Rants and ruminations particular to music in general, my stuff in particular, and the various shows and people I work with.
With no small amount of pride, we released Windhaven’s first full length album of original material, “When The Winds Blow”, this week. It’s been a long, frustrating road to get to this point. Writing and recording the music for the album was one of the most intense, nerve-wracking and ultimately satisfying projects I’ve ever been […]
I’m off-loading some recordings from the H2 onto the computer to use in a track I’m working on. Victoria is in the kitchen, cooking the Easter meal we’re going to have this evening with Michelle and possibly Katie. The house smells wonderful. I’d like to get into the Easter spirit, or whatever you call it, […]
I got a new toy today. A Zoom H2 recorder. I’ve had an eye on these for awhile, but had given up hope of ever owning one. It’s just never seemed crucial. It really wasn’t until Victoria and I formed Windhaven and, more recently, decided to start using backing tracks that I began to think […]
I’ve been thinking of ways that Windhaven could bring more percussion without getting into personnel additions. I’d already bought a stomp box to use as extra percussion, but then it occurred to me that I could use it to trigger my Alesis D4 drum machine. I could use it, for example, to play a bass […]
If you talk to people who don’t know anything about live professional performance, you’re likely to hear an opinion that “real musicians” don’t use backing tracks. But if you know anything at all about live performance, you know that’s just not true. Many of the world’s top performers use backing tracks. What I can’t figure […]
Windhaven just made the first major step toward recording its debut album, When The Winds Blow. That great leap came in the form of a new song, titled “Ten Feet Tall”. The song is based upon an ancient riff of mine (originally a bass line) that popped into my head while I was working on […]
My band, Windhaven, is recording an album, so I thought it would make sense to finally get my ART SGX-2000 back up and running. The only thing that’s been wrong with it has been that the pots were so dirty that the unit was practically unusable. There was just no way to make those fine-tuned […]
It’s amazing how a good cleaning can improve your general outlook, not to mention your flow of energy. In recent weeks I’ve let my bad habits pile up in the studio, like the detritus of some half-crazed hoarder. It’s no wonder there’s been no progress on Windhaven’s album. The studio had become so cluttered that I didn’t […]
I’ve just wrapped up another version of “This Old Dawg”. This version was done with Windhaven, and features a more acoustic vibe. I’m actually surprised by the results. How is it possible to remove the Rock drum kit and the signature bass line and have a song sound even more powerful? This new version grooves […]
I recently had a revelation concerning my Facebook pages. I have two of them, you know. One is a personal page where I talk to old friend and relatives. The other is an artist page. I’ve always considered the latter to be a music page, and never really approached it in any other way. But […]
