March 24th, 2007 | Comments: none
Tommy opened last weekend. It’s been quite the ride. Tech week — or more like weeks, plural — was grueling and demoralizing (temporarily) and everything you’d expect from a show this ambitious. There are something like 950 light cues, 200-some costume changes, and, for us, nearly two hours of solid playing. Fortunately, it’s all behind us now, and the show is awesome.
Last night’s performance was the breakthrough for me. I’d been closing every night feeling like I’d been bled to death by a hundred paper cuts: I played OK, but made a ton of small mistakes that added up to that not-so-satisfied feeling. Probably nothing too glaring to the audience, but enough to annoy me and keep me from getting into a groove. But last night something clicked and I was able to let go and just rock out. In that mindset I played pretty well, and perhaps most importantly, I had fun! I look forward to tonight’s show.
Oh, and if you’re visiting this site from my bio in the show’s program, welcome. You can hear some of my songs on the “songs” page. More will be coming soon as I finish my stockpile. If you’re wondering what the Eastern Bloc Rock reference is, well, that’s my old bio from Hedwig and the Angry Inch, used by mistake instead of a new one.
February 12th, 2007 | Comments: none
Persaverance Theatre’s musical this year is the Who’s rock opera Tommy. I’m playing keyboards and acting as “Assistant Music Director,” which just means I help direct the band. It’s the same band as Hedwig, plus a horn player and another guitarist. It’s great to be playing with the guys again, though right now we’re more in the “working parts out” stage than the “hit me in the junk” stage, but we’ll get there in short order. What, you’ve never experienced the “hit me in the junk” stage? Well that’s a shame. The original musical, released in 1993, is very… how can I say this? Toothless? And they were a bit over-enamored with the synths of the day. We, of course, hope to give it the teeth it so desperately needs.
My voice is finally back up to spec after a month of being besiged by myriad virii and bacteria, and I’ve finished vocals for “Buenos Aires” and hopefully “Never Have to Choose.” I’m particularly excited about “Buenos Aires.” That song’s been on my hard drive for awhile now and it’s always been missing something. I had a brainstorm a couple weeks ago, fired it up again, and reworked the verses to be driven by strings (cello, especially). The inspiration was Robyn’s “Be Mine,” believe it or not, which is one of the perfectest pop songs ever. The new uber-pretty arrangement (including oboe melody) might push the cheese factor into dangerous territory, but hey, I walk the line. It’s a great contrast to the more synth-and-piano driven choruses.
January 30th, 2007 | Comments: none
I returned from vacation ready to finish recording the CD, and promptly got sidelined by bronchitis. I haven’t been able to sing effectively for a month, which obviously has delayed recording. Pretty much everything else is finished, though, so my goal of finishing before Tommy opens (March) is still achievable.
December 18th, 2006 | Comments: none
The recording session with Frances went swimmingly. I was a little concerned she wouldn’t feel comfortable in my studio room. I’m used to sitting in my own stink and squalor, but I thought it might be distracting to someone else. We got her vocals done for “Emily’s Song” and “Untitled” in the course of a couple hours. It was most excellent. I’ve nearly finished mixing “Emily’s Song” - it’s sounding goooood.
I’ve been working on other songs as well - “Half-Hearted Stab” has a new bridge featuring a tuba, a new song has been dominating my brain for the better part of a month (I know, I know, “no new songs,” yeah right), and “River Summer” is nearly finished.
Not much work will be happening over the holidays, but I’ll be back to the grindstone after that.
December 8th, 2006 | Comments: 2
Yeah, so it’s been pretty quiet ’round here. I’ve been busy.
Speech and Debate
I music directed and did sound design for Perseverance’s latest 2nd-stage play, Speech and Debate. It’s a funny, quirky play starring talented Juneauites Jesse Alleva, Johanna Evans, and Corin Hughes-Skandijs. We’ve been in tech all this week, and the play opened tonight. The playwright sent us the music for the songs in the play, but the rest of the sounds were put together by me. It invloved recording a ton of voiceovers. A shout-out to Joe, who gets the ultimate bonus points for yelling some rather bigoted phrases at high volume over and over for the scene in which some jocks yell at the kids in the high school’s gay-straight alliance. I can’t imagine what the neighbors were thinking.
The Jaded Six
Once again, my brothers and sister in rock are attempting to put together a set and play some gigs around town. Nearly all of us are also doing Tommy, which begins in late January, so we’re under a bit of a deadline. Hopefully it’ll come together. It’s been fun playing with the guys again. Sara was kind enough to take some photos, as you can see.
My own music
And finally, and perhaps most awesomely, I’ve been working hard on recording songs. I should have some new stuff to upload here very soon. Frances will be here tomorrow to record some harmony vocals, which I’m VERY excited about. We’ll be concentrating on “Emily’s Song” and “Untitled.” The great news is that she and her husband are moving to Juneau early next year, so we’ll be able to collaborate a lot more.
I’m slowly updating my site in preparation for new material (way to jinx myself), so some stuff might not be working for a little while.
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