- LEAVING FOR CHICAGO! – July 19, 2007
Tonight I am packing my bag, pulling out the old travel guitar case and getting ready to head to Chicago! I’ve played bluegrass guitar in Europe and jammed in Canada, but this will be my first time playing a booked show of my own music so far from home. One of the most exciting things about it to me is that I get to fly again. I love flying and haven’t had a chance to since I was 16 years old. It should be a fun leg of the summer tour. I’m taking my camera so I’ll definitely get some pictures for the gallery. Well, I hope you all have a great weekend, I may be seeing one or two of you in Chicago. :)
- Daniel
- TYING TOGETHER THEMATIC STRING - June 1, 2007
Gee wiz, the months fly by. I had what I consider a lyrical breakthrough the other night. I only call it that because by changing two lines in one song, I believe that I’m able to make the theme of the entire album more clear and cohesive. The song in question, “The Worst Panic Attack Ever”, is probably going to be the first “single” from this album, (if a nobody indie musician can truly call a song a single). A rough live version of the song can be heard in my live video section. You can also hear a clearer bit of the song in video 1 of my Album 4 Video Journal, it’s the song we’re recording the drums for in the video.
Anybody who’s read my recent Columbia Free Times press release or heard me interviewed on the radio lately may have heard me talking about the so called “cohesive narrative” that this new album is all about. I’d love to start discussing the details of this narrative for my 2 or less readers of this journal. :) The album is auto-biographical and is my personal coming-of-age story. If you’ve heard my last album; featuring my dad’s life story, my new album picks up where the last one left off.
The album begins with the song “Themes in American Friction” serving as a prologue, introducing a torn and distressed 21-year-old version of myself. The second song “Growing up Octagonal” is the actual beginning of the story, telling of my peaceful childhood and continuing the story of my father David by describing the octagonal house he and his wife built and their promise to give their children the love and peace David never had as a child.
From there my character grows into teenage years, struggling with change, his fading faith in religion and an ironic ever-nagging depression. As his obsession with an abstract fear of death in the face of crumbling beliefs causes him to lose many of the good people and things in his life, a crisis with his father’s health and the guidance and mentorship of a new figure in his life, Jessie, force him to put his fears and his life into perspective. By the end of the album, my character is 23 years old. The details of the ending I'll leave to the lyrics.
I’m sure I’ll try to sum the album up again down the road, for now though, this is the story I’m excited to tell you all. When my album is finished I hope that everyone can make my story their own. Keep checking in on the site! I’ll be posting new recording videos more and more in the coming weeks and before I know it, it will be time to finally start playing the first single on the radio and iTunes etc. I can’t wait!
- Daniel
- NEW YORK, NEW YORK! – May 3, 2007
Well our trip to New York has been finalized. We’ll be up there on August 17 performing for Kanine Records. I hope that I’ll have most of the album done at that point so that I can give them some of the new material to hear. Speaking of the album, I’ve started working on guitar for the second batch of songs, which include a new reworking of one of my oldest songs; formerly “Seagull” the song is now “High School is over in a Year”. This weekend I’m hoping to get guitar done for most of the second batch, which will mean that principle guitar should be done on about 7 songs by next week. Well I feel like I had more that I wanted to say, but I’m getting journal writers block, which just seems sad to me so I’m going to stop for now.
- Daniel
- FIRST JOURNAL ENTRY - April 18, 2007
I've started drawing again, working on a map to go in the booklet for the new album. I've put what I've got so far at the bottom of this entry. The map is meant to correspond to the themes and locations of certain songs. For example the little octagonal house corresponds to "Growing Up Octagonal", a song that you can hear a live version of here.
I'm excited about the freedom of writing journal entries and not having to squeeze all of what I want to say into short news blurbs. Yay! I can tell I'm writing this in a newsy sort of voice though, I guess I'll get used to writing in a more casual way. Maybe not though. Today I'm going home after my 9-5 job to work on backing vocals in my home studio. I'll be working on the song "Goodbye, Little Miss Illusion". This song was written with hopes to put all sorts of fun harmonies on the recording, it will be exciting to do. Well that's all I'll write for now I guess.
To anyone reading this, thank you so much! I feel very fortunate that you've spent your time reading my words!
- Daniel
