About Zach

Zach is a wandering minstrel (as opposed to a meandering wastrel) who believes in uniting diversity, social responsibility, and discovering as hard as he can. To those ends has he dedicated his life.

Peoria, IL

Posted on July 21, 2008 by Zach

I am pleased to report a successful completion of the first Leaf of the Tour. I am writing now from my room in Tour HQ (Omaha), where I will be for the next week as I prepare for Leaf 2. This will be my final post dealing with Leaf 1. The Peeps page has been updated to include all participants, and I will now discuss the final city in which I spent time: Peoria.

Peoria! They say if it’ll play in Peoria, it’ll play anywhere. They really say that; ask them. Peoria comes out of nowhere when you’re coming in on 74W — you’re in the middle of nowhere, you crest a hill and suddenly you can see in the distance a bridge across a river with a city on the other side. It’s a nice sight, and elicited an “ooooh” from me. In fact, I instantly liked Peoria for that reason.

But Peoria got better. When I got there I met my zany friend Dave Costenaro at his hotel. (He’s one of those people where you have to use the word zany and not the word crazy.) We met up with another of his friends who was in town also. It was fun; three people, all not from Peoria, hanging out in Peoria. We walked around downtown and had some late lunch at the Riverside Tavern, or Tavern on the River, or something.

“Okay, wait. I’ve got too many questions now not to interrupt you.”

Okay, what are your questions, A.G.?

“First, haven’t we seen this Dave guy before? Second, what? He owns a hotel? Third, you are totally bad at remembering the names of things by rivers aren’t you? Fourth -”

Hold on there. Let me answer those three. Yes, no doubt you remember Dave from such posts as: Indianapolis, IN, in which he appeared as a zany dude playing with candy. Second, no he does not own a hotel — he was there on business so he stayed in a hotel, and I hung out with him there. Third, yes, I am. Also, I’m bad at remembering the name of Dave’s friend.

“It’s okay… I’m sure she would understand, since you met like 5000 people over the course of this Tour so far.”

Yes, I think she would be understanding. What was your fourth question?

“When are you going to tell us about the musical recording goodness?”

Hold your horses, A.G. I was in the middle of explaining why Peoria got better. So we were eating lunch on an outdoor patio which was actually on the river (which was definitely indicated by the name of the place, whatever it was), and I was seeing an old friend, making a new one, enjoying fine pizza and fine beer, and the weather was fabulous. Also, Peoria, unlike many cities, doesn’t have an ugly riverfront. It is instead rather quaint and Midwesternly charming. It was one of those “life is good” moments.

Now, recording. Dave put down some guitar and, on a lark, some super awesome freestyle beatbox. I’m pretty sure it will end up in the final project, it is so awesome. After that, we went to check out some LED streetlights. Evidently some place in downtown Peoria put up a few LED streetlights in their parking lot.

A closer shot gets rid of some of the halo so you can at least make out that there are four separate LEDs.

If you don’t understand why this is awesome, allow me to elucidate: it is pretty awesome because they are waaayyy more energy efficient, and they last forever. They are, however, much more expensive.

“Totally interesting!”

I know, right? The only downside of converting to LED streetlights is that one of my songs (“Watching the Streetlights”) would become irrelevant since LEDs don’t flicker, burn out, or otherwise indicate they’re not long for this world. That’s a bummer I’m willing to live with if the world is all better and stuff though.

Anyway, Dave works for an energy company and is totally interested in this stuff, and I thoroughly enjoyed picking his brain about stuff like this. He has some great ideas for helping humanity and making the world a better place. I think everyone should copy (or at least be influenced by) his great worldview. He is considering making a blog called Dave’s Awesome Ideas (actually I just made that name just now but that’s what it would be about), which I will definitely link to if he actually makes it.

Also, the LED streetlights looked totally cool in person. They looked like Science. The pictures just fail to capture the excitingness. To compensate, on our way back I snapped a shot of this, for no reason in particular other than the slightly odd title and the high Musical Interestingness Index.

Next morning, it was off to meet with songwriter/actor/musician Slyman Dan. First I thought it was a nickname, then I found out it’s nis name: Dan Slyman.

Okay, so he doesn’t actually sit around in his house like this. But it was so surreal to actually be recording a guy bound in chains that I had to take a picture. He is a prolific singer-songwriter himself, and he was chock-full to bursting with awesome production ideas, so I spent most of my time with him talking through the songs and brainstorming, which was fantastic. He had so many crazy ideas to try. (Actually, I think he’s more insane than crazy. I would consider myself crazy, but Dave is definitely zany and Dan is definitely insane. Oh semantics.)

“No seriously. Why the chains?”

We were recording them, of course. He was simulating a person bound in chains for maximum authenticity. Anyway, I got loads of great ideas from him for Leaf 2. Fortunately, we also had time to record some stuff. Not only did he do some fun voice acting, we also recorded a bunch of random other things, from rattling chains to a coffee percolator to a Speed Racer toy.

“So he only recorded bizarre household noises?”

No, he also laid down several tracks of nice vintage electric guitars, as well as a track of cornet (from the basement).

I had a blast the whole time working with Dan because of his great outside-the-box ideas, which somehow still respected the songs. I listened to some of his own tunes with him, and came to realize that we think similarly in enjoying things that are edgy without losing form. Speaking of Dan’s tunes, he’s very involved in music. I recommend you check him out in more detail.

NOTE FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO RECORD A COFFEE PERCOLATOR: On tape, coffee percolators do not sound like coffee percolators until the very end. Before that, they sound like something else entirely. Something awful. Save yourself some time and just start recording at the end. With the cover on. Trust me.

Noblesville, IN

Posted on July 17, 2008 by Zach

So last time I lied. In the title. It’s not actually Indianapolis, it’s Noblesville, which is a bit north of the actual city of Indianapolis. But I’m pretty sure everyone there still calls it Indianapolis when talking to non-natives. Which most of you are, no doubt.

If you are like most people, you’re probably wondering why I stayed in Noblesville for like 5 days. The answer is because there were tons of select musicians from all over the country gathered in one building for those days, before they launched roughly seven bands on tours. Every night two of the bands would give a concert (a “dress rehearsal”) before leaving the next day to start their tour.

“What were they gathered for?”

Dude… are you Bad Grammar Girl?

“Hey man — note the quotation marks. This is spoken English, and therefore ending sentences with prepositions is A.O.K.”

Oh OK, you’re still attractive then. Glad to see you’re feeling better. To answer your question, all those musicians are part of Keynote, which is an organization that assembles bands from talented college students and sends them out on summer tours, where they perform mainly covers, and share a bit of good news about salvation through Jesus and such. They also seem to have a ton of fun.

There was an acoustic rock group, a hiphop group, a pop group, a punk group, a gospel group, a Latin group… lots of great musicians just hanging out in this building. And I had an opening because the aforementioned Sam is part of this organization.

“So did you record them all?”

No, because they were all super busy preparing to tour. Trust me, I know how that goes.

“Did you at least record some of them?”

If by “some” you mean “three,” then yes.

I first recorded Seth Irby, who is a talented songwriter and a great guitarist.

He and his awesome wife Laura were also my hosts for most of my stay there. They were incredibly kind and even hooked me up with some delicious food on more than one occasion. (Definitely a boon.) Also, check this action:

I normally dislike air mattresses because I inevitably end up in a little valley and can’t turn over without rolling uphill. This mattress, however, was awesome. It made me wonder why anyone even makes those other air mattresses that everyone seems to buy. I think I slept better on this than I do on my own bed, it was that awesome.

Seth has a cool fingerstyle approach to guitar not unlike my own, but he’s picked up a different bag of tracks along the way than I have, so it was really fun having kind of a “guitar exchange” with him while I was there.

He also showed me some of his own stuff, which is definitely worth a listen. We recorded one of his tunes too, which even has some “Edward Gerhard moments” on the guitar. Very nice.

Several days later after lots of failed but enjoyable networking, I recorded a girl named Arwen. Her last name is a mystery which I intend to solve. She did some very fun tracks for me (she nailed a spoken word part with kind of the “customer service girl that they use for the commercials” voice, sometimes known as the “Starcraft medic” voice). We also recorded one of her own tunes.

I almost recorded a group vocal with the gospel group Soul Seed, which would have been awesome. Sadly, that didn’t pan out, but I did manage to get their drummer Deron to play some bass for me. Turns out bass is his primary instrument, and he’s going to Berklee. Sweet.

All in all, the stay in Noblesville was a bit frustrating, because there were many good players all hanging out, but next to none with free time. However, I did meet lots of great musicians, get to see lots of free concerts, and get free snacks (at the concerts). Anyone want to say anything about the high value of treats? Anyone? (Laura Dittmer, I’m looking at you.)

Indianapolis, IN

Posted on July 16, 2008 by Zach

Indianapolis is a city in Indiana whose name literally means Indiana city. Amazing. And perhaps Indiana was named after Indians, which were erroneously named after India. And India was named after some ink. It is also the home of a famous car race where drivers demonstrate their amazing ability to turn left for an entire day.

But I’m not here to talk about Indianapolis. Not this time. I’m here to talk about a wedding.

A Wedding

My reason for swinging all the way down to IN, which otherwise wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense, is because I was playing piano for the wedding of my good friend from WU, Mr. Sam Leo.

Sam and I lived together back at school, played together in bands, and have stayed in touch since then, so when he asked me to play piano for his wedding I was stoked. Like a fire.

They had a bunch of bizzarre songs they wanted me to play, like Dancing Queen, Stayin’ Alive, songs by Coldplay and U2 and Cake and the Foo Fighters, and even Christmas music (in case you didn’t know, it’s July). Also, they wanted the first song after the wedding to be “Let’s Get It On.” Weird, right?

Fortunately for them I specialize in weird. Look at how weirdly I was playing:

Yep, that’s pretty weird. I also snuck in a couple Shiina Ringo songs, because she is weird too (not to mention probably my favorite songwriter). Flash forward: when I got to the reception, I realized that Sam and his awesome new wife Arlee are just about the coolest people ever:

Remember earlier, how I said Love = Donut? It’s true. I even taught my students in Korea with a simple picture — a heart, an equals sign, and a donut. Love equals donut. And now here are Sam and Arlee with a donut cake at their wedding. !!! I repeat, !!! Their love is definitely something special. The donut shape symbolizes eternity, did you know?

I also hung out with some other excellent weirdos that I knew from back in my WU days. In particular, Dave Costenaro and I had good times playing with candy, and the others had good times taking creative pictures of us playing with candy. We seriously were quite entertained by this.

All the pictures in this post were snapped by my good friend who you will meet in Chicago later, Karyn Kim. Thanks Karyn for being a picture-taker.

That was Saturday. It is now later than that and I’m still here.

“Why, what are you doeeg?”

Sorry… who are you?

“Oh, I’b Attractib Girl.”

I didn’t recognize you.

“I’b fighteeg off a code.”

Sorry to hear that. Hope you get better soon!

“…”

Oh yeah, well, due to some fun connections I’ll tell you about next time, I’ve met about 60 musicians in town, all super busy with a project, and I kept thinking they would have a window of free time to record with me. Most of them ended up not having time, but some of them actually tried to make some time but still couldn’t do it. A tiny handful of musicians were still able to record though.

Next on Hit the Road, Zach: I’ll introduce you to my awesome IN hosts and the awesome IN musicians I was able to record. Stay tuned!

Future Dogs

Posted on July 15, 2008 by Zach

Some of you may know of my dream of someday owning a pug, which I would name Manfrick.

Imagine, if you will, a calm household with an aura of creative enlightenment. 40-yr-old me is in the sunroom, reading a book on anthropology in a comfortable modern armchair. I decide to give my dog a treat.

“Manfrick! Here Frick! C’mon Frick!”

A small energetic pug comes waddling as fast as he can waddle, feet clattering eagerly on the wooden floor, occasionally spraying doggy saliva as he pants with excitement at the prospect of human attention. His little bulging eyes look up at me adoringly as I pet him.

“Good boy Frick!”

All the while, he would be waggling.

This was my dream for a while. A small dream, but a dream nonetheless. Well, my travels have changed me. My hosts in Anoka, Alex and Syneva, had the coolest dog ever and the projected Manfrick in my head has changed. It is no longer a pug. Besides, pugs can get eye injuries from their eyes sticking out so far and their faces not sticking out enough. (The sniffling problems, rather than being another drawback, were part of the attraction for me.)

“What is this cool dog that replaced those terrible pugs?” says Attractive Girl with a shudder.

Wait, Attractive Girl, you don’t like pugs?

“No. They are not attractive at all.”

Dude. That’s why pugs are awesome. Anyway, to answer your biased question, here’s the new Manfrick:

This is an actual picture of Alex and Syneva’s French bulldog, Thomas Peterson. He is awesome. Friendly and strange and funny-looking and not too excited and still just a little bit wheezy. I want a Thomas Peterson!! (Except of course it would be named Manfrick.)

Also, isn’t Future Dogs a great band name?

Oh my gosh, it really is!!

EDIT: Wow, I also just noticed that Thomas Peterson has his own blog! What an amazing dog!

Milwaukee, WI

Posted on July 12, 2008 by Zach

Brief note: I’ve filled in some pictures to the previous post “The Road Is Hit!”

Milwaukee! Home of the Brewers, and some kind of crazy festival every weekend. I was only there for a weekday, however.

“Who did you record in Milwaukee?” asks Attractive Girl’s friend, Nice Personality Girl.

“Hey there, Nice Personality Girl! Where did Attractive Girl go?”

“She got kind of sick of you interrupting her all the time. I can handle it though because I have a nice personality.”

Awesome. Well then Nice Personality Girl, to answer your question, I didn’t record anyone.

“Really?”

Yes. I did, however, have a series of excellent adventures.

Zach’s Excellent Adventures in Milwaukee

First I met my host, an amazingly friendly fellow named Ian Abston.

Then I met some of his peeps. Then he and said peeps and I went to Riverside Sounds. Or, Sounds by the River. Or, River Rhythms.

“You don’t remember the name, do you?”

No. But it had ‘River’ in it. Anyway, it’s a free concert series every Wednesday night by the river (of course), with a broad mix of different styles and sounds from week to week. The band was a group called Ambrosia, which played something in between progressive rock and smooth jazz. An interesting mix, with some very interesting chords/meter stuff going on, but probably not something I’d spin more than twice.

Then, after a stop at Apollo’s (man, I am going crazy for gyros lately), it was back to the house. Ian and his peeps live in an amazing house, with a finished attic! Check this out:

It’s long. And tall and cool. Incidentally, I am all three of those things as well. Which is why the fact that the couch was two of those things is super awesome:

So far, this is the only couch where I haven’t had to bend something to fit. Awesome.

I spent a while catching up with stuff on the internets, then I said goodbye to Ian, the house, and Milwaukee, in that order. It was a short but sweet stay that ought to have been less of the former and more of the latter.

“That’s confusing,” says Nice Personality Girl.

I figured… next time, let’s have Intelligent Girl be the narrative device.

Hit the Road, Zach

Being a recounting of Zach's Recording Tour of Love

Author Archives: Zach