My Next Album

The process of creating a new album (CD) for me is somewhat deliberate in the beginning stages. I usually start with the album title, and write songs that gravitate to the overall theme. I really started this process with "Ghost Stories". I had half the songs that I wanted to record already written. The one that stood out the most for me was "Ghost", which to me seemed a good center piece to create other songs around. Once I settled on the album title "Ghost Stories", I then proceeded to write "Christine", "Tangled", "Telepathy", "Seance", "Sweet Baby" and "Someone in Austin"...these songs worked well with and around the other songs I had slated for the project: "Ghost", "Storm in my Heart", "Vision of Colour", "True Perspective", "Be Home Soon" and "Good Life".

The same formula carried over into "Color of Rain". In fact it was improved upon and enhanced with the primary goal being to create a CD that mirrored the albums from the late 60's and early to mid 70's...I wanted to make a CD that people would want to listen to from start to finish. No filler songs...and lots of diversity. Once again, I had accumulated a handful of songs that I had written while touring with Ghost Stories. In fact, my Ghost Stories band began playing "One Good Reason" and "Vicious Circle" on stage shortly after I wrote them. When touring stopped for Ghost Stories, the band dissolved and I found myself at square one once again. This was a good thing in hindsight...because it gave me time to refocus my career, time to find new players and time to lock down a new, more suitable studio. It was during this time that I came up with the album title "Color of Rain"...with the theme centering around duality. At that point I had "Vicious Circles", "One Good Reason", "Be Kind", "Evergreen" and "Angel Falls" to start with. In fact "Angel Falls" was the first song we cut...because my producer saw it as one of the strongest songs I had ever written. So after I had committed myself to studio time, I had to write the rest of "Color of Rain". In fact, I loved the title so much that I wanted to write a title track. It took me a few months to finish the song "Color of Rain" which is somewhat out of the ordinary for me. I really wanted to get this song right...and it truly needed to ferment internally before it was ready for recording. But in the process of writing that song, I was able to write others including "Bruce Wayne", and "Essence". It was a highly creative time for everyone involved in the project, including my producer Johnny Big who wrote this funky jazz riff and asked me to write something to be read over the top of it...this song became "4am Slam Over Coffee", and is the biggest diversion and most talked about surprise on the entire CD! But the creative leaps didn't stop there...I decided to re cut "Altar Boy" - a song from my first EP - with the ethereal feel that was missed in the original cut. The finished result exceeded my expectations thanks to the mind blowing percussion played by Pat Mastelotto. After 6 months into production I wrote "South of Your Borders" with James Odle. This was the perfect vehicle to serve as a duet with my good friend Chelle Murrey...who I desperately wanted involved in the project but didn't have any idea of what to give her until this song was written. There was no shortage on material during the last few days of production, but Johnny wanted a special closing for the CD. So, I went home and wrote "So, Goodbye". The next day we cut it...the song wasn't even 24 hours old...but everyone fell in love with it and really felt we needed to keep it simple with sweeping harmony vocals on top of my vocal and keyboard part.

My career went on after that, and I cut a live CD with my acoustic band Silver Moon, plus I cut a Christmas EP with Chelle Murrey. However my passion for studio work was still not being fulfilled completely and now being in Santa Fe I am once again at square one. Once again I am faced with wanting to expand myself...new sonic territory...new players, a new studio and so on. I wouldn't call myself a prolific songwriter...I don't write songs everyday...in fact months languish between song to song for me. I rarely write a song for the sake of writing a song. When I do stumble across a song it is always accompanied with the urge to record it. And I have some songs that are ready for the studio..."Brave the Outside", "Saving Grace", "Worship Me" and "Last Day of Winter". And I have a new album title, "Book of Shadows". As the title suggests, this album will be steeped in more poetic, mystical music that will seem more like incantations than songs. In fact, rather than sitting at the piano with my notebook, I'm going to write a book of poetry with no thought of music and melody at all. Once I have about 25 poems, I will then apply the music...in this way I will be writing my songs from the inside out...the way I started writing songs when I was a teenager but grew out of once I got into my career.

In terms of style, "Book of Shadows" will be a noted shift for me. I'm going to experiment in the Chill genra...electronica...and for the most part everything will be mid tempo. On the surface it may seem like a huge departure for me...but there has always been the ethereal element to my music...I simply want to explore it/develop it more fully.