Where Division Ends

Where Division Ends - Treehouse

Jess and Tyson's other musical affair

Okay everyone!

We are nearing the finish line, but there is still so much to be done with this EP before we can release it! We have to finish recording random bangings on pots and pans, shakers, nose flute, explosions, time warps, etc., then mix it all, master the mixes, arrange the tracks, copyright the album, decide how we want to market the album, do an actual photoshoot, and, very importantly, make it known what our new name shall be!  I really want to do something more intense then just say, "Hey everyone we're changing our name.  It's... Booger Blasters."  And everyone is like, "cool, booger blasters." WahWahWah. Not cool.  So, I've got a plan!  I am going to post a quote of poet/philosopher Lucretius quoting Sir Isaac Newton and somewhere in that quote is our new name! 

So, what do you do if you think you know what it is?!  Well, one option is to simply comment on our Facebook page and the the first person to guess it correctly get's treated to ice cream, and we can all hang out and be friends. Another way, for the more extreme person, is to find me while I'm working at IKEA(I work in the food department so you'll have to check upstairs and downstairs, heheh) and give me your answer there and if you are correct then I will present you with a certificate and a dollar bill attached so you can buy yourself a frozen yogurt.  Well now, isn't that nice?! 

Okay so I'm pushing my time limit on my lunch break so here is the quote!  Good Hunting! (the italics are not intentionally hints, but they are coincidentally)

Sir Isaac Newton admitted the same sort of atoms as Epicurus, reffering their origination, however, to an Almighty power.  “It seems praboble,” says he, “that God, in the beginning formed matter in solid, massy, hard, impenetrable,  moveable particles, of such sizes, figures, and with such other properties and in such proportions to space, as most conduced to the end for which he formed them.  And that these primitive particles, being solid, are incomparably harder than any porous body compounded of them; even so where division ends, the smallest bodies will individually consist of infinite parts, as, in that case, any part of the half of any body will always have it’s own half; nor will anything set a limit to this division.  What, therefore, will be the difference in their nature between the greatest and smallest of bodies?  It will not be possible that there should be any difference; for though the whole entire sum of things, or the Universe, be infinite, yet the smallest things which exist in it will equally consist of infinite parts.  To which position since just reasoning is apposed and denies that the mind can admit it, you must be prevailed upon to acknowledg that bodies which exist having no parts, and consist of the least possible substance, and since they are so, since they are indivisible and undiminishable, you must also concede that they are solid and eternal.

  -       Lucretius

Take a listen to the new EP released by the beloved Chino Moreno(Deftones, Team Sleep)!

Hey Everyone!

I hope that each and every one of you has enjoyed these rare days of sunshine and warmth!  I know I have!  This past week, Mike and I have been working very hard on maintaining our studio tans.  Laboriously layering guitar track after guitar track until our heads were about to combust!  Recording has never been so travailing. 

In the beginning it was only I pouring out my heart into a handful of songs.  Effortless really.  The situation now is that I am working with a team, which is much attuned to sharing your baby.  Not easy!  I don’t think I quite calculated the cost of bringing together a band to interpret my creations.  I hate compromising my passion because it breeds so much turmoil.  Alas, this is the beast one must face when he cannot clone himself a entire band(though I do dread the thought of working with four of me…ugh).

I can say that Jess, Mike, and myself are already feeling the taxing draw of this hampered project, and we’ve only just gotten through tracking guitars.  We have about three more weeks of recording to do and at least a couple more for mixing, and mastering.  It is the non-sparkly, cave dwelling, friendship testing, dark side of the moon.  A place in which you ask yourself is this really worth pursuing?  Is it really profitable to pour day upon day into this rugged mold of a band? 

Headaches aside, I have to tell you that it is worth it.  Better to have tried than to walk away and never know what could have been.  My wife and my friend are worth working through our disagreements. It means me facing myself and being humbled, even if that means I have to tone down the fires of my passion to make the epic music is constantly composing in my head.

I feel this EP is going to be a little messy for a first official release, but it will, nonetheless, have a voice of it’s own. I can hardly wait to share it with every single one of you!  So, please do keep in touch as we post updates of our crazy journey!

Much Love,

Silence.  Probably not the best thing to hear from a music project, but that is what an outsider’s view would be of us.  I would imagine anyhow.  Alas, within our walls silence is just a short interlude as we currently journey through a new course of changes.  Read on, if you dare, to learn more of what’s to come.

I think it best to get the major stuff out of the way first.  Sadly, our good friends Jesse and Patrick are leaving Visions and moving on to each of their bright futures.  We totally bless them and there are absolutely no hard feelings(I know a lot of bands say this, but it’s true!).  I strongly believe that Jesse is going to become this nations next great theologian, maybe a Billy Graham (for perspective purpose). And dear Patrick, with his righteous anger, sweetly aromatic people skills, and a big heart, I believe he will be rescuing sex slaves from remote regions of the globe.  Busting in like a modern day Rambo(maybe not tearing limbs off though...).  We will miss playing energetic shows with them and without their presence we could not have even made it this far.  Thank you boys, thank you from deep down, near the bottom of our congealed heart.  You are the wind beneath our wings.

Okay, so what’s next? Well, I will tell you!  As two parts removed, we are now rebuilding ourselves; reinventing with new modifications!  We’ve got an EP to finish and we are already too far behind to even mention just how far that might be.  So, we are looking ahead.  Currently, I am typing this in Minneapolis, MN where Jessica and I are taking a much-needed break from our normal, chaotic life.  I love the “cities.”  Once upon a time, I lived in Saint Paul and met incredible people who I love dearly and needed to see.  I managed to see two of my friend’s bands in one form or another. 

Party House taking up, like, four bowling lanes, and blasting my face with their dreampop-on-fire sound. Soooo incredible! Check it: http://www.partyhousempls.com/. 

 Iron Thrones melting my entire being in their humble practice space, I was so honored to sit in.  Check it:http://ironthrones.com/. 

Being on this trip has given me a ton of time to process all these changes coming up and to begin formulating a plan to handle it all.  So, without further interlude, here is what you can expect to see and hear from us as we approach a new year and a new dawn.

Change #1: Feeling in dat gap.

How does one fill in the gap left by two major voices in our sound?  Jesse’s playing, especially, is irreplaceable.  His pedal and fingerboard trickeries cannot be accurately replicated.  Due to the specific personal values held by the band(read my last blog if you would like to know more) we are not rushing to find a new guitarist and drummer.  Instead, we will be focusing on completing our EP before this year ends.  Maybe a stripped down show here and there, but you will not see too much until our EP is complete.  We are currently talking with friends of ours about helping us out.  If you are interested in playing in da band feel free to contact us at [email protected].

Change #2: Identity Crisis

I have been wrestling with this for so long.  What is in a name? Really, I mean Thrice has openly expressed their regret about choosing such a hair metal-coated name, and yet, they soar.  First I wrote songs under the moniker Visions Of Voices.  Way too epic, way too “inspirational”, way too Christo-Industrial, not to mention that it is used by 30,000 different human rights organizations!  So, I cut it down to Visions, but it still had this funny roll off my tongue accompanied by a regretful semi-tone rise in the back of my throat.  The search for a new name began and I felt it might just be a good idea too since our members change and all.  I think I’ve settled on one now and as soon as we make it through “Change #1” we’ll unleash Change #2 on all the unsuspecting peeps out there.

Trying to live out a dream is difficult and often times I feel it would be easier to just throw my hands up and say, “Well, we had a good run!  Now, let’s get on with reality.” Music is my reality!  This band is much more than a need for self-expression.  Maybe only a small number of people out there actually care about where we go and what we do, but that is reason enough for me to keep on going, growing, and developing an evil plot for world domination!

So, much thanks to everyone that has ever given us encouragement, listened to our music, come to see us at a show, watched our dumb video blogs or our awesome music vid! May God bless you all and we’ll just see what happens as we labor on!

Cheerios!

I've always been passively opposed to blogging.  Perhaps this has to do with a "demotivational"  poster I once saw.  Maybe I'm trying to avoid being associated with the narcissistic generation that I am inevitably apart of.  Well, I'm doing it now(as the evidence lays out before you).

In truth, this is not about me.  This is about Visions.  This is an inside look at what this band is really about.  The good, the confusing, the bizarre affairs of this musical body's members.  Maybe someone will read this and like it.  Someone out of a billion.  Maybe no one will read this and it will just be a leaf on a gigantic information-tree that falls to the ground and never makes a sound.  Never the less, this seed will grow and a garden of thoughts and experiences will begin to form into a DNA code that will someday be the makeup of a band named Visions.  

Yes, Mike beat me to it.  He typed out the first blog; laid the first footprint, if you will.  In spite of his feeble effort, mine is longer!  

[Hopefully, that will be my only allusion to male competitiveness]

[not]

Maybe you'll read this and you'll start to have questions. Questions that probably formed when you started listening to some of our songs.  We'd love for you to ask us those questions hanging from your brain.  You see, we, Visions, believe in community and it is our heart to cultivate that through our music.  Never to settle with being ear candy, but to rattle cages, break hearts, help heal wounds, get feet moving.  Heck! Get bodies moving! To odd meters, maybe!  It's our deepest wish to stir society and draw in people of all types so that we can move into something different.  This "something different" isn't just an existentialist wonderment movement.  It has a center.  We have a leader.  It is hard to admit it most of the time because artistically, it is frowned upon to not be completely independent and open minded.  Nevertheless, I get the question quite often, "are you guys a Christian band?"  At first, I would half-admit it by tagging on a disclaimer that while everyone in the band shares the same faith we are not a "Christian" band.  Mostly, I think this was done in order to distance ourselves from any affiliation with Amy Grant or those "Jesus Is My Friend" guys on youtube.  Along with thousands of other industrialized, assembly-kit acts that sing about things like loving a meek and mild Jesus, America, your well-to-do white neighbors and other plain, over simplistic marshmallow fillers! 

All this time wasted on making excuses, but all the while feeling like I was Peter on the night Jesus stood on trial.  Denying the substance that makes this band what it really is! So, I've stopped trying to explain everything and I simply say, yes.  And you know what? No one has kicked me in the balls yet!  I haven't gotten any nasty looks or been shot down.  Maybe the air is a little awkward, but Christianity is an awkward faith, right?!  I don't need to tell you that we're not perfect people.  I will though, and I just did.  But we do love Jesus and we strive to be perfect in His sight everyday even if we fail a lot.  Though each member experiences Jesus differently, and our personal convictions differ on certain political and social issues,  Jesus is the same.  We continue to follow after Him and express this journey through the music we play.

Ok, so if you made it this far, I want to hug you!  I hope that you are able to see a bit more of what we are about without being left with a twilight perception of our stance as a band.  I don't know how long this formation will stand, but I'm hoping it turns into a lifetime.  I hope that eventually we can start using this band to raise thousands, maybe...MILLIONS of moneys to fund earthquake reliefs, cures for diseases, buy food for lots of orphans, build progressive schools, etc.  The dream goes on.  And you know what? I'm gonna do that stuff anyway, with this band or not, but it would just be much more fun doin' all that while rockin' with my friends and my wife!

Well, this must end or else it will truly go unread!  I love you for reading this(in a strict friend-to-friend agape love way) and I thank you from deep down, near the bottom of my heart.  The Visions crew and I hope to meet you at one of our shows someday soon where we can talk, eat, and drink a beverage appropriate for your legal age!

Cheerios and much love!