Studio: Week 2 Wrap Up

Man, these blog titles are BOOOOOOOORING. I need a good editor. Like someone who writes for The Onion (favorite headline ever: SOUTH POSTPONES RISING YET ANOTHER YEAR), or the NY Post. I’m clearly no good at it.

We’ve now got week 2 of production on the album in the can. This week was really exciting. It flew by, and we got a ton of stuff done. Monday and Tuesday we did electric guitars, with Gary Burnette lending his tremendous talents to the record. Gary’s been doing session work in Nashville for so long he has a pension from the union. Dude is serious. And I loved what he played. Wednesday and Friday we did lead vocals on 7 songs, and Thursday we did keys.



Studio: Week 1 Wrap Up

So, my plans of blogging daily about the studio quickly went out the window, as many of my plans do (remember my idea for air-conditioned boxer briefs?). It’s a combination of the studio actually being way more busy than I was initially expected, me having ZERO time outside to blog, and, of course, my overwhelming lack of motivation in writing non-musical things. Nonetheless, I’m going to catch you up with week 1 (of 3) in the studio.


In the studio: Day 1

Today is my first official day in the studio, getting ready to do my first official full length record. I could not be more excited.

I’m working with a talented Nashville producer by the name of Stephen Gause (Nathan Angelo, Andrew Ripp, Brad Passons, Michael Warren, Steve Means, and bunches more—www.stephengause.com), and even though we haven’t done anything but agree on a price (less than he’s worth and more than I can afford) and start kicking around possible song choices I’m thrilled to be working with him. I think we’re going to have a blast on this project—Stephen gets what I’m trying to do, and it’s right up his alley.



Spain—Random Observations pt. 2

If you see what looks like a single line of bricks, it’s a sidewalk.

If you see what looks like a sidewalk, it’s a road.


If you see what looks like a road, it’s a highway.


If you see what looks like a highway, it’s an interstate.


If you see what looks like an interstate, it’s a runway.



Spain—Random Observations

I’m tired today, but I thought I’d share with you guys some generally interesting things I’ve observed about Spain.

I’ve yet to have an easy time showering in Spain. My current shower has about 60 seconds of hot water, maximum. The hot water heater is the size of a large lunchbox, and I know this because it’s mounted on the wall of the bathroom. So I have time to wash my hair or my body with hot water, but not both. I have ended up taking a lot of cold showers. There’s a metaphor there, but I can’t quite get to it.

Spain— Bus Trips

Wrote this two days ago, but have had no computer access until now:
I’m typing this on my phone as I take an 11 hour bus ride from Valencia to Sevilla. I’m planning another week of classes in Sevilla this week, and then a week and a half of pure sightseeing/solo studying before I head back home.

Spain—Day 9: Meet the Cast

Today I thought I’d introduce you guys to the people I’ve been spending time with in Valencia this week.

Spain—Day 8: Victories and Defeats

My spanish is approaching the point where it could almost be called ‘broken spanish’. Right now it’s more ‘broken spanglish’. Baby steps. For today I thought I’d detail some of my victories and defeats in Spain. Small victories (pequeño), but victories nonetheless.

Spain—Day 7: The beauty and agony of a new language

A few things are happening with all of the spanish classes. Two of them in particular I’ll discuss.

One: it’s hard to explain what your life and conversations are like when you can only express yourself in the simplest terms possible

Spain—Day 6

First of all, I should say that I’m no longer sure I’m on the right day. Whatevs, onward and upward.

I’m having some troubles pronouncing things (also: conjugating things, remembering things, hearing and understanding things, and writing things—for now, focusing on the pronouncing). I keep putting the wrong emPHAsis on the wrong syLABle, like I just did right there.