Creativity

I feel very creative lately.

For whatever reason, for the past few weeks, I have wanted to do nothing but make music, play shows and even write a bit.
This is the first real burst of creative juices I've had in a long time. It feels good.

I'm finishing up my tape release as we speak. It's a 9 song LP called "Lysergic Shorelines" that features 6 songs that haven't been publicly released before and 3 songs that were on the "Two-r EP(s)".

I feel like this is finally a really good all around representation of the overall atmosphere I'm trying to create with the Galactic Vacationer tracks. There's a good mix of mellow, almost droned out, blissful textures with some upbeat, heavy hitting, IDM/breakbeat style stuff. Some of my favorite beats I've created so far went into these songs. These are the songs I really enjoy playing live too, as they get the crowd moving more and also allow me to get into them more on stage.

I even started singing in front of people by doing a cover of "The Vowels Pt. 2" by Why? I hadn't sang in front of people for almost 10 years other than joining Great Lakes Myth Society on stage at the Broadway Theater for "Across the Bridge". It was nerve wracking to say the least. Whiskey helped.

What it did though, was allow me to break through the barrier I had kind of put up. I had not really felt comfortable performing until that point. Now, I can't get enough of playing my music for willing ears.

Another fun, exciting endeavor presented itself lately too. I've been collaborating with Totally Boring on a few of my songs. He's lending some really great guitar textures to the beats and synth sequencing I had in place. These songs have turned out way better than either of us expected and one is featured on the "Lysergic Shorelines" tape.

Collaborating with another creative mind has also opened up some avenues for me that I had not explored in the past. It's nice to be able to play music and bounce ideas off of another person, rather than having to concoct a song from start to finish by myself. I like that collaborative process and in these few weeks since we've started playing together, there's definitely been a feeling that perhaps a full time band could form from these jam sessions. Andrew and Keith from the local band V are going to start sitting in on some jams and we'll see what we can come up with.

Lastly, I'm playing a really big music festival this weekend called the Land of NOD Experiment. Of Montreal, Tokyo Police Club, Dr. Octagon, Murder By Death and Eagles of Death Metal are all playing, just to name a few. It's weird that such a cool event is taking place in my hometown of Jackson, but I'm honored to be a part of it. I am playing Sunday afternoon at 2pm. Catch my set if you're there.

I'll leave you with a few of my new songs below. Enjoy!