06 November 2008

Just a quick note and a pasted message today! I've been working with Kiri and Dane on a new track. It's sounding great. I'll post it here once it's completed. I think Latte's new disc is in the home stretch. Looking forward to hearing it once it's pressed. Ex-Gruesomes guitarist Gerry Alvarez and I have been recording demos for his new CD. We'll be up at the cottage in April recording his next CD. I'm really looking forward to this one!

I'll be on tour pretty much till the end of 2008 with the Canadian Idol Top 3 Tour. If it passes through your town, be sure to drop me a note and come out and say hello.

You've got to read this next bit. It's a review of The Elusive Project X CD from a good friend in Vancouver. His name is Rory Macdonald (He's the one in the middle at left) and he is the Bassist from The Orchid Highway. When asked if he liked the disc or if his review simply meant he was crazy, his reply was simply - YES!

Some sun soaked morning;
Industrial east-side of a west coast port town..
 
the package arrived quite mysteriously at my doorstep 3 days ago in the evening.  which is disorienting in it self...  as that's not usually how my mail finds it's way to my door....    and it just so happens that i'd just wired up speakers for the first time since July...
 
this morning amid the smells of the chicken auswitz, the fat rendering company, the weary hookers of powell st, and the Mediterranean sausages & Venezuelan coffee in the studio kitchen...   i slip the disc containing the information into the machine.  and absorb.
 
and the feeling of disorientation continues...    in a familiar...   and uncertain way...    i find myself wondering what country i'm in...    and for that matter...    what time is it...      it feels like 4:40 AM.  but the sun is a crowbar on my eyelids.  i think the wine is a variant of some portuguese spritzer...    but i can't place the accent - and haven't yet determined the colour of her eyes.  there's probably an ice sculpture somewhere within these 5 square miles - but it won't be unveiled except much later tonight, and only amongst very rich people.
 
and what is she trying to tell me?   did she stop me on the street because she was shattered from a past life's dream?...    or is she just asking directions?   i can hear that the glass is absolutely crystal...    and i think there's a church choir practicing down the hill...      but she's wearing tight jeans with an ACDC patch on her ass and come fuck me boots.  and then there's this spanish guitar cat who refills our glasses with low grade champagne and hi end orange juice.  and i'm thinking - this reminds me of all those nights i didn't make it down to the Jazz cafe in Camden...  and of the few that i did.  Shit...   how am i gonna pay for this?  and then the hard rock castanets remind me that life is fucking weird and wonderful...   and she leans over the table and throws a rock against a pane of glass older than my country...   
 
the bill is going to be presented any minute...    the haut culture pianist is taking over "entertainment"...    the elderly crowd seems to be seizing the day...    and shaming those wearing last nights clothes.  But their arrival only makes us all look sexier than we realized.   and where do all these pornocaster guitarists come from???  what is THEIR story??  i know they understand something i can't grasp...   and it drives me to distraction....
 
you can hear footsteps up the cobblestones between numbers...    and fuck...   this whole city is far more aware of some reality than i am...   and they keep staring at me wondering if i'm ever gonna catch on...     am i on one of these energy lines between pyramids?  is my hair ok?  is there arugula in my teeth?  have i shamed this virgin?  or am I the virgin?  she's wearing one of those crinkly wife beater t's that look better on a woman the longer it clings to her unwashed...      ...i'm distracted by her deeply intelligent neckline...    for an uncomfortable amount of time...
 
and i can't bear the silence.....
 
but she laughs - comforts me, and suddenly she loves America - and i realize...      despite everything....   so do i.  So we rent a speedboat...   and we float aggressively, cultured & over financed on a section of sea looking like a vacation locale in a pre-fuel crisis National Geographic Magazine.  And i wonder....    am i going to meet her parent's...      or is this just one of life's aborted postcards:
 
Eleven days that might have led me somewhere very different....     if i'd understood the choices scrolled on the velvet menu that sat on a wrought iron table...      
 
I wonder where she is....and what colour her eyes are now...   because i can feel from behind mine; they have taken on a new hue.
 
rdbm
circa '08

The past two months have been filled with project completions, CD releases and travel.

I finished working with Ron Rein a few weeks ago and his disc is being manufactured at present. Look for a back-to-school release and some shows in the fall. Latte's tracks are almost done. She's also looking to release in the next few months. I was in the studio with Eva's guitarist Dane Hartsell recording with very talented singer/songwriter Kiri (Pictured at left). You can listen to a snippet of the track here. We'll be doing more work together in the fall.

I spent time in Calgary with Kalan Porter and Eva Avila and in Quebec with Dennis DeYoung. My last summer date will be with Dennis on the 31st of August in Gatineau. I also had the chance to work with Estelle at the Soccer All-Star game where David Beckham played his first game in Toronto.

And last but not least...
The new Elusive Project X disc "Eleven Days" is available for sale from this site. You can listen to excerpts in the audio section and purchase a copy by following the "buy now" link. All the songs will be available at iTunes shortly, but I strongly suggest you check them out with full dynamic range on the CD. The Jonathan Stainton directed documentary about the "Eleven Days" experiment is close to completion and I'll be sure to post an update to let everyone know when it's viewable.

More soon, Flav

09 April 2008

As usual my resolution to do an update at least every month has fallen by the wayside! It's not for lack of desire to do so, it's just that I've been busy!

I am in the process of mixing the new EPX CD and hope to have it done by the end of April (famous last words!)

In the meantime, I thought I'd add another little snippet from the DVD that you might find amusing. We were having issues with transferring files back and forth from different computers and at times the result was the presence of digital hash in some of the tracks that sounded like a cattle prod. The singer sang a sultry moan on the song right after the hash that made it sound like she has been touched by the cattle prod - have a look here!


In other news, Derek Yaple Schobert received a very interesting letter from Swedish composer Erland von Koch. It read as follows:

Dear Pianist Derek Yaple-Schobert,
Thank you very much for your excellent CD, entitled Nordic Passion with my Värmlandia Variations.  I am very glad for your fine and beautiful playing in my composition.  And a world premier recording! I wish you new success with your admirable playing. My best regards, Erland v. Koch

Mr. von Koch is 98 years old and wrote "Variations On A Swedish Folk Tune" in 1981. Fantastic to get confirmation that we were the first to record it!


And finally...
I recently returned from recording drums tracks with my good friend Randy Cooke (recently Ringo Starr, Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, Five For Fighting and Colbie Caillat) for Ron Rein's upcoming CD "In The Pocket". The tracks were done at The Wizardz Of Oz' (Avril Lavigne, Olivia Newton John, Britney Spears) new Emerald City Studio. Thank you to Randy for the great tracks and to Andrew and Liz for allowing me to invade their space for a few days. You guys are great!

Coming up...
Look for Tyler's new CD shortly - he's just finishing work on the vocals at his cousin's studio, Latte's new disc should hit streets in the next few months, and I'll be hitting the road with EPX very soon!

More later, Flav

27 January 2008

Happy New Year!

2008 is off to a great start! Together with my grooviest friends, I've been hard at work on a new Elusive Project X CD entitled "11 Days". We spent 11 days in a beautiful cottage on Lake Huron's Georgian Bay writing, producing, recording and editing 11 songs. Though there were travel delays - The singer was five hours late arriving from New York and the guitarist was four hours late arriving from Vancouver - the experiment was a total success!

It was interesting to see how five individuals from different places and backgrounds were able to come together and create music without knowing each other previously.

The only unifying element to the project was that I knew everyone. Everyone else met the morning we drove to the cottage!

Along with the five of us were Carol (without whom we could have never made this record! Her dedication to keeping us fed was an amazing surprise as the original intent was for her to come up to work on the design for the packaging), my assistant Isaac, who used this session to fulfill his co-op criteria for his Ryerson University degree, and a documentary filmmaker named Jonathan Stainton. The chemistry was perfect and we all had a blast! Click here to watch a short film shot on a digital camera that showcases the kind of fun we had.

We took enough food to feed an army, tons of musical instruments, three Pro Tools systems, a Logic Audio system and enough Apple Mac power to run the space shuttle! We were up at 11 every day and didn't go to bed much before 5am! For inspiration there were walks along the beach, nights in the hot tub, late night dinners, "Wine Time" and the now famous "One-minute dance parties".

In all, we met our target and Jonathan documented the entire process. His film about the experiment will be out at the same time as the new CD. Click here to view trailers for his up-coming movie "Laundry" (Produced by my brother Marcus) and a number of his shorts. He's a very talented guy and I'm happy to count him amongst my friends!

Thank you to Sheileen Krone and her family for letting us use their wonderful cottage, Robin Billinton at Mostly Music for the guitar, amplifier, and boat, Larry Davidson at D'Addario Canada for the Evans drumheads and Vater sticks, Terry Ryan and Peter Stairs at Sabian for the cymbals, Sean Browne at Yamaha for the drums, Ed the neighbour for the extra pots and pans, Tara Cuppy at Enterprise rent-a-van for the van and most importantly to my best friends for believing in this project enough to come from far and wide to take part - we made a great disc and the 11 days we spent together were just the beginning!


I'll keep you posted on release dates as soon as we're done with the mix! Flavio