The caged moth, the win and the art of the Actor

A little Friday update on some Hadder doings and ponderings.

Little Hadder Things first: To start, I’ve been a little sidetracked this week… really these first few weeks of the new year. I’m a little behind on emails as well, perhaps later today I can sit with that sort of stuff. Those little messages are very important to me. As far as splitting time goes... It didn’t help that “Yellowstone Season 4’ came out recently… The games also have me quite entertained and pleasantly distracted as I’ve mentioned… I forget how much I enjoy them each year… and as we approach the finals and the last few competitors, me and Ezra are shivering in our seats and glued to the spectacle as it’s unfolding. I so love the thrill of competition. I can relate to it. It reminds me of something I heard recently… and I’ll share… It was on the topic of success and failure; “you have to work harder and longer than your competition” … to put yourself in the best position to win... So what is “winning? Well… winning is about chasing your dream down and reaching it.. moving forward… succeeding… it’s about an idea and a goal, and being relentless in its pursuit… to the point it might borderline on insane to some people… when really, it’s just about doing the work longer and harder and putting yourself in a position to win at all costs. BTW That doesn’t mean you will….win… ha, but so is life. Results vary and failures are inevitable. It’s ok to just stop running too or to change direction… if that’s what you decide. I think the games give me perspective and so I honor them and take what I can from them during this time of year. It’s like a water break on the race… I’m exhausted but I can see all my competitors and I can afford a little sip right now. Am I working hard enough to succeed… to win, so to say… I wonder about this. It’s a moth that never leaves the cage. Are you? At your own dreams and pursuits in life? Think about it… but don’t lose sleep over it. Each second of every day is a chance to turn it all around… you can sleep on that instead. It's a little less of the pondering pill to swallow.

New Music: Still working on the music side of "Long is the Road". Nothing to post yet, I have a mix I’ve been listening to and I considered putting a little video together and sharing it, but I think I’m going to hold back just a little longer. Unlike some songs where I just let them run free…. I’m a little more conscious on this one, wanting to keep it super focused and vocally driven. It’s a shorter song… I think in the 4-minute range and because of that I’m working a little extra hard on the chorus and the structure of the track. No hurry, just marching along these fateful days in January 2022. I anticipate a little clearing in the coming weeks.

I did however share a little video/audio clip from a song called “Child of the Sun” that was in process sometime around the creative timeline of “Evermore” and “Master of illusion”, I always envisioned it being on this first record… but I put it on a shelf for a later time when I started the TOR record. Not sure when this track is coming out… as I have some work to do on it still.. but enjoy a little piece of the last ‘listening” mix I did before I put it down to rest on one of my dusty shelves.

Website and Novel: Perhaps you’ve noticed. The field notes page has been updated with a new design. In the coming weeks I’ll be adding “Audio Narrations” performed by me and accompanied by some delightful background soundscapes. I’ll post news updates as they each get released. “The Coin Book” is next on the field note list and some of it was already sketched out during my morning tea time, soon, maybe next week I’ll release it… the redesign of the field notes page took about a week, so it slowed some of the new creative writing… but I’ve turned that page now… so back to Zabble, Skylark and Mattix. It’s fun creating something from nothing, you should try it.

The Stargazer Crew: I begin tracking the “Headless Cross” and “Rainbow in the Dark” covers this week. Now this should be a lot of fun. I ran three cameras during the drum tracking sessions. So I have some great behind the scenes footage… I’ll spill it out over the next few weeks as we get closer to completing the tracks. Doug Weiand is working on the final guitar tracks and Rob Black, the engineer for the project and the owner of Light Black studios in LA is doing the bass guitar work. It should come together fairly quickly. I’ll post updates along the way.

New Music Video: I may shoot a new music video for “Hell Fall”. Lord Ramsey and Johnny Heinz are both on board to date, talks are ongoing and it’s just a matter of saying “yes”, solidifying a drummer for the video and booking a day to film. I’m rattling the cage on it… we’ll see how all the other work pans out in the next week or so. I have an idea for a video that’s been haunting my brain of late. Perhaps it’s time to act on it.

-j

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/77466a_7c91a110de7d4b53a11b3170cacdcb06/360p/mp4/file.mp4

Video: Some random video clips to "Child of the Sun", the lost Hadder track.

Lord Caruso and the Headless Cross

Good morning. A little Headless update on a busy weekend of filming and... oh.... I so love the games.

The Stargazer Crew and Mr Black: Saturday was a drum tracking day for “Headless Cross” and “Rainbow in the Dark”. Scratch tracks of guitars and Bass were done a few weeks ago and it was just a matter of setting up the drum kit and running through some takes with Joey Mancaruso. A rather eventful Saturday in Los Angeles. It was a rainy wildcard weekend afternoon in the old Land of Gardens… the old TOR home front… I hung around and filmed some drum takes and did a little photoshoot to commemorate the event. Just a gatherer of footage for the time being.. luckily I was still able to watch the games while we worked. Being from new England, lets just say I was happy I woke up Sunday morning in sunny California, far away from the snow and gloom of the Buffalo Beat Down. My heart is in Tampa these days anyway, at least an old part of it. I find the games are a nice distraction this time of year. Well, now that the drums tracks are done for these two cover songs, I have some rough mixes with guitar and bass scratch tracks which are good enough for now to get me started on the Vocal tracking over the next few weeks. I'll be doing that myself in my studio in LA... while I film that process as well.. No hurry, it shouldn't take long... all the hard stuff was done by Ronnie and Tony, I'm just singing. It’s a few more wobbly plates on the stack, but this stuff is a lot of fun to balance. Between this project and the games I really was sidetracked from the Hadder music for a few days, but I’m back at it now searching for the thread through Long is the Road… during a little break Saturday afternoon while doing some vocal exercises in the rain... I may have stumbled upon a little vocal harmony puzzle piece for the chorus of LITR... I'll take it... we'll see... spring is coming… a lot of things are twisting and turning inside my head. Should be an interesting next 2 months. That’s all for now… here is some video from drum tracking day. I have a lot of cool footage from the day. I'll release more in the coming weeks. For now just a little short preview of Mr Black at the helm, Lord Caruso rocking and some Hadder ghosts wandering around the place.

-j

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/77466a_c581a7f148c04eb2b72a8266871724f8/720p/mp4/file.mp4

Video: Some video clips from the Headless Cross Cover song drum tracking session in Los Angeles, January 15 2022.

Huddled in the dark of the path: The Blaze and the Future.

Good morning, a few little things before the wild games take place.

Little Personal Things: Let me tell you a Friday story... gather close... Ok, maybe I practice witchcraft and maybe I don't. We all have our little things you know, that help us pass the time. Allow me to be a little vulnerable, imagine that, Hadder... vulnerable.. I guess there is a god. I’ve been struggling a little as of late. I feel like I’m being tested… I can’t explain it.. but the path in is getting pretty thick with brush, so high in fact that the I can’t see the sky any longer. It’s been dark since the beginning of the year. My hands are tired and the Bokbrush thorns have left my legs and forearms bloody and weak. I’m still crawling however… hopeful that this darkness will lift soon, but I just don’t know for sure. It hasn’t stopped my momentum though and the only thing keeping me going is some odd will and strength that I can’t explain and that borders on insanity or absolute genius. Both can feel like a straitjacket and land you in a room without a window.. understanding which of the two is haunting me is becoming a problem. We all face the things I personally face. We all stand at the cliff of doubt and fear… and if you haven’t yet, you will. Time has a wonderful way of slapping us around. You think this way… for this long… and then you think that way… for that long… and then you wake up one day and you wonder what this and that were and why you did what you did in the first place. Gesh, it’s a roller coaster of a life. And then we throw love into the mix, love for things and love for people… oh yeh and loss, losses on all levels of the word. You can’t avoid the losses… so when the gains come, put them somewhere safe, you’ll need them I promise. For the time being, I have too much work to do, so simply sitting in the brush, bleeding out and giving up or turning back just isn’t an option. I’ll keep going for now… even though it’s dark.. that’s the mind set on this Friday on the cusp of a new spring. I can hear a running stream up ahead, although I’ve been telling myself that for weeks… it could just be the rustling of the worry tree leaves in anticipation of the spring winds… I have my open heart set on a clearing and I’m dreaming of a sunny afternoon on that hill ahead, where I can stare back at the path I cleared and breath a sigh of relief that I made it through that. Well, enough of the personal trials and tribulations... so what is new in the Hadder world?

New Music: I’ve been pleasantly listening to a mix of “Long is the Road”. The first few puzzle pieces are in place and it’s a little road map for the final picture. I image that while I’m watching the games this weekend, I’ll be looking for more pieces and by Tuesday of next week.. I think I’ll see the big picture come into focus. Spent the night in the city tracking bass with johnny… City of Fire was first on the list… assimilation is underway. It’s great to have a bass specialist on the track. We were able to finish a mix and now it’s listening and finalizing. Eventually I’ll post updates as tracks get released with johnny on bass guitar.

Website and Novel: Just about done with the new Field Notes page redesign, although I haven’t updated the website with it just yet. Like I said there will be “Audio Narrations” now for each field note, along with some ambient music landscapes…. performed by nonother than me.. my goal for this revamp was so that people could simply play them one by one while they go about their day. Words are nice for all us book worms… but there’s just something nice about hitting play and letting your imagination run away with you while your out and about on your own hills following your own dreams. This was a goal of mine months ago and although it might slow the process of newer field notes, considering the extra work involved in the release process, I think it will make the releases a little more fun… for you and for me. Who knows how complex I’ll start getting with the music landscapes under the narrations… perhaps it’s the start of the 2nd Hadder record in disguise? I don’t know… I’m not taking credit for what might transpire… but I do foresee this little animal turning into a beautiful beast of sorts… just from past experiences. Small insignificant sparks and melodies might happen accidently, and those small fires might soon turn into a blaze in the future. A blaze that could be the Novel in music form. We’ll see. Don’t hold me to it.

The Stargazer Crew: Tomorrow is a big recording and filming day.

“Look through the people, and on through the mist To the hill of the headless cross Where all witches meet, on a night such as this And the power of darkness is host”

Drum tracking for the “Headless Cross” and “Rainbow in the Dark”… should be a lot of fun. Joey has an amazing drum kit and I love a good drum tracking day. He generally records everything the old school way, micing drums in a live room with great reverbs and a big open sound and then basically pounding out drums the way drums should be pounded out. I’m pretty convinced he’s one of the best rock drummers in LA. I hope to do some running full takes and also film myself doing the actual vocal takes in my studio as well as filming Bass and Guitar takes if possible… and using all that footage to assemble a nice fun video for at least one of the actual music videos. Kind of like a behind the scenes… but really it’s all footage of the actual takes on the track. We’ll see if I can make that happen. You really have to be on call 24/7 to get it all, with multiple cameras. I’m up for the challenge. I think it will be fun.

In closing I think it’s best to just quote ‘Rainbow in the Dark” and the man behind those words… as he seemed to have a way of embodying the common voice for a generation of people like me.

“When there's lightning, you know it always brings me down 'Cause it's free and I see that it's me Who's lost and never found I cry out for magic, I feel it dancing in the light It was cold, I lost my hold To the shadows of the night”

I really don’t think I could say it any f&%king better than that. Thanks Ronnie.

-j

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/77466a_d690ea358f7b4a71a1edf0584748018f/720p/mp4/file.mp4

Video: Some random video clips to last nights rough tracking session with the man in the mystery machine.