Puzzles and Rulers

Image info: Me.

Good morning, It’s Wednesday in Los Angeles. A little update today on a few things Hadder related things.

New Music: I’m inching closer to the finality of the record. Each day brings me a little closer to it. The Crying Game should be finished this week, leaving me about 8o days or so to tackle “Long is the Road” and the modification of the “Dead Rabbit” track which seems doable. The new spring tower is rather quiet at the fog rolls around the place each day. My mind is quiet too as I simplified life around the tower.

The Stargazer Crew: The 2 cover songs, “headless Cross” and “Rainbow in the dark” are still in process, I’m waiting on finished guitars for “Rainbow in the dark”, but as soon as I receive them I’ll finish up my vocals on it. Headless is just about done. I suppose it would be nice to release these soon considering the new “Dreamers Never Die” documentary is dropping. What a great title.

Little Deeper Thoughts: I should mention that I don’t really connect with a throw away world, but I’m trying. The Hadder record is more a strange dream rather than a quick conquest. At times I create new songs during my vocal routines each day, songs that are more in line with where I am today as a singer and creator, yet I’m working on completing something that feels like an older skeleton to some degree. I think that’s natural and my stubbornness is keeping me honest with this first record. It’s a body of work that is quite personal in a puzzle like kind of way and I will need closure on it before I start the next adventure. I am however very excited about record number two and the novel. The idea of real rehearsals and the business side of releasing a record also is very exciting to me in a creative virgoesc way. To me it’s another puzzle that I hope to solve. Still a part of the original Hadder foundation… hopefully I make it to the act of décor and design for this structure before I start investigating other lands. I do wonder.

The War: I’ve been watching the events unfold across the world a lot lately, feeling a connection to my Ukrainian heritage to some degree… and the people there with much bigger issues and concerns than little ole me and the record I’ve been privileged to even make. I’ve been pretty inspired by a woman there who has been reporting from here bomb shelter each day… an incredibly strong woman that I consider to be an ambassador of hope… a very bright light surrounded by a very dark time and place… in the center of uncertainty and fear. Real fear… on a level that I can’t really pretend to understand. She inspires me and the people of Ukraine inspire me. I’m not much of a political person but I am touched by humans and the lengths they go for simple notions of freedom… freedom to dream… to be themselves… without rule and without entitled dominion. We should all be so privileged to dream and to be free. I think anyway.

That’s all for now… I suppose I’ll be well into “Long is the Road’ by this time next week.

Thank you all for reading. Farewell.

-j

Video Info: A 2nd little video montage of anime that I liked to a small audio section of the "Crying Game" re-design.

The spring river runs...

Image info: A little image from a Drum Tracking day in LA earlier this year. (left to right: Mr Black, Joey Mancaruso, me)

Good morning, it’s a wonderful spring out there. A little update for this last day of March while the river she runs from the mountain tops.

The last 2 weeks were vocal days for “The Crying Game”. It was nice to return to this track. Since the DEMO of this idea, I’ve been excited to get back to it and close it out to some degree… I’ve always wanted to retrack it with a little more energy. Another thing that always bothered me with the original track was the microphone I used, which was a brittle condenser that just didn’t sit well with me. The last few years I’ve been in love with my Sure 58, which is also my live microphone. It has a bit of a dull and warm sound that I like, it reminds me of the past. Perhaps it’s also a subconscious memory of old rehearsal days for me and that low-pass sound inside a room where high frequencies trail off in space. All other tracks for the record are in a holding pattern while I get a rough mix out of this new “Crying Game” idea. A few other things you might notice, I’ve detached the intro to the song… which is tentatively now called “The Divination”, it’s the 45 second poem intro.. I’ve always envisioned it as a warning, perhaps Leto’s warning to Niobe… a prophecy if you will. It’s a bit spooky, but then again… isn’t all Greek mythology spooky fun. I thought it would be nice if it had it’s own track listing so that you didn’t have to hear it ever time you simply wanted to rock the track itself. I also condensed the actual track, removing the entire 6-minute outro… it was interesting and fun on the demo, but in the end I really just wanted the song to be a song. The middle of the track did change as well… I think for the better. I’ve included a mix of some of the new work, I think one more day of edits and a few word resings and I’m closing out the tracking phase of it. Just a mix after that and then onto “Long Is The Road” just in time for the spring fog.

Hadder field notes are on Holiday while I finish music for the record. But who knows, those things come from nowhere and they are hard to stop sometimes. We'll see... I feel a story brewing out there.. beyond the hills of BOK, where the king has secretly commissioned his own mage to develop a weapons with great power. Some new characters are a brew.

I won't lie, I have been sneaking in a vocal tracking day or two on the "Rainbow in the Dark" cover song I'm involved in with the Stargazer crew. You'll hear it soon enough.

I’m pretty focused these days… simpler times, like a little calm before a beautiful summer storm. Not much expectation, just honest creation.

Video Info: A little video montage of anime that I liked to a small audio section of the "Crying Game" re-design.

farewell

-j

Counting Down

Image info: An old image I took in a place that's literally gone back when I wrote the original "Crying Game".

A very quick update. I've decided to start a little count down to the completion on the Hadder record, considering I'm so close. Lets say 90 days... yeh, that sounds good. I've added a little counter on the front page that will hopefully keep me honest in the coming weeks.... I may pull away a little as well from the samples and video teasers as I approach the finish line. I hope to do a lot of promo and advertising stuff after I complete the record so some quieter time now before it gets released might actually be a nice thing. Keep in mind I still don't know if I want to release it all myself or have it released through a record label... I'm still thinking about all that. there are advantages and disadvantages to both scenarios... things really not worth thinking about now while I'm locked up in the new tower wielding the final brush strokes on my pretty little heartfelt picture. I may hold the last three songs, "Long is the Road", and the newly mixed and modified.. "Divination: The Crying Game" and my little "Dead Rabbit" Track, as I complete them. I will however keep doing progress updates on the stargazer crew cover songs hell, I might slip in a "Field Note" or two before the record drops. So much has happened to Zabble and Diamonds the last few weeks. That's it for now really.

Farewell

-j