Washington, DC (For Real)

Posted on September 9, 2008 by Zach

Okay, let’s give this another shot. Narrative devices, are you all set to not interrupt me?

“That’s right!” they all say together.

Great. So, Washington DC! The trip to the city began with a visit to my host, an awesome CS dude named Francis Kim. He had a very nice place right at the entrance to Chinatown. He also had a nice view from his 11th floor balcony:

Fran hooked me up with the sweet eats while I was there. Seriously, I ate a like a king. The King of Goodfoodland, in case you were wondering which King.

I hung out with Francis that night, and the next day I was off to record Jose Vanegas, a percussionist who lives in the Virginia DC suburbs.

Jose was very friendly and conversive, a pleasure to work with, and a skilled percussionist. He plays with salsa bands around DC, and has a great sense of energy in his playing. We recorded some congas (above) and some bongos (below).

I was fueling up on the way back when I noticed some dead grass hanging from the corner of my front bumper. I went to remove it, but I noticed it seemed to be attached to something. There was more dead grass and stuff in there. I continued to pull and more and more material kept coming out.

When I looked more closely, I saw feathers and such in there. And the way it was all tangled together, I realized it was not just random debris that collected in there. It was a bird’s nest. In my bumper.

That pile you see is just the beginning. I pulled even more out, but I stopped after cutting my finger open on the inside edge of the bumper. So, there is still some residual bird’s nest in my bumper. Who knows how long it’s been there!

That evening Francis was having a dinner party with his friends, and he informed me that I was most welcome to join. I had made arrangements to meet a friend for dinner, but he informed me that friend was most welcome too. So I informed my friend that he was most welcome, and we all had fun at Fran’s!

“Excuse me,” says Attractive Girl politely. “May I ask a question here?”

Why yes, narrative device, you may.

“Who is this friend, and why didn’t you take a picture of him?”

Ah, that is two questions but I’ll give you a two-for-one deal. The friend in question is one James Bosworth (a.k.a. Boz), former suitemate at Washington U in St. Louis. He also writes a terrifically interesting political blog dealing in particular with Latin American issues. He actually landed his current job due to that blog. Way to go, Bloggings by Boz!

I had a great time catching up with him, and it was far too soon when he had to return to his home, but he was always a morning person. Like, early morning. Like, “good morning Zach” “goodnight Boz” early.

I drove all around DC and saw a lot of the sights close up, but I forgot to get pictures, so I’ll leave you with a picture I took when I remembered I should be taking DC pictures.

“Excuse me-”

Yes? You know what? This “polite narrative devices thing” isn’t working out. Just go ahead and interrupt if you feel the need to ask something.

“Okay. I just wanted to mention that you never answered my second question.”

Oh, that’s right. I didn’t take a picture of Boz because he is terrifically good-looking and I don’t want to make myself look bad by comparison.

“Is that a joke?”

Of course not. … Yes?

“Did you actually just forget again?”

Sigh. Yes. He is pretty good looking though, for someone who is not an Asian girl.

“I guess that means I’m Asian then?”

In my brain you are. But in others’ brains you are whatever they like most.

“Sweet!”

Yeah. Okay, here’s that picture.

Maryland

Posted on September 5, 2008 by Zach

Next on the itinerary: the great state of Maryland. I had a guy contact me who said he plays the lyricon. I had to google it before I realized it was a MIDI controller for woodwinds, a.k.a. a digital saxophone. Here’s Paul Soroka with his lyricon:

I spent a very pleasant day with Paul recording various things. He’s very witty and friendly, which is always great to work with, and quite the funk saxophonist. He showed me some of his own instrumental funk stuff he had done — with Dennis Chambers on drums. It was awesome. We put down some lyricon of course, but we also put down some tenor sax (he’s really quite good at the “real” saxophone as well as the digital one).

Suddenly he said, “This song doesn’t really need lyricon. It needs organ. I can put down some organ for you if you like.”

I was like, “Okay.”

It sounded great, he was right.

All too soon, it was time to be on my way. So, I

and then I was down to Baltimore to meet the next dude, a singer/songwriter named Matt Rocks. Yes, that is really his name. Go ahead, make the joke — make two. Here’s a picture while you do it.

Done? Okay. Matt Rocks is a very talented musician full of great production ideas. I encourage you to check out some of his songs. Lots of great, spacey, slightly dirty acoustic sounds. I met Matt at a bar, where we hung out for a bit before making our way to his home, where we spent a great evening listening to music (his, mine, and Shiina Ringo’s).

Next morning, Matt put down a nice rhythm guitar track for me with his acoustic, and then I had to be on my way. Sadly, I left knowing that I had barely tapped his talent. But it was an enriching experience anyway.

Best of luck in your musical endeavors, Matt. You rock.

NEXT: Columbia, District of!

Bear, DE

Posted on September 3, 2008 by Zach

In Delaware I met up with a drummer who contacted me about recording named Arsean Cannon II. He was a great guy, and even offered to put me up when he heard I didn’t have a place to stay yet.

Arsean (pronounced ar-SEEN) had experience drumming for gospel music in churches, and he also drums for a Latin band around the area. His business card is that of a drummer, so with all of those in his favor I was not surprised to see that he also plays a Risen kit.

Perhaps I should get some kind of sponsorship with Risen, since Risen drums are basically the only drums on my project (Matthew Tobias plays Risen drums too). Hmmm. And looking at their website, I realized that while I was in Minneapolis, I played a gig with Steve Goold, who is featured on their website. I never expected to run into so many Risen guys on this tour.

Anyway, I had a great time recording Arsean, he contributed some sounds that were refreshingly different from the more pop/rock sounds I had mostly recorded so far. In particular he was all over one of my songs that has an Afro-Cuban 6/8 rhythm, which he gave more of a 12/8 feel. It worked, and sounded quite tasty.

You’ll note that now that JH has gone, there will be fewer pictures. I constantly forget; it’s terrible. Anyone want to join up and be my photographer/roadie for a bit?

NEXT: a place that was named after Queen Henrietta Maria!

Philadelphia / Mechanicsburg, PA

Posted on September 3, 2008 by Zach

After hanging around Philly a bit, we dropped JH at the airport so he could catch a plane back to Omaha and start his classes at Creighton. It was good times having him on the journey with me.

Bye, Jong Hun! See you back in Omaha.

Pennsylvania’s Facebook friends were much better about checking. I got in touch with several old friends, Micah (Keen) Willams in Mechanicsburg and Steve Falkowski in Philly.

I went to school with Micah — she and I were in the same program and took a lot of the same classes. She is currently working for a really interesting organization called Global Awakening. She is also quite pregnant and expecting a new bundle of joy in her family. I met up with her at her place of employ and saw the facilities. Their auditorium is quite nice, and it was the chosen location to record Chris Ishak.

So who is this guy? Micah provided the Chris connection, and I was glad of it. Chris is a great guy who is involved in various music goings-on at GA, and was happy to be part of the project. He’s also a great guitarist and put down some great guitar parts for me.

After recording Chris, it was back to Philadelphia to meet my erstwhile friend, Steve Falkowski. I had known their family a long time back in the day from church, but hadn’t talked to Steve in close to 8 years. His dad is a great saxophone player, as well as the founder of a great ministry to people in nursing homes, and was one of my heroes back when I was learning saxophone. Steve was that witty, quiet kid over in the corner that everyone wished they knew. I have fond memories of playing the “-tion Game” with him for literally hours on a van ride to Chicago once.

Interestingly, Steve studied architecture at Kansas U, studied abroad for a while, and is now working for a firm in Philly doing fun architecture stuff. (Two architects in three days — doing well.) I had a most excellent time with Steve about Philly, reminiscing about old times, catching up with each other, talking about beer and the state of the church and the world. It felt too short, and then Steve deposited me at the door of his friend Adam, who was able to put me up for the night.

His friend was asleep, so I just walked in to a strange house belonging to a strange person and went to sleep on a bed there. Amazing. I did find a note addressed to me on the table telling me some pertinent information though so at least I knew I had the right house.

I had a bed!! After sleeping on so many couches, a bed looks most welcome indeed. Of course, compared to my car, a couch is quite welcome too. My car is wide, but not quite wide enough for a long person like me. It’s a bit cramped.

Adam also had an impressive music collection. I was in awe, raptly staring at his collection. I made some notes of artists to check out. I didn’t start listening to any of it though because a) he wasn’t awake to ask permission from, and 2) if I started listening to great new music I almost certainly would lose a lot of sleep, something I can’t afford to lose on the road.

I left Adam a note telling him to wake me up in the morning before he left so I could at least say hi, which I did, from my groggy morning stupor. I have a vague memory of a friendly smiling dude saying hi.

When I woke up for real, I rendezvoused (check that conjugation action) with fellow Couchsurfer Rachel Cantzler. We walked around the Drexel campus, where she is a student, and chatted quite a lot over coffee. We talked about school, each other, good/evil, books, personal anecdotes, etc. for a good long while. Then it was off to another place for an afternoon beer and more of the same. Good times. That’s exactly what I was talking about before — the proper way to travel. Life is a story, and it becomes richer when interacting with the stories of others.

Finally, in the afternoon, not long before I had to leave, she casually mentioned that she played string bass with orchestras and stuff. WHAT! You say this NOW, when I’m about to leave?? Sigh. I guess it’s her loss. (That’s my rationalization, even though I know that really it’s the world’s loss.)

NEXT: Hey, I’m in Delaware! … (looks around) …

Connecticut!

Posted on August 29, 2008 by Zach

Refreshed from our delightful day on Martha’s Vineyard, we headed over a bridge

and then drove on some roads for a while until we came to Hartford.

In my travels, I have noticed a recurring theme about all US cities. See if you can notice it too:

Did you get it? That’s right — buildings. Every city I’ve been to so far has buildings.

“That’s ridiculous.”

Yes. In addition to buildings, most cities also seem to have plenty of people, such as the fun person we met in Hartford, known as The Backpacking Granny. She is an exuberant person with a mission to personally start a school in Ghana through networking and donations. Pretty awesome.

She was our first host in CT and we had a blast chatting with her and meeting some of her friends from the Atheist Society. (That may not be the actual name but it was something about atheists.)

In addition to atheists, there were also some crazy people:

The two happening girls in this photo were our hosts for our second night in CT.

“Okay,” says AG, “overlooking the ‘happening’ issue for the nonce, you had two separate hosts?”

Funny you would ask! The girl in the middle is Emily Hanink, who volunteered her friend’s house (Megan, on the right) for hosting us both. Pretty sweet. I would love to be able to volunteer some friends’ homes for other people to stay at, since I know some people with pretty nice homes. But it takes a special relationship to be able to do that.

Also pictured above hanging out with Megan is a pretty sweet dude named Tom (right). Tom was a keyboardist, and they had a bunch of instruments set up in their basement. So he and several other dudes recorded some cool stuff for me.

I also met a great guy named Steve (whose last name I will figure out someday), who is a great classical guitarist. Meaning he plays classical guitar literature, not just the instrument. I also recorded him later that night.

Next morning, we went outside to see the guineas.

Here is a closeup of the male eating. He was awesome because he would always run at you to frighten you away from his babies but he would always wuss out and stop before he got close enough to actually scare you.

Then we headed out for coffee and to visit the farmer’s market. There were some fun signs on the way.

Not long afterwards, we were on our way to NYC, with no host lined up.

NEXT: NYC just barely avoids making my list of “cities I dislike for relatively arbitrary reasons.”

The Amazing Rhode Island!

Posted on August 26, 2008 by Zach

This island is actually physically attached to the continental landmass, i.e. it is not an island. Amazing!

As with all drives in New England, this too was scenic, as is evidenced by this too-late shot of an amazing scene that recently passed by on a huge bridge.

We spent a pleasant night in Providence with our host, a fun girl named Laura Bridge. Next morning, we were off to Warren, where we met up with a homey by the name of Adrian. Now, this particular homey happened to be very good at playing guitars. So we took some of his guitars and went into this house which he and his father are busy restoring/renovating.

Adrian happened to be very good at playing guitar, so it’s awesome that he happened to have guitars and I happened to have recording equipment.

For the last Loop I didn’t have mic stands. This time around I’ve been noticing a lack of music stands.

It was a good time.

NEXT: An island that really is an island!

Hit the Road, Zach

Being a recounting of Zach's Recording Tour of Love

Category Archives: Recording Sessions