard making the vocals sound good on that track, and hearing it back three years later certainly brings me back to those sessions.

Tomorrow starts a new day, and also a new week! Until then, this is me signing out!

January 2nd, 2015

Well today was a lot of fun! JD Muggs had the first open mic night today for the first time in two years!!! A band I'm currently recording decided to make a deal with the venue and were able to successfully bring it back! The only thing that's different now is that it will be held the first Saturday of every month instead of weekly every Tuesday. It brought back so many memories returning to this great bar, and I look forward to doing it again next month!

I used to play there every week back in 2013 when the Ralleys (now known as the Time Bandits) were going very strong. I still remember it like it was yesterday! My most memorable performance was the first Tuesday after Christmas Day. I brought my Hofner with for her long awaited debut on stage, and was so happy to finally be able to play it! This was before she had her flatwound strings, so she didn't quite have that "Beatles sound" YET - but nonetheless, that night was one of my biggest highlights of 2013. We played there every single week until they stopped having it, and we were really disappointed that our favorite open mic at the time was being cancelled. But now that it's come back, I felt like I was just picking up from where I left off two years ago. I wish Mike, Gintas and Jay could've been there, but Jay won't be back from the Navy until June, and I guess Gintas and Mike weren't able to make it.

 Since I last went there, it appeared as if they changed ownership. The name was changed to "Muggs and Mannor", but the place looked the same, and the food was even BETTER than it was before! Maybe it just seemed so good because I havnt had it in two years. What ever the case may have been, it was definitely a treat to have it again after not having it for so long. I remember they used to have two dollar cheeseburgers that I would get every week there. I doesn't appear they have those anymore, but the regular one they have now is still very good! The new fries were what really stood out to me though. They were much more "home style" like this time, and were just overall better quality. It was a very nice improvement that they made on their food, and I look forward to having it again next month! I saw they have chicken as well, so maybe I'll try that next time to switch it up.

 I did two sets on guitar with Tom (bass player for Liquid Fun, the band that got this going) and his son who was on drums. The first set contained Matchbox, Boys, and Take Me To My Fantasy Land (blues), which was a original of mine. After being offered to do another set, I did Heaven and Hell (a current original still in the making), Waiting For You (also original), and Why Don't We Do It In The Road. I dropped my pic during Waiting For You, and I thought it was going to be a train wreck from that moment on - but surprisingly, I was still able to keep going and even do the leads using only my finger. Maybe it had something to do with the quality of the SG? If that's the case, it definitely doesn't surprise me. I've had her for a whole week at this point, and I have yet to find ONE flaw in her playing abilities and overall craftsmanship. Later on after we finished, Bobby Midnight and the Ordeals stopped by and signed up to do a set as well. We did a couple originals we've been going over together, and we also did some covers later on during a second set along with Swinging Cat, which is a song I wrote a while ago but havn't recorded yet. Killa Mike (who I rode there with) had already left, but Bobby was nice enough to give me a ride home as he was heading out himself. It was definitely a fun rocking night, and I look forward to going back to JD Muggs next month!

New year, new beginning!

I've decided to start a new blog and make a point to update it as much as I can. It's mostly for my own use if I ever decide to look back on something, but anyone else who comes across it is welcome to read it as well. I know there will be days when I forget to post something, but I'll do my best to update it whenever I'm able to do so.

Anyway, since it's a new year, I've decided to put some goals into action and hope I accomplish most of them by December.

1. Improve my left hand drumming skills. As I've been playing Ringo Starr for the past couple years, I've cheated my drumming by leading with my right hand rather than playing properly with my left. If I'm going to be the best Ringo the world has ever seen, I must have all the important details which includes the way I lead. Ringo was naturally left handed, so as the actor playing this role, I must learn to be ambidextrous.

2. Release my third original album, and even get some radio play. It's been five years since my last release came out (which was "Love (2011)"), and I've let too much time go by for my next release to be completed. One part of me feels as though I've been counterproductive, but another part of me feels like I needed this time to become better musically and have better equipment/instruments to use. But what ever the case may be, my next release WILL be out by this year. The wait has been long enough, and it's time for me to get to work. While working on my the new album, I will also be shooting various music videos to help build my audience and help gain exposure. I already have a couple visions for a few songs I've already recorded, but I really never know what the turn out will be until I actually start filming and editing the shots.

3. Get me a Martin guitar. Specifically, a D28. I've seen them go for much cheaper than they're supposed to be worth, so I've made it a goal to save up get the acoustic I've always dreamed of owning. people in my family have also played Martins, so I'll eventually be due to carry on the legacy of the musical members of my family.

That's all for now. Here's to a great 2016, and let's hope for a great upcoming year!