After having a nice break to recharge the musical batteries last week this week was a little busier and a good warm-up for a musically active February and a very busy March.
Monday - Was the official release date of my new double-album, Animist. The album is available directly from me, at Dave's Guitar Shop, Deaf Ear Records, Kephart's Music, iTunes, Amazon etc... If you are going to download the album I would recommend getting it directly from me as it is cheaper, includes lyrics in pdf format and album artwork in jpeg format. You can also download in high quality Wave or Flac formats as well. The day went well and I had another fun lesson with my Decorah guitar student. He is coming along really well so I think we will start trying to help the young rocker pen some songs of his own next week.
Tuesday - Jaran Carson was over again for another rehearsal in preparation for the Friday show at JB's with Porcupine. Now that Jaran has become more familiar with the songs and we are getting more used to playing together we are having a lot more fun.
Wednesday - Fortunately I had the day off of work so I was able to spend most of it working on a new song, Reactions Inertia. The track has a pretty 80's techno song to it, but I tried it with just acoustic guitar and drums and I like the keyboard version better. Sort of learning on the keyboard as I go so it should be interesting to see what happens with it once it is more developed. Ended up finding some time to post the first in a series of blogs entitled "Thoughts from Ghost in My House Studio" regarding the concept of less is more. Check it out at Driftless Music by clicking here.
Thursday - After work I worked on Reaction's Inertia some more but actually ended up coming with part of new song, The Will of The People and spend most of the rest of the evening working on that.
Friday - Got some time to work on mastering about half the tracks from The Brilliant Beast's debut album. The material is really cool and I am looking forward to getting the rest of the tracks finalized. Found some time in the afternoon to post a another blog from the "Thoughts from Ghost in My House Studio" series that explains some of the concepts of audio mastering and dynamic range. Check it out by clicking here.
Performed a 10 song set of Brahman Shaman songs with Jaran at JB's Speakeasy opening for Porcupine and Dream 13. The show went well and we had a lot of fun. Porcupine killed it, one of the best shows I have ever seen of their's and they just keep getting better and better. I highly recommend taking the time to give those guys a listen. Dream 13 followed Porcupine and it is always a blast to watch Jeff Sherin play guitar, I affectionately refer to him as Honky Hendrix.
Saturday - Joe Dawson was over in the morning and he got bass and acoustic guitar tracks done for 2 of the 4 songs he is currently working on. The material is sounding really good and I am looking forward to hearing it with vocals soon.
Sunday - I made the trek over to Rochester in the morning to help my good friend and Rearview Mirror band-mate Jason Ptacek get his home recording set-up working correctly. It was good to see him, he played me some great riffs and I am really looking forward to hearing some of his new ideas recorded.
Until next week....
BRAHMAN SHAMAN
