So far, so good.

It's tempting to just hang out at home where it's warm and comfortable but there's stuff that's gotta get done. Rehearsals with the new bass player are going well. We discovered he also sings pretty good harmony, something I think he now regrets letting me know. He has to play bass and sing harmonies at once. It's not easy. It also looks as if there might be a drummer/percussionist coming on board. Andi plays well, listens, and seems to be interested in hanging out a while. This is how I look at it. I need good players. My stuff isn't usually so complex but truth is it's harder to play simple stuff well than more complex, but I digress. This usually means the musician is already involved in at least one other band/project. My question is can he play my music. His is trying to work out if this could go anywhere and how much can I make how soon. Musicians gotta eat too. I get it. With luck the right people cross your path eventually and you both fit into each other's big picture. Sound simple? It ain't.

I am driving myself crazy learning Cubase. In the end I will probably hire one of my Cubase experts to do most of it. I wanted to learn this program and do it myself. I see now by the time I was that good it would delay things by 3 or 4 months. Can't do that. I have 14 songs waiting to be recorded. The people I want to play on it are relatively open schedule wise. Last but definitly not least, I'm hot to get started, in the zone, chomping at the bit (sorry about that last one. A bit obscure..).  Anyway you get the picture. I want to get started. Maybe I will do the one that follows this upcoming one. One thing though. I do like to have another set of ears for the mix. I usually pick someone secure enough to handle a lot of rejection. What I want is someone to curb my worst instncts, but not all of them. And if that person is also pretty slick at Cubase what's the harm? I've got somebody in mind.

I look forward to taking a batch of new songs from just me and a guitar to a full band arrangement. It's like building a house. First you do the foundation. You get the drums right. Get that feeling right and everything else comes easy. The bass player has probably been working out something over in the corner while you were working with the drummer, generally pissing you off but in the end, he gets it pretty fast. At this point sometimes it almost sounds so good you want to say that's enough. Throw some vocal harmonies on it maybe..Not often but sometimes. If you have the right guitarist he can usually find some cool, creative way to make you glad you wondered if he had any ideas. Sometimes the recording process is tedious, sometimes tense as when someone is having trouble nailing a part, but in general I enjoy it. The happy musical accidents that you would have never thought of but are too cool not to use and just hanging out sharing tasteless humor with people you enjoy anyway. It's not a bad job.

I have about 100 CDs available each of the new CD "Oblivia" and the prior "The Lowdown". They are real, grown up CDs. All beautiful artwork on the inner and outer jewel box, which coincidentally I did, wrapping a fine collection of songs. Hell, you buy it and don't like it, I'll give you your money back. Or maybe just call you and make you tell me just what you didn't like, what you would like, etc. Basically make your life miserable until you began to revise your earlier opinion. Anything's possible. 10 Euros per CD. Buy 2 and I pay the shipping, worldwide.

Last, there's a new video online. It's "The Amazement Of George". I used the audio from "Oblivia" and put a bunch of pictures behind it that were on my hard drive. Check it out. I love performing this one live. It only gets done with the right audiences but that's not so rare these days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n87FPGbgMnI

Bye.

New CD is about ready.

So I've been recording for the last year working on this new CD. I've done about 14 songs trying to get it right. That means the right songs recorded the right way. The temptation is to continue the way I have always which, in retrospect, meant too much. The way it works is I record every idea that the players I bring in come up with thinking at the end of the process I will simply eliminate what doesn't work. In reality I end up falling in love with almost everything and using almost everything. On "The Lowdown", my previous CD I did better than I have in the past but still I think some of the arrangements were a bit busy. This new one is closer to my ideal. It isn't really simple but sounds like it. What happened is that I have 6 songs that I've listened to over and over taking away or diminishing parts until it was too bare and returning enough to be what I hope is right. The as of yet titled CD will be ready in the next week after I redo a vocal and correct the mix on another couple songs. I have a nice gig in Berlin at Artliners on June 2 which is going to function as basically a CD release evening. I'll probably burn some CDs to hand out. If you want a copy send me a message here and we will work something out. I have 6 more songs that I haven't done anything with that I hope to get out a lot faster than this 6, hopefully sometime this summer. All the best, Terry