I would like to thank you.

I was playing a show in Pittsburgh recently @ a bar known as The Smiling Moose. It's a cool place with an upstairs downstairs thing going on. We were playing upstairs with one of our favorite Pittsburgh bands Signal to the Ocean Estate. After the show a guy in the audience stopped me to say he liked the show. He then asked me if I had heard of The Swell Season. @ the time I had not heard of them. He asked if I had heard of or seen the movie Once. I replied yes. Not yes I had seen the movie, but yes I had heard of it. He said "you guys remind me of them." Later that night when I got home, I booted my computer to look up The Swell Season. I could not believe what I heard. Did he really mean we sounded anything like these two amazing artists? This is one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me about my music. Thank you!


This video gives me the chills. I love The Swell Season!

Music and the beard.

I admit it. I have been slacking in the beard picture department. I am about three weeks behind in my posts @ http://essentialmachine.com. I plan on catching up today!

In other news, I am in the process of enrolling @ Full Sail University. I will be studying Music Production in pursuit of a Bachelors of Science. I'm looking forward to all of the knowledge I'm about to acquire.

If you haven't already listened to our record Find the Harmony now is your chance. I was surfing around on lala.com and I noticed that Essential Machine has zero plays. In the interest of changing that number to anything other than zero I have posted a player below. Enjoy.

P.S.

The record is coming along nicely, and we are planning another internet show very soon!

Essential Machine

Save it!

I'm writing this blog to remind myself to click save every once in awhile. Why you ask? Well let me tell you a little story. I spent a few hours recording a percussion part in the studio the other day. I had five tracks going, edited and starting to really come together. Instead of taking a second and saving the file I added more plug-ins until it crashed. Now I'm back at square one. RJ, SAVE YOUR SHIT!

The more the merrier!

My friend Chris G. introduced me to this group Pomplamoose (thanks Chris!). Their music is very unique. I love the arrangements and instrumentation. I am admittedly jealous of them. I am most jealous of the seemingly endless number of different instruments they have at their disposal. I have decided to start collecting new instruments. My tool of choice for this mission is craigslist. I have spent some time this week looking at instruments for sale. I'm looking forward to starting my new collection.

Here is a video from Pomplamoose. It's a good example of the many instruments that they use in their music. Be sure to check out there original music as well.




Next I want to share a video that I have found to be beautiful and honest. It's from an artist known as Zee Avi. I think this video speaks for it self.

Blogging from my phone.

I wanted to post a blog from my phone so here it is. If thisis ok I think I will use my phone to post blogs while on the road and at work. I spent most of the day in the studio. I'm having a blast with this new record. I worked out harmonies and tempos and fixed arrangments. I love putting on my headphones and going for it, looking for the perfect balance between harmony and melody. I'm getting anxiuos to share our newest creations though I know it will be sometime before the record is released. At the current rate of recording I have been thinking that the record will be released in May.

A new day!

I had my first real day off in my new position! Wow! What a difference. My phone did not ring once. That's right not once. This has already had a profound effect on me. I spent many hours in the studio this morning busting out riffs and melodies. I feel a real momentum starting. The new music is really coming together. There is a point where I start to panic for a minute wondering if this will ever start to come together. That's when I make a change and things start moving! Progress is essential!

"You can't be neutral on a moving train." - Howard Zinn



He will be missed!