Practical Practice

I had a good weekend. I woke up Friday morning exhausted and not feeling well so I emailed in sick. I won't lie, it felt very nice. I spent most of the day sleeping and on the couch.
When I was young I used to enjoy staying home from school. I hated actually being sick and staying home, but being healthy and home was fantastic. I worked out a deal with my parents when I was in high school. I was allowed 2 personal days a semester to be out from school sick. I would plan those days carefully, to maximize my day off activities. Some days I would spend playing a video game which I had carefully rented the evening before. Other days off I would drive to my family's farm 40 miles away with a gun or two, spending the day in the air making lots of noise.

Friday night I went to see Ben, the bass player for Invis Matter's other band play. They are a sort of shock metal outfit aiming for maximum gross out. They played at a place called "CIA" which I had always wanted to go to anyway. It is only a couple of blocks from the apartment I lived in with Dudley in North Hollywood, so my curiosity about the venue was always strong. It really did not disappoint, filled with all sorts of strange items and painted to look like a black light clown dungeon. Ben's band was really good and entertaining to watch.

Saturday I slept until 10:30, when Angela woke me up to kill a wasp that had flown into our apartment. I was tired and blurry when she was waking me and I ended up very disappointed to learn that I wouldn't be smashing a White Anglo Saxon Protestant with an LA Weekly but an actual apocrita. Damn my luck.

Later in the morning Angela and I had Turbo Sunshine practice. At this point it consists of me teaching Angela to play keyboard parts to some of my new songs. We have only attempted this one other time before. Saturday went very well. Angela learned to play the bass line on a keyboard to my new song "What You Would Have Me Do". She learned to play it the entire way through, in less than 45 minutes. I was impressed as hell and very proud. It certainly makes me start to consider all the possibilities for Turbo Sunshine.
I have been kicking around many ideas for Turbo Sunshine and it makes me so very excited. I really want to have my very own band again, filled with collaboration and as drama free as a band can be. I know that no one ever starts a band and thinks, we are going to fight constantly and I'm going to be a diva about everything, but perhaps because a person starts a band with out having been through some one else's ridiculous diva fits maybe they don't understand the negative impact it has on the experience of those around them so they never stress to themselves the importance of good manners. I am over simplifying but I think it's important to set goals for your own behavior. Having high expectations of oneself is usually a good thing. **Flash to a year in the future and I'm throwing a drunken bitch fit onstage with 7 people in the audience because the sound guy isn't turning my microphone up to feedback levels.**
So far the songs which I have started for Turbo Sunshine are as follows:

"Far Out With You" This song sounds a bit like space, as it is supposed to. It has a very heavy bass groove verse with a floating gravity defying chorus. I am totally pleased with the current form and direction of this song. My goal for further work on this tune is adding vocal harmonies in the chorus sections.

"We Want a New God" I have started the lyrical idea and guitar part for this song. I am super pleased with the guitar part. Angela has learned a nice little pad part to play during the verses but I'm thinking of having her learn the bass line instead. I like my lyrical idea thus far but I'm concerned about the melody line being a bit too bland. I would describe the sound as Electro Psychedelic. Devin wrote the main musical back bone to this song which has me very excited. He and I have not collaborated on every aspect of a song in a long time, usually someone else gets the pleasure of singing on a track which we work hard to make sound awesome, I'm glad that this time around one of us will reap the rewards. This song is currently in a bit of limbo because I do not have the individual tracks for Devin's parts, they are sitting on the hard drive of his computer which currently will not turn on. **Brandon crosses fingers and tries to remember how to pray**

"Who Killed Love?" This song is pretty ridiculous and goth. Angela always used to call overly dramatic love songs "Who Killed Love?" I liked the phrase so much I just used it literally. I'm pretty far along on this song, but I'm at a cross roads trying to figure out a better beat. I did a few hours of work on the beat last week but I'm not convinced that I improved anything. I also need some major vocal harmony in this tune.

"What You Would Have Me Do" I had the music to this tune for a while but never heard a melody. Three weeks ago though when Angela was in San Diego I pulled this tune up very late at night and the words and melody fell into place nearly instantly. I'm now super pleased with the direction this song is heading. Having Angela learn the bass line so quickly was inspiring. I think I need to add a new section towards the end of this tune, hopefully building up to a nice crescendo.

"Taming the Itch" I started to finish this song as a tune to Include on the S no S album "Albino Elephant". I hadn't thought much of it but I did enjoy the lyrics and the synth sounds. At the last moment I re-worked the beat and the song came to life. I am now totally in love with the song and could not imagine it not having a place in Turbo Sunshine. It seems very near to being done, anything I add at this point could put the song over the top or kill it. Only time will tell.

"Dreaming a Memory" I have music for this song, though I feel like it has an overly absent bridge at this point. I started writing lyrics at my desk yesterday and a melody in my head. This song will be a creepy stalker song. I hope to mess about with a scratch vocal in the next few days.

"Hey Citizen" Another song started by Devin. This track was fantastic when it arrived in my in box. I wrote the lyrics very quickly and I'm super pleased with the way it's coming together. Sadly it's also in Devin's computer hell for the time being. The great thing about my brother is that he's super talented. Even if his computer is completely dead he will be able to re-do anything lost. Luckily I know in my heart that his computer will breath again.

In addition to these original songs I also really want to actively remix other artists as Turbo Sunshine. I have one completed for Swivek which I have previously posted, and I'm currently working on one for a new band "Bonfire Bandit".

I have been thinking about Turbo Sunshine constantly. I realized while listening to demos the other night that I am making a record that I would have loved at 17 years old. That is perhaps the most exciting part of these new creations.

I love the sounds that can be made

So here I am. Getting a bit older. It's Thursday and I'm feeling human enough to blog. I have been damn tired this week. My idea of heaven is being left alone to sleep. Hear that god? I don't need a tunnel and I don't need the light, just flip the switch at the end and let it all go dark.
Of course if it were dark I wouldn't see this lovely dog Coffee pictured with me above. I will enjoy looking at hims while I can. Damn he is sweet. I find that its perfectly acceptable at my work to kick my feet up on the desk and lean back in my chair as long as I have a dog on my chest. You can imagine how happy that arrangement makes me.

So this plastic device is adding to my happiness. It's extremely portable and runs on batteries, yet it allows me to capture 8 simultaneous tracks of 24 bit audio and then easily transfer those to a computer for further mixing and manipulation. This is a very good thing when you have a girlfriend who loves nothing more than falling asleep on the couch at 8pm. I can then just collect my little plastic box and head to the back of the apartment to make my noises. I'm considering doing an album deep in the depths of Griffith park too. I do enjoy the modern world at times.

This bubbling little buddy is a welcome sound source addition to my life. Thanks to my birthday our patio is getting a boost in the amenities sector. I love the sound of falling water. Bye bye freeway noise, hello life giving water.

And then there is the soft purr of a kitty nuzzling his little face against his mommie. Indeed.



When this is all over and they do turn out the light, don't ever let anyone tell you I didn't love ever tired minute.

My last post as a 30 year old

I'm happy today. I'm optimistic.

Last night I mixed down Devin's song Sleepy Town. I'm not happy with it, it's not done. I need his guidance. I need to come up with a guitar part. Hopefully that will tie the entire song together and give it the sense of build we are looking for.

I worked on Reprogramming the drums for a Turbo Sunshine song called "Who Killed Love?". I was so pleased with myself when I first came up with the idea, but I find now that it's become the least exciting song to me in the set of Turbo Sunshine songs.

This momentum I have going is nice. I need to keep in mind that having more ideas than time is a good thing.

Solitary Confinement

Angela left early Saturday to visit her grandmother in San Diego. I stayed behind since I know the two of them really enjoy spending time alone together. In my adult life I have not spent much time alone. I find that curious because I've always been a person that takes to solitary time very easily.
As a young boy I spent most of my time alone. I would wander off into the wilds of our family farm and spend my day pretending to be an Indian. I passed many hours this way and I believe it helped create in me an independent imagination. And once a person develops that being alone can be pretty joyful.
Once I started recording music my love of time spent in the company of only myself really flourished. I enjoy getting feedback from others as soon as a song is finished, but I really don't mind not speaking to some one for hours and hours while I create it. I spent so many weekend and evening hours alone in my mid twenties and I enjoyed everyone of them.
This weekend was a return to form for me. Angela left in the afternoon and I took up the task of doing all my chores in 3 hours. I finished my list of things to be accomplished for the weekend as fast as I could and I then journeyed to the gym to put in an hour and clear my mind. Returning I showered and went to the store to stock up on food for my time alone. I finished all of this around 8pm on Saturday and then I got busy working.

I spent the first 2 hours working on a bass line for my brother's song "Sleepy Town". I love this song and when I started mixing it I had a revelation early that drastically changed the way the song sounds. I got it to about 75% done and I have just been struggling to put it all together from that point and finish the last 25%. At the end of the two hours I was disappointed and left with the feeling that nothing I did was even usable. I decided to close that project and move on for the night.

Next up I wanted to finish a song I started a while back with no project in mind. It was always an odd song but I loved something about it. It's called "Taming the Itch". Last week I decided it was close enough to being finished that I could just finish the lyrics, sing them, mix it and call it good for inclusion on "Albino Elephant". I had assumed I would do just this, but when I started working I decided I could not live with the drum track. I started to reprogram them and suddenly the song came a live. I worked on it for about 3 hours and in the end mixed it down an mp3 file and added it to my phone. I then had a smoke and went for a late night walk to listen. Hearing the rough version through headphones got me super excited. I decided that this song deserved a better fate than "albino Elephant", not to disparage that project but I have been wavering on what that album is. With the surprise turn out of this tune I decided to let the past stand as it was and not include any new spruced up tracks on that collection. I just want to document that era as it was. In the future I plan to re-purpose parts of it but I think "Taming the Itch" made up my mind about what the last S no S album will be.

Due to the time change and the excitement "Taming the Itch" cause I couldn't sleep for a while. I started to think about a way to make "Turbo Sunshine" a viable live band and a plan was coming together. I finally succumbed around 5am.

I woke up refreshed an energized at 11:00 am. I made a bit of breakfast and tried to watch "Engineering an Empire" off the dvr. I made it about 20 minutes before I was up and at the computer. I started sifting through half finished projects looking for my next project. I settled on a song called "Far Out With You". I loaded the porject and then changed into running clothes. I smoked a bit of medicine to allow for a proper run and headed off to Griffith Park. It was a fabulous day in griffith park. All told I put in two hours and probably ran a bit over 10 miles. It was wonderful.

I returned to the apartment and showered. I then really hunkered down. I worked for around 4 hours on "Far it with You". It was a bit frustrating to put this one together and in the end I didn't have the instant feeling of satisfaction.

I then wanted to throw down a few vocal ideas to a track Devin performed the music to. It's called "Hey Citizen" and I just love it. I recorded the small bits I had and mixed it down as well.

I've been kicking around a song called "Who killed love?" for a while and decided that it sounded very much like what I have been hearing in my head as the sound for Turbo Sunshine. While walking around listening to "Taming the Itch" I realized that in some ways it sounded a lot like Nine Inch Nails. It got me thinking that 90's psuedo industrial music is such a large part of my musical make up. Since I am not 15 anymore I find the lyrics in that music I use to love to be cringe inducing. I have started to see that there might be a large use of the sonic qualities of that music I once loved in the music I now want to create. Perhaps something like The Dandy Warhols meets Nine Inch Nails. God. I can't believe I jsut typed that. Disregard all of this. That statement means nothing.
I sang the second verse of Who Killed Love? and went out to get beer. I didn't want to lie in bed awake half the night again, so I thought some beer might do me good.

I returned from the store and had a few beers while I loaded the new songs onto my phone. I then lit a cigar and went for a walk. I was loving the new songs and it was only 9 o'clock. I decided I oculd swing one more before the time to sleep was dire. I found a piece of music I had written nothing to yet and just started to sing whatever came to mind. In about half an hour I had the first two verses and the chorus to a new song called "What you would have me do". At this point I had polished my sixer and decided I should have another walk and listen.

It was a great walk. I ended feeling pleased with myself. I came home and tried to watch TV. TV wasn't working for me. I put my headphoens back on and played each song a couple more times.

Finally I went to bed. I was missing Angela as I laid down but I knew she was having a ncie time and that she would return soon enough.

Cold Wet Paint

I meant to blog about having cold wet paint dumped on me for hours this weekend but my bother beat me to it and with much more detail and accuracy than I could muster from five days away. Don't let that stop you from reading it though. It was hard and uncomfortable at times, but it was so much fun. I went home on saturday and sunday night and felt proud of myself and everyone involved. I'm excited to see the result and to remember for a long time to come that someone once had the idea of dumping paint on me all day, and I agreed to do it.

I'm feeling physically pretty good these days. I have been stretching before exercising for the first time in my life and lifting high reps of less weight. People always told me that a person should stretch before exertion but I never really bought it. I get the benefits now, it actually feels nicer all the time to be a bit more limber. I can touch my toes with a locked leg now, I couldn't even do that in high school while running cross country.
I went for a nice 5 mile run through the streets of Atwater Village and Glendale last night. The sky over Griffith park looked amazing and I managed to jay walk and catch stoplights in just the right manner so that I never once had to stop. I dodged cars and dogs and peoples and kept moving. Every time I started to feel tired I remember that my sister is going to run a half marathon in under two hours, and that to do that she must run nine minute miles instead of ten minute miles. I would just say that to myself when I wanted to rest while running: "Nine Minute Miles". I was probably running closer to seven minute miles last night, but nine sounded better.
I finished with a stupid sprint kick up Edenhurst to Veselich. I like to run in the park or at night because I like to finish big and it's a bit embarrassing in the middle of the sun light to be grinding full bore up a residential street. I would make fun of me if I saw myself doing that. It feels good though, and to finish a run without it is sort of like sex with no orgasm.
As I walked back to the apartment after the run trying to catch my breath I asked myself how I ever stopped running for such a long period of time. I didn't answer because of course I remember, still it seems so stupid now.

I have not been writing much lately. I need to lock myself in a room and revise a bunch of the shit I've spewed out but it's just not happening. I want to be that type of person, I respect that kind of focused energy but at heart there is something in me that lacks a measure of discipline. Why can't I just do it perfect the first time?