Thanksgiving 2017 has rolled up on us (my U.S. friends). What are some of the things I am thankful for this year?
Thanksgiving 2017
I am thankful that I have family who support my musical endeavors.
I am thankful that I have a gift in creating music for you.
I am thankful that I have fans that love what I do.
I am thankful that I have been able to recover (slowly but surely) from a large theft.
I am thankful for the team of people who are forming around my music.
I am thankful for the people involved with a music festival / conference I’m putting together.
How About You
What are you thankful for, drop me a comment.
p.s. – may you have a wonderful experience with your friends, family, and/or loved ones this day!
Songs For The Kardashians
In the midst of the hubbub about my single Touch I was hired to write a couple of songs for the Kardashians. Yes, a friend of mine texted me saying they needed some music for the show. I thought what the hell, it’ll be interesting to add some fuel to the fire that is the Kardashians. Plus what could it hurt?
What a life they lead right? Antics. Strange connections. A father going for a sex change. There’s a real view into a family right?
If you’re a fan of Keeping Up With The Kardashians do my a favor and keep an eye out for episodes that may have my name in the credits. It would be fun to get some screen shots of that. Kinda like the first movie I had a song in where my name was scrolling up the screen. My girlfriend at the time worked for a movie theater. She actually got me a frame from the movie with my name in it. Cool right?
Stay tuned, more good stuff coming.
If you’re like me, you caught FourFiveSeconds as a live performance on the GRAMMYS a few days ago. Its the new single by Rihanna that’s co-written by Sir Paul McCartney and Kanye West.
I really enjoyed the live performance by Rihanna and Paul along with Nuno Bettancourt (Rihanna’s Guitarist). So much so that I decided to learn the song. Took about all of 15 minutes to commit it to memory. I posed the question on Twitter if tweeps wanted to see me playing the song and Bob’s your uncle. Here ya go.
FourFiveSeconds
I think I’ve had enough, I might get a little drunk
I say what’s on my mind, I might do a little time
Cause all of my kindness, is taken for weakness
Now I’m Four Five Seconds from wildin’
And we got three more days ’til Friday
I’m just tryna make it back home by Monday, mornin’
I swear I wish somebody would tell me
Ooh thats all I want
Woke up an optimist, sun was shining I’m positive
Then I heard you was talkin’ trash
Hold me back I’m bout’ to spaz
Now I’m Four Five Seconds from wildin’
And we got three more days ’til Friday
I’m just tryna make it back home by Monday, mornin’
I swear I wish somebody would tell me
Ooh thats all I want
And I know that you’re up tonight
Thinkin’ how could I be so selfish
But you called bout a thousand times wondering where I been
Now I know that your up tonight
Thinkin’ how could I be so reckless
But I just can’t apologize, I hope you can understand
If I go to jail tonight, promise you’ll pay my bail
See they want to buy my pride, but that just ain’t up for sale
See all of my kindness, is taken for weakness
Now I’m Four Five Seconds from wildin’
And we got three more days ’til Friday
I’m just tryna make it back home by Monday, mornin’
I swear I wish somebody would tell me
Ooh thats all I want
Now I’m Four Five Seconds from wildin’
And we got three more days ’til Friday
I’m just tryna make it back home by Monday, mornin’
I swear I wish somebody would tell me
Ooh thats all I want
Enjoy!
Having escaped NAMMthrax I’m going to recount some of the fun I had at NAMM 2015.
NAMM
I’m a fan of NAMM. Its a bit like experiencing Guitar Center if it were on Steroids. A lot of steroids. The main reason I go is to see all the fun new gear. Usually I’ll go for 3 days, on occasion I’ll go all 4. This year I only took it in in 2 days. Partially due to scheduling and partially due to seeing if I could fit everyone in that I needed to in 2 days. Hindsight says it was too short a time for how much I had to see and do.
For the cool new thing, this year I think hands down it’s gotta go to Omnisphere 2 by Spectrasonics. I already use Omnisphere, so this is a very cool update. Looking forward to when it drops.
My surreal experience of NAMM occurred on Saturday. I was walking along when I hear “Hey Jody, do you want a pen?” I turn to look and its Dave Pensado offering me a pen while standing outside the Izotope booth. For the non music world, Dave Pensado is a premier top level mixing engineer who has mixed some of the massive hits you’ve heard on radio. The shocking thing was how tall he is. For some reason I always pictured him to be like 5’9″, but he’s easily about 6’2″. Nearly as tall as me. We chatted briefly and then he did a presentation for the amazing new Izotope plugins Ozone 6, Alloy 2, Trash and more. Super nice and friendly guy.
The other great thing about NAMM is seeing certain people that for some reason I don’t run into other than at NAMM. Great time to catch up on what other fellow musicians are creating!
I did happen to see a purple microphone by Sennheiser that matched the purple shoes that I’ve got. Check that featured image for this post where I’m posing with the microphone. Think I need to color coordinate my mic and shoes?
I also helped to create a slogan for one of my endorsers. It’ll be interesting if Studio Devil starts using “Studio Devil, putting amps into storage for years.”
Stay tuned, more musical stuff is coming.