What's New and When
12/28/07:
I
know, I never update this website anymore. Well, here’s why- I’m not exhaling
these days, I’m taking in and preparing to record a new album, one that will
hopefully be a result of months working in a series of complete and connected
thoughts. Until then, there’s nothing else for me to offer, other than some
entertaining chatter with my pals and anyone else who cares to check in.
Okay,
I’ve got big plans. Sure, it’s all talk until I hit record, but read on.
Over
the years, I’ve developed ability as a mimic, and while I wouldn’t change much
on them, my records are thoughts and old feelings set to tried themes and at worst,
clichéd music styles. I’m bored with 1964. I don’t dream of being someone else
anymore. So it’s time to either find an inspiring set of new/old clichés, or
take the time to come up with some new sounds and musical moods of my own.
Which will I do? Well, I’m shooting for the latter, which takes some patient
experimentation.
A
recent New Yorker article
has a passage I found helpful: “The trouble is that you can’t make any real
philosophical progress in a couple of years. The scope of understanding
enlarges quite slowly, if it enlarges at all, and the scope of interest seems
to wait upon understanding. . . . All artists who work from the inside out,
have all the same problem: they cannot make sudden, arbitrary changes of matter
and treatment until the inner man is ripe for it.”
Does
that apply to my situation? I say yes, but truly if I make good on the promise
to compose and produce the album. The goal is being honest and insightful without
losing the audience to overindulgence. To me, that means I can’t go deeper
until I become that deeper man. [how long’s that gonna take!?] Another
important note is that while I am likely to write all the songs myself, I have
every intention to make this recording as an ensemble, as big of a group I can
muster yet guide, in order to create the sounds I have planned. For those aware and curious about the
documentary film that is being made about me, it’s coming together, but my
latest spat of revelations and general openness to new crap has the filmmaker
wondering if there’s not more to film before editing it together. One can say
it never ends.
So
this is to let you know I am thinking about all of it. It’s easy to closely
copy the records you grew up listening to, it’s another thing to find your own
style, fed by your influences, shaped by your experiences. Some may say I have
already found it, and perhaps have already mined the best of what’s there. In
some ways this new project is for myself, but really, my early albums were even
more about me, trying to see what you think of me. The only difference now is
that I have faith in the idea that people will be drawn to what speaks to them,
and I just have to focus on what I want to put out there, not be anxious about
what the outcome will be.
PS
this is not a bunch of new age blather, I’m really trying to get some work
done.
Thanks
for your support,
CVS
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