002 console repaired

Spent some time this morning repairing my 002 console. Fortunately this was an easy fix and Digi Design sent me the parts to make the quick repair. Well, sorta quick. I was taking my time so I didn't accidentally mess anything up and make things worse. The thing I thought was most interesting was that I had to soak the entire console in water to calibrate it. That took about 34 minutes and... Just kidding of course!! Gotcha there. I know I know, enough with the cheap jokes and on with the story... Okay, anyway I was able to get things going smoothly and then Cosmo (America's favorite kitty) showed up.



She starts wanting to get involved, looking around, starting to touch things with her paw but this is serious business and a "No cat's allowed" situation. So I let her know that she had to leave and she didn't take it well at all...



She started swatting my hands when I tried to reach in to repair this thing, growling and hissing so she got a one way ticket out of the recording room. No angry pets allowed in my repair shop when I'm in "Pro-Tech" mode!! I almost went as far as to put on the full "Pro-Tech" uniform while I made this 10 min repair (I'd actually do something like that). Moving right along, after about 5 to 10 min of hearing meowing at the door, I let her back in. By this time the console was repaired and in test run mode.



So I opened up the door and a very cheerful Cosmo came trotting in and hopped up on my lap and started purring. Interesting animal (as I mentioned before, I've got a 3 ring circus going on over here). Happy the console is back up an running. Well I really should say, so far so good....

Photos

I uploaded the rest of the photos from NYC and the travel day home

Some late night editing

A birds eye shot of what's going on over here. Took this photo the other evening right before I had troubles with the console the following morning. Oh! Speaking of, I was supposed to give you an update about that. It's working fine now after replacing the DC power cable harness. I'll write about my experience being a "tech" in a little while. (I didn't do too bad if you ask me!)

Steve Lukather remembering Michael Jackson

On June 26th 2009 CNN anchor Tony Harris talked with Steve Lukather, among others, about working together with Michael Jackson, especially for his top record Thriller. Read the transcription of Harris's phone call with Lukather.

Tonight in San Francisco - Ottmar Liebert - Solo performance

Went across the bay to San Francisco tonight to see Ottmar perform solo. It was really nice to watch from the audience's perspective verses being on stage. I had a great time, just relaxed and had a few glasses of wine, even closed my eyes a few different times and just listened.

Temporary Setback

Digi 002 console is experiencing technical problems - Just spoke on the phone with tech support and they're sending out a part and instructions for me to make the easy repair. Should get it in the mail either tomorrow or Monday.

EL Charango

In 2005 I became associate producer on the film El Charango—a 22-minute Spanish-language documentary about music and mining in the Bolivian city of Potosí. While I possessed no formal training in film production, I was guided by the simple burning passion for the charango and the culture from which it comes. I worked with director Jim Virga and editor Tula Goenka (Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, Salaam Bombay!) to construct a narrative about how a little musical instrument relates to the largest silver mine in the world. ....... Check out more of it HERE

Great documentary by Andrew Reissiger. I really enjoyed watching it, definitely worth picking up. I always love learning about different instruments, the history behind music and instruments is fascinating to me. For those of you who don't know, he's playing the Charango on some of my new tunes and it sounds beautiful yet haunting at the same time. A wonderful instrument. Oh, I see that I already mentioned that a few posts below there... Well, now you know again!

Recording - Last Week

It seems like it just wouldn't be normal for me unless I had a 3 ring circus going on when trying to record. Things tend to get out of control over here with these cats taking over my recording room while I'm trying to work but I still seem to get work done. It's been great to get back to the new music. Life has been a bit crazy to say the least as we moved right when I got back from the tour. Moving is never any fun and it's stressful on the pets too. We're enjoying our new place though and we're happy to have it over with. It's not too far from where we were actually, just across town as they say. Of course I can't say where, that's classified but I can tell you that we live west of the Mississippi!

I've been having a lot of fun with these songs, it's been really interesting to hear how they're turning out. More in the works this week. Didn't get much done today, had to deal with some really stupid stuff. So I may work a bit tonight to make up for what I didn't get done today. Last week I pulled some crazy hours recording. I think one of the days, I was up around 7 or 8AM working on and off through out the day and finished up around 1:30AM. Went to sleep and got up at 5:30 AM. I just couldn't sleep because I kept hearing ideas so I started the coffee maker and fired up the computer to start recording for the day. Although I'm thinking about switching to more of a night schedule this coming week, nothing too extreme though. Not like the old days where my usual bed time was around 5:30 - 6AM. The night is always a lot more quiet and peaceful. No phones ringing or daily stuff to deal with, not to mention unpacking. Oh, and no cats jumping around either. At night Cosmo will fall asleep on my lap while I'm at the computer and Herbie will be sleeping on the bed. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.


(Below) Some random photos from my week of recording -






And more photos HERE - A while back I put together a flickr album for photos I'm taking while recording this album

Today

Coffee with Andrew Reissiger at 9:30am to catch up a bit after the tour and discuss future music plans. After, we walked over to my place so I could share some of the new music with him that I've been working on. (As I mentioned before, he's playing a few different instruments on some of the tunes.) Andrew is already familiar with my pet "Cosmo Kitty" but when I have guests I usually go through all the warnings and disclaimers that we have a ferocious feline, just so guests keep their distance. Ah!, speak of the devil - she just hopped up on my lap for some petting, hold on a sec....

Okay, I'm back, that was out of control. I stopped petting the cat so I could get back to typing here and she was not happy about that decision. Trying to reach for the computer mouse was a mistake.... Any cat trainers out there?? Anyway where was I.... ah yes! So we got back to my place and I opened the door and peaked my head in. I looked left and right, no sign of Cosmo. The coast was clear and we walked in. As usual Herbie was right there ready to greet us as the cool cat that he is.

Andrew sat down and right away Cosmo (America's Favorite Kitty) came walking out and over to the cat scratcher. She started clawing and tearing into that thing sharpening her claws while looking at him as if he was a fresh cut of prime rib. She then calmly walked over in his direction. At this point I'm thinking maybe we should relocate into the music room, probably best right? But by then it was too late and Cosmo had reached Andrew. I said don't move, I'll try to scurry her away. But then Cosmo started meowing, purring and rubbing up against his legs??? I paused for a second with confusion. She then laid on her side rolling over etc, he looked at me and said, "she seems fine to me". She totally put on a whole production show acting like the best kitty cat on the planet. I then rolled my eyes, go figure....

So we walked into the music room and started listening to some of my new tunes. Right away Andrew had some great ideas. It was nice to get working on my tunes again, I'm looking forward to hearing how they turn out. When I was in NYC, I spent a lot of time listening to what I've recorded so far. It's amazing to me how much time is spent listening when making an album (At least for me). Hours and hours really. I remember riding the subway and walking around the city getting lots of cool ideas and I'm really looking forward to getting busy. I'm going to try and cram in a bunch of recording time in before I hit the road with OL in July. I'll keep the up-dates coming -

Photos

Uploaded a few photos I took from the show in Santa Fe. I can't believe it's been a week already.

10 years

This month marks 10 years of touring for me. So much has happened in the past 10 years it boggles my mind and not to mention how much I've changed. Let's see, 10 years ago in June I was doing the stage lighting at a club in Hollywood to make ends meet while working on music. I was 23. The band Toto came through and I did their light show. They really liked my work and asked me to go out on the road with them. I had never done anything like that and remember lying in bed at night thinking, "should I go?" " No, I can't do that, I'll just say that I can't because of...." "maybe I could go??" Point being, I felt a lot of fear and was worried about taking a chance. I didn't want to fail and didn't know what I was up against. Not to mention, didn't know that much about the tech side of lighting (I just happen to have good timing because I'm a musician. Which, if you ask me is one of the most important aspect of lighting). One of those nights, I just said to myself, what do I have to loose?

I called up the production manager and said I'm in. I remember that plane flight to the east coast. 5 1/2 hours looking out the window thinking, what am I doing. It felt like the longest plane ride ever. I was so stressed out about the first show, working with people I hadn't worked with before, telling a whole lighting crew of people who were well beyond 15 to 20 years older then me what to do and the fear that they'd see right through me. Next thing I knew, the first show was over and the tour manager walked up to me and said, "great job, you're hired". After that, my experience with traveling was about to begin, and more then I could imagine. Started around the US and then Internationally. I gained experience quickly and started to gain respect with a lot of the lighting crews I worked with. Of course, that respect didn't come till after they saw my light show. It wasn't easy walking in being the youngest. A lot of times I would catch attitude but I had the confidence that I would do a great job and most importantly, the band gave me great support and that's all that really mattered. With in a year's time I found myself in Mexico City doing a light show for Toto when they opened up for Eric Clappton in a stadium for 53,000 people. From there I was all over the world, the list of countries goes on and on. An amazing eye opening experience for me.

When I was home between tour dates, I worked back at the club in Hollywood, studied flamenco guitar with Paco Arroyo and worked on practicing technique and songwriting. I was also able to hop on a few other tours as a lighting director between my touring with Toto. In 2004 Ottmar Liebert and Luna Negra came through that same club and that's where I met OL for the first time. We kept in touch and I shared my music with him. It was in the summer of 05' that I was in the Netherlands with Toto when Ottmar contacted me about adding my music to his Listening Lounge (which eventually led to me being in the band!). And of course that's a whole other story for another time but some of those same fears came back. I didn't want to let him or myself down, this was a totally different situation and I was going to be on the other side of things. But this time things were different. I had the confidence from my lighting experience that taught me that I could do what ever I put my mind to. Music was my passion and I wasn't going to let myself down. For me, it was the opportunity of a lifetime. (no pressure there)

Anyway, getting back to touring, I finished my final tour with Toto last year (2008) ending up in Korea. There have been no Toto tour dates since. A lot of great memories with those guys. I keep in touch and look forward to hanging when we cross pathes again.


(above photo - My last light show with Toto in Korea)

I'm excited about what the future holds with my music adventures and the travels with Ottmar. The touring continues for me and it will be interesting to see what happens in the next 10 years. Looking back, 10 years doesn't really sound like a long time but it feels like lifetime ago. What I've learned is that it can be so hard to break out of your comfort zone, that's for sure. But looking back, I've only found that breaking out has pushed me through to bigger and better things. I'm sure glad I decided to make that call and take a chance.

LOL

Remember these commercials!! Check out the part where the bubble floats away with the bath tub in it - HAHAHA Classic!

Lensic Performing Arts Center - Santa FE

Awesome evening tonight at the Lensic, I really enjoyed the show. It was also great to meet all of you who came to the "after show" hang. As they say, a fun time was had by all. I'm very much looking forward to the tour dates in July, can't wait to get back out on tour! Thanks to everyone for coming down and supporting a good cause and seeing us perform tonight.

Santa Fe

It's good to be in Santa Fe again. Looking forward to the show at the Lensic tomorrow evening.