The Story So Far, Part 2
2016
In the beginning of 2016 I finished basic recording on the Parks & Recreation album with Sean Flora. The problem was, I didn’t have the money or the players to record the orchestral instruments on the album, so I had to put the recordings on the back burner while I figured out a solution. So, the third Parks & Recreation album was placed on hold.
In spring of 2016 I went back to Germany, so I wasn’t working on a lot of new music. I returned to Portland in the summer and married my fiancé. At the wedding, I performed with members of Parks & Recreation as well as my first band from high school, the Hermans Throo Osmosis. We performed songs from This is It! I’ll have some rough demos up in the near future.
2017 - 2019
I started working in France in March, 2017. In a large mansion house in Crecy-la-Chapelle during the spring, I started work on the comic version of Success!, which consumed the next three years. All through 2018 and 2019 it was really the only project I worked on. I kept a tight schedule of 1 page per day, taking about two months to finish one scene. Now, as of March 2020, the comic is finished (at least until it needs to be revised) and I’m searching for a publisher for a print version. Go check it out at www.successcomic.com.
But I wasn’t entirely away from pop music. While Success! was in production I played in a cover band here in France called Fanny & The Chybers, and still am when we get together for a gig. I played keyboards. I also briefly played with another cover band here. The band didn’t have a name and it was a short-lived gig.
I was also playing a fair bit of jazz piano. Anna Lande, a colleague of mine with a velvety singing voice, and I have been working on songs under the moniker Les Californiens. We’re working on recordings of jazz standards. We hope to get a regular gig playing in some dive.
And I was going up to Blvd. de Clichy every weekend to play at an open mic. That’s where I met Dino, a crooner from Morocco who plays guitar regularly with a little combo at the Chat Noir. I’ve gone up to visit him and sit in on several occasions.
2020
My wife and I got officially divorced in 2019, so the This is It album kind of died in the water. Now that Success! is finished, however, I’ve begun doing lots of music.
First, I began work on a new Reclinerland solo album. It’ll be the first album in 9 years. Wow. I’m going to take many of the songs from This is It and put them on this new album. I’m really excited about this next album, because I’ll be collaborating with many of my old and new friends. I’ve called on the talents of my friends here in France. Work on this album will be mostly remote, with me recording guitar, piano, and vocal tracks and sending them to friends for overdubs. Included in this project is the third Ideal Home Music Library, which will include string arrangements. Some of the friends I’ve approached are my friends in Fanny & The Chybers, Fred, Fabrice, Fanny, and JC, as well as my old friends Chris (Stratford 4), Ron (Spidermeow), and Anthony (Reclinerland, Parks & Recreation). Dino, my crooner friend here in Paris who has a regular gig at the Chat Noir. And Anna Lande from Les Californiens. I’m also going to be including some songs from the Parks & Recreation third album.
Second, Summerhaven is now a mosaic of Post-it notes and Fabula cards on my wall. I’m halfway through the first draft, so I’ll get a blog page going on that as soon as I get to the end and start writing the songs.
Third, I’m collaborating on a remote album project with my old and dear friends from high school. Our band, The Hermans Throo Osmosis, is working on a new album, our first recording in 30 years. I’m really excited about what we’ve come up with. It’s so good to work with Chris, Ron, and Anthony again. Doing music like them is like coming back home. I’ve written a few new songs for the album, when it’s finished I’ll have it up here for you to listen to.
Fourth, Chris Streng, my dear friend and mentor, has agreed to polish up the Parks & Recreation album with his guitar talents. Once he’s overdubbed his guitar, I will seek out a way to overdub the orchestral instruments and then get the whole thing mixed and mastered. I’m hoping to get that album done in the next year or so.
Fifth, in January of this year I started working on my 52 songs project, where I write a new song every week. It started out just as an exercise for me to warm up writing songs again in preparation for writing the songs for Summerhaven, but it’s become something much more. I’m using some of the songs for other projects.
And finally, I’m making a full online catalog of my entire song output. It will be available on this very website.
So, that’s quite a lot of stuff. I know it sounds all scattered, but it will all come together. I’ll have more updates on all of this stuff very soon. More later!