I’ve been working on a lot of new music which has been awesome. But this time I’m actually working with a few others to help get it out better, faster and smarter. I realized one of my ‘bottlenecks’ recently has been creating accompaniments for some of the new songs. I’ve got so many in the hopper it’s just taking too long to get them all together aside from mixing, recording, mastering etc, (let alone leaving any time to actually practice!) So on a couple of the new songs, I’m testing the waters with a couple like minded musicians to collaborate on accompaniments and see how it goes.
The cool thing is it not only allows me to stop spreading myself insanely thin, but it brings new ideas and perspectives to the mix as well. I know this is common sense, but it also costs $, so given my wife’s recovery, music has simply had to take a secondary role. However now that things are settling down, I’m excited to begin making progress again . I’m really looking forward to posting some of this new stuff!
I don’t post much of what I do on a day to day basis, not because it’s boring but because if you’re like me, you already have enough distractions to deal with. Actually, my bride was watching a ‘reality’ TV show the other day, I don’t even remember what it was but it was funny because you could totally tell when they were overly dramatizing a situation so you’d keep watching it. You can’t blame them though cause they gotta keep up the ratings.
I was thinking though if my life was a reality TV show it’d be totally cool. I got so much drama the producers would have endless material to work with. Plus every day there’s something new to laugh at. I love the fact that my life is unpredictable, entertaining and I’m not just going through the motions (not most of the time). Yeah, I’ve got to make a living and I’ve got 7 mouths to feed, but that’s half the fun of it. I can’t do everything but at least I have fun trying!
It feels weird to literally just be hanging out this week after Christmas without a schedule or ‘to do’ list. Since I’ve been running non stop this whole year it just feels strange to me..but I can’t help enjoying it.
I’ve had a lot of ‘surprises’ and extra commitments that have set me back on writing and recording new music, BUT I’ve written some great songs and a lot of new ideas just keep flowing. I’ll sit down to work on one, then another song presents itself, takes a life of it’s own and once it’s finished, I still have the original idea, ready and waiting for me to work on!
I’m looking forward to the new year when I can start recording and laying tracks for all these songs!
I’ve wanted to post this for a while because it was such an amazing experience. My wife has had multiple surgeries this year due to cancer, just finished chemotherapy and has another surgery coming up in October. Through it all, she has been awesome though it’s definitely taken its toll on her and her recovery.
What has really been humbling for me is to see the women in our neighborhood and her friends rally around and support her. This by itself has truly been a Godsend, and makes me infinitely grateful for all the love they have shown. But just as women do, they didn’t stop there. Without our knowledge, they began putting together a fundraiser for Lori.
About 2 weeks before it was scheduled to happen, I started to see some of what they had been planning. I helped them wrap up a few things but it wasn’t until that Saturday morning when we started setting up that I realized just how much they had actually planned. I was completely blown away. It was a humbling, uncomfortable and gratifying experience all at the same time that is hard to describe.
As the day unfolded there were more and more surprises. They had put together an elaborate children’s carnival with all sorts of games, prizes, treats, balloon animals and so on.
There was a bake sale that would rival any professional bake shop and all of it was amazing. They had a silent auction with hundreds of donations given from individuals and local businesses including a new Ipad2, Self-reliant shelving, all sorts of gift cards, passes, and the list goes on and on.
They had face painting, hair and feather extensions, and even glitter toes. They had an elaborate boutique, concessions, NYPD pizza, cotton candy, snow cones, the works.
Then they had a special appearance from Snow White! You should have seen these little girls glow as they got their pictures taken with her. She would have out done the real Snow White any day!
Finally they ended the evening with the movie Tangled on a big inflatable theater screen. The whole experience was surreal. It was hard to wrap my head around it and realize that people cared so much for Lori and our family, that they would selflessly do all this for her.
Because of all those that have shown so many acts of kindness (both big and small) to our family this year, I wrote a song specifically for them called “Thank You”. It was surprisingly difficult to write, simply because it is near impossible to truly express the intimate gratitude I feel for everyone. I found I could not adequately express how even the smallest acts of kindness miraculously softened even the most difficult experiences.
There is simply no way to say thank you enough. But I’m still going to try, and music is the closest way I know how. I’m working on getting it recorded now and I’ll give it away to everyone once it’s done.
I’ve learned a few tricks on how to save money over the years and the difference between ‘needs’ and ‘wants’… Well more like what do I really need and what do I really want..that’s the same thing, right?
Here’s a video on how I finished my basement for under 70$. Enjoy
Things have been chaotic and crazy between cancer treatments, kids, bills and more bills. However it makes the perfect storm for writing hearty raw music with substance.
I sat down to write lyrics for a cleansing, sobering song and melody I thought of a while ago. I figured my stress would work well for creating appropriate lyrics that matched the melody. But instead, it evolved into a totally brand spankin’ new upbeat song completely new and original all on its own.
So now I’ve got this totally cool new song AND the cool original one I still get to write later on. So it’s still on my “to do” list, (along with a bunch of other songs).
I’ve also reworked all the songs from the “Return from Broken” album into Ableton Live for a lot more control for improvisation in live performances. I’m now working on accompaniment and recording for some of these new songs (which in my opinion really take it all to a new level). It will be nice to have some of these done this summer so I can put them out for you. Just making sure proper priorities are first, and that’s what keeps life fun.
I just have to say I am loving the excitement of the unpredictability life brings. Lori’s starting chemo next week since they found cancer in a lymph-node (She decided to go the conventional route) and of course I’m here to support her either way.
I was going to shave my head but she wouldn’t let me. Instead she dyed pink streaks in my hair (which happen to be permanent). I think I would have rather shaved my head, but then again, how often do you get a good excuse to dye your hair pink? Lol, I’ll take what I can.
Aside from everything else going on, I’ve begun making huge strides on new projects. Been integrating a lot more dynamics to live performances, working on getting quite a few new songs laid down and recorded and I’ll be bringing on another electric guitar player here too (As soon as I find a good fit). Life can throw at me what it wants but I ain’t stopping, it only adds fuel to the fire
So I haven’t been able to post as much as I’d like, but helping my wife overcome the cancer as well as juggling the financial responsibilities have simply taken precedence (all the fun stuff ).
I am still writing music and playing, (I’ve got some really cool stuff I’m working on) it’s just being done at a much slower pace than I’d like. (My baby needs me so the rest can wait)
So as far as the cancer stuff, we have been looking at all our options including some alternatives. She decided to have a lumpectomy done in February, since the growth was estimated to be about 5-7 cm in size.
They thought they had gotten it all but it was larger than they expected, and through the pathology report we later found there was additional invasion. They have scheduled a mastectomy a week from Friday to remove the rest and sample lymph nodes for metastasis (to see if the cancer has spread to other areas of her body).
To add to the ‘excitement’ we found we will likely need to move our family within a week and a half after the surgery next week. Nice. (That’s a whole other story in and of itself)
So what about alternatives? Well if you’re interested there are a couple protocols we have decided to follow along side the surgeries since she has decided go that route and chemotherapy is basically the only option conventional medicine has to offer (her cancer’s hormone receptors were triple negative).
Instead of listing details I’ll just provide links that have the details.
1) One alternative is Bill Henderson’s Protocol http://www.beating-cancer-gently.com (with the exception of not entirely removing whole grains, which have gluten, from our diet). This protocol is primarily a combination of some complimentary effective cancer treatments and diet alternatives that have been most successful.
One thing we discovered through this protocol is the ability to test your progress to see if what you’re doing is working for you, through tests such as a cancer specific HCG urine test available through the Navarro Clinic: http://www.navarromedicalclinic.com
2) To prevent the increased risk of metastasis which is known to occur during surgery itself, we are also following Life Extensions protocol surrounding the surgery/s:
These are precautions she is taking to limit the potential spread of cancer cells in the blood stream and other areas during and after the surgery.
I would imagine the next post I’ll put up regarding the cancer will be the results of her next surgery and if they find anything in the lymph nodes. We’ll see. Either way, I’m sure it will be ‘eventful’ .
Wow… My bride was recently diagnosed with a fast growing breast cancer. It was something we never would’ve expected at her age. Plans and goals have all turned to getting her treated the best way possible and taking full initiative in her recovery.
It’s been amazing how much I’ve learned about cancer and treatments in the last couple weeks. Given our experience with relatives who have had cancer and the surprisingly poor results of traditional treatments (chemo, surgery, radiation) we’ve decided to aggressively pursue alternative cancer treatment options before going under the knife which could happen in as little as 3 weeks.
I will post specific things we are trying over the next few weeks as well as our progress and results.
This is my only blog so even though it’s not specifically about music, I hope my experience and results will help others who end up facing something similar. Besides, I’m sure some good music will come from this too.
A new effort that is beginning its first stage of research at Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland is looking into how music can affect patients and treatment.
According to the studies, music has had an effect on conditions ranging from depression to Alzheimer’s disease, from pain to nausea during chemotherapy. The modern discipline started with amateur and professional musicians playing to patients suffering from physical and emotional trauma in veterans’ hospitals after the two World Wars.
“Eventually, the results could result in custom prescriptions for music that is more effective at treating emotional and physical pain.”
The project is sponsored by Britain’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council which is a joint endeavor of music psychologists and audio engineers.
“The impact of a piece of music on a person goes so much further than thinking that a fast tempo can lift a mood and a slow one can bring it down. Music expresses emotion as a result of many factors,” said project leader Don Knox, an audio engineer.
Though I don’t know the science behind it, in my experience it can absolutely effect treatment, recovery, depression or whatever. Though I have to admit, it would be pretty funny to have a doctor prescribe something like a U2 album or Barry Manilow for treatment. Depending on your taste in music, it might be a ‘hard pill to swallow’. In my case, country music might actually make my condition worse -Matt
I’ve been working on a lot of new music which has been awesome. But this time I’m actually working with a few others to help get it out better, faster and smarter. I realized one of my ‘bottlenecks’ recently has been creating accompaniments for some of the new songs. I’ve got so many in the hopper it’s just taking too long to get them all together aside from mixing, recording, mastering etc, (let alone leaving any time to actually practice!) So on a couple of the new songs, I’m testing the waters with a couple like minded musicians to collaborate on accompaniments and see how it goes.
. I’m really looking forward to posting some of this new stuff!
