The Next Level

Working on this album has been an interesting learning process, to say the least. I composed a bunch of tracks many months ago and then put them away. In last couple months, I started revisiting tracks to see how they could be taken to the next level by having other people play on top of them. For some of them, I had written out parts in mind for different instruments. For example, for one track I wrote a melody part for a trumpet. For the past few weeks I've been working with a trumpet player in the UK. We chat on skype, and then he emails me his parts. Repeat. Yeay Internet!

For other tracks, it was more about seeing what happens when I bring in different musicians and get their take on what could be done to a track. Since the song structure is already there, it's a great starting off point to jam ontop of. I'm not married to the composition - I'm ready for it to evolve. If someone has an idea, I'm all ears.

Two weekends ago I have the privilege of having Anthony Rogers-Wright over for a jam session. He's a sick bass player - you can hear him on his current band's myspace page. I had him in mind for a specific track, but threw a couple different tracks at him to see what would happen. Then on a track I had already written the bass part for, he totally blew my mind with his funky shit. Oh man. F my bassline.

Last weekend, I convinced Sean Lehe, a ridiculous guitar player, to come over. I've seen him in different iterations of his band (Home at Last, Isabella), and he really throws down. I'm always been interested to take a monster jamband player and combine that with my music. I know there's not a whole lot of overlap, but those are the two musical worlds that I live in. It would be great to see them collide.

So, to give you more context, I will harness the power of the internet to demonstrate what I'm talking about.

Here is a snippet from the one really uptempo track on the next album (I think I'm gonna call it "the grenablerer"):


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Its got a nice bounce. But wait.

Lets listen to that same snippet with Anthony's bass line:


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Aww yeah. That's what I'm TALKING about.

Now add Sean's fiery guitar:


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That's how we take a track to the next level.