THE KING OF NOWHERE

Was in Michigan for a few days with my family.  Did some recording and writing with my sick dude of a cousin.  Yeah, you know the one. 

Bought an Organ/Harmonium from around the year 1876.  Antique as all hell, yet in great playable shape.  A little sharp on the overall tuning, but in tune with itself.  I've been enjoying playing spooky little tunes on it, but for those of you who don't know about Harmoniums, that's what you're hearing in the background of the Beatles' We Can Work It Out.  It was also the instrument that Martin Gore from Depeche Mode wrote their song Enjoy The Silence on.  He originally wanted the song to be produced with only Vocals and Harmonium, but Alan Wilder and co. had other ideas (thankfully!). 

Here's the organ/harmonium:

The KON here.  In LA now.  Doing some recording on various things.  Wrote a couple of new Blondfire songs with Erica.  One of them we're both really liking a lot.  Figuring out Flash animation as you can probably tell from the home page.  :-)

The very talented director, Aurelien Levitan, asked me to score his beautiful new video.  He also directed Lana Mír's video for These Days.  Anyway, here's the video:

I have more new songs to post but I haven't had time to find a good picture or make a vid.  Also, went to see Erin Martin perform at Rockwood Music Hall the other night.  Really liking her songs.  Also, she put eyeliner and red lipstick on my friend Roger and me.  We've never looked so gorgeous.

Oh yeah. Oh yeah.  New T-shirt designs from yours truly.  Show the world that you're a Wild Man (or a Wild Woman) with these new designs based on some of my new songs.  Click on this t-shirt or on "Shop" in the main menu:

Just finished a song called Midnight In New York.  Started this one ages ago and only had a kinda cheesy demo of it.  Always liked the verse melody and the chord changes.  I remember originally setting out to write a 'Strangers In The Night/New York New York' type Sinatra tune.  The original demo I was trying to sing like Frank which didn't work out too well - Oh boy.  Well, check it out.  Getting lazy with the videos.  It's so time consuming.  I'll do some 'bigger productions' at a later date.  Listen to the song here.

Here's a picture my friend Liz of Homebodies took of me last night:

I was just listening to some of my favorite songs and admiring the production work.  It got me thinking about the importance of production.  It almost outweighs the importance of the songwriting in my opinion.  Take any classic song and imagine that the original "hit" version was done with a completely different drumbeat, vocal sound, keyboard sounds, guitar tones, and arrangements.  Would it still be a hit?  I bet the majority still would, but I'm willing to wager that there's a large group of songs that just wouldn't have made it. 

That makes the idea of the 'right place at the right time' seem even more magical to me.  The fact that the right people with the right sensibilities happened to come together and collaborate to make all of the classic songs we love through the ages.  How cool is that?

Every single element is vital in the overall sound of a produced song.  Ringo was just as vital as the other three.  In my opinion Ringo was the only Beatle whose solo material kept the same 'spirit' as the Beatles.  What do you think?  Songwriting vs. Production?  They're probably of equal importance in reality.  But a good producer can turn a piece of crap song into a hit.  Disagree?  Just turn on the radio.  :-)

The past few days I've been concentrating on designing album covers.  In the background I've had every episode of Roseanne from seasons 1-4 playing on Netflix.  I never realized how entertaining that show was when I was a kid.  Darlene is my hero.  And there's nothing like it in terms of realistic family dysfunction.  Classsssic.  Okay, enough about Roseanne. 

Also been listening to the Voyces.  We recorded this at my place, way way back around Jan of 2009.  It never got the press it deserves.  Brian Wurschum and Jude Kastle make really beautiful music, you should check it out:

I've been sending some of the new music around to my favorite musicians and songwriters and I got a few awesome responses.  I did a cover of Anna McGarrigle's Heart Like A Wheel and she just posted it on her website here.

I also sent a couple of the songs to one of my favorite songwriters, Ron Sexsmith (Thanks to Brian Westrin (an amazing songwriter as well) for turning me onto his music).  This is what Ron sent back:

"Hi Bruce
Wow..really great stuff....
Thanks for sending me those
NIce way to start my day
All the best
Ron"

That totally made my day! 

Also, I sent Thomas Dolby (of She Blinded Me With Science and Prefab Sprout production fame) my song, Lead The Way, and this is what he sent back:

"I like your song. Quite reminiscent of the Sprouts :)"

E-mail is amazing, isn't it?  I'm totally geeking out and seeing which of my musical heros I can get my songs to.  E-mail me if you have Johnny Marr's e-mail address.  :-D

Well, the time has come for me, The King of Nowhere, to start releasing some of the music I've been amassing over the past few years.  As I write this I have seven finished albums that I'm quite proud of. 

Deciding which one should come first has become difficult as they are all very different.  For those of you who've been following my nearly daily video posts on youtube you can probably attest to that.

Here is the cover art for what will be my debut album, Shadow Crossing: