new year, ain't a thing changed

I’m going to start by getting ahead of myself and letting you know my first show in the city this year has been booked for wednesday, february 5, 7-8 pm! 

yes, the lovely folks at the Shrine are having me back, so take that A train or whichever the quickest way is for you to get to Harlem and stop on by. maybe I’ll even do a few songs for the lovers out there, it’ll be that time of year. who knows?

there’s even more exciting things planned between now and then, but that will remain a secret for now. all I can say is I will be going somewhere warm, and that warm place happens to be the home of caiparinias, Chico Buarque, and candomblé.

ok I gave away the secret but as to what is actually going to acontecer, you’ll just have to stay tuned. 

why the title of the email? simple really—you can expect more of the same from me this year, from shows across the city to updates and sneak peaks on my second album, which is right now slated for a late summer release.

that timeline may change, but either way I’ll do my best to bring you along for the ride as I continue to grow this little artistic project of mine.

this past wednesday I kicked off my actual first show of the year—at Common House in my hometown of charlottesville. the social club/third space is a mellow setting to play, punctuated by a roaring fire and plenty of big comfy chairs to relax in. 

interestingly enough, CH was first a client of mine when I worked for a local ad agency—I’d hung around and even flirted with membership for a few months, but really this performer-venue situation seems to have evolved into the best version of our relationship. this way, my parents can hear me play and I can invite my hometown friends to come listen too.

a shout out to my dad for capturing some video of the performance. here is Jobim’s “Corcovado” from that night:

charlottesville also offers a unique atmosphere for recording music that is nearly impossible to find in NYC—namely, that it’s quiet. 

I lugged the more mobile elements of my recording setup down to virginia for the holidays, and over the past month managed to record the rest of the acoustic guitar parts for my upcoming album.

these acoustic parts are actually the hardest parts to track; vocals are usually recorded in bits and pieces, smashing little sections together for one hyper-precise franken-take. but for continuity and “vibe,” acoustic instruments sound much better recorded in as close to one take as possible. this creates a more stable foundation for the vocal and helps avoid distracting the listener away from the song’s focus. 

that being said, I’m leaning into the dynamic of NYC’s intense sound pollution as a major theme on this upcoming album. between my buddy Trevor’s upright bass, some of my guitar tracks, and what will ultimately be the percussion and vocal overdubs that fill out the production, there will be plenty of honk and siren easter eggs to listen for.

my relationship with that reality has evolved dramatically. at first, I was shattered. I realized quickly I’d never be able to recreate the precision and quality of a recording studio in my own apartment, and yet as time passed I came to grips with the fact that perfection wasn’t necessarily my goal. 

this second album will be a reflection of this period of my life in new york—the highs and lows, the possibilities and harsh truths—and the best I can do is to be honest to it.

when I say that there were times I would try to anticipate when a traffic jam would take a minute-long break from honking its horns, I mean that I would be sitting, with my finger on the record button, dialing in ESP-style to the brains of the uber, truck, and bus drivers now subject to congestion charges. which I think are a good thing by the way, and not just because less vehicle traffic may make it easier for me to record. but anyway, yeah—sometimes the psychic attunement worked, and sometimes it didn’t. 

and so that’s what this album is going to be about. life in new york is not pretty and it’s only sometimes fun, but it’s more rewarding than living just about anywhere else.

everyone gets through it differently, and I do so by typing out my thoughts with semi-grammatical accuracy and sending them out into the depths of the interweb. I appreciate y’all for reading.

“there is one rule in the garden above all others. you must give to nature more than you take.“ –Alan Chadwick