May 18th, 2013

Hi, folks. It's been a while since I properly updated. For the most part, I've been burying myself in this record and ignoring almost everything else. It's the only way I know how to make things sometimes, putting myself into that little bubble. So I haven't been keeping up with e-mails very well, nor updating my sites or editing tutorials or any of that stuff. It's just been rehearsals to get the band together for shows and recording. And my usual sleep troubles whenever I do this.

But leading up to this, I went through the process of converting my garage into a recording space. I live with one of my brothers, and we moved into a place with a two-car garage middle of last year. As soon as I could I started the process of sound proofing part of it, mainly so I could have a place to record drums. For the past 12 years (holy crap ... I'm getting old), I've always done drums for albums at my friend's houses. They were always cool about it, but I've still never liked having to take up other people's space and time to do it. It also slowed the recording process down a lot. I'd often have to wait a few days to a week to lay down certain parts of songs, which can be frustrating both creatively and for meeting deadlines. But that's all different now. I can track drums in my garage, and between this space and the shed, I can do everything I need to do on my own schedule now. It's kinda hard to explain how exciting this is for me. I can't tell you how freeing it is for me.

So The Branches is really getting close. I've been shaping the material for a long time, but there's always something that happens during the process where it all clicks. It changes from "I think this is the record I'm making" to "I know exactly what record I am making." And once it solidifies like that, it's always really exciting for me. I suddenly know how to finish all the songs, and how they will slot together, and what they all mean in the larger context. I had that light bulb moment a few days, so I've been pretty elated these past few days.

Also, since I am getting close to done, I can have proper news concerning a release and some shows. The record will come out in Fall (likely early October), and I've booked a small European tour for November. I will also be doing a two-week run in the US, which is being finalized now. I'm trying to keep everything at two weeks so I don't burn out. And the idea is to just do them a bit more frequently and cover different territories with each outing. So I'm only playing 4 countries this trip in November, but I plan to come back in Spring and play some of the places I missed. So if I'm not reaching you on this run, I will try to on the next.

Also, I will have more people to play with me this time. I recently added a bass player, and for the Europe tour I will also have a viola da gamba player with me (he plays on the new album as well). So it'll be fun to see where the arrangements go now that I'll have more folks helping out. I'll write more about that as rehearsals get further along.

Anywho, the dates are up on the "shows" tab now, and on my facebook page. So if you have any interest in coming out, those will be the places to check for dates.

Now, Clone will also be coming out this summer. If it kills me. Hahaha. There have been tons of weird hurdles with this project, and I may have to scale some of the release ideas back in order to get it out. I'm running into those "there's only so much time in a day" kind of hurdles. But it's gonna happen one way or another. So more on that soon as I figure it out.

I have more to say, but my food's getting cold. I hope everyone is well.

March 4th, 2013

It's been a while since I've posted. Sorry about that. When I start recording, I tend to let a lot of things slip. And I don't just mean updating my websites -- with life in general. I just start losing track of things. Bad habit.

Anyway, that explains most of what I've been up to. I've been recording for "The Branches". I am currently about halfway through the 16 songs I have planned, and these will make up both the second volume of "The Bastards" and the album itself. Whenever I start recording, the songs always take on sounds and directions I wasn't quite expecting, but I'm glad. I like not knowing exactly where I will end up. But so far, so good. And it's really great to be using more instruments in the arrangements again. Been working with metal lately (the material, not the genre) and it's been fun collecting those sounds for percussion.

Anyway, I will talk more on that when it's all closer to finished. I hope to be done in May, and plan to have the album out in Fall. Fingers crossed I don't run into too many hitches along the way. Or get to obsessive and start recording everything over again.

Beyond that, I've booked a couple shows in the US for May. Weird, I know. But here are those dates, if you have any interest in coming out:

May 10th - Richmond, Va

"Friday Cheers" at Brown's Island. All ages. Starts around 6, will probably go on around 8.

May 24th - Portland, OR

The White Eagle. Not sure if there's an age limit. Doors at 8:30.

May 26th - George, WA.

Sasquatch Festival. Yeti stage. Sold out. Not sure what time, but probably mid-afternoon.

May 27th - Vancouver, BC

The media Club. 19+. Doors are at 8:00.

And that will be it for a while. After I'll be busy with the whole process of getting the record printed and distributed and such. But once the album is out, I will likely do a small run of shows in UK/Europe and a handful more in the US. I'd also like to try to get over to Australia at some point. But this is all a ways down the line.

Beyond that, I finally have my ducks in a row concerning Clone. I know, it's WAY late, and for that I apologize. We've been trying to find a good time to put it out between both our schedules (Rick and I), and I've also been kind of a weirdo about how the album is going to be manufactured. We're not doing CDs. We're releasing the album on laser-engraved crystal thumb drives, and it will be a pretty limited run. This is the mock-up of the product:

And the drives will come in a tin-case, also laser-engraved. I like lasers. I'm pretty excited about it in general. We wanted to do something more unique with the release, and I've never made anything like this before. The drive will come with the album, the stems for the album and the transcript that explains the story.

So all this is in production now. Should be done within the next 3 weeks. Beyond that, I'm working on the website for the album with my brother, and I will begin on the animations shortly. A special thanks to everyone who wrote in offering help. I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I am just now getting to those e-mails. The holidays wound up being somewhat crazy, and then between personal life things (I'm getting older and trying to figure out what that means ... haha) and recording I have not been on top of much of anything. And I feel guilty about it. I've already started remedying these problems. I will hopefully get back to everyone soon. But yeah. Sorry. I'm a turd sometimes.

Oh, and the forum. Registration has been busted for a little while now. I installed some plug-ins to keep the spam bots out, but in the meantime made it impossible for actual humans to sign up. A.K.A., I have no idea what I'm doing. But I'm working on sorting it out. I'll post a note when I get it in working order.

Anyway, I have some more little videos to post, among other things, and will hopefully get those up soon. But until then, I hope everyone is well.

12/12/12 (redundant dates are awesome)

Hi there. Couple of new snippets to post about here.

First off, my brother was nice enough to make me a little custom mailing list widget. It's up in the top right corner of the screen, if you'd like to join it. I occasionally send out bonus songs and stems and such through there, so if that sounds good and you don't mind me spamming you with info every couple months, then definitely sign up.

Next up, I added a couple shirts to the store (button up on the navigation bar). The first is just a Bear Machine label shirt. I have no idea if anyone would really want those, but I wanted to make a small run for fun. It's something I can wear and not feel like an asshole, which is nice. Hahaha.

But the second is the first in a series I'm doing called "The Artist Series." I know a lot of visual artists, both around town here in Jacksonville and elsewhere. For a long time I've wanted to commission them for some designs. I figured since I have a store now, why not do it as t-shirts? So what I'll be doing is, a few times a year I'll be printing a really short run of t-shirts, designed by different artists I know, and paying them with the profits. These will be limited runs, about 50 to 100 each, and when they're gone, that's it. No reprints. This current run is 100, to test the waters. I never even know if anyone wants this stuff, so my numbers are always a bit of a blind guess. We'll see.

The first one is up, and it's a design by Amber Vork. I met Amber while on the last Europe tour. We talked a bit and I complimented her on her shirt. She informed me that she'd made it herself, and then offered to make me one, which she did. This led me to see more of her work, which I liked, particularly this totem print she made (I have a soft spot for bears, if you haven't noticed). She offered to let me use it as part of this series, so that's the Totem shirt. You can check it out on the store. And if you'd like to see some more of her work, here's her website: http://ambervork.nl/

Also, these shirts will all be printed by a friend of mine here in Jacksonville. His name is JT, and he's really awesome with print and design. This is a picture of him looking awkward in front of his equipment, which he keeps in Rickolus's garage.

He also takes print work from people in general, so if you need someone in the North Florida area, or someone who can do smaller or more custom runs, send him a note. He's a good dude, and he's really good at what he does: JT@crooked-paw.com

Beyond that, I've been recording a lot on The Branches. It's taking on some new shapes, and some songs are going in ways I didn't quite expect. Which is really fun. I love how recording is always a little unpredictable to me. No matter how thoroughly I write a song, when I sit down to track it, there's always some mutations that happen. These have been a little more dramatic than I was expecting, but it's making all the material feel fresh again, so I'm not complaining.

But since I've been recording so much, I'm running into an issue with getting the Clone release together. The record is going to predominantly exist as a website, with narration videos to go along with all the songs and explain the content. I planned on putting these together myself, but it doesn't look like I'll have time if I'm gonna keep recording like this. So I'm just putting this out there: if there are any folks reading this that have an interest in animating some text for me, feel free to shoot me an e-mail with some work you've done. I'm not sure what'll be required for a project like this -- it's fairly simple, visually -- but it'd be pretty specific, and you'd have to work with me directly. It's all going into some gran design, so it has to fit. But if this is interesting to you and you think you'll have some free time over the next couple months, definitely send me a note.

And I guess that's good enough for now. I have other things kinda swimming around in my head, but it's all probably best left for the new year. So I hope everyone has a happy holiday, and that everyone is well.

November, 15, 2012

Hi, folks.

It's been a bit too long since I've posted. Time always slips away from me. I've been recording a lot for "The Branches", and once I get going I tend to tune out the world for a little while. I don't do well easing into it. But it's going really great. I'm happiest when I'm buried in a project like making an album. I think I'm at my most excited when these ideas I've had sitting around, sometimes for years, start forming into something specific, something I can play back, when it's no longer just rattling around in my head. I never get bored of the feeling. There's a thrill and satisfaction in it that I've never found anywhere else. I think it's why recording will always be my favorite part of all this.

But I have done a couple things recently I figured I should post about. First would be putting out this little Always Gold ep. At the moment, it's only available on itunes, but I'll be getting it in more spots soon. The ep is basically a collection of all the stragglers and alternate versions I've had from "The Roots" recording sessions -- a way to tie off everything from the first record. Some tracks were previously unreleased, and others you may have heard. But they're all available now in some form. From here on out, it'll be about the forthcoming "The Bastards: Volume 2" ep and "The Branches".

Beyond that, I also added a couple new videos to my YouTube channel. The first is a little live take of how I play "Ghost Towns" when it's just me and a guitar:

I also added another tutorial, this one for "Always Gold". I'm not real confident in my ability to explain finger picking, but I did my best with it:

I guess that's good for now. I'll have more news concerning the "Clone" release and a couple other little random bits, but for now I'm gonna get back to recording. I hope everyone is well.

September, 26, 2012

So as I mentioned in the last post, I made a video with some friends for Always Gold.

For the treatment, I really just wrote out what the song was about, and we shot that. My friend, Brian Guiry, who plays my brother in the video, was nice enough to let us take apart his house to film. Which was perfect, considering Brian's house was built about a hundred years ago and I was trying to avoid anything terribly modern (well ... as much as was reasonable). And he's never done anything with film before this, but he had no trouble jumping in and was really easy to work with. Thanks again for everything, Brian. Internet high-five. And thanks, as always, to Michael Walter and mark Hubbard, for giving up the time to film, and to Emeral and Brittany for helping with the setup and set design.

We shot the entire thing in two days. It cost about $50, and most of that cost just went to candles and firewood and that oil lamp. Granted, we were able to borrow all the camera equipment, and I realize that's a hell of a luxury. But all the props and such we already owned, so it didn't take much to put it all together.

One of these days I'm gonna have to shoot a video where we aren't filthy and sweaty the entire time. Hahaha.

I'm gonna upload some more guitar tutorials (Ghost Towns and Always Gold are next) and some little acoustic/live videos in the next week or so. But until then, I hope everyone is well.

September 20th, 2012

Hi there.

So it's been a while since I've posted. Sorry for the radio silence. I guess I took a vacation from everything. After the show at Landisfest (which was really fun, btw ... thanks for inviting me to that), I blew the money I made renting an apartment in a city where I didn't know anyone. I found a cheap, 200 square foot apartment in Vancouver and spent about 3 weeks walking around in solitude and writing in notebooks.

Ever since taking over the label side of things, things have been somewhat hectic. I've always handled everything when it came to making records, videos and artwork, and gladly. I may have started recording at home because it was the only way I could afford to do it, but now I wouldn't have it any other way. I love the process, and I wouldn't give it up even if I had other avenues. But the business side of things has been its own learning process. I don't at all regret taking it on, but it's been a lot to figure, and since it's not something that I'm terribly natural at, it has taken a lot of time and attention to sort it all.

So I cut off of everything for a little bit. Just spent some time not talking to anyone or checking e-mails or having a properly functioning phone. I had time to really think about this next record without distraction, to clarify where I'm at and where I'm headed with these next projects, and to simply think. It was awesome. I'm clear-headed and excited again. I know what this next album is going to sound like now, because I had time to let it stew in my head without interruption. And I also realize that I'm really damn lucky to be able to do all this on a whim. Not to imply that it was a smart use of money, because it wasn't, but the fact that I can just wander off somewhere without worry about, say, getting fired is not lost on me. Normally silly decisions like these have more consequences than having to catch up on tons of e-mails and apologize to a few people for disappearing.

I'll stop there. I've had a lot of time to just sit in my own head, so I'll spare you all the asinine musings. I think I also learned that there is such thing as having too much time inside your own head. Hahaha.

Anyway, I'm home now. I'll be catching up with folks over the next couple weeks. And all the projects are back on track. So ...

Clone: The intention was to have this out in fall, but it's looking like it'll have to be January. We are not doing anything very traditional with this record, like printing CDs or Vinyl (though, Vinyl may happen later if there's enough interest), and the manufacturing is going to take longer than expected. I also have a lot of narration videos to put together for the Clone website, and it will at least take me a couple months. So the date is now end of January. But we're committed to that one, so there shouldn't be any more delays.

Radical Face: The Branches is now the only thing I'm recording until it's done. I've already recorded 5 or 6 songs for this album, but I'm going to scrap those recordings (minus one). I'm keeping the songs, but I know how I want them to be produced now. It's not drastically different, but it's different enough that I want to start fresh.

I also shot a video for Always Gold, which will be up shortly. I'll write more about this when it's posted, but I really like how it came out. I'm pretty much just shooting the story of the songs in these videos, which has been it's own challenge. But I like how it came out.

As always, I have more to say here, but my friend Mark (the guy I shoot all these videos with) is getting married this week and I gotta get to the rehearsal dinner. I will post more now that I'm home. I hope everyone is well.

July 17th, 2012

Okay. Everything is back in order now. The forum is no longer broken, and all the download links should be functioning now. And my e-mails are up and running again. But I am really behind. Gonna start my catch up mission this week, but it always takes me a little while to get things back in order, and unfortunately some messages just kinda fall through the cracks. If you sent me an e-mail and didn't get a response, feel free to send it again. You aren't bothering me. I need reminders.

The current sale in the webstore will cease on Friday. Just wanted to give folks a heads up on that.

Beyond that, me and my friends are shooting another no-budget-video over the next two weeks for "Always Gold". It's a simple concept (just following the content of the song, really), but I never know how videos are going to turn out. We've done a fair amount of them at this point, but I go back to feeling unsure with each one. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's just because of all the variables with video. I'm never sure if the ideas I have on paper will translate properly, and whether the mood will be right. But I guess we'll see.

Also, Clone is coming together well, as far as getting it ready for release is concerned. Much of the design is now worked out. Just looking for a mastering engineer to finish off the audio, finding a manufacturer to make everything, and working on all the additional content that goes with the album (there's a lot). And The Branches is under way as well. I can never say how long it will take me to finish a record, but I have this one more sorted out than I normally do, so I suspect it won't take me nearly as long as it normally does. But again, we'll see.

More soon. I hope everyone is well.

July 12, 2012

First things first: I somehow broke my e-mail. I'm working out the details now, but I'm not receiving any messages, and I have no idea if my outgoing are arriving. I guess it has something to do with pointing my domain name to a new server. I'm working on the answer now, but please bear with me for a little bit. I don't entirely know what I'm doing.

That being said ...

Show Update: I will be playing my first ever show in Canada. I was asked to play at Landis Fest, and since I was planning on visiting Vancouver for a little while anyway, it just kind of coincided. The show will be on August 3rd, and it's on VanEeerden farms near Grand Prairie, Alberta. I won't have a band with me, so it'll mostly be an acoustic affair (read: pretty boring to most people ... hahaha), but my friend from Jacksonville who plays bassoon in the orchestra is gonna come. We've made arrangements for 4 songs so far, and they're different from how I'd normally play them, but I like them a lot. Bassoon is an awesome instrument. Anyway, I have no idea if the show will be any good, but if you're in the area and decide to go, come say hello.

Clone: So we're all done with the album and looking to get it mastered next week. It'll be the next release on my label (Bear Machine Records), and will be avilable in fall. I will have more details as we go, but for now I have a little teaser video put up. It's just the first 3 minutes of the first act, but it'll give you a small idea of how the record will sound (though, to be honest, it really goes all over the place).

I also added an Electric President song to my youtube channel, with some words to go along with it. This is a song that was never widely released, but was made for the Japan Tsunami Relief in 2011. Since I'd never done much with it, I figured I'd upload it, and add the lyrics for fun.

I also have some more tutorials and little live videos coming soon. But first I gotta fix this broken e-mail.

I hope everyone is well.

July 11th, 2012

So the new website is finally up! Took a little longer than expected, which I should learn to expect. But it was worth the extra work. This new one is going to be so much easier to keep up with. My brother coded it for me, and added tons of nifty features that make updating it really simple. And I think it's a much better organization of all the info. If you'll notice the buttons on the left, the news sections is now divided into years to avoid it being the ridiculous tower of text it was before. And embedding players and photos is much simpler, and I can even update from my phone if I need to. Not that I really use my phone very much. But I could. Future.

I put up some new stuff for download. If you check the Radical Face section under the music tab, I added a zip of the Junkyard Chandelier to my server. It's technically the first Radical Face record, though I never actually released anywhere. Figured I might as well give it away, since folks sometimes ask me for it. I also have the Unkle Stiltskin record up (it's under "other") and the first Patients album available. Some songs are also downloadable from the embedded soundcloud players, so check those as well.

New to the site are the "Videos" and "Lyrics" sections. Well, technically I had a lyrics section on the former site, but it never had any lyrics. Now it does. I only have the full-length records for Electric President and Radical face up right now, but I'll add more as I get time. I'd like it to eventually be a database of all the songs. Same with the videos section. It'll give me a way to compile them all in one place, which would be nice even for my own sake.

My brother is currently working on coding me a player for the site. It'll be a little side bar music player, and I'm just gonna add all the music I've made to it. So while on the site, you can listen to any of it. I will also be able to make songs downloadable from the player, which will be nice. We hope to get that up in a couple weeks. The code for it seems a little complicated. Also, RSS feed will be back in shortly, as well as an easier way to sign up for the mailing list.

Since I was updating he site, my sister went ahead and updated the store. W went through all my inventory recently and found some boxes of records and shirts that I forgot I had, and we thought it'd be fun to do a little sale. So for the next week or so, everything is ten bucks. Vinyls, CDs, shirts, whatever. But some of these are really short supply, like the vinyls for Ghost, Sleep Well and S/T -- I only have about 9 left of each. But now's a good time to grab them if you're interested.

I have more to add, but I'm dozing off. I'll do another update tomorrow. Because updating is now super easy. Long live new things, until something even newer comes along.

I hope everyone is well.

June 14th, 2012:

Hi, Folks.

Sorry for the radio silence. Between moving, making some new furniture, working on the new record, working on two music videos and rebuilding this here website, I've been losing my mind a little bit. But I'm almost done with the new website, at least. I made a much simpler, more minimal design that'll be easier to update. And my little brother is coding it this time around, instead of myself, so it will function a hell of a lot better. Some of the features I want to include will have to wait a little while, as the code is a little complicated, but the basic site should be finished and published next week. I'll post some actual content then.

So I guess this is just a post about why I haven't been posting. How meta.

I hope everyone is well. More soon.

April 6th, 2012:

So it's been a while since I've posted. Sorry about that. The beginning of this year was really busy. Or it felt like it, at least. In some ways, I'm much busier when I'm home, but I've found I'm not real good at juggling all my normal projects while being in and out of town. It's good to be done, though. I don't mind touring from time to time, but I'm happiest just writing and recording and making videos and such. Once I'm done figuring out my taxes (almost finished!), that's exactly how the rest of my year is gonna be spent. It'll be a good year or so before I really consider any more touring. I might do a couple one-off shows, but no more than that for a while.

That being said, thank you to everyone who came out to the shows. I realize that performing isn't exactly my strong suit (I'm a pretty sloppy musician, even at my best), but I hope that people at least had fun. That's the main goal for me when doing shows. While in Europe, Laura (my friend who did merch for me) was kind enough to shoot a bunch of photos. I never remember to shoot any, so it was a nice change. I did my best to take pictures while in Japan, though. I've been uploading some these to a new Tumblr over the afternoon. I'm gonna try using it as a photo blog, since I can update it easier when I'm not home. Here's a link to that:

Tumblr

Also, while in Japan, I wound up shooting a lot of video with the video-mode on my point and shoot camera. I did this a lot more than shooting photos. I was itching to make something with it when I got back, so I cut it into a video for "Feathers" from the last Electric President record. It works both as a music video and a little tour documentation. Here's a link if you wanna see it:

I'm in a video making mood lately. I have a few new ones that I'm gonna be shooting this month. One of them is another Electric President video. I bought some toy video cameras while in Japan, and I wanna shoot a video with them for Safe and Sound with them. One of the cameras doesn't even have a view finder, and they're both really tiny. But the footage on them is pretty awesome. The second video will be for "Always Gold" from The Roots and will be more of a production. I have a treatment written out based on the story of the song, and we'll be shooting that pretty soon. I just have to get some clothing and props together and we should be ready to go.

As for new plans, I'm gonna be focusing on The Branches now. I plan on having it all wrapped up before the year is out, but we'll see. I'm terrible at predicting these things. Also, Clone will be released this year. I'm getting all the material for the presentation of it together now, and I will be posting a preview of the album shortly. I've posted about the Clone project before, so see former entries for that info, but I'm excited to finally show people this. I had no idea it would take this long to see it released, but I never do.

So that's really it. Make videos, release Clone, finish The Branches. Oh, and our film! Me and a the guys I make music videos recently finished shooting out movie. I wrote a script in 2010, and it took us about a year and a half to film it all (we thought it would take 3 weekends ... ha). We are now in post production for it, finally beginning to really edit and color and all that. Me, Emeral (my brother, other member of Iron Orchestra), and my friend Anthony (who plays in the Jacksonville Orchestra) are writing the score for it as well. We'd like to have it totally wrapped up before Autumn, but I'll be happy if we finish before the year's out. I still have no idea if the movie's even gonna be any good, but it's been a really fun project. And stressful. But mostly fun.

So yeah, that's it. Back home and starting to really move on new work. Oh, and for those who have been asking, Electric President is not a dead project. We're going to do one more album. It likely won't be until next year, but we haven't called it quits yet. We've just been on hiatus.

I'll update more soon. Unless I have nothing to add or say. I hope everyone is well.

January 17th, 2012:

Well, it's a new year. Congrats on making it this far. We're still alive.

I've been waiting for a little while to post, mostly because of my curse. I don't know if I've ever mentioned my curse, but whenever I have some shows coming up, something happens to me. I'm not sure if I cause it because I'm trying to be conscious of my health before I leave, or whether I just have bad luck. But I always end up getting sick, losing my voice, injuring myself, etc. This time, it's an injury.

I hurt my back almost 12 days ago lifting at the gym. This isn't terribly uncommon. I did some severe damage to lower back when I was 19 and determined to become a professional skateboarder. I fell from a high ledge onto my tailbone and rearranged some important parts. That ended my skating career promptly and, 11 years later, I still deal with it. I got into strength training in 2008, and go to the gym 3 nights a week. It's what I do for stress relief, and to help deal with insomnia. It's been a huge help ever since I started. But about once a year, mostly due to negligence or carelessness, my form slips during a heavy lift and it puts me out for a while. All it takes is a bad squat, deadlift, or in this case, an overhead press. The mistakes are always obvious in hindsight. But even so, I'm typically back to normal in about a week. 10 days at the most. I must have done something particularly bad this or time, or perhaps I'm just getting old, because it's been almost 2 weeks and I still can't be on my feet for more than half an hour before the pain/cramps get bad. And I gotta fly out in 2 days.

I'm still doing this tour. No worries there. I'm just explaining all this because I may have to play seated, and I think it might be a painful couple of weeks. So it goes.

Beyond that, I've been waiting on the holiday dust to settle. And it has. I'm forming all my plans for the year.

First off, The Roots is going to be more readily available in Europe, Australia and the UK starting at the end of the month. I set up a licensing deal with Nettwerk Records in Europe so I can have more proper distribution over there. It won't effect me creatively at all (I'm not willing to give up any creative control at this point), or me running things myself. I'm still releasing everything under Bear Machine Records, I'm just partnering with Nettwerk for distribution not on this continent (similar to working with Lirico for distribution in Japan). It just means I won't have to personally deal with customs for shipping, and it'll be cheaper and faster for everyone involved. And the cool thing is I'm taking very little hits financially for this as well. It's a great deal.

So the record will have better availability outside of the US come the end of this month. It's a load off for me. I'm kind of stumbling through this process of releasing things myself, and I can say I've learned a whole lot in the past 6 months. I've made my mistakes as well (thanks for bearing with me, those who've had to), but I try to remember the mistakes are important too. They're often the best teachers.

And on that tip, vinyl is finally should be coming soon. I don't have the official date for the pressings yet, but the last test pressing sounded good, the artwork is in, and we're just waiting on the finished product now. Next record, I will be able to have it all done on time. But I guess I had to trial and error through this one. I've learned more about vinyl than I ever expected to, though, and I have that much more appreciation for the craft as a result.

I also wanted to share some things in relation to these new records. For these Family Tree albums, I have a lot of notes and stories and little knickknacks associated with the project. For example, some of these songs I also wrote in short story form, where I went into more depth. I've already shared this one with some folks (either through the forum, or the web store), but figured I would post it here as well. It's for the song Severus and Stone (and for those who bother to read it ... there's a clue somewhere in it).

Here's a link to the PDF

I plan to post more of these stories soon. I just need to edit them. I've also just added a little live acoustic video to my youtube channel.

It's a murder ballad I wrote, and it's a part of the Family Tree set. I'm gonna start shooting little videos like these from time to time, just as a way to document some of the simpler live arrangements I make. And I am still doing the tutorials. I just haven't had a lot of time to edit them down, but I've got a few more filmed. Once I'm done with this tour, I will have free time again and can be faster about getting them up. Winter Is Coming, Deserter's Song and Ghost Towns are the next 3 coming up.

Now Clone. Because of touring and trying to be a label, I still haven't had time to get this in order yet. So me and Rick talked it over and felt like April would be the best time to put it out. 3 months later than originally intended, but I want the time to do it right. The presentation for the record, due to it's odd nature, will take some work. So I'm sorry for the delays on that. I feel like I've been talking about this record for three years now. Probably because I have. Hahaha.

There's something else I'm forgetting. Which seems to happen damn near every time. You know when you have, say, a long mental list of books you want to get, but right when you get the bookstore you can't remember any of them? That's how I feel about this here page. I always have all these things I think I want to cover, then forget them when I sit down to write. So I guess I'll stop here, and if it comes to me before I leave, I will update again. If not, I'll do it when I get back.

I hope everyone is well. And if any of you reading this are coming out to any shows to watch me limp around, come say hello. No need to be shy. I'm harmless. I promise.

November 11th, 2011:

Hi there.

So it's been a little while since I last updated. I took a break when I got home from that last run of shows. Getting this last release together was a marathon. Mostly because I was learning everything as I went, and I'm crap at time management. Not the best combination. Hahaha. But I'm getting back into the swing of everything, and I've started recording in full again as of a couple nights ago. Which is great. A lot of this year has been dealing with things related to music, but not a lot of actually making it. Since writing and recording is my favorite part of all this by a long shot, it's good to get back to focusing on that. I definitely missed it.

So The Branches is now officially under way. I've already tracked a number of songs for it already, and I have the bulk of it planned out, so I'm not exactly starting at the beginning. But that's what I'm focusing on during my shed time. I also have a couple more music video ideas I'd like to shoot for The Roots, which I'll likely be doing between now and the end of the year as well. But for the most part it's gonna be recording. No complaints from me on that. Oh, and getting Clone together. I'll post more about that soon, but it's gonna be available early next year. Details coming soon.

Also, I have some more shows booked. If you click on the shows button up above, you'll see the dates for the European tour next year. 14 shows total. This'll be the first time I've toured over there since 2006, and the first time ever as Radical Face. Iif you live on that side of the ocean and would like to see a show, hopefully I'm coming near enough to warrant coming out. I will also be doing a Japanese tour in March, and will post those dates once I have them.

Oh, and The Roots is going to have a vinyl release, it's just taking a while. I'm having the plates cut for a third time. I don't see the point in pressing vinyl if it isn't going to sound really good, and so far the test pressings weren't what I was hoping. But this last pressing should be proper, and then in 6 to 8 weeks I'll have them. I realize that this is absurdly delayed, and I apologize for that. But I'd rather have it late and correct then rush to get it out with lackluster sound.

I definitely have more to post, but it's late and I'm probably not at my most coherent right now. So until next time.

I hope everyone is well.

September 29th, 2011:

Okay. Finally got my act together enough to update again.

First off, we finally got the web store up and running. And only 3 weeks later than planned. Haha. If you click on the "store" button, it'll show you the two spots to order from (and yes, I'm aware of the typo at the bottom). Both will ship anywhere. It will just be cheaper and faster shipping depending on where you live. But one thing I want to be clear on: it's just me and my sister running this, and we're learning as we go. So please bear with us in the beginning. We're still establishing the system for how it's all gonna work, and it's never as simple as it seems. I also ran into a bunch of problems during manufacturing (as well as getting nitpicky and redoing the entire booklet multiple times to get it right), which will delay when things can ship. Sounds like the CDs won't even arrive here until the 10th, so everything will probably go out a week late, and other fun issues like that. But the store is finally functioning for placing orders at least. And since there's a new record coming out, we have some preorder bundles. Those are pretty limited, though. We're just doing it until we run out of shirts (and bonus packages) and have to reprint, so there's 300 total. It'll all be separate after that. And I will eventually be adding the older records and posters and buttons and such, but it'll have to be when I get back from playing shows. So maybe in November.

Next in line: the video for "A Pound of Flesh" off the new record is finally public: youtube

As usual, I made this with my friend Mark Hubbard, alongside Michael Walter and my brother, Micah. The three of them shot it, and it took us the bulk of 3 days to get all the footage. We drove around Florida and hunted down locations that didn't have anything glaring modern in them for all the travel shots, then we shot all the night stuff here in Jacksonville. It cost about $165 total, mostly just for our clothes, gas, a fog machine and renting a generator. My sister and my mom helped make the costumes, and my brother Emeral (other half of Iron Orchestra) helped organize all the shots and collected all the props. The people in the hoods are my brothers (Sam Cooper on the right, Micah Cooper in the middle) and my cousin (Timothy Brown on the left). The guys with axes are my friend Curtis Lyles (he's our resident stuntman) and Mark Hubbard.

Here are some stills from the shoot:

The idea for the video was to just shoot what the song was about. Starts with the aftermath of killing a man, then a long walk home with plenty of time to think over it and regret it, followed by discovering that sometimes dead men have brothers. Then the stuff at night was just some added fantasy elements, because I'm a sucker for those. All-in-all, it was fun to make. But all the sweat and dirt wasn't fake. Hahaha. It gets pretty hot in Florida during the summer (imagine that). Also, after going in those swamps and such, I had a bunch of weird bites on me. On the third day after filming, I woke up and the back of my neck was red and swollen. Had to go to the doctor get it checked out. They had me do a run of antibiotics. Which is what I get for mucking through swamps, I guess. Anyway, we plan to do a couple more videos for the record over the fall and winter. The other ones are gonna be tougher, logistically speaking, but I think they'll work well.

There were some other things I meant to post about, but I can't think of them now. I'll just do another post when I think of them. Oh, and if you've sent me an e-mail in the past couple months but didn't get a response, I apologize for that. I've been juggling way too many things at once and there's a lot of holes in my response list. I'm slowly getting caught up, but if you never heard back, feel free to write again or forward your question. It's not a hassle. I've just been a mess lately.

Well, I'm off to bed. I hope everyone is well.

September 16th, 2011:

Wanted to put up some small updates concerning the release of the new Radical Face record. It's currently up for preorder digitally through itunes. Early next week, I should have the webstore up and running and I'll be taking preorders for the physical CDs (the details of which I'll dig into next post). I will also have vinyl, but not for at least a month after release. I screwed up a bunch of stuff over the course of getting everything manufactured, so I totally botched the release date. Better late than never, I guess. But yeah. I suck. And I'm really just learning as I go. One thing I've really learned this summer is how crap I am at time management. Hahaha. But I'll have more details on all this shortly. Just trying to get everything in place first. It's always more complicated than I think it'll be.

But I also have some show dates. Not a lot. These will be short runs, but I'll have two band members with me, and we'll be playing with choirs, so I think they'll be really fun. I'm excited to see how it's all gonna turn out. And hopefully it isn't just a giant mess. Hahaha. There may be a couple more dates coming, but we can't go out for very long because of jobs and whatnot.

October 6th: San Francisco, at the Brick and Mortar Music Hall (with the Albatross Choir)

October 11th: Los Angeles, at the Bootleg Theater (with the Easterly Singers)

October 22nd: Arlington, Virginia, at the Rock Spring Congregational United Church of Christ (with the Yorktown Vocal Ensemble)

October 25th: NYC, at The Studio at Webster Hall (guest to be announced ... still working it out)

I actually have a lot more to post, but I'm falling asleep. So I'll move it to the next update, which will happen shortly.

More soon. I hope everyone is well.

July 30th, 2011:

Alright. Just wanted to update some things. I have a bunch of concrete information on The Roots now.

So first off, the release date is October 4th. Hence the little splash page currently on the website. The digital version will be available in all the usual places (itunes, amazon, etc). But the CDs and vinyls will be sold predominantly here, on my website, as I'm doing this without a label. Or rather, I'm becoming my own label. It's really just a formality, to be honest. I'm not gonna be putting out other people's records. It's more for legal purposes than anything else. But I've got a name (Bear Machine Records) and a logo (see below ... not necessarily a final draft, though) and all that fun stuff.

Anyway, I'm putting together a webstore with my brother, and then my sister is gonna help me run it (I have a cool family). So this site will be the main place to get everything, unless you live in Japan, in which case it will be available on Lirico Records. And starting around the beginning of September I'll have a limited number of preorder bundles available. The kind of thing where you get a CD/Vinyl, a shirt, and stickers and post cards and buttons. Not really sure what it will include yet. Still finishing up all the designs. But I'm gonna do my best to keep it as cheap as I can. I'll post more on this as it gets closer. Oh, and I now have a proper e-mail list. It's currently on that opening splash page, and I'm gonna put it up on somewhere on the website as well. I'll be sending out updates and random stuff through that list (extra songs, stems for remixing, bonus artwork, etc), so if that sounds interesting go ahead and sign up.

And for the past couple weeks, I've been shooting some press photos with my brother. As always, we did them in the family backyard, just building sets and doing ridiculous things. And then I sent some to my friend Gordon McBryde, a photographer and editor out in the UK, who messed around with them as well. I think of a lot of them came out pretty funny. In a good way. I like ridiculous photos. I'll post a few below.

Another thanks to Gordon for the assistance on some of these. If you have a moment, you should really check out his site. He has some really fantastic work, and he likes working with bands and other artists. If you need art or photo editing, try hitting him up. He's been helping me with all the album artwork for The Roots as well. Really stand-up guy. And much better with photoshop than I'll likely ever be. Hahaha.

And a couple side notes: I have a proper forum installed now. This one should run a lot better, and not be plagued by spam bots. I got a proper license and everything (and another thanks to Alex Sexton for helping me install it). It's open to everyone, so feel free to sign up and discuss whatever you like. I will also be using it as the main way to organize the odd venue shows, and other projects like that. So yeah. This one is here to stay.

Also, I added another guitar tutorial to my youtube channel. It's for Glory.

And if there are any other songs you'd like a tutorial for, I started a thread for it on the forum. Feel free to post requests there, and I'll get to them when I can. Also, that youtube is gonna be my "official one", in that I will posting a lot of random crap on it.

Well, that's enough for now. I'll have more news soon. I've been working on all this non-stop for almost two months now getting this all together, so there's a bunch more coming. Then I can finally sleep. Hahaha. Oh, and bear with me on e-mails. I know I'm slow getting back to folks right now. But I'll be catching up again soon.

I hope everyone is well.

August 19th, 2011:

Just a quick mini-update ...

I think I mentioned this in earlier posts, but I'm giving away a free EP. I'm gonna be releasing a number of free EPs over the course of this Family Tree project, all of them part of a series I'm calling "The Bastards." So this is "The Bastards: Volume One." It's 3 songs. None of them are on The Roots, as they didn't make sense on the record no matter where I put them, but they were recorded at the same time. Plop your e-mail in the little widget below if you'd like to download it. It should be up for at least a few weeks.

More soon. I just wanted to make sure I made this available. I've been a mess lately, and I wanted to do this before I forgot. I hope everyone is well.

June 16th, 2011:

Alright. Finally got my information together to update. Always takes me longer than I think it will. Life has a tendency to get in the way sometimes.

I'll just update the Radical Face stuff today. I have more to say with Clone, putting in a properly working forum, the upcoming webstore, so on and so forth, but it'd be a monster of a post. So I'll break it up.

I'm now done with all things audio on The Roots. I wrapped up all the final mixes last night. It's been a long time coming, so this is a bit of a relief. As long as I have the ability to tweak things and tinker with them, I do. So it's good to have it out of my hands, with a “finished” stamp on it. And I can focus on getting the artwork together, finish writing some short stories for it (I'm gonna tell some of the back stories of songs on the album … mostly as an excuse to write), getting the CDs/Vinyls printed, and all that fun stuff. I already have a lot of it done, in terms of ideas and rough drafts. Just gotta get the actual layouts together and make final versions of everything.

I can't say the specific release date yet, but it'll be around the end of September. So not too far off. And it'll be my first fall release! I usually do the bulk of my writing and recording in Fall, so I'll be glad to put it out around that time. I notice the seasons a lot, which is why I mention that. I realize most people probably don't care. Hahaha. I'm really excited to finally get this album out, though. It can be tough to sit on material for such a long time, and I've been itching to get this trilogy rolling. Oh, and I plan on putting out a free EP just before the record (3 or 4 songs), and that should be available for download in August. I'm also putting together a mailing list as a way to do announcements, and give away extra songs or alternate mixes and all that fun stuff, so check back for that if you're interested in staying up on all this. Should have the sign up button on the site by next week.

I'll talk more about the record as the release date gets closer. For now, I gotta start getting some of my videos ideas going.

Shows: I wasn't quite sure how I was gonna tour for this record at first. I usually end up playing by myself, and unfortunately I don't write a whole lot of music that works well with just one person. I often have to rewrite the songs and do totally different versions live. Which is fine for the most part, but doesn't always work out the way I'd hope. With this new record, I have a lot of voices on it. And while talking with my manager, Rachel, about what to do for shows, she suggested playing with a vocal/choral group. I think I just laughed when she suggested it. I can barely afford to play with a regular sized band, much less a chorus. But she came up with the idea of seeing if any choruses or vocal groups would be interested in learning the music beforehand, and I could just travel to where they are, rehearse with them, and then do a show.

I loved the idea, so that's what we're gonna try to do. This will be volunteer based. I've been working with my friend, Anthony, who plays bassoon for the Jacksonville Orchestra, and he's been helping me notate the record. We'll send ahead everything needed to learn the vocal parts (sheet music, recordings, etc) and you'll have a couple months to practice it. None of it should be terribly difficult – if I can sing it, then someone who can genuinely sing should have no problems. So no worries there. We'd have a rehearsal the day before the show, the day of, and a performance that night. The choral group could also open the show with a performance of whatever they're currently working on as well, and half the ticket sales will go to the group, or their arts program if it's a school, or a local charity, or whatever you want.

So if anyone reading this post is in any such group, or knows someone who is, and would be interested in doing this, the link below is an application.

Application (no longer valid)

To be honest, I really have no idea if this is gonna work. There might not be enough people interested to do a proper tour. But I think the idea is awesome, and I love the sound of lots of voices. I think it'd be a really great way to perform the record. So it's worth a shot. If you have any further questions, please e-mail me and Rachel (both our e-mails are in the contacts section of the site).

I will also be doing some smaller backyard-style shows off an on as well. I actually have some dedicated live band members now, for the first time. I found some friends who can tour with me, so I won't always have to go out solo all the time. It'll be great to finally have something consistent in that regard. Usually, every time I agree to do a show it feels like starting from scratch, in terms of members and arrangement. I won't miss that feeling.

And yes, I plan to do some stuff overseas, too. I'm still working out the whens and hows, but I'd like to go do some of these shows in the UK and Europe (both proper clubs, and smaller backyard and living room shows as well … see former posts if you don't know what I'm talking about with the “odd venues” concept). It'd likely be late this year, or early next. I'll post about it as soon as I know.

Lastly, I wanted to mention a project I was involved in recently. Google decided to take the “It Gets Better” project to television, and they asked to use my song “Doorways” for it. Normally, TV and film stuff is fine by me, in that it helps new people hear the music in some form and pays some bills (or in my current situation, pays so I can release my own records), but that's about it. I can't say I'm terribly excited about it. But this one was different. This is a project that really hits close to home for me. It's the kind of thing I wish I had heard growing up and dealing with these issues, and I already supported it before the offer even came up. So I'm genuinely glad to be a part of it. Click below if you wanna see it:

youtube

Okay. That's enough for now. I'll post the other stuff shortly. And I should be doing more frequent updates as this goes along (maybe twice a month instead of once?), and using the mailing list to get stuff to folks as well. But for now I'm gonna go jump in the ocean.

I hope everyone is well.

April 23rd, 2011:

Quick mini update:

I am playing a small set on Monday, April 25th, in Orlando for the Invisible Children benefit. It will be really simple, just me and a guitar, and a handful of songs. 3 or 4, is what I was told. But if you'd like to come out, support the cause and say hello, the details of all this can be found on the charity's website: Invisible Children

Also, there's a new Electric President track up on the "Anything For Progress" compilation, in which all the proceeds go to help raise money for the earthquake victims in Japan. The song is called "The City and the Machines", and it's only available on itunes for now. Here's a link with more info: project page

That's it for now. More soon.

April 19th, 2011:

I'm back!

Alright. I have a lot of catching up to do here. I'll try to keep this short, but it likely won't be.

First and foremost, I apologize for my long silence. It wasn't due to negligence or laziness. I've been involved in a “legal debate” between me and the label for the past 4 or 5 months, and other issues before that, and I couldn't really talk about any plans or projects until it was all settled. That settlement arrived today. So here I am. I'm not going to go into all the nitty gritty details of the argument here – I don't see the point, and I'm not terribly interested in dragging it all back up, to be honest. But I'll tell you how it came about.

If you've read some of my former posts, you'll already know about this, but for those of you that haven't … My next Radical Face record is actually being split into three full length albums. I wanted to write an album on the topic of family. As a vehicle for this, I came up with a fictional family tree ranging from 1800 to around 1950, cobbled together from genealogy charts and personal experiences and stories I've read. Then I spent about 2 years writing songs about it. When I sat down to pull all the material together, it boiled down to almost 40 songs. So I decided to organize it as a trilogy, because I'm a nerd and I have a soft spot for trilogies, and to call the set “The Family Tree”, with the first album being dubbed “The Roots”, the second “The Branches” and the third “The Relatives”. That's the diet version of the process. I wrote in more detail in earlier posts.

Well, when it came time to present this idea as something to release, I ran into some roadblocks. I wasn't surprised. It's happened with every release I've ever done, and those were just single records. But over the course of these talks, I realized some things about the business of putting out records Or rather, I'd already known these things, but this time around they bothered me too much to ignore.

There's obviously a business side to releasing music. Labels invest money in you, both by pressing your material and by paying to have you promoted, reviewed, and so on. And in many cases they pay for the records to actually get recorded, for videos to be made, etc (in my case, I handle all of that). Anyway, something that happens as a result is that eventually it's all just systems. There's a little bit of flexibility within these systems, but not much. The process becomes it's own kind of assembly line, for the sake of efficiency, contracts, and making sure all the systems work together (pressing, distributing, accounting, etc.). So what you make has to fit into this to some degree. If it doesn't, it's a problem. This might be idealist and silly of me, but I'm gonna go ahead and say it anyway: I think this is backwards. I think the system should be designed around what you make. I think the music should be made without any of those worries, and you should focus solely on what you want to say and how you're going to say it. Then, once it's all finished, you find a way to get it to people. I realize that this means making adjustments for every release, and every artist. And I realize that's probably too much to ask of a label, to be fair, as they have plenty of other artists to deal with. But it seems pretty plausible for one person.

So I decided I wanted to release the next Radical Face records myself. Just figure out a way to do it without all the arguments and debates, and just get it out in the way that felt the most appropriate. Turns out, it wasn't that simple, and then it all became legal. There were other things involved in our disagreements, as is always the case, and it really dragged on for a while.

But now, finally, everything is settled. And that is the plan – to release these records on my own. I'm getting all the details together over the next couple weeks, so I can't say exactly how this will go down just yet. But I'm working with a manager, and between the two of us, and some help from some of my family members, I think we can make it work. It's going to be more work, no two ways about it, but I don't mind. I'm up for it. It makes the idea of releasing a record/project more exciting than it's ever been in the past. And even if this blows up in my face and I'm being completely naive, I want to at least try. I will be posting more frequently as I figure out what's gonna happen.

On a similar note, I've had a number of folks write in recently about songs from either Radical Face or Electric President being used on TV. I appreciate that some folks have written in to make sure I was aware of this, but yes, I'm aware. I've been planning on all this self-releasing stuff since last year, and the money from those TV spots are how I'm funding these upcoming records. I'm gonna be fronting the cost of pressing the records and getting them distributed, running a web store, making merch for tours, funding shows, etc., and all that costs a bit. Since the opportunities showed up, and I was already getting plans for all this together, I figured I'd just use it to jump start the whole thing. I realize that some people will always be disappointed in music being used this way, which is understandable. I have my reasons, but in the end they're just mine. I don't expect them to be shared. And to be totally honest, I've never much cared about that stuff anyway. I don't worry over how people hear the music. I'm glad that it happens at all. But this is probably a larger topic than I can cover in an update, so I'll leave it at that. But thanks to those who were writing in to make sure I was being duped. Hahaha.

Now for the projects …

Radical Face: The first record, “The Roots”, is done. It's 11 tracks long. It's mixed, most of the artwork is together, and now it just needs to be mastered. It won't be available until early fall (September) as I have a lot of stuff to set up first, but I'm gonna release a free 4-song EP that's tied to the Family Tree records in Summer. Or at least, this is the plan. Hard to say for sure. But it looks good. More on all this soon, once I can confirm some things.

Clone: We finished! After two and a half years, we finally finished all the tracking for the album. It's funny looking back now. We figured it would take us 6 – 8 months to record. Pretty crappy estimation. But I am in the mixing phase with the record now, as well as getting the website together for it. We won't be releasing this like a traditional record, and exactly how we're gonna put it out I will elaborate on in my next post, probably in the next few days. But I just wanted to mention that we are done, and we celebrated by drinking coctails on Rick's back porch.

Tutorials: I've been meaning to make little video tutorials for playing my stuff for a while now. I have people write me from time to time for sheet music or tabs, but I don't have an easy way to break it down. At least, not in text. Back when I first started writing music, I came up with a useless-to-anyone-but-me shorthand to pen it all down with. It was just the easiest way at the time, as I didn't want to take the time to learn notation. But it makes showing anyone the songs a hassle. I didn't consider this an issue at the time. Anyway, I finally picked up a little pocket camera and started making videos for playing the songs on guitar. The first two, “Welcome Home” and “Wrapped in Piano Strings” are uploaded. Here are the links:

Welcome Home and Wrapped In Piano Strings

I recorded the Welcome Home one on almost no sleep, which I have since learned not to do. Hahaha. If there are any songs you'd like a tutorial for, feel free to shoot me an e-mail request and I'll get to them as time permits. But I'm gonna keep these guitar only. My piano playing isn't good enough to be showing anyone anything.

And on that topic, if you sent me an e-mail at some point and I didn't get back to you, it might have been because I missed it, or because I wasn't entirely open to talk about things due to legal hang-ups, or because I am usually a total mess about my e-mails. Whatever the case, feel free to forward it again if you didn't get a response.

Shows: I'm gonna have more announcements about shows pretty soon. Now that I'm free to book again, I'm gonna start planning some small outings for the Summer, and some longer ones for the fall. I'm still mostly gonna be playing in backyards and odd locations (see former posts if you don't know what I'm talking about), but I'll be booking them again starting next month, or once I have the Radical Face and Clone releases put together.

I have more to write about, and I need to update a number of parts around the website, but I will stop here for now. This is probably long enough as it is. More soon.

I hope everyone is well.

November 17th, 2010:

It's been a while since I've updated. Sorry about that. I try to update at least once a month.

I blame Autumn. This is my favorite time of year. Whenever Fall shows up, I find myself writing and recording constantly. It's the time when I'm most excited to make things. And as a result, I usually get in over my head and wind up juggling five projects at once. Happens every year. I wouldn't change it. But a large part of this just boils down to circumstances, I think. The shed I write/record in is the same temperature as it is outdoors (hotter, in Summer). So once the weather's good, and I'm not out there recording in my underwear and sweating the entire time, I'm happy to just work without all the annoyances. Or maybe I just like Fall.

But for some general updates on how everything's been going with each of the projects ...

Radical Face: Still not a whole lot of news concerning the release date for The Roots (first record in the "Family Tree" set). Having this concept span 3 records has proved pretty challenging in lots of ways, both in the making of it, and in figuring out how to release it. I think it's getting close to having some kind of release plan attached to it, but I thought that a month ago. Who knows at this point. The one upside to these delays -- I've already started recording for the 2nd record, The Branches, and as some of the songs I had planned for album two came together, I realized more specifically where I'm gonna go on part two. Knowing this, I went back and looked at record one. And I found a few things I wanted to add. Almost as foreshadowing, or to better tie them together (both in terms of melodies and production). And one song I had planned for the beginning of The Branches actually wound up being stronger toward the end of The Roots, and I'm really happy I moved it. I realize that this stuff is mostly just for me, and no one will likely care all that much either way, but that was the good that came from the delays. But at this point I really just want to get it all moving. So hopefully that happens soon.

But the Touch The Sky ep (a digital only little guy of some b-sides and alternate versions, as well as a couple new tracks) is out everywhere now. I think it finally got released here in the US yesterday, via itunes. And me and my friend Mark Hubbard made a video for one of the tracks. Here's the link:

Doorways

This is my favorite video that Mark and I have done together yet. We shot it here in Jacksonville, in a spot called Hanna Park. We had our usual budget of about $150. All the kids in the video are relatives of mine (nieces and nephews), and my mom and my sister helped gather all the supply and make all their clothes. This was one of those ideas that, when I wrote it out, seemed simple. I figured it'd take 3 or 4 days to put it all together. It took three weeks. And on top of that, when we were shooting, it was the middle of Summer. Two of the kids got heat exhaustion and vomited. Which I still feel shitty about. I made a five year old girl puke. Some uncle, huh? But they're tough. Really awesome kids. They were out there for hours without complaining. They did really great. Plus they work for pizza. Hahaha.

Clone: We are wrapping this up over Winter break. We've barely been able to work on the record these past four months. Rick's been pretty busy just with life in general, and we haven't been able to find days when we can get together. So we're just setting a deadline and using this Winter vacation to finish it up. It will be done before the year is out. Or else. Hahaha. But we're really close. Everything is written, minus some small patches of lyrics. Maybe 4 more solid work days and it's wrapped up. Only took us 2 years. Ha. But once we're finished, I'll put up some samples from the record so people can here what it's all gonna sound like.

Patients: I have not forgotten about this. I still have everyone's stories. I just completely misjudged what my free time was gonna be this year. I have 4 songs over half recorded, but I haven't been able to get back on them. So I'm moving this to next year. Luckily, enough of you sent in stories for the project that I have more than enough to make a record with. Far more. So at this point it's just gonna be finding the time. But I'm not giving up on it, and your stories were not sent in vain. I appreciate everyone who took the time to send one. There's some really great stuff there.

Shows: So the small run of scattered shows I did around the southeast worked out really well. I learned something at each one, so now when I do some small tours this way, I think I'll have nearly all the kinks worked out. They were fun shows, though. It seemed like everyone who came had a nice evening, and the hosts have all been really helpful and generous. And I'm going to do more, but like Patients, I just gotta manage my time better. I don't think I'm gonna try to squeeze any in before now and the end of the year, because the weather's so nice and this is the best time for me to record. But once it gets cold, it gets pretty difficult to do much, so I'm planning on doing a run then, something out of the Southeast.

I'll be sure to post any dates once I have them.

And I guess that's good for now. I also just realize I never finished updating the lyrics section of the site. I'll get back to work on that. And I'll try to be more diligent about updating.

I hope everyone is well.