It's been a really odd year for us so far... Laura and I haven't been this musically active since the "glory days" in 2004. It's crazy. And yet here I am, posting the first EB blog entry in five months... I guess our attentions have been in other projects lately. We've been spending a lot of time with other bands, either performing live with them or recording and producing their material. And that's not to mention the soundtrack work...

Between that and an almost compulsive lust for production software, it's amazing that anything EB ever gets done. But I have a seven track disc in my car that says otherwise... Writing's been relatively brisk for the next album. Although Laura and I haven't sat down to do music in easily nine months, we're still collaborating. I burn a disc of ideas, she listens in her car and emails me the occasional vocal melody as recorded from her iPhone... Or maybe just a new vocal melody idea that I just build a track around... It's a little odd, but seems to be working.

I'm just starting to recover and feel back to normal... Whew. Five shows in eight days. Not exactly a terrible schedule, but still pretty tough for an old guy like me, especially having to work days before several of the shows. But what an experience. Opening for Information Society, playing for 300+ people, I can't really describe it. Just amazing. And James Cassidy signed my X5 that he played on stage... :)

Anyway, as this is an Endless Blue blog, I'll get back to us. The Cactus Club show was fun and a nice chill end to the whole shebang, but we pulled almost no one. I'll be happy to take the hit on that one, we just didn't have the energy to promote the show after touring with Moulin Noir and Faith Assembly. We performed quite well, though, given all the practice we had racked up in the previous week. I like to call it my "show legs", and we really had it on Friday.

What was missing, though, was something I hadn't felt in several years. I wanted someone else up there on stage with us. Having the chance to play with Anders really reminded me of the magic of musicians coming together and creating music... I had burned out on the concept when we first moved to Wisconsin -- I needed something different in my life at the time. But now... I want it back, I want to have the fun and unexpected elements new personalities add to performing live.

So if you or someone you know want to give it a whirl with EB, let me know... We don't bite.

Much.

;)

I finally got to spend some time in the studio last night -- it's been a while since I was able to work on some actual EB tracks. My music time seems to be focused on live performance of late... And honestly that's really where it needs to be. We did just release an album after all, no need to dive directly back into writing...

...and with that said, I did exactly the opposite and expanded on two new tracks last night. Both were ideas I had while finishing up Fever Dreams, just a couple of chords and a beat, maybe a bass line... And I really didn't expand on them much. I feel a certain minimalism starting to creep into my writing, almost as if I would rather use a single instrument and pick the "right" notes rather than layer as much (which has always been my mainstay). We'll see where it goes.

Speaking of single instruments, I find myself addicted to my latest purchase, the GForce Virtual String Machine. Sampled from the real deals, it's a Solina/Eminent/Crumar emulator VST. It has a lovely ooey-gooey sound yet is pretty simple and straightforward to program. Expect to see it a lot in my future tracks... :)

Better get to work. Maybe I'll write about the Chicago experience tomorrow.

Although I haven't done a whole lot of Endless Blue related music lately, I've been really doing a lot of music related stuff.

I was compelled to join a classical choir at the local community college, even though IANAS (I am not a singer). It is tough, tough stuff, but a fun challenge, primarily on reading music. Reading music has always been one of those things I knew how to do in theory but had never really been forced to do. Being forced to burn through these complicated pieces with a bunch of people who read really well is pretty daunting but hella good mental workout.

I'm also preparing for my stint with Moulin Noir at the end of March, culminating in opening for Information Society in Minneapolis... We're going to be doing mostly the same tracks as at SLC2K6, so I have a leg up in the regard that I remember most of the song structures (lord knows I must have put in 2 hours a day for a solid month for that show). This time around I'm doing guitar and a bit of keyboard, which is more my instrument anyway. Now to train Laura how to play synths... Hmmmm, should be interesting.

Finally, the eternal struggle in the studio continues... It's pretty much workable right now -- I can do mixing and recording no problem. Everything's still a mess, though. I don't want to fall into the trap I had at the last space, which is to let the cables just kind of fall as they may. Back to tying the next few nights.

And, well, to say I haven't been doing *anything* EB related isn't really true... I've been experimenting with using 5.1 sound to get greater separation of tracks for live sets. I was able to proof of concept this a few days ago -- now to see if I can play the 5.1 with video from my ASUS Eee... Big IF, but if it works I'll be able to stabilize our live set considerably. No more worrying about crappy burned DVDs...

Had the pleasure of catching Jase at the Shure booth at CES this weekend. He completely blew my doors. Y'know, I had heard beatbox in the past, thought it was... Eh. This guy, though, really drove it home that beatboxing was a little deeper that what I had heard originally, truly an art form. It was that same feeling I had the first time I heard a really talented scratcher or DJ.

So, of course, I've been doing my own beats ever since. Started looking it up on the internet, reading the tutorials at humanbeatbox.com. Don't expect to hear me anytime soon, as I am currently a fucking degenerate beatboxer... But it's one of those fun things I can start practicing in the shower or when I'm driving alone. Gonna be pretty fun, I think.

Next, I need to *really* learn how to scratch... :)