#motse

Mozi: Book 4, Universal Love III (墨子：卷四兼愛下). 403-221 B.C.E.. Translated by W. P. Mei (1929). 

Just got in from Chicago last night after doing my first out of state show in a little bar on Broadway!  It was so much fun and I foresee more shows like that in the future.  What an honor and a rush to share the stage with those formidable talents (Henry True, Sampson Hollander, Solvega, and Motse for the unitiated).  Speaking of Motse...

The day after the show, the mastermind behind Motse (Chris Major Chenery), took me to the studio where he’s constructing his new, lush indie-folk album, called “In the Paint.”  The Jam Lab is an unassuming little building in Brookfield, IL, but when you step inside - it’s like walking in from the wardrobe and straight into Narnia.  Plenty of staggering gear and a strong, assured force in Colin Peterik at the engineering/production helm.  

One of the pros of being a DIY artist is learning to operate under a number of recording and performance conditions.  In my case, I like to create in a vacuum: no one else there to really guide or shape my sound but me.  It’s selfish in many ways.  But when I am called on to write a part or perform for someone else, I kind of have to snap to and follow some guidelines.  Colin was great with this.   

And that can be pretty intimidating, too, especially in an impressive professional setting like the Jam Lab.  But I think the pressure and the challenge of it makes you a better musician in the long run.  It’s all about serving the song and the vision of the artist/producer you are working with.  We ended with some compelling grand piano, Fender Rhodes, and Hammond organ performances to look forward to in the future.  Keep an eye (or rather an ear) out for Dizzy on the upcoming Motse tracks “C’mon Joe”, “The Prince”, and “Love is So Much More”.

I’ve been looking everywhere. 

For my little pocketbook, I mean, where I’ve been journaling my day-to-days. It must’ve grown legs, wandered off.  It’s all right in the end though, because I just remembered I’ve started a blog here that (so far) I’ve only posted Instagram pictures to.  Talk about streamlining your social media.  

Part of me thinks this pocketbook fell out of my car as I was getting out somewhere in Chicago last week, where I’d been recording some of my guest keyboard and harmony parts for the album Bipolar Bear, by Motse.  If that’s the case, then I guess it’s just the price you pay.  

Casualty of travel, one might say–and worth it, considering what the end product will be.  I can’t speak for Chris (aka Motse), but I will say that I jumped at the chance to work with such a jagged songwriter.  The songs are all there, nearing completion and jutting out beautifully in their icicle structure, dripping with honeyed melodies.  I await the tracks’ bonkers unveiling in (possibly) the New Year.  Rumors of a Motse 2018 tour are a-brewin’, and I’d be open for tagging along.  But don’t quote me on that, all of these prospects are still in their infancy.    

Today I wrapped another Dizzy mixing session with my friend Peter Weihs, adding a lead synth line to the middle eight in the prospective opening track, “Thoughtlost”, among other bits and pieces.  It’s mostly instrumental, but there’s a key lyric that it revolves around: 

raindrops are racing the whole way down / wonder which’ll win, placing all bets now / stuck in my head, what I can’t let out / it’s all fear and love, all my hope and doubt 

I have yet to make that vocal overdub.  It’ll be important to be in the right mindset for it, because I think to some extent it will be a play on the album before it, Fledgling, by the Iowa City group I was in–called Waverly.  Fledgling was all about self-doubt in introspection, and this new DB project will be about rejecting self-consciousness and looking to others for inspiration, for help.