There's something in the water

In the late 1990's, I was living in London and doing a fair amount of writing, gigging and recording. A friend of mine, Richard Schiessl, had a recording studio in Greenwich - it was an amazing space that sat right on the edge of the Thames River (about 500 feet from the Cutty Sark). When the studio wasn't booked, I would grab the Tube from Camden, hop on the Docklands Light Railway and then take underground foot tunnel to Greenwich.

Backstory...
I wrote the basic structure of the song a few hours before my girlfriend at the time, Sharon, was going to take me for real Mexican food in London. She loved the whole Mersey Beat sound (she was from Northern England), was a great Thin Lizzy fan and dug live music of all kinds (she once took me to see a brilliant King Sunny Adé show in a London shopping mall). I was also living down the block from Noel Gallagher, who had a townhouse called "Supernova Heights".

I frequently saw him walking around Hamstead Heath and would occasionally chat with him. He would say "They don't make 'em like that anymore, man" a lot when referring to old guitars or records from the 60's & 70's. The song sat for 4 years before I picked it up again - changed some lyrics around and then decided that it was worthy of recording. The vibe of that period is very much alive in the final track and it's a joy that it came together so well.

Nerdspeak...
In 2002, when I finished the song and recorded it, my goal was to use the vintage George Martin production style. This meant that I would incorporate his style of arranging, balance of instruments and of course the overall sound. For this recording, we used the same microphones (U47/U48), microphone pre-amp (Telekunken V76), ADT (artificial double tracking) on the vocals, guitar (Rickenbacker 360V12), piano (Steinway), amps (Vox), compressors (Fairchild) and a Neve mixing desk. John Cutler recorded this one - Mike is on bass, Vince is on drums and I am on guitars & piano. It's cheeky I will admit, but the song does grow on you after a while...

Listen to "The Rocker".

(eyeneer music publishing ©2007)

The perserverance of a hack

It's captivating to see the creative expressions of my friends - be it visual arts, writing, music, random mixed-media cornucopia or a combination of all of the above. Whatever the expression of choice may be, it's something that invariably brings me closer to the essential core of who that person is.

While I consider my skills as a visual artist to be that of a complete hack, it seems to beckon continually at the moment. Perhaps I have gotten more disciplined and am able to focus my energies accordingly. Often times it comes down to surrendering to the moment and getting down to business without any expectations.

For the last several months, I have been cranking out pieces with India ink & pastel and experimenting with various paper mediums (Cartiera Magnani 140lb. neutral pH paper takes the cake). Bottom line, I have no idea what the hell I am doing after years of subjecting myself to this sort of creative quagmire - it's more about the unknown journey. The one thing that remains, I'm very perserverant and consistently deliver when the muse says, "Get busy, kid!".

Five things you don't know about me

Zoe tagged me on this one, so here goes…

1. I’m an avid ukulele player. The uke is one of the best instruments there is and it makes all kinds of music sound great...

2. Learned Spanish simultaneously along with English as a tot. I love languages and because of my background as a musician, I pick up tones very easily. Been studying Chinese and Hindi over the last few years…

3. At 13, traveled throughout Europe with friends John and Dan. We were chaperoned by a history teacher who spent the entire adventure getting severely tanked and trying to pick up birds. While skiing in the Swiss Alps during that trip, we ended up helping with an avalanche rescue (while the teacher got sloshed in the chalet the entire time - "Ein Pint Bier bitte!")…

4. I dislike pork and ham with a passion and prefer French wines to California wines...

5. One of my idols growing up was former baseball player Pete Rose. After an All Star Game, my older brothers took me to the hotel to get his autograph. As I held up my game program for him to sign with wide eyes, he frowned and chortled, “Get out of my way frumpy little kid!” From that day forward, Hank Aaron took his place…