The Light Chamber

Some music from the soon to be released "LORD of the GOLDEN TOWER" and random video from the world of BOK.

Good morning, April.

How about an update.

“A doorway is forcefully opened, scraping the soot and dirt that piled up at its base. As they push their way open, a pattern of angel wings in the dirt appears on the floor, and light floods the chamber as though it hasn’t seen light in years. Something happened.”

Breakers II is coming along nicely. I often remind myself that I’m actually in the throes of those magic moments as we speak—when creation is at its finest moments. I’m in the surf, and some days it’s very rough and others are still calm. At the moment today, it’s overcast with rain on the way, but I’m just about ready to release my little “Lord of the Golden Tower.”

I love ideas that happen without thinking. For instance, you play an improvised piano piece into a recorder—a one take—without caring if it’s on the grid… and the first thing you sing without words, without preconceived ideas of this or that, and boom, there’s something magic there. Those are such great, great moments. I try to focus on those things rather than cleaning the yard every two minutes. As artists, can you wish for anything more than to create spontaneously and then actually be happy with what you created? I have no interest in daily posts or becoming a social media personality slave. I want to sing and create art.

As I was driving through the canyon the other day listening to some new mixes, something dawned on me: I’m on a mission to create the world where I’ll go in death. I think that’s what I’m ultimately doing. Why? Who the fuck knows the why. And let’s not be too dramatic about it—I simply have a desire to tell a story and to create a world… an endless world and place of my dreams. I understand that art doesn’t save the world, but it does give me some meaning, and I suppose I’ll take all that I can get.

The canyon is beautiful this spring, as the marine layer ghosts are back. It reminds me of Breakers I and the many moments I had during the creation of that record. I can always smell when it’s spring in the canyon. Nothing like a full moon in a spring canyon along the Pacific, or in BOK for that matter. Each song on Breakers I, for me, is connected to memories and visuals of my routines while creating it.

When I did “Master of Illusion,” for example, the house was still there on my mountain, and I purchased a kicker for my car to help me adjust mixes during my ride into Los Angeles. I recall sitting in the driveway, which faced my little rustic A-frame dwelling and the Santa Monica Mountains, listening to early mixes and setting up the kicker. That song was a great example of simply recording and not writing, as it came together so quickly—other than the “I can’t sleep at night” bridge, which was the final puzzle piece to that song and didn’t really exist until the last few mixes. For me, that was the most important brush stroke to that piece of music.

So here I am today doing it all again. I made a trip up to my old place last week—that old lot which has seen a few springs now since I’ve been gone—which is something I don’t do, as it’s still a bit painful to see and think about. It’s true I do now live as a ghost to some degree, and that’s OK. That’s life. It still looks like my old home—well, the earth anyway. It’s like it never happened. Strange. I sat in a spot Bella and I would sit often, and maybe she was there with me for a moment listening to the wind like she used to. Enough of that.

Regarding the new music, I still frequent the Pacific when I need words and reflection for the canvases I’m working on, and magically things appear out there beyond the breakers still. It’s become a place that continues to give me inspiration even though memories have left a galaxy or two by now. I know they are still there. It can still bring a tear to my eye if I leave this place and venture to them, so I try to be present as much as I can.

What I’m building will take a while, and a while I have. I was never built for three posts a day, but I have been training for the kind of build it will take to create a world of my dreams, and so far I’ve mapped some of it, with more to come. Breakers II will be important for me, and it will take everything I have to see it through—especially in this day and age with AI robots on our heels.

Regarding “Lord of the Golden Tower.” During this next season of my life, I’ve also been redoing a version of this song. It’s a full redo based on the original demo that was originally done with Scott Ramsay. I’m not much for redoing things, as I love the original versions of everything, but all I really did on that demo was the keys and vocals and some arrangement chops, so I wanted a full musical composition and score, so to say. I normally wouldn’t do something like this, but this was an exception based on the lyrical content for this track and the fact that it’s kept knocking at my chamber door.

“Who are you?” it would say while I slept.

I consider it a little precursor to Breakers II, and I think this will be the final blog before I release it and the video that goes along with it. It should paint a nice picture of where I’m heading, and it will be fun to look at while I’m crafting, creating, failing, cheering, fighting, and hopefully living through the rest of the delightful experience that I call Breakers II. How exciting.

Regarding this video clip. This was some music I scored for the end of the song. It’s unclear if I’ll be using it in the final mix, as I often overwrite when I’m tracking, but time will tell me in a mix along the Pacific if it should stay. I will say it sounds nice on its own, with some flashes and characters from the world I’m creating, and it carries a common melody which you’ll often hear through the tower.

Anyway, for those who still dream… let the water take you where it takes you… keep your feet up from hidden rock crevasses, and I hope you enjoy the scenery as you drift. Today is all that really matters.

Farewell out there—j

Almost forgot, you may notice I brought back the “Field Notes:” page as I’ve been building a lot of new “Old” things related to the original “Hadders” notes he took along the red river. I think you may also notice a paged called “BOK” appearing soon which will be somewhat of a video page dedicated to random graphics that I’m continually building for the “Diamonds Hadder” story. Think of it as a moving story book page. A reel from BOK. Eventually I see it being somewhat of a map with places and characters broken into subcategories based on the various chapters of the novel I'm working on.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/77466a_8f9a64cacd38482b89fc44cedc0cf417/1080p/mp4/file.mp4