I’ll skip the lengthy explanation of the who and what were involved with writing, producing, playing, and generally creating this thing from scratch, and just tell you this: it’s a 10 song soul-pop record, and you can get it on itunes or any other digital retailer today.

Also, if you choose to purchase the album on today, release day, I’ll give you a free download of the songwriting demos of every song on the record. No artist I know of has done that, and I think it’ll be something people will appreciate.

To hear new music, click below. And then either comment here, message me on facebook, or email me to let me know you purchased it and I’ll send you the download link to the demos!

(click on the album art to go to itunes)

I produced this EP, from my good friend and ridiculously talented artist, Holley Maher.

Huh?!

JT, since when are you producing?

Um, I’m not. I tried to explain that to Holley when she asked me to do this, right after Christmas, but she didn’t want to hear it. In her defense, I have been quietly acquiring both the equipment and the skills to do some recording in my studio. Holley, as with most of my Nashville friends, has come over to demo new songs with me.

And when she told me what she wanted (just a few songs done with a one-mic/one-take style, something really honest and organic), it sounded totally doable. It’s also a personal motto of mine to always say yes to interesting projects. Which is how stuff like this happens.

So, just like that, I was officially a producer and off we went. A few weeks later when we both got back to Nashville, we had a lengthy pre-production meeting where we carefully charted the songs, discussed arrangements, booked times for everyone to come play, and laid out the whole project. No, no we didn’t do any of that. Normally that would be a thing that happens, but Holley just texted me and said, “How’s tomorrow at like 2ish?” To which I replied, “Sounds great. Bring booze.”

When she showed up the next day, she said, “Hey, I was thinking…” which, even in my limited producer experience, I knew was a statement that was going to mean more work for me. “…that instead of doing the songs in one take we could track them traditionally so that we can do harmonies and stuff.” I love harmonies, so of course I readily agree. “I was also thinking instead of three songs we could maybe do five? And two of them are duets. Also let’s bring in a cello player.” At which point I spontaneously developed a nervous twitch. Nah, not really. The more songs, the more instruments, and the more involved it got (which wasn’t very, by any recording standards) the happier I was. After all, is it really a job to sit around your own house with people you like making recordings of great songs? Where Holley provides pizza and beer?

Working with Holley on a project like this was a lot like playing with a Ouija Board. I’m not sure which of us was driving the letter thingy, but it ended up spelling out “AWESOME”.

Suffice it to say that I learned a lot, had a fantastic time, and am really proud of the results. I hope you check out the EP, out today on itunes (click on the album art at the top of this post to be transported directly there).

Additionally, go read Holley’s take on the EP and what inspired it at her website, holleymaher.com

I’ve been thinking a lot, over the past year or so, about life, human nature, expectations, happiness, and things of that sort. To even convey a fraction of the conclusions I’ve drawn would require me to stop writing music and write blog posts every day for a year, at least. But I’ll tell you what I’m thinking for the New Year.

My New Year’s Resolution: BE LESS GOAL ORIENTED.

Yes, you heard me right. I’m going to consciously work on setting and achieving fewer goals. Surely such a thing is anti-American, right? Maybe. But don’t call me Shirley.

Here’s my thinking: we, as a society, are heavily goal-oriented. From gold stars in grade school to AP grades, ACT scores, game scores, to job evaluations, project completion deadlines, budget surpluses, dating-as-spouse-hunting, house hunting, and practically any other example you can think of. Even in the artist’s world, there are goals GALORE. I have to finish these songs by X date, or sell 4 CDs tonight to cover my gas for tomorrow. I have to have 15 people paid at the door or the promoter won’t book me again. I have to get that youtube video edited while the song is still topical or before I leave for the road.

This is a valuable and totally logical way progress through life, mind you — I’m not knocking the theory of it. I’m knocking the practice. Because what happens when you’re a very goal-oriented person? In America, that typically means you’re an objectively successful person. You set goals, you reach them, you prosper. You do well in your job, as does your spouse. You have nice stuff, and well-dressed and well-mannered kids, all underneath a very nice roof, no doubt. But, in order to stay goal oriented, we have to develop a brutal and counterproductive habit. Immediately upon reaching a goal, we have to minimize it. Because if we don’t, then we rest on our laurels. We ‘fail’, and people who don’t rest ‘succeed’. So that thing we just spent months working towards? It was nothing. It was easy. Anybody could’ve done it. This next thing, well, now, IT is gonna be a bear. A challenge worthy of our time and energy.

Now, I could get into a lengthy discussion of how I think we’ve done a bad job defining ‘success’, ‘worth’, ‘failure’, and lots of other such concepts, but this isn’t about that. A direct consequence of being goal-oriented is that we become future-oriented, never appreciating where we are now because we’re always reaching for the next goal. But we don’t live in the future. Life is only lived in the now — that unimaginably brief snapshot between perception and cognition. By the time we process that a moment has happened it’s gone forever. I said that being goal-oriented is a totally logical way to progress through life — I believe that. What I don’t believe is that life can be progressed through. It’s not a video game, where you beat one level to move on to the next one, collecting all the coins and power-ups along the way to get a bigger and badder character. Sure, you can collect coins and power-ups, but there’s no winning or losing. There’s only contentment with your choices, joy in the little moments, and a constant awareness that we cannot win, we cannot lose, and we cannot quit. We can only journey.

So, I’m going to attempt to be less goal-oriented in ’13. Less outcome-dependent. More focused on the joy of the work rather than the result of the work. Maybe I won’t reach as many goals that way, but the point is to be a happier and more centered person all the time, rather than a person who is defined by accomplishments; branded and stamped ‘success’ or ‘failure’ due to completion of arbitrary tasks under a deadline assigned by social conventions and societal expectations.

Or at least that’s the theory. Goals are inevitable, but I think changing how I view them will do a lot for my day to day life. Want to join me?

(Special thanks to my man Bryn Loosley, for writing the song New Year’s Day that I posted up top. I remember distinctly where I was when I first heard it, which is an indication of how powerful it is.)

I had one of those life interludes, where the bulk of ’11 was spent in grown-up domesticity, and the bulk of ’12 was spent recovering from that unfortunate turn of events. I’ve kept writing, recording, and playing a few shows here and there, but for the most part I’ve been off the map for nearly two years. BUT I’M BACK, BABY!

Got a shiny new record coming out in spring ’13, full length, full band, pop-soul rocktacular extravanganza. I’ve never done anything I’m more proud of, and I can’t wait to share it with y’all.

Planning some fun stuff for ’13, which will include some new youtube vids, new releases, new tour dates, and MORE! So, go ahead, let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you.

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.

The songs are really taking shape at this point. I’ve been purposefully checking out of the process to give Stephen and the players space to create, so when I put on the headphones to do my first lead vocal take, it was the first time I’d heard the songs. It was really cool to hear what they had done as I was singing to them, and I think it’s going to show in the vocal performances. We have an embarrassment of riches from all the players, and some of it will have to get buried in the mix or left to die on unused playlists, but that’s the beauty and agony of recording. There are vocal takes that I really like that we won’t end up using because they won’t fit right in the context of the moment (in fact, Stephen said yesterday that I had to punch in (aka record over) a certain moment because it was ‘too Michael Jackson’. I was stunned that we’d replace anything described that way.). Music is all about building and then releasing tension, so everything we do has to serve that goal. All the parts have to fit together to showcase the song, and all the songs have to fit together to form a coherent album. This relationship between elements in all aspects of music is called ‘prosody’, and it’s one of my favorite musical terms. We use it all the time in writing. The melody has to fit the words, which have to fit the music, and so on.

So with that as our focus, we move forward. As far as the vocals, I’m purposefully letting a lot more of my soul and R&B instincts into these records than I ever have before. This is intentional, and it’s a function of the type of record we’re doing and the types of songs that are on it. These vocals, while unmistakably me, would have been out of place on my last EP. But I think here they’ll work well. We shall see. Next week we have one more day of lead vocals, and then Stephen and I will arrange the background parts before I leave town. We’ll do a few more guitar parts, and hopefully some random ear candy stuff. We’ll talk about finishing up the mixes and arrangement stuff so that we’re on the same page when I leave town, as he’ll still have a week or so worth of stuff do to on his own. This paragraph is brought to you by the word ‘stuff’.

People have been asking, and this is how long it takes between finishing production and getting a record out: I’m looking at an early July release date. So, mark your calendars for new music!

Also, if there’s anything you want to know about the recording process, either general or specific, just comment here and ask me. If I can answer it, I will. If not, I’ll lie.

Day 1, as you may have read, was scratch tracks and pre-production. Day 2 was more of the same—we finished the scratch tracks and decided on the last two songs that would be on the album (congrats to Isaac Johnson and Brad Passons, whose song [written with me, obvi] was the very last one we choose). With that done, we just had to prepare for day 3, when the players started coming in. Note I said ‘players’; not ‘playas’, as Stephen and I were there all along. Holla!

Before the drums and bass could track (‘track’ is the fancy word for ‘record their parts’), we* needed to write charts for them. ‘Charts’ are what artists and producers give to players so that they can sight-read and play along with songs they’ve never heard before. Back in the day this was just sheet music, but as we’re now all lazy and stupid no one can read sheet music. And by ‘no one’ I mean ‘me’. Stephen, being a worker bee and a music school grad, was in charge of writing the charts out. I, being an artiste, was in charge of laying on the couch and answering the question, “What chord are you playing there?” with, “Ummmmmm….” This exchange has been exaggerated for comedic effect, but only slightly.

Day 3, and when I got there the drummer (Paul Mabury) was already setting up his (totally bad ass, from the 1960s) drum kit. James Gregory, the bass player, arrived just a few minutes later. Toting not only 4 basses all older than me but his very own rack of preamps. I am absolutely not going to attempt to explain what exactly those are, but suffice it to say that they give him a lot of control over his particular sound (often called ‘tone’ by music nerds). This was not something I’ve ever seen a bass player do before.

The guys set up and Stephen put, wait for it, THIRTEEN mics on the drum kit. My (admittedly) limited experience has led me to believe that 4-7 mics was plenty to record drum sounds. So I was pretty surprised when he told me what all he was mic’ing. But that’s why he’s a pro. Once all the tedious silliness was taken care of (what the educated folk call ‘record engineering’), the guys just launched into a song.

For never having heard these songs, and us really not having an arrangement prepared for them, they did an unbelievable job of coming in and getting what direction we wanted the record to go, and then playing exactly what needed to be played without us telling them anything, really. I don’t think I offered a single meaningful suggestion all day—I mainly just grunted in the affirmative or negative when they asked me direct questions.

Once bass and drums were done (hereinafter referred to as the ‘rhythm** section’), there was a lot of producery things for Stephen to do, getting the tracks all clean and shiny for the guitar/keys to play to. So day 4 was a mix day for him, and an off day for me. After three days of watching people work hard on my music, I was pretty wiped out. So that worked out well.

We came back together for day 5, which will always be my least favorite day of a record. Acoustic guitars. I play guitar. I have for over ten years now. I am wildly average at it. Live shows are formatted such a way that this isn’t a hindrance. I’m more than good enough to accompany myself live. The studio is much harsher environment. I don’t like recording my guitar playing—it shows me just how adequate it is. But i did it anyway. It was basically about 7 hours of Stephen trying to tactfully tell me to play it again, but better. And in tune. Luckily I was able to persuade my friend and writing partner Justin Halpin to come down and play two of the songs we’d written. And I was very happy to see that, even though he’s a MUCH better guitar player than I am, it took him just as many takes to get it right as it did me. Minor validation, there.

When we come back next week, we’ll jump right into the electric guitars. Then keys, vocals, and extra ear candy stuff (strings, horns, percussion, background vocals, flugelhorn, etc). Stay tuned!

*Anytime I say ‘we’ it’s safe to assume I mean ‘Stephen’. My main responsibility in the studio is playing solitaire, fetching things, and comic relief (duh). Oh, and I sing sometimes.
** ‘Rhythm’ is the hardest word in the english language to spell. I swear it.

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.

Plus, he thinks I’m hilarious, which is always a plus. Awesome people typically can agree on that.

So, all we’re doing today and tomorrow is our last bit of pre-production. ‘Pre-production’ is a highly technical music term, meaning ‘before production’. Wait three weeks and I’ll tell you what ‘post-production’ means, too (hooking you in like a small-mouthed bass!). But basically all that we need to do before the bass and drums are recorded on Wednesday is choose the ten songs we’re going to track (record) for the record, and decide which 7 of those will be full band and which 3 will be acoustic.

Digression: some of you may be asking yourself, “Why 7 full band songs and 3 acoustic? Those are odd numbers (they’re also prime). Wouldn’t it make more sense to arrange each song to showcase it best, regardless of what that arrangement entailed? How did I get to this blog, and why are there no pictures of cats with funny subtitles?”

To answer your first question: yes, it would make more sense to record that way. However, here in the world of independent artists we have to cut some corners. To do the record I want to do with the producer I want to do it with I had to cut back on some luxuries, like paying for stuff. So in order to keep the budget down certain things have to be cut or trimmed. We could either do the tracks with cheaper players or limit the amount of full band songs. Stephen is a perfectionist about who he hires, and I respect his process completely. So we decided to go 7/3 full band/acoustic.

As far as your other questions: you probably were linked from facebook, unless something very strange has happened like this silly blog getting picked up by Perez Hilton. Which I consider a statistical improbability. And sorry there are no pictures of kitties with funny subtitles. You can always surf over to icanhascheezburger.com.

So, what was I talking about? Ah, yes, pre-production! Anywho, once we’ve chosen the ten songs for the record, we’ll talk about what key and tempo they need to be in. Once that’s done, it’s time to actually turn on the computer and set up mics—we’re going to record SCRATCH TRACKS!

Scratch tracks, as you can imagine, are when the artist and producer set up some turntables and old LPs (‘records’ for those in their 20s) and record themselves scratching like all the finest DJs in those clubs I hate. Except not, at all. Scratch tracks are sometimes called ‘guide tracks’. They are solo acoustic and lead vocals, recorded to a set tempo (also called a ‘click track’, or ‘click’), to serve as a guide for the rhythm players to play their parts to.

See, the order of operations for a record like this is typically as follows:
-Pre-pro
-Scratches
-Rhythm (either drums then bass, or simultaneously)
-Lead instruments (guitar, piano, etc)
-Lead Vox
-Rhythm instruments/other percussion/BGVs/strings/horns

So today and tomorrow are for scratch tracks, once we choose songs. I’ll be playing all of them, and may have Justin Halpin (one of my co-writers, who happens to live literally on the same street as Stephen’s studio, and two blocks down) come play one or two, as he’s a far superior guitar player to me. With an admittedly inferior beard. We have a few dark horses in play, too: songs that were written in the last two days that may make the record. So that’s exciting, as no one has EVER heard them.

More to come tomorrow….

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.

What else? I’ve been bad about blogging since I was in Sevilla—computer access has been non-existent, and time has been short as well. I spent a lovely night in Cordoba, which has an ancient Mosque. I’ve been in Granada for four days since, and it is fantastic. Very old and Moorish-feeling. I’ve found some really fun friends between the hostel and friends in town, so it’s been great to have people to sightsee and hang out with.

Tonight, I take my next (and final) overnight bus trip of this adventure. I’m heading back to Valencia for the final weekend of Los Fallas, which is a giant festival that, near as I can tell, basically just involves lighting stuff on fire. Um, count me in. Plus it’ll be great to see my roommates from Valencia again. Really missed those guys.

From there, it’ll be three more days in Madrid (although, hopefully, I’ll actually hit Toleado and Cuerca nearby instead) and then another fun transatlantic flight, back to the land of fast food and cellphone service.

Español para el dia: “No se, no vivo aqui.”
Translation: “I don’t know, I don´t live here.” For use when people (rarely) ask me directions.

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.

People in Spain drink either coffee, or booze, or both with every meal. They eat a ton of starches, they smoke like chimneys, and they generally don’t give a shit about physical fitness. Yet they seem to be healthier than the average American. My guess is it’s a combination of walking everywhere and laughing a lot. Also probably aided by a 35 hour work week.

My teachers are having trouble pronouncing my name. The alphabet is pronounced differently in Spanish, so jay-tee (in English) becomes hota tay (where ‘hota’ rhymes with ‘iota’). One of my current teachers has taken to just calling me Hota (written phonetically, in English), while the other calls me Juan Tomas. I think it’s confusing my classmates, because they speak English and can never figure out who the teachers are talking to.

Speaking of my classmates, I’ve studied with a lot of Germans in the last two weeks. If they are a fair representation of the level of intelligence and work ethic of all Germans, America is totally screwed. Every one of them has been as quick as me in picking up Spanish, if not slightly quicker. There’s no way to say this without sounding conceited, so please bear in mind that I think modesty is silly, and I value honest self-assessment about both your strengths and weaknesses.  No one has EVER been quicker than me at picking up new concepts. It’s honestly one of my greatest strenghts. My memory is shit, but I have consistently comprehended new concepts quicker than everyone my entire life (and I have a BS in electrical engineering). So it’s been a bit shocking to be in class with people who are every bit as quick. It’s like being 6’7” your entire life, and then moving to a town populated only by NBA centers. Suddenly you’re not tall anymore, and it’s a bit disconcerting.

Some things in Spain are much cheaper (wine and beer, for sure), and some things are way more expensive (there’s a Dunkin Donuts nearby, and one glazed donut is about $1.50 US). I never know beforehand which things will be cheaper and which will be pricier. So I’m always surprised when I buy something.

Time for class, but perhaps I can add to this later.

The end will be here before I know it, but for now I’m just enjoying the day to day rhythms of Spanish life. I’ve taken lots of pictures but don’t have an easy way to upload them at this point. I’ve also met some really awesome people from all over the world. And all, travelers, ex-pats, and spaniards alike, are really friendly. Friendly enough that I’ve met people in a bar in Valencia and had them offer me their couch in Madrid in two weeks. Even for someone who spends 50-100 nights a year on various couches, that is unusual.

It is flat out amazing how much things that were terrifying slash difficult a week ago are now almost routine. Things like navigating the buses and metro, asking directions, and ordering food. The food one is especially big for me, because I’m a bit of a picky eater. So to be able to ask what comes on a sandwich and then specify the things I do not want it with makes life a lot easier. And I’ve stopped taking my map when I go out in the city—I relish the chance to ask two or three people how to get somewhere. I may have to relinquish my man card for that.

I still don’t understand half or more of what I overhear (and if I’m listening but not looking it’s even less), but I’m able to get the gist of almost everything directed at me. Now, these are necessarily simple exchanges, much more along the line of, ‘how was the bar last night?’ than, ‘how do you feel about teaching creationism in schools?’. Still, the progress is great. Take, for instance, the conversation I had this afternoon at the bus station. I wanted to go that day from Valencia to Sevilla. This involves telling the ticket seller where I want to go, when, whether I want one way, round-trip, or open ended tickets, whether I want trip insurance, etc. How do I want to pay? Is there a student discount? Do I have my id? What plaza does the bus leave from? Is there free wifi access in the station? None of these are sophisticated questions, but it’s fairly lengthy conversation for someone at my level of fluency. I’ve been comfortable having this conversation in English since I was about 13, but I couldn’t have had it here 3 days ago. And I make it a point to try and talk to people every time I’m in public. Any question I can think of, from ‘how long have you lived here?’ to ‘are you married?’ to ‘how do you pronounce this street name?’ to ‘do you like Michael Jackson?’ and more. Yes, believe that I ask total strangers whether they like Michael Jackson in Spanish. They do. Les gustan.

I will also say this about traveling by bus: I feel completely safe from terrorist attack in a bus station. I don’t know the Spanish for ‘to pick up trash’, but I’m not asking anyone there because it’s clearly not an expression they’ve ever heard.

Now I just need to do a better job keeping up with tour planning and album pre-production stuff. That’s right, I have tours and a new album coming up!

España para el dia: ¿Que prefieres comer aqui, sin verduras? No me gusta verduras.
Translation: What do you prefer to eat here, without vegetables? I don’t like vegetables.
This I use to ask waiters and servers for food recommendations. There’s probably a cleaner way to ask, but they always understand and I get to use only words I already know.