Music Meets Idiot

This was originally posted on my myspace music page in August of 08

I thought I'd update anyone that may not know, or cares to know as to why I've been MIA on the music / music myspace lately. And I did just add some of my friends from my personal page, so perhaps someone will actually read this right?

As most people know, I'm a complete idiot, although I've been coming around a lot lately. My daughter being born nearly a year ago has had a huge impact on my way of thinking, one that the birth of my son should have, but I was 19, and as William H Macy once said "I didn't have the brains god gave an animal cracker" at that time in my life so it's not that hard to see why I dropped the ball there.

Getting into synthesizer programming and sound design as much as I did, and one would need to to make good electronic music, was far too time consuming and involved. I consider myself honored to have had Phil Shenandoah around to lean on and learn from, but not only should I have been doing other things a year or so ago, when I was working on tracks, but it's almost impossible to imagine spending my time tweaking patches when this little girl I have wants to snuggle and watch Blue's Clues.

Music is a huge part of me, it always has been. And although I've become a much more mature musician through the last year or two, much to my dismay I have no time, or sometimes even the want to attempt to produce tracks.

My synths are packed away at the moment, to make room for Audrey's stuff. And I've tried to focus more on being a better father and husband than guru of subtractive synthesis programming. But I keep listening to as much music as possible, and share that with my daughter, as well as trying to teach my son to program his rompler PCM based digital synth, what little I have to teach that is.

The one thing keeping my brain happy in a musical way is playing guitar, which I know Phil wouldn't understand, but it's great for me. I have my Gretsch and Fender Strat out in the living room, and I play songs for Audrey most the time, and on the rare occasion she's occupied I've been studying guitar theory and practicing as much as possible. Mostly Chet Atkins, or Chris Cheney's (of the Living End fame) stuff. I had a pretty intense John Fruciante kick last month too.

Which kind of comes around to my viewpoint of my current status as a musician and songwriter. Which is; the type of person I was in my youth (10-26), that was quick to brag but slow to learn, and rarely had a grasp on how much work needed to be done before I could rest on my laurels, my comprehension of music and skill at guitar and other important factors, sat dormant for an unthinkable amount of time.

And although I'm almost officially on a long term break from trying to make records or gig on a regualr basis, I'm having more fun and making better music than I ever have. And I would appreciate it if people would keep an ear open, or check back here every once in a great while.

And of course, thanks go out to Phil Shenandoah for everything he's helped me learn or do in the last two years, as well as Henrik Iversen, for his support of my project. And last but never least, my cousin Matthew Brawand of the recently disbanded Love and Fame and Death, he's had more success than I ever have, and every 3 or 4 years I get to hang out for a week or so with him like I did just last month, and he always helps me conect some very simple dots mentally, emotionally, and involving my understanding of guitar theory and music.

I may not have many "fans" but I get more resepect than I deserve from people I 'm lucky to know and consider my friends.

So, this is heavy stuff I guess, but all is well, and keep an ear out for me, I will make some noise at some point.

ARM