Image: Some Diamonds Hadder poster artwork I did recently.
Good day. A little Friday update on Hadder things.
Narrations: I’m celebrating this weekend. For the most part everything we do in life is so complex with lots of small triumphs that hopefully add up to something larger before we lose interest. It happens. I’ve seen this playout in my life so many times. I was once a solo artist on Virgin records, I once had a photography gallery of my own on the Pacific Coast Highway, I once made 2 progressive metal records signed to a label in Germany, I once lived on a mountain.. I once toured the world working for a famous rock drummer… I once tracked the full moon with a camera and filmed a show about it, along with my life… there were a few other things too. My point is, small steps… hopefully turn into larger strides before the bottom falls out. By bottom I simply mean… life happens and one day you find yourself interested in other things and so you just never know when that happens. Why mention this today… well, I finished my final narration today. 16 narrations and stories for the Hadder tale. Although it seems like a tree falling in the woods that no one really hears or cares about, for me… it’s quite an accomplishment. As was recording the first Hadder record, which was mostly completed last year. I’ve been held up on releasing it as I was sidetracked with winter mountain travels and “Field Note’ narrations. Turning the bend here in mid-February I can finally put the weight of these narrations behind me. All are now on the website and I can shift my focus to record related things. I might take the weekend off to just breathe a little. That was rather intense but I’m so happy they are done. Now I just need to find a video animator to complete the video part of these tales. Let me breath a little first and focus on other things.
Field Notes: The First 4 Narrations: In time I'll release all 16 narrations through this website, with additional info and imagery for each. This "Field Notes" Hader story all started about 4 years ago. That's when the ideas and characters started to come to me... the words and stories started showing up on the website about 2 years ago and now the narrations for the stories have all been released. Regarding these first 4 narrations. Ezra started as me just playing around with blog posts... she was inspired by a TOSA inu dog of mine. Hadder of course was a character I was thinking about for a long time and to some degree seemed to embody me and my struggles in life. I took comfort in letting these characters run with my own imagination, perhaps doing and being the things I wished to be. The first tale introduces Lord Zabble and Skylark who really play a huge role in this tale. It describes who Ezra is and where she comes from.. it also describes the moment that Diamonds Hadder meets Ezra, and for that reason, it's a very important moment in the story. A fitting start. The bond between them is really something special as we soon learn. The second tale called "The Child" talks about the moment Lord Zabble discovers Diamonds Hadder in the black forest, which we latter learn, was no accident. When I was writing it I had a vision of the child humming in the woods with the Warmoths huddled around it, a tune only they sing, which already was hinting to something very special about this child. Something I didn't even know just yet, but I knew the details would come in time. The third and 4th story are really just "Field Notes: taken from Diamonds Hadders travels, in truth they almost all are simply that. Zabble would ask Hadder to write things down for him and so he became quite good at documenting things around Bok, a place in evermore where Lord Zabble resides. Inside Hadders journal are many field notes talking about the land and creatures of Bok and beyond. These were the first 2 I decided to share, both aimed to describe the Warmoths, as I felt they were to play a large role in the story. So for the most part, these first 4 narrations were meant to introduce most of the main characters in this tale. Diamonds Hadder, Ezra, Skylark, Lord Zabble and the Warmoths. Enjoy.
Closing thoughts: Having said all that, I woke in a rather philosophical mood. Oh no, look out. Let me ask you something, have you ever worked on something so hard… and realized that you almost seem to care more about working hard than you do about the thing you’re working hard at. Ha. Being an artist is an interesting trait. sometimes I really thank the stars that I have other things that keep the tower upright, because if it was just art… I just might cut off my own ears. Let me go a little deeper today and talk about foundations and houses today. Foundations were on my mind. I’m a very driven person… so driven sometimes that I can start something… forget why I started it, and just continue building for quite some time. It’s rather funny actually. Artistically robotic. I think we all need to step back and look at the foundation of what we are doing sometimes, at least every 4 or 5 years just to be sure we still like what we see. There’s no question I enjoy what I’m doing, singing especially, but I seem to have come full circle in my life. I had made a choice once, after many years of building a crooked house, that I wouldn’t focus on building obscure structures and towers… yet here I am again. Ha. What is my fascination with obscurity? Am I just a child still? Chasing fantasies that are still trapped in my brain, a closed circuit… looping over and over. There are other things I could be doing. ha Like I said, I awoke thinking about the foundations of my work and how they started and why. About 6 years ago, I was about as far away from building crooked house as anyone could ever be. I recall the drive along the PCH one afternoon when that first thought crept into my head… evermore… it started with such a little thought. So alien to the life I was living… yet it didn’t come and go. It took root. Root enough to bring me to this moment, as I wander the foundation of this little word manifested over years. From the tree that day to a band, to a record, to this first chapter of narrations and characters for a novel. Will I complete it or is there another word that is waiting to find me on my drive today. It’s scary to think a word can change our lives, but at the same time, It’s also quite hopeful.
Anyway, hope your happy on your own foundation, and if not… hope you find the courage to look for land elsewhere and build again. There’s no right or wrong. If a “word” has been knocking on your door a while, let it in. Let it take root… at the very least you might build a crooked tower and have a few crooked parties there. There’s a lot of “words” waiting. Farewell.
Oh yeh, I’ll leave you with a quote from Einstein as it related to crooked houses and foundations “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
-j
Narrations: These are the first 4 narrations in the Diamonds Hadder tale. In time I'll release artwork for each individually, but these really do start the story. More at www.diamondshadder.com/fieldnotes