Bella and the 14th Day of July

Image: Artwork cover for "Beyond the Breakers" digital release, July 14th 2023.

Good morning rabbits, What’s new. Well, my apologies for not doing the weekly updates this summer. I have been busy working on things, so let me catch you up on some Hadder happenings.

Bella: It’s July and summer is in full swing in LA. To start, I’ve been tending to my girl Bella who has been diagnosed with the Big C word. Bella is my Japanese Tosa Inu. Me and her go back a long way, more than a decade. She’s actually the inspiration for Ezra from the Hadder tale. It’s hard to imagine a life without her and it’s been hard on me as of late. She’s still here today and I’m spending a lot of quality time with her now. It’s that season of my life I suppose.

Digital Release: I’ve been hard at work finalizing the record for release and trying to do everything I can when I can. The record officially drops on the 14th of July. So, about a week or so away. When I say drop, that just means it will be available world wide through the normal digital distribution services. Somewhere between my last update and now I finalized all the artwork for the record. A cover for each track as well as the artwork for the record as a whole. If you’ve been following along at all, you know that it was a little process, finding the cover that I wanted. I figured it would come down to the last few weeks. I decided on this piece of art that represents a form of Hader during some time of his life, that thing that embodied me after the fires… he's standing on my hill on corral canyon, with his imaginary friends… the ones that inspired the “Ballad of the dead Rabbit”. The wolf that came... the black bird... the rabbits.... When I was growing up I wanted to be a fantasy artist. I was inspired by mysterious record covers. I would stare at them while listening to records. And so this is the cover I think I can stare at and wonder about as I listen to this “Beyond the Breakers” record myself.

Music Video: So what else? I’ve been recording and working on the music video for “Long is the Road”. I’ve got about 2 weeks in on it now, it will probably take a month or two to get near some finality on it. It’s looking pretty cool for now. I’m using some new technologies on it, see how that plays out. I’ve converted my LA dwelling into a stage with lights and such... and I picked up a few new tracking camera tricks this spring… let’s see if I can pull it all together before autumn.

Merch: With all the artwork for the record done. I’ve begun some artwork adaptations for merch. I’ve also hired a few other designed to do some adaptations of the artwork as well. I’m guessing sometime before I leave for my winter pilgrimages, there should be a shirt or two for sale to commemorate this “Beyond the Breakers” record.

Rehearsals: The idea lingers in my mind although it simply hasn’t become the priority yet. Soon, with the record dropping, merch happening and a video or two coming in the near future.. I suppose rehearsals will happen. I actually looked at a place 3 weeks ago, a tower behind the wall of my former 408 tower, and was ready to sign a lease to start rehearsals, but someone else took it last minute… fate perhaps... so I think it’s just a matter of time now. I’m on LA waiting lists for the kind of room I’m looking for… I hear rumors of 408 opening soon… so, we’ll see. I miss it and I’m certainly looking forward to making some loud noises again with my trusty dented sure 58.

“Beyond the Breakers” Vinyl: I plan on pressing vinyl for this project. It’s something that won’t be available for a while as the lead time for pressing vinyl take months. I’m working on the artwork layout and trying to sort out all the processes, mastering for vinyl, plate cutting, pressing, vinyl color, printing.. ect. A lot of thing go into pressing a record and so I’m slowing connecting all those dots this summer. If I was to guess, I would say it will be available late this year to early next year. Excited to have this endeavor sealed up on vinyl, music and artwork and words. It should look really cool if I have anything to do with it.

Well that’s all for now. I decided to halt work on my video today so that I could do a little update.

Please wish the best things you can for my girl Bella. I’ll tell her you said hello.

God bless.

-the dead rabbit

Video Info: Video narration for "Kilwaughter: The Dream Coin the Rail and the Queen"

White Mountain

Image: As of today, this will be the cover artwork for my little "Beyond the Breakers" record. Although, when it gets officially released on July 1st, all the songs will have their own covers. I just really liked this one and so for now, it's the main cover associated with the record as a whole.

Good morning May.

A few little things going on these days as I get ready to release my “Beyond the Breakers”. Sorry I’ve been away from the weekly blog updates. I’ve been enjoying some fresh air away from the vocal booth. Hatching plans for the release of my little labor of love.

Music: Release date is set for July 1st. That’s it. Soon it will be available in all the typical music platforms. Just in time for my autumn wanderings. What a journey to take. Long truly is the road when your creating things with your own hands. A record in 2023 with standard A 440 tuning, I must be crazy. Aside from the Hadder record I will also be releasing the Ramsay Evermore songs you may have heard on the website. Lord Ramsay and I gathered in the wee hours of a may night to track his guitar solos for the three songs we will be releasing. It was a wild night of guitar screams. I’ll post the new versions as soon as I get the new mixes. They are set for weekly releases after the Hadder record drops as well. It took a while to set up the release, but as soon as the last song gets uploaded I’ll be switching to Music Video mode. I hope I can get one video done before I leave for white mountain. Fingers crossed.

The Diamonds Hadder Novel: Added some animated Video narrations for the first few several field notes. They’ve slowly been getting uploaded to the Diamonds Hadder youtube channel. I’ll be adding more over the coming months until all 16 are completed. As far as the story goes, I don’t really plan on writing the next 16 field notes until at least winter. I think just closing out those first 16 this year will be good enough for me.

Staying the course: In January I envisioned myself later in the year on white mountain listening to my record on Spotify or apple music, in between mountain dashes and river crossings. I also envisioned my field note animations keeping me warm and toasty by a nice eastern sierra campfire. I’m close to completing that little dream. Beyond that, I’m not sure, but next year should be really exciting… there’s a new marathon on my horizon, some new shoes for the race, a new tower and new characters I’m sure in my future. The start of a race is so much more fun than the actual running, to some degree. It’s when you make the rules and design your route through the woods. What will you carry? It’s when you decide where your running to. I’ve been on a path that was set for me so long ago that I wondered if I would ever reach the finish line of my little breakers project. But I did. Perhaps the next chapter of this endeavor will include some new places and new characters along for the ride. I hope therefore I am. Well that’s all for now.. enjoy these final days of may 2023. Good luck to you.

-j

The year of the rabbit.

Image: Some artwork I did of the Gallies from the Diamonds Hadder world. They worship sand rabbits.. go figure.

Good morning,.. it’s Friday in the final throughs of April. I took a few weeks off from posting anything as I was enjoying the moment of completing the “Beyond the Breakers” record. So what’s new… well, although my feet have been up in the air I have been doing little hadder things. Lets chat.

Music: Well, yes, I completed the Hadder record. Amazing feeling really, doing such a thing. Lot’s of highs and lows and then suddenly “Somewhere past the end it all begins again”. The last few weeks I’ve been cleaning up some mixes and getting the whole record ready for release. Quietly I’ve been swapping out mixes on the site with the new versions that will be released with the record. For instance “Rivers End’ has finally been mixed… the version on the site for the last few months was basically a guitar and drum mix I did while I was racking the solo’s.. so I spend a day or two going back down the river. Pretty song, brought back some nice memories. Let me share a little story about the day I wrote the passage “It’s hard to believe we’re forever, it’s sad to think you know it all, it’s a gift we play this game at all… somewhere past the end it all begins again… but who’s the man, at the rivers end.” That line was written at 200 north, the studio I first found myself in after the fires. I had a room in an old paint factory that I converted into a soundproof dungeon. In that room was a midcentury dresser that was so large I decided to convert it into a vocal booth. I spent a lot of time in that dresser, ha. I wired a computer monitor into it so that I could run the main computer from inside. I had spent a day tracking those words and was getting nowhere. I had several mixes of vocal takes that all seemed to miss the point… they weren’t building properly. The front of that song is almost like a mini song in front of a heavier track. It takes a while before the song kinda takes off and I couldn’t seem to thread that needle and build the vocal slow enough, so to say, but still feel like it was building. I had spent so many hours doing this and doing that, starting from here and starting from there and it was all just a jumbled mess of attempts. After a few sessions I was burned out and was getting a little angry really, so the next morning I went into the dresser, took the track head to the start of the track, hit record and boom…. That was the take. I notice that running a song from the start is always a good practice when tracking vocals. The best threads are attached well before the vocal lines actually start.. it’s an unconscious thing. I took a ride shortly after that take, with a fresh new mix of my new vocal take… and I recall the feeling I had that day driving along the pacific. I recently heard a famous mathematician talking about solving an equation and what that feels like to him, and I can certainly relate to his words. Vocal lines are puzzle pieces.. that’s all they really are to me. Some puzzles might look like “Active Rock”, some might be “progressive” in nature or maybe just very “Personal”, but they all are just a bunch of unsolved things that I sometimes lose sleep over until I can see them for what they are. We’re all just wandering down a river… to the end… or a beginning, slaves to some degree…. Cast away at times as if we don’t matter… but it’s a long road friends, who really knows what what’s past that tree… inside those falls. We’ll all get there eventually. Anyway, so yes, Rivers End has been mixed and a few others as well have had a little polish. Have a listen if you want.

Art: It takes a little bit of prep work to release a record so I’m finalizing artwork for all the tracks, I’ve added a few new track artworks to the music player. I’m very close to release, I’m just playing around with some alternate ideas now so I have some choices when it comes time to hit the official “Release” button once and for all. The website will be getting a little split soon, I plan on separating the Diamonds Hadder “Novel” and the Diamonds Hadder “Music” in a way that makes the site a little clearer. I did some mock up’s of this process, but I’m not ready to make the switch just yet.

Music Videos: My intention, after the record is released, is to shoot two music videos. One for “Ballad of the Dead Rabbit” and one for “Long is the Road”, both videos have storyboards and really it’s just a matter of closing out work duties on mixes and artwork prep, so that I can focus on the videos. They should be pretty wild looking. I directed a few videos in my days and I have some interesting ideas for these two songs. Videos are a lot of fun. Lets hope I accomplish all this before the autumn leaves start to fall… otherwise I could get lost in the woods before we see a music video this year. Fingers crossed.

Other things: There’s a lot going on in my world. A new track called ‘Kind Winters” is almost done. I might be doing a new record with an old AAW friend. Diamonds Hadder artwork is still talking. Ezra is getting older and I’m just grateful for each day on this earth. What a creative paradise we live in. I can see me sitting in a new tower next year, with my pencil and blank paper… I can see the next 16 stories of diamonds hadder and that view I’ve longed to get back too. What a dream, good luck to you today… enjoy some new mixes in the player if you wish. It truly is the year of the rabbit. Stay the course friends.

-j

Video: A video narration of the 5th field note, "The Wind the Prison and the Leaf".