Number 69 May 1, 2011

I haven't posted in a while, because we've been so busy with The Valence Project and our first gig at Yoshi's SF.  All agreed it was a huge success.  With band members Brain, Kai Eckhardt, Emily Palen, Melissa Reese, Baron Shul and yours truly, everyone in the band had a blast.  It also gave us lots of ideas for the future.  We did video the performance, and also recorded it on a Korg DSD 1 bit machine, so there will be youtube footage and downloads for theose who missed the gig.  I'll be writing about a couple of great shows I saw last month in the next few days.

Number 48 July 21, 2010

Today is the official launch of The Valence Project! http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/07/prweb4274354.htm

As you can see from the press release, the recording was conceived, written, and executed in a very innovative and unique way.  I've always loved the Duke Ellington quote, that "Success is doing the right thing, at the right time, with the right people."  With Brain, Kai Eckhardt , Melissa Reese , Emily Palen,  Jon Herrera, Deborah Charles, Eamonn Flynn and many other great musicians, the vibe was fantastic.  The cover art is by Krisztina Lazar. There was such mutual respect and admiration, and enthusiasm!  Engineered and produced by my dear friend and collaborator Cookie Marenco , I think you'll agree it has an awesome vibe.

Number 38 April 14, 2010

We are mixing a new song for The Valence Project.  It was written and recorded the way we have been working so far.  Kai Eckhardt  laid down eleven bass tracks.  Then Brain recorded a drum track, also to 2 inch tape.  While he was looping the tracks in Logic, Melissa Reese and I were writing lyrics.  We often like to incorporate several themes and even points of view.  I had been speaking with her about the origin of the words thugee and hashishin.  Also, a freind had mentioned to me that men looked at her as if they wanted to put her in a cage and own her.  We spoke of some people's need to feel betrayed. All of these ideas somehow wound up in the song, "I Am Shiva".  Our producer Cookie Marenco has been invited to be an Artist In Residence at Indaba  and will be writing a weekly blog for 2 months on how The Valence Project collaborates in the studio.  The blog will be entitled "The Art of Collaboration".