re: new music? life changes? huh?

New music?

Hello friends, fans, foe and lovers,

How I’ve missed you all these months and even years as you can tell by the lack of activity in postings! I was busy wallowing in self-loathing and pity; it’s been years, because it’s so easy to do. Somehow, through sheer will and determination and a little bit of spite, I’ve pulled through it all.

I’ve realized I’m getting older, maybe a little wiser or at least able to recognize pitfalls and dead traps that I kept falling into or getting pulled towards, kicking and screaming into a dark oblivion.

It took a lot to break the negative cycles I was in and it wasn’t easy. I saw the effects of the "wounded warrior" cycles over and over again. I watched helplessly as a good friend died of alcoholism, actually a few friends, then I watched a famous indigenous person kill himself slowly with drugs and alcohol as well, then finally my cousin passed away, hell even my little brother. I don’t know, I just woke up one day and thought of my kids and realized I can’t die yet. My father passed away recently and that really affected me in unforeseen ways. He’s simply gone. I was with him a few days before he passed and I held his hand for hours and sat beside him, talking to him as he slept. One of my sisters and I took turns wiping his brow and just talking to him quietly. I remember the warmth of his hands and how handsome he looked. When he died that was gone, his charm, his laugh, his jokes and his warmth were all just gone.

I’m too young to die because I know how much it would affect my kids, so I woke up one morning and said “enough is enough!” Time to make my health and mental health a priority and I pledged to myself I’d get back into music and figure out a way to get it going again. I've been working towards this off and on for a few years, and I’m still sorting it out, there have been backslides, but that's normal. That's life.  But, with energized determination, my routine is to get up every single morning around 5 am, stretch out, make coffee and go outside for a bit of fresh air, then come back in and plug into a guitar and hit record on my trusty Zoom H1 recorder and see what happens.

Now, I’ve been playing guitar some 30 odd years and it’s still not easy. You don’t wake up every day, and as Ricky Bobby said once, “I wake up and piss excellence!” No, it’s not like that at all, unless you’re a Ricky Bobby type person, LOL!? But, I found creating a routine and methodically sticking to it has really helped me out creatively. Now, the first couple weeks are just expunging old riffs, melodies and ideas, a sort of creative purging if you will, gotta get them old dusty riffs out and gone! Then a shaky few weeks occurs where you’re tentatively breaking new ground creatively, I did it through exploring various guitar effect pedals, a harmonizer, delays, reverbs, distortion and overdrives and a looper pedal.

I had a mentor once that really helped change my life, he showed me how to use Final Cut Studio 7 and after that I was able to create the visions in my head into short experimental films and travel the world, chasing my dreams. Anyway, he said to me, “Chris, you gotta pile on all the video effects you can, to get a feel for it and then you slowly pull them back to reveal the story you’re trying to really tell. But you gotta go through the experimentation first and not be afraid to really go for it.” Doug, if you ever read this, know I’m really sorry for ranting and lashing out at you for constantly going off to me about Italy, that was a shitty time in my life and I’m sorry dude!

Haha, okay, back to what I was saying, so, I took that approach to guitar and f’n overloaded things with effects and just went for it. After awhile, I realized it was overkill and now I’ve pulled things back to tell the real story, to find the real song I’m trying to play. So the first couple weeks are the purging of old ideas and stuff, the next few weeks are experimentation, because hey, you’re covering new territory! And now, I’m in a new phase where I’ve gone from just coming up with an intro, or an outro, or a chord progression or a melodic part, to actually pushing out rough song sketches! It’s not easy, but I usually start by noodling around, warming up quickly and then stumbling across a riff or a melody and work it until it takes shape into something. I’m also always recording. But I record in little breaks, a minute or two, then stop, because it’s easier to go through recordings in snippets rather than a long hour of crap! Trust me!

Also, you’re going to have to learn to be ruthless with your music, don’t be precious or sentimental (overly) because if you want to write good music, you can be your own worst enemy. You’ll learn what’s crap, what’s good and what needs work really quickly. I sort those into daily folders of ready to go, needs work and song sketches. When you're recording each riff, melody or chord progression, DON'T FORGET to record what tuning you're in, what guitar you may be using and the date it is, you will thank me later for that reminder! 

Get organized because you are going to need to be in order to keep track of things if you are going to try to record daily like my current workflow. Create the routine, get into the habit of recording, make the music and ideas will flow like never before and you’ll get there. Believe in yourself, even when no one else will, because that's how you can make things like your goals and dreams a reality instead of wanderlust daydreams. It takes work and dedication to the cause and it's worth it, so go for it! (Also, I use "Audacity" to edit stuff off the cuff, it's FREE and easy to use!)

Well, that’s pretty much all I’ve got to say for now, peace out and stay in tune and stay on time!

CB.

ps: here are some visual examples of what I do as a workflow, also I use "Audacity" to edit riffs, melodies and song sketches for uploading to my soundcloud demo page!

inside a file on my desktop called "Riffs"

inside the "riffs" file are these folders

inside a typical "day" of recording is this. I'm starting to even

date what day i'm saving ideas/sketches/riffs/melodies into!

Some of my recording process images 

and inspiration!

eat healthy when you can!

(this was for me and my kids, not just me, LOL!)

hot cereal helps flush the ol' bowl!

do it!

my main axes: Gibson Les Paul

and a LTD 400 Baritone

My other main axe, a Gibson Flying V

and my attempt at some

sound baffling so I don't wake up 

my kids!

(I'm also not using distortion these days, more on that later!)

My set up, I put the Zoom H1 on the volume pedal in front

of the amp and hit record! 

(Break it up after a riff or melody or whatever, so you

are not sifting through HOURS of endless recordings

instead you've got 10 or 20 short 1 minute or 2 minute recordings to check!)

from my instagram page!

TOOL is inspiring me, 

but more so the massive festival crowds

in Europe these days!

I'd like to do a summer festival circuit

run one day! 

(gotta have something to inspire your dreams right?)

I also want a silver burst Les Paul like Adam Jones

has, as they seem to have an almost mythical quality 

and aura about them, not just his, but that type

of guitar in general!?

I've had the pleasure of playing

some big festivals in my day, in various bands, as a solo artist

and even a poet!

I think 10,000 was the biggest crowd I performed

in front of and I wasn't even nervous. It's weird. 

A snapshot of my morning routine. Sunrise, coffee and riff recordings!

Create the routine, get into it and good things will come to you!

You gotta admit, that is a pretty cool photo

and I bet it felt pretty damn cool too! 

haha. We can all dream right?

Time is an illusion! 

Make the most of what

you are living!