Going into the studio tonight to record “unamerican”. I’m totally psyched, as this will be the first time in the studio recording a song with lyrics for me. I did some semi-improvisational piano as an audition to music school in 1990, and haven’t recorded since. I’m going to Little Buddha studios, which seems like a good place to start things off.
Had my first truly public performance last night at Activ8, a political activation event. I was part of the ceremony and played my song “unamerican”. Someone came up to me afterwards asking for a copy of the song so he could learn guitar and play it for his kids. I was pretty blown away. i told him I was planning to record it, but that I had a dinky home-made mp3 I’d send him. Anyway, it was cool to get that kind of feedback. Turns out, he was an advisor to the Kucinich campaign. It’s a shame that campaign didn’t last longer. Even though I had questions about his viability as an electable candidate, I still think he had some very compelling things to say, and a fresh perspective that I really appreciated. So it was nice to get some positive feedback from a member of that campaign.
I’ve been playing music since I was 8. I can sit down at a piano and extemporaneously express emotion on the keyboard almost as easily as I can talk. Certainly, that’s the role music has played in my life to date. On January 1, I decided to dedicate time and energy to not just making music, but writing songs and performing them as well. This decision came after a year or so of soul-searching, looking for direction and purpose in my life. the events of 9/11 made it clear that continuing to live life “as normal” no longer fit for me. The idea of working more 80 hour weeks to sell high-speed routers and devise “integrated marketing” campaigns for Fortune 1000 clients felt not only empty, but a gross misuse of my time and passion for contributing to the world. So I chose to make music. My goals for the year are first public performance on July 17, 40 songs written by September 1, and an album complete and ready to send to friends and family by December 1.