Back at it, reviving this blog and updates!

 Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted on this blog. You could definitely say I've lost my way more than once in this creative journey that started back in December 2008. I'll update you, it's been nearly 4 years since my last post and so much has changed even since then. Covid swept the world, all the momentum I had built up to that point was washed away, I used to spend 150 days a year on the road, sometimes more than that, and like many millions of people life changed within a few months as the world quickly ground to a halt. Post Covid, I've struggled to find my way creatively, work wise, burnt out, got massively depressed because 10 years on the road and then nothing, 4 years of Covid era madness, people forget who you are and a new flock rises up and people were keeping closer to home. Everything changed in my life. 

Now, I'm trying to figure out who I am still, where I want to go and what I want to do. In that time I wrote a new book of poetry/prose, formed a band and toured for the first time in years but this purely driven by sheer will to get back out there and perform. I changed my practice creatively and slowed down on art workshops because I was totally burnt out. Music is back in my life in a big way, my band is called "Horse Funeral Band," and we started on, I shit you not, 420 or April 20th in 2023. We wrote about 8 - 10 songs and went into Doug Perry's recording studio on June 19th, 2023 and recorded 6 songs, live off the floor, mixed, mastered in 5 hours. Then I hit the road and started touring June 26 until sometime at the end of November 2023, all totalled at least 50 shows in 4 or 5 provinces, ranging from dive bars, big clubs, festivals, house parties and everything in between. 

I shakily found my voice and am still developing a style, which I'd say is dark, solitary confessional acoustic songwriter. My voice is very baritone, so it's been a journey and fun, scary, exhausting, creative and everything in between. This past year, I toured a lot less, because I'm in my 50's and being on the road that much was pretty exhausting; we've mainly done festivals and gigs in Alberta and the lower mainland. The expense of touring has really gotten magnified, gas is so expensive, food is more expensive, accommodations, merch, hell, it's all a different world now. I'm working on a plan, new music, new recordings and booking shows for next year and will have a better idea of what's going on and how to do it. Without further ado, here's the bandcamp page for us: 

https://horsefuneral1.bandcamp.com/album/new-songs

That's all I'm going to post for tonight, I'll return tomorrow with more news, creative projects and information about the past 4 years. 

Kukstemc, thanks for tuning in all these years,

Chris Bose. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

re: the beast

Hello friends, fans, foe and lovers,

it's nearly the end of February and I have to ask myself, who the hell blogs anymore? haha. it seems so digitally archaic and old fashioned now. the modern equivalent of a pen and quill and ink. I still do blog I guess, sporadically at best and neglectfully at worst.

This year I'll try to hit it again and a lot harder than I have in the past.

I hope you've been well and good. It's hard to believe I started this blog 12 years ago! What the hell? how does that much time pass and how much can a person change and still not really change that much at all?

I've spent the past 5 or 6 years really working on my guitar sounds only to realize I'm basically back where I started way back in the 1990's when I had a digitech DSP 21 or whatever it was called, a rack mount guitar unit and pedal I used to use on the road and in the studio. To think that I've been on the road over and recording songs and albums over 25 years is hard to fathom.

To be sure, I never got rich, but here I am nearly 50 and still not growing, I mean giving up. Youth truly is wasted on the young. haha, another thing I've come to realize as I reach half a century in age. I think it's important to find mentors and people to help you along the road and if you stumble blindly along the road, people will recognize skill and talent and implored to help you along the way. Sometimes for their benefit and sometimes for yours. Experience and time will help you define the differences between the two.

In many ways I think my best work is to come in the next ten years if I don't give up, which I'm not planning on doing anyway in the first place, so I hope this year will be full of excitement and shows and forward movement not just for myself, but for you too!

cheers,

CB.

re: happy new year!

Hello loves, friends, fans and foe,

happy new year!

it's 2020! I can't believe it!? where are the flying cars and cool and gross cities like we were promised in Blade Runner?

It's an interesting time to be sure, but I'm not sure where I fit in all the madness haha. So, that's the last of the free bits of the new book "N'shaytkin" I'm going to load up,  you can buy yourself a copy here: http://www.batteryoperabooks.com

Please do!

Battery Opera Books is an extension of Battery Opera, a dance/performance company that I've been working with for about 5 years or so off and on. They are wonderful, amazing people to collaborate with and I can't say enough good things about them!

This is the year I return to arts and academia!

What else can I say, I've missed it and after some time off the road I'm ready to get back into it older and wiser.

Last month in December we did 5 days of performances and I think 7 shows/readings in that time space and it was fun! We reached new audiences and made new fans but it was exhausting because I've been away from the stage for so long. I also take a long time between projects now, I don't crank things out like I used to, that pace can't be kept up. I always took years between books because each book could be promoted all across the country and anywhere really because Indigenous literature is still so new.

The art stuff was all a matter of timing, the right place, the right time and the right content. Then finding exhibitions and people to tour with for shows. Same with the films and music.

I also learned to quit trying. haha.

What I mean is quit trying to get people on the road and or quit trying to get people to see what you've seen because if they haven't done it, they don't have a frame of reference and it goes in one year and out the other. haha.

Plus, some people or a lot of people just don't want to do it, so quit bugging them and get on with it.

Life is for learning and living, so get out there and do the best you can people!

aight, peace out for now!

CB.
ps: here's a link to the mini-tour! photos!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisbose1/albums/72157712445639392

re: 1137

Hello friends, fans, foe and lovers,

continuing with the book "nshaytkin" for you to enjoy, the digital copy.

enjoy.

CB.
ps: click on the image to get it into a readable size!

re: 1136

hello friends, fans, foe and lovers,

here are more pages of my new book "nshaytkin" published by Battery Opera Books. click on the picture to get a full size version to read!!!

re: 1135

Hey lovers, friends, fans and foe,

here's the next instalment of "N'shaytkin: Those that came before us." Writing and researching this book made me realize the roots of our language are at least 10,000 years old. How old is the English language? We found remains just a few hundred feet from my mum's house on the Rez, Kumcheen I.R. #1 that were at least 9600 years old. Those that came before us still are in our blood, our memories our DNA.

It makes me wonder how many times our society rose and fell in that epoch of time. What happened in that incredible length of time? It's amazing to think about. I digress, please, carry on reading, the book started with post # 1133. Enjoy!

Kukstemc,

Chris Bose.
ps: CLICK ON THE IMAGE to make it full size and readable.

re: post 1134

Hello friends, fans, foe and lovers,

here is part II of my book preview for the upcoming publication "N'shaytkin: Those that came before us." My first book of fiction, it's based on traditional N'lakapamux stories told to me by my grannie and grandpa, or Yeah Yah and Spah-puh-luh7 when I was a kid. I never forgot them, the delivery or a lot of details. I started writing this book back in 2016 and I'm not sure how a book deal came about with "Battery Opera Books" but I think I might have sent some of it to David McIntosh (publisher/editor) for feedback. I don't think I had any plans at that time to publish it, I just needed direction, because I had written a script, which is included virtually unchanged, in the book. David thought blending or weaving the two together would be interesting and I just went with it, as I generally do with outside advice.

At this age and stage of the game, most of the people I turn to for advice or suggestions are generally on point, because they know my writing style, or art style or whatever and can generally offer good direction or sound opinion on whatever it is I ask of them. ANYWAY, at some point David offered me a book deal and I said "Sure, why not," or something like that, hahaha, and it marks a departure, for now, from Kegedonce publishing. Kegedonce did my first two books of poetry and they were and are awesome to work with, they're also great at telling me what works, what doesn't and so on. I'd like to continue working with them in the future as well, we've talked about a couple projects I'm working on, one is a book of Non-Fiction and is sort of a "how to survive: the art world, the literary world, the film world and more!" I've learned everything through the valuable advice of mentors and I have a ton of life experience, so I figured this would be a great way to share some valuable lessons I learned as I've made my way through the world based on my creative endeavours. The 2nd book we've discussed is a new book of poetry which I'm still working on.

My first book of poetry with Kegedonce was "Stone the Crow," and encapsulated a good 10 years of my writing, some which dates back to 1996 and was in various chapbooks and self-published works. Then my next book with them was "A Moon Made of Copper," and was written in a year or two, almost always on the road for many years, it's an exhaustive, dark and foreboding piece of work. Detailing the wild, crazy times I spent touring for various creative projects and the dark side of that world. When I do readings or tours reading it, surprisingly people really love that book, the darker the poems the better, which really blows my mind. People will come up afterward to get the book signed and tell me which ones are their favourite and I'm always surprised because they look so "normal." haha. This 3rd and in time, upcoming book of poetry is far more balanced as I've been working on it a few years now and is about getting off the road, getting myself balanced and grounded again in my life, changing my lifestyle, habits and generally working on being a great dad and community leader for the arts and indigenous representation in my community. I think it'll be my last book of poetry for awhile and I hope to be done writing it within this year. I'm a slow writer, haha. each book takes a toll creatively and I want to make sure each one counts.

Well, without further ado, here's more of a book preview of "N'shaytkin," please click on the images to read them full size. It will be released this December and don't ask me anymore than that, haha. I'm just the writer. Kukstemc, thanks for coming by and visiting. Stay tuned for more previews.

Chris Bose.