A Dry Flattened Frog

Last night I played the open mic at The Treehouse in Columbus, Ohio. As I finished the first verse of Haven't Had Not, ("I knew right away that his plan was to eat it.") some people in the front started laughing.

It was kinda weird. I actually saw this guy in Cambodia. Even by Cambodian standards he looked impoverished and it wasn't funny at the time. My intention in this song was not to make fun of him.

On the other hand, I actually got a genuine reaction from my music. People were actually listening to the words. So that's pretty cool.

It'll Never Come Again

My new album is finished and ready for free download! Ahhhhhhhh...



I decided to call it It'll Never Come Again (from the lyrics in the song Early Test) because that's how I feel about this music. It all originated in moments of inspiration and if I had let those moments pass this music certainly wouldn't be here today. The eleven songs were written over a five year period, starting with More to See which I wrote back in college and ending with Yours on Earth and Haven't Had Not which both came about while I was recording the other songs.

Christin thinks you can trace the progression of my songwriting through this album, from Station (which she insists is a bunch of gobbledy-goop) to Yours on Earth (which apparently has a more concise message). I'd have to say that I agree with her.

Anyway, it's been a lot of work. It would have been finished a lot sooner if I hadn't been so lazy this summer, but I think the music sounds better for it. The entire thing was recorded on my MacBook through the internal microphone at my apartment and two of the schools I teach at in Japan. None of these environments were in any way sound proof so you can enjoy plenty of ambient noise. (Listen for the crickets on Early Test and the car driving by at the end of Beauty's Never Ugly.)

Now, I need to say thanks. First, thank you Christin for all of the work that you did on the website, promotion, research, inspiration, and kicking my ass into gear. I would not have finished all this without you. I also want to thank all the people who inspired this music and all the musicians I've played with past and present, especially Kevin and Shannon who were there when I wrote a bunch of this stuff. (Shannon also wrote one of the guitar parts in More to See.) Thank you Patrick and Brad for letting me play these songs at your bars (and thanks twice for the guitar Patrick). Thank you Eddie for helping me get the drums recorded. Thank you Mr. Horiguchi for letting me record at your schools and use your piano (even if you didn't know about it at the time). Thank you Grandma and Lauren for inspiring some of these songs. Thank you to all the rest of my family, friends, and fans for supporting me and telling me that I'm great (even when I suck). And finally thank YOU for reading this far.

As if I needed another reason to get naked...

I wanted to change one of the lines in Origami today, but as I was trying to re-record it I just couldn't get it to sound right.

The vocals were originally recorded in the shower, giving them this cool reverby effect that goes with the whole etherealness of the rest of the song. So I was back in the shower tonight and I kept singing new line over and over again, but there was never any reverb when I played it back. The whole dreamy feel was gone and I couldn't figure out why.

Then, it hit me. I recorded the original vocals back in August, which means that it was balls-ass hot, which means that I was butt-ass naked. I needed to get naked again. My thick December pajamas were dampening the reverb and soaking up all the ethereal.

So I braved the December cold (there's no central heating in our apartment), dropped trow, and got back in that shower. I'm happy to say that it worked.

So let that be a lesson to you: If things aren't going your way, get naked.


This is a quick preview of Origami. The line I recorded tonight was "Endless fields of ripe blueberries."