I love R.E.M.  One of my favorite songs by them ends the Automatic for the People album. 'Find the River'. Yeah I like pretty songs. I always wanted to have a closer like that. The perfect kind of ending to all the songs that came before it. Now when I wrote this I wasn't thinking of that song and this sounds nothing like that. It never occurred to me to compare. Then when I was getting the artwork done for the record my buddy Todd Moreland told me that he really really loved this song. I always give him…

Painting the Silence. Title track. 

I've only done this once before. I think it's kinda boring to name your album after a song that's on it. Most of the time. It's just a thing I have.

Anyway. This album title came from a quote "A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence."

I loved that. So that was the title of the record long before it was even formed. This song however had no title and no words until this autumn. And I LOVE THIS SONG.

I mean I like all my…

Ah so. This is probably one of the only 'direct' lyrics I've ever written. I usually write more in 'scenes' or incomplete thoughts that make a whole picture. But this one just kinda had to be this way.

Everyone wants love. Right? And we hear all the time about love at first sight. Looking at someone and just knowing.

There ya go. That's it. Ha. 

Brian Kaplan again played lead guitar and I love what he did here. Floaty. Soaring. He really nailed the feeling of finding the love of your life.

Oh and just…

This is one of the oldest songs that made the album. I had just moved and it was a warm day in March. I took my guitar out onto my deck and started messing around. Came up with a cool melody so I recorded into my phone. This is one of those lucky moments when it just--clicked. If I played you the phone recording you'd see that nearly all the lyrics came out at once. 

When this happens I'm always baffled. I didn't sit down to write a song. I had no idea in my head. It just came out. Maybe I'm just a…

So yeah, Side 2!!

I LOVE records. I've always had a bunch and the last few years I've gotten back into collecting them. Not just old stuff either. I have almost all the Radiohead albums on Vinyl....it's pretty cool. You should try it! For this album I'm selling real honest to goodness records. Mainly cause I wanted one for me haha. Seriously! How fucking cool is it going to be to hold a 12x12 album of MY music in my own little hands? Or yours! You should get one. Cause like I said they're waaaaayyy cool.

Funny how time changes your point of view. "Time can heal all wounds", or something like that is the saying right?

My last 3 records were not exactly depressing. Not at all. There were many joyous happy uplifting moments with the sad. Looking back all 3 were me dealing with my mothers death. Could've been a lot darker I guess. Lyrically they were me working shit out. Music has always been that for me. That's why I love it. It can transport you into another world. Make you remember moments. Make you feel…

HEY! HEY!

Now we're having FUN!

I have such a multiple personality problem with music. I write a lot of pretty songs. Slow songs. Long slow burn epic songs. And straight ahead rock. I don't know. It doesn't bother me at all except everyone always asks you 'who do you sound like?' Fuck if I know. Me! 

And that wouldn't ever bother me except everytime you submit your music somewhere they want to know your genre and who do you sound like.... I'm not sure I have a genre. Singer songwriter? Sure. Rock? Ok…

This is my roots rock song. 

Tom Petty just passed away. I was so sad. I remember having his album 'Full Moon Fever' on near constant play one summer. And what musician wouldn't KILL for a 'Freefallin'? I don't know any. I would.

Tom Petty and John Mellencamp are two of my favorites. There's just something so honest and accessible in their music. Later the first Counting Crows album hit me the same way although a little more down in the mouth there was still 'Mr. Jones' and 'Rain King'. My band used to…

Fallen is a great song to see where the album could have gone. Who knows I might have a bunch like this hee hee.

This is one of the oldest pieces of music on the album. Actually just the acoustic guitar part. I came up with that little riff--man--probably during the 'Myself Again' record. I always thought it was cool. I never got it to go anywhere so I mainly used to play it just sitting around as a cool picking exercise. Even then most of the time I would trip myself up with the turnaround. I started…

I'm all the way done. So over the next few weeks leading up to the official release of the full album I will be posting the songs, in order, so you'll be able to hear them.

Tomorrow you'll be able to pre-order the album. There will be a few different options.  One for everybody!

Find it Out

I remember the day I came up with this. It was winter time and I was in my studio which was in my basement at the time. I have big windows looking out into the yard and it was one of those days where it snowed like…

So confession.

I've never mastered my own album before. Ever.

Why? Mainly cause it's a very specific skill. It's all about very SMALL tweaks to volume, compression and EQ. It takes years to learn how to do it well. I've always gone to Silvertone Mastering before. That was always my most favorite part of releasing a record. They have AMAZING equipment and speakers. Hell the speakers probably cost as much as my Jeep. 

So why am I not doing that now? Well, for one, I have a mastering program I've been…

HEY!

Yeah. Well one of the wonderful things about technology is that it lets someone like me make a record. It's great. 

The worst thing is that there are so many things you can do! Too many! Too many! There are so many toys to play with. If you're not careful you'll start playing just cause you can. And probably start ruining things.

I've been working on all the mixes. And like I said in the last post-one thing to be wary of is the whole "hey it worked on THAT song...why not try it here? And here? And…

What goes on after all the parts are recorded?

Well- funny you should ask.

LOTS

First there're all the mixes. This is where you 'balance' all the sounds against eachother. Not to make sure they're all the same volume, but to make sure they sit in the song where they should be. You don't want an electric guitar that is way louder than every other sound. You want it to sound like an electric guitar playing with all the other instruments.

Now some things are nearly always a bit louder. Vocals, snare drum…

Life is funny. 

We struggle. Try. Fail. Get up. Try again. Move forward. Sometimes things turn out exactly as we planned. Sometimes we get to where we wanted to go but the road there is very different than we envisioned. Sometimes we end up somewhere completely different and that is the perfect place for us to end up.

This album has felt like that. All of that.

When I first started working towards a new record my plan was to make a stripped down acoustic quiet pretty album. I had just finished 'Ria'…