some updates on choking the clutch

Well, as is always the case, things have been going slowly.

The initial enthusiasm with Jonboy as our drummer has waned. Dave and I got together with him last Thursday (the week of the incredistorms), and it didn't pan out as well the second time.

I have determined that playing music with someone is like having sex, and/or dating someone. You think you are in love, the initial encounter is electric, but later you start to see the wrinkles you didn't notice before, or they have that one quirk you thought was cute but now just bugs the hell out of you.

Well, with Jonboy, it was that he doesn't have *any* dynamics. I've noticed that with alot of drummers. He and Armando are phenomenal drummers, but they have absolutely no nuance to their playing. It's all or nothing, loud or not at all.

It didn't help that he wears earplugs, and only wants to rock the house judas priest style. I can now tell that he and I were both enthused the first time because we both were rusty, and wanted to work out our rock-muscles. That was great, but that isn't the point of this band. The songs are more subtle than cockrock.

Turns out I didn't alienate that one drummer, Tom Phoenix, and we tried getting together last week, then last weekend, but were unable to because of his schedule (I don't know, maybe he's just messing with me to get back at me - just kidding, maybe). Didn't work out, but we will keep trying, I'm sure.

Then there's this one drummer named Aaron that wants to get together - he's heard the tunes and liked them, we just haven't been able to hook up.

Then, there is Charlie Brown (I kid you not), a bassist I met at a server colocation facility that I do work on the side in. He and I have been touch and go for months, and when I run into him at the job, he acts all cool and excited, but then never returns my emails and hasn't made much of an effort to get a hold of me. We really need a bassist, and I would like to get someone on board quickly. I'm about to resort to another craigslist ad. Might actually be a good idea.

It may seem like it's been a long time since I posted, but the last post was started in April, then finished last Friday - not that anyone gives a damn. Just thought I'd point that out.

how I write music: the process

here's a little essay on how I write songs: how I started, what has changed, what I learned.

Music has been part of my life for 26 years. I have been writing music in my head for as long as I can recall. I have memories of lying in my bed, writing symphonies in my mind's ear - I could hear all the different parts and could even filter out everything down to one instrument. I wasn't able to get it out of me or write it down when I was young, however, so none of it is still around.

When I turned nine I started playing guitar, and that was when I really started learning how to write. It was such a simple instrument, and I was able to figure out other people songs from the 5 years of piano I had taken at that point, so I was able to discern early on what a decent song consisted of. However, I was only able to write slow, somber songs for six years until I joined that first band at 15, Blue Revolution. Until then, I was completely unable to write a song that jumped or had any balls to it. I think it was directly related to the wussy music I listened to up until that point - stuff like christian singer songwriters and my mom's music, like ann murray. Until I actually started listening to music with balls, my songs didn't have any.

I can still remember the day I wrote my first fast song. I was sitting in the house of the Blue Rev. band, and finally figured out a nice way to use bar chords in a very choppy, quick manner, with transitional chords in between. I don't remember the song, but I remember the triumph when I realized I could finally do it, I had finally broken my fast-song cherry. From that point on, for about 15 years, my songs were all written in the same manner:

I would be playing someone else's music or messing around with varying chord progressions or scales, when either the progression or a guitar lick would suddenly sound very interesting to me. I would then sit down and start playing it over and over for a few minutes until I heard a new progression or slightly related chord or lick, which would then be the chorus. This usually revealed itself to me through what I assume was the music theory training I took for so many years, with its large focus on natural progressions, as well as the nice changes one encounters in classical music such as haydn or mozart. Then, I would write lyrics to the song and be done. This process would take about 30 minutes to a couple of hours. Once a song was done, it was done.

When I hit 17, songs would start to write themselves in my head again, and by that point, I had progressed far enough to be able to write it out without needing to play it. One song I wrote, Kissing Jane ~1993 (MP3), wrote itself completely while I was sitting outside my girlfriend's house in my car. All of a sudden I heard the verse and the chorus, words included, just shooting through my head. I quickly grabbed a pen and paper and jotted it down as fast as I could.

Numerous songs have come out of me that way. I remember riding my bike with my bassist, and singing the notes to this new song that had just popped into my head, in what eventually became Phriendly Pharmacist ~1996 (MP3). Bottomfeeder ~1996 (MP3) also wrote itself this way. The lyrics came later after a few practices with the band, but they were written all basically in the same, shotgun manner.

Some of the changes in my songs at that point were written to confound both the audience and my bandmates. I was really into the idea of switching time signatures completely (like in this spanish song, Si Quieres ~1996 (MP3). I don't know why, I just was. I eventually began to notice that this turned off new listeners however, because they were unable to groove through it if it was not consistent - something I try to avoid today. Bottomfeeder (above) was written in 7/8 time, which is a combo of 4/4 and 3/4, but really it's just 7/8. This throws off most musicians and drummers until you really pound it into their brains over and over. But, people really liked to bang their head to it!

How do lyrics get written, you may ask? Normally, if you just start singing random phrases that come to your head while you are playing, your brain spits out phrases and words that fit with the meter of the song. After you have enough of these phrases that sound good with the music, you can start to formulate the theme of the words, what you want the song to be about. Most of the songs from my youth are dissaffected love songs, with thinly veiled references to the girls I dated and certain issues we had. Some had to do with my father, others were just about assholes. Most of them were angry, though. I was usually pretty wacked out on beer and weed, so I forgot my lyrics alot during shows. It got to the point that I could improvise new lyrics on the fly that rhymed and sort of made sense, which in turn helped me write better lyrics with each subsequent song.

As I got older, my songs went from dissaffected anger to more philosophical songs having to do with topics like Faust and religion (as in How to Sell Your Soul ~1997 MP3), relativism and existentionalism (as in Sartre ~2000 MP3), wealth and cell phones (Microwave ~2001 MP3), or politics, like the Chinese/Taiwanese issue (Chinese Drop ~2001 MP3). Chinese Drop was my first experiment with the end of every line rhyming with the same syllable for an entire verse, and it worked out pretty well I must say. Which reminds me: I want to post all my lyrics on here as well. I'll get to that later.

In more recent times, as in the past 3 years, I have changed my writing style somewhat. Occasionally a song will write itself (like this one, which I am calling Get it On ~2006 MP3). In fact, I recorded this entire song from writing to finish (minus lyrics, which I am close to finishing) in about 3 hours. But the majority of the songs are taking anywhere from 4 months to a year to write. First, I will come up with the main thrust of the song, what will define the entire feel of the song. Then, I record it on my computer, then I leave it alone for about 2 weeks, give or take either my enthusiasm or how busy I am. Then I listen to it over and over for about 2-4 months until a new part that elegantly fits pops into my head, which then is either the verse, chorus or bridge, depending out how it logically goes together. Sometimes the new idea will come to me in the car, in which case I hum it into my phone in a message to myself, or I will jot down the notes that it comprises. One song written in this manner took about 7 months to finish - Party Till it Hurts ~ 2005 (MP3). The opening guitar line I came up with in my living room while talking to my wife. I was just screwing around in the lower strings and frets, and the neat little ba-dada, ba-dada lick struck me as somewhat fun. The lyrics and melody took a long time to come up with. The lyrical melody needs to fit exactly, and that is not easy - takes alot of singing over and over again to come up with something original that sounds nice.

more later, if I feel like it!

tried myself a drummer last night

tried out a drummer last night. he was pretty good - enthusiastic about the tunes, and really getting into playing - he can hold his own, keeps a good beat, and has nice little rolls and fills that fit the songs pretty well. just one issue - he's like 43 years old, and looks 50. at this point in my life, I have decided that looks don't really matter. like my wife said, he makes me look younger, so I may end up just going with this guy. his name is john walton, and I had to call him johnboy, of course.

every time I play with a competent drummer, I get all jazzed up. it was just me and him last night - drums and guitar. if yer good enough, you can pull it off pretty well - the white stripes play as a two piece and they seem to pull it off. not that I want to play in a two piece exclusively, but I might start making a habit out of it - if shit doesn't take off from this right away, I might just play two-piece gigs for a while just for the challenge of it.

john had listened to my music before (jasonic.org), but he was under the impression I was just a keyboardist. once I whipped out my jackson guitar and started ripping it up, he realized I played every part on those recordings, and that I wasn't just limited to the keys. my goal here is to play keys and sing exclusively with two other guitarists and a bassist eventually, but for now, I will play bass or guitar until we fill in the people.

did I mention I *really* like playing with a drummer? I was so excited last night that I couldn't go to sleep for an hour afterwards. here's the first song we played:

no rhyme (MP3)

this crunchy little tune was one of the first I wrote when I started this new project 2 years ago. It was the first song I've used falsetto on, and I must say it turned out pretty well. the drums are both midi and a sample from an ericB and rakim record I found. I really want to find a drummer that wants to stick, so I can record real drums, then add all the other instruments afterwards. I'm so sick of midi drums I could scream. the recordings are good, but i think a real drummer would really push it over the top.

here's the song we played next:

get it on (MP3)

now i've written lyrics to this song, but I haven't finalized them yet. what I do have sounded pretty nice last night, though. every chance I get to play this with other musicians really helps me to finalize the vocal melodies, which are the last thing I finish when I write a song. it's difficult to write lyrics and melodies that fit a song naturally until you have a chance to play it and sing it at the same time. that way, you can discover what parts don't seem to fit, and what parts stick out as crap. if it sucks, you can tell right away.

and, just for shits, I played this tune from my old days:

johnny deeper - planet zorn (live) ~2001 (MP3)

and it STILL rocks. damn it felt good to pound that one out.

on another subject, I have already managed to alienate a possible drummer before I even got a chance to play with him. last week, I had spoken with Johnboy about playing, then set up the rehearsal space at music lab (a great space with sound proofesque rooms and p.a.'s). afterwards, I figured I would email him the details. well, it turns out I emailed a different drummer that was interested in playing, and he responded that he had other plans - namely, a baseball game. since I thought I was corresponding with johnboy, I was perplexed, and emailed him a somewhat rude response. long story short, the guy I emailed mistakenly now wants nothing to do with me. glad I got that out of the way early. damn.

next time: how I write music: the process

musical beginnings part trois

So, where was I?

Oh yeah - the history of my musical life.

Mr. Happy stayed together a long time, with drummer J.R. Cope (sp?), then it died the usual band death - one of the members didn't like it anymore. Actually, Rob, the guitarist, decided that he no longer wanted to play guitar, and focus strictly on jazz piano instead. I always knew his devotion to jazz would end up harming the band, and I was right. You can't learn how to play jazz (well) and maintain a healthy respect for your basic rock. What ends up being an entire song in rock makes up about 10 seconds of a good jazz song, so I can see where he is coming from. It just takes a really well written rock song to counter that, which I am trying to do right now. I'm sure that when I get old and (more) boring, I'll move on to jazz, but for now, I really like to rock the fuck out.

here's another mp3 of that band, for your enjoyment (of course):

Mr. Rocketman - Mr. Happy, ~ 1992 (MP3)

Next, came The Family, my largest and longest lasting project. I decided to start another power trio, this time with me on guitar. I also decided to teach a friend of mine (Ted) to play bass, make him learn exactly what I wanted to hear, and have him play in my band. This took quite a bit of work, and was actually pretty counter-productive, but I'm glad I did it - he was a true friend, and was wonderfully dedicated to the band for a long time. We found a drummer as well, Tim Trentham, an old school chum from my highschool, and Tom, a fantastic guitarist, joined in as well. This band played countless shows at countless venues. We recorded twice, and had a pretty damn nice album.

The main problem I have with myself regarding bands in the past was my limited vision. I never sent the album in a press pack to any record labels, and I never really pushed any of the recordings that hard. To this day, I am not sure why I did that. Perhaps sub-consciously I wanted to fail. Perhaps I am just stupid. It's hard to tell. Regardless, I haven't been a successfull musician for this reason, despite the hours, weeks, months and years I put into it. Success as a musician is very hard to define anyways. I know I was far from it, but I also know many people that got signed to labels, and never went anywhere. Most of the time, those people ended up worse off than before. Record deals are just really shady loans given to you by the slickest sharks there are. They front you the money to record and distribute your album, but you don't make a dime until you have paid back that loan, plus interest, and then only a tiny percentage of that can come from record sales. It really sucks. Of course, I am saying this as a musician that never got signed, but just find one that has, and you'll hear just how much it sucks. Also, the only 2 bands with any modicum of success that I knew personally are Spoon and Podunk. Everyone has heard of Spoon, but that doesn't make him wealthy. He is pretty damn poor, but at least he gets to play music for a living. Never heard of Podunk? Not many people have, but they manage to pay the bills and make about $40,000 a year off it. I don't know how, but they do. So, 2 decently 'successful' bands out of hundreds that I have personally known. The odds really suck. Making a band that plays consistently and that plays good music that doesn't grow stagnant is hard enough. Making one successful is almost impossible.

Here's a link to a Family song:

Jim - The Family - ~1997 (MP3)

-

Looking for a drummer

So, this is what I have so far. For the past two years I have been focussing on my family from 7am - 10pm, then have been either working or writing songs after that. After a while, I realized I had written 8 or 9 reasonably decent songs, and that I really missed playing on stage. I haven't played on stage since my last band, SolarX. Which, if you understand the circumstances around that band, was a good reason to take a break.

I recently got a new job, and in the process, met a coworker, Dave, who is basically living my exact life- musical guy with kids who hasn't been in a band in a while. Since then, we've been getting together once a week and hammering out the songs. Now we have someone who may be interested in playing bass, as well as a person who may be interested in playing guitar whom we've played with a couple of times now.

I put out an ad for a drummer, but unfortunately this was a week before my new son was born, and I had to put everything on hold for about 5 weeks to adjust. Now I have lined up 3 drummers who have heard the tunes and are still interested in trying us out. We've had to reschedule twice now, because Dave's father in law is dying of cancer, and they have to leave at a moment's notice all the time. Makes it tough to schedule rehearsals.
So, I have a large body of songs already finished, and now I just need people who are willing to get together to learn them, who are talented and dedicated enough to keep it going, and I will be back on track for jamming my funk off on stage again.

For your listening pleasure, here's a link to a live version of

Kissing Jane, performed live by Planet Zorn, ~2001 (MP3)

yo.

musical beginnings continued

Started guitar at 9, bass at 13, and joined my first band at 15. My piano teacher cried when I told her I started playing guitar. She knew I had potential to be one of her top students, but I wanted a life that involved normal stuff, like friends, dating and being cool.

I taught myself how to play guitar and bass. I used to play my acoustic for hours at a time, until my fingers would start bleeding, which says alot - most people who start guitar are big pussies and complain about the pain. I just knew I needed to get past it if I wanted to play well. Bar chords on a 12 string acoustic guitar are not easy.

My first band was called Blue Revolution, or Revolution Blue - they could never get their name straight. I met the bassist through a girlfriend, and they needed a keyboardist, so I showed up. I was 15 and they were all high school graduates who did alot of acid. None of them were true musicians in the true sense of the word, and my training made it very easy to figure out their songs quickly. We did a photo shoot, played parties and had alot of fun, and I don't recall how it ended, but, since being in a band is alot like dating 4 or 5 people at once, I do remember the break-up wasn't amicable. I think it had something to do with the fact that I didn't want to trip out on lsd with them all the time. I was a hardcore straight edger at that age, but I tolerated my friends and the people around me who wanted to do their own thing. As long as it didn't affect me, I didn't care.

That band pretty much defined all bands for me for the rest of time. The drummers were both crazy, as is the case with most drummers. The first practice I showed up to involved the band's previous drummer showing up drunk with a knife (wearing nothing but jean overalls with one of the straps hanging down - I remember that vividly) and threatening to kill everyone there. Turns out he wasn't all that odd for a drummer. The singer was an egotist Morrison wannabe, the guitarist was a loud chick magnet, and the bassist was a quiet chick magnet. Minus the chick-magnet part, that pretty much is every band I have been in since then.

I started another band at 16-17 with some friends from school. It was a rockabilly band that played some originals as well. I don't know why my friends were into rockabilly at the time - they all greased their hair up like the movie Grease, and they listened to the Stray Cats and loved Stevie Ray Vaughn and the Talking Heads. We called ourselves the Velvet Elvises. This too ended abruptly, and then morphed into a power trio called Mr. Happy with me on the bass/lead singing, a guitarist and a drummer.

This band lived through high school graduation, and on into our sophomore years in college. Mr. Happy played all the clubs around Austin - the Electric Lounge, Lucy's Retired Surfer's Bar, Liberty Lunch, Steamboat, etc. We had a weekly gig at the Black Cat Lounge for 6 months as well. It was great - I was 19, and while my band played at the Black Cat, I could walk in at any time of the day, any day of the week and a cold, free beer was placed in my hands. Mind you, it was pabst, but it was free and I was 19. I spent alot of time at this club.

That band's claim to fame was that we won the 1993 kvrx battle of the bands. This botb was hosted by the student radio station at UT Austin. The reason this is of any import is because my band BEAT SPOON. That's right folks. My band, Mr. Happy, beat Spoon in 1993 at the kvrx battle of the bands. We also beat a local ska band called Gal's Panic. What's funny is I was talking to a friend about this in a restaraunt lately, and who should sit next to me but the old singer (Lance Fever) as well as the old guitarist from Gal's Panic? And, it just so happened that he found the compilation cd that was put out to commemorate the show - that day. I plan on getting a hold of him so I can get a copy of the horribly embarrassing recording.

meanwhile, I will now link to a recording of the song that sort of defined us. unfortunately it really sucks. this is like a really bad version of hootie and the blowfish:

Kissing Jane, by Mr. Happy, ~1992 (mp3)

this was recorded live, so at least I got THAT goin for me. I think we recorded it in 1992, so it is 13 years old. OUCH.

People have recently told me that they STILL listen to the tape that this band released back then. Either they have really bad taste, or my music is tolerable.

musical beginnings

This blog will detail what I, as a full-time-job-having father-of-three, have to go through to conceive of, write music for, start and maintain a new band. Perhaps documenting it will show me the error of my ways - the many errors of my many ways that I have encountered while playing in many, many different bands throughout the years.

Maybe a little background is in order:

My father is a fantastic classical pianist, and I can recall listening to him practice during my childhood and being fascinated that he could make such beautiful sounds with so seemingly little effort. He started when he was young, and once had the wonderful experience of playing on the Lawrence Welk show.

My first memory of playing piano is from when I was 3 or 4. I would sit on the bench and pound at the keyss constantly, often for long stretches of time. I discovered I was double-jointed this way, because after one such stint, I couldn't bend my pointer finger to save my life, and ran to my mother in a panic. She laughed, and told me to relax it (much like a monkey with its fist in a jar). It turns out that all of my fingers can lock in what I came to call the 'Claw'. I also have the circus-freaklike ability to bend my pinkies back to touch the top of my hand, and my thumbs can be forced down in painfully interesting ways to touch my wrist. I must state, however, that I do not have those outlandishly scary double-jointed elbows. That's just gross.

My dad's least favorite memory from my childhood was when I was 2 - and one day he heard me playing the most distinct and sharp single notes he had heard yet. 'Hmm,' he thought, 'Jason has never played that well. I wonder what he's doing differently?" Upon approaching the piano, he was horrified to find me hitting the keys with a crowbar.

Which makes me think about my style in general. I think it might be quite similar to banging the keys with a crowbar. In fact, my favorite song to play is one of Chopin's insane sonatas that pounds the entire keyboard like 4 hammers at once. Great shite.

Started taking formal classical lessons at 4. We lived in Tucson on 15 acres of land, and I remember having to walk with my older brother about 2 miles away once a week for lessons. I can still picture the piano books I carried, and can still see parts of the path we took to get there.

here is the first classical tune I ever wrote, recorded 15 years later:

dark circus - (MP3)

yo.