12 August 2009

Session playing with Chris Bell

I'm continuing work as the session bassist for Fort Worth composer Chris Bell (www.myspace.com/fiercerealities). The album is as yet unnamed but should be released sometime early in 2010.

11 August 2009

An enlightening weekend in Pittsburgh

I’m back from the ProgFest and what an eye-opener it was! First of all I thought I knew a bit about the modern prog scene…wrong. I only knew the tip of the iceberg. There are far more artists working on far more varied sub-genres than I had any idea about. I suppose that shouldn’t be surprising when you consider this is a musical form over 40 years old that has prided itself on innovation and experimentation. With the ever growing list of influences that prog musicians bring to the table it’s like watching a fractal grow. But this exposure to such diversity has helped me to further refine a “classification” (I know, a dirty word in the free-thinking music world:-) of my own compositions. They seem to possess a strong crossover trait to classic hard-rock music. This makes a great deal of sense as I grew up in the 80’s, replete with its power-pop, glam-rock, and hair metal which all must have left their mark. I do seem to have a penchant for interspersing sections of driving rhythms and soaring chordage, but extended passages of semi-atonalality and odd chromatic progressions, while innovative and technically complicated, don’t hold my interest for too long. The silver lining might be appeal to a wider audience, but the dark cloud could be indifference (or disdain) from the progressive purists. As one woman in the audience shouted out “If you can dance to it it’s not prog” (and that wasn’t directed at me, by the way:-). I guess Taboos and Discord are off the table at these festivals…not that I got an invite…yet.

The musicianship on display was remarkable, too, although I tried to prepare myself to be humbled. From the operatic art-prog of Persephone’s Dream complete with costume changes and a percussion set up that dwarfed the drum kit, to the quirky arrangements and choral prowess of Phideaux, to the virtuosity of the hard-edged classic prog of the dark horse of the festival, Syzygy, to the casual ease and throwback old-school rock and improv jams of Crack the Sky, to the modern, driving thunder of pseudo-metalish King’s X it was two days that seemed to cover a huge swath of the musical spectrum. This was also a great chance to observe so many different types of stage presence and audience interaction. I took away numerous lessons on what works well and what is better to avoid when you’re in front of the crowd. But perhaps most encouraging of all was meeting Lee Pomeroy, the bassist for the U.K.’s It Bites. I walked into the auditorium just before their soundcheck and my eyes were draw instantly to the fact the Lee is a lefty and was playing a right-handed instrument upside down. I did this for years myself when getting a left-handed instrument was too difficult (they were rare) and expensive. As I approached the stage I saw that he was also playing restrung, with his low E on the bottom! Weirdo musicians unite! So it turns out I’m not the only one. And his story of being self-taught was very similar to mine. Well good. If he can parlay a freakish playing style into a career perhaps I can, too.

19 July 2009

The recording goes on!

Work on my debut album "Self-Evident Truth" is continuing with a new target drop date of November 2009. I'll be collaborating with John Eargle, guitarist for the band Supernal Endgame (www.myspace.com/supernalendgame). He'll also be the recording engineer and provide some of the vocals. I'll be posting samples of the tracks as we proceed.