Back in the SwingJanuary 26th, 2009

School is back in gear, and I am already enjoying my classes, which include early 20th Century History, continuing with Digital Signal Processing, and acoustic composition lessons.  My wife, Cassie, is also busy with classes, and is teaching a Life Drawing class this semester.

We had a great time in Wisconsin Dells last weekend celebrating my 25th birthday with some good friends from Wisconsin.  It was a great getaway!

The other day, Cassie showed me a very funny musical experiment that was discussed on NPR.
It’s based on a survey of what kind of elements people like and dislike in a song.  They then made a recording of the most and least wanted song based on the results.  It is pretty amusing.
Check it out HERE.

Finally, I’m going to be starting a new section of Music festivals.  I have realized that there are so many going on, that I can hardly keep them straight.  Hopefully this will help me out, and also some others out there.

Heading into another semester…January 10th, 2009

It’s 2009, and I can’t believe we’re already here.

Between work and holiday festivities, this break just flew by. I managed to get a fair amount of recording done, and even got a lot done on a studio version of “The Broken Hearted” yesterday.
Evan, Natee and I also took some time to clean up the Annex CMS studio the other day. It wasn’t much, but it looks worlds better. And now it’s time to focus again on Grad school, so I’ve come up with a few goals for the semester:

- I am hoping to improve upon my Max looping patch in order to use it for a live piano composition. My goal is to perform the composition at the Annex show in April. It is going to involve grand piano, microphones, speakers in the piano, and my looping patch. More on that to come…

- Along with the Annex recital, I want to work hard to promote it this year so that we have a big turnout and a successful event.

- I’m most likely going to have composition lessons this semester, so I am looking forward to improving my composing skills and creating some new acoustic work

- I want to expand my palette with Max 5 and go into some new territories for my DSP class.

- Finally, I am hoping to near completion of my solo album as summer nears.

Between all of this, keeping up with exercise, and continuing to work, I am going to keep very busy! I’m looking forward to it all, and summer should be here before I know it.

“The Broken Hearted” live at the House CafeJanuary 6th, 2009

This is a video from a live show that I played last summer with Bob Wolkotte.
We each did a few originals and a Beatles cover.  It was a fun night and was great to have support from our friends who came out to see us. Thanks to Cassie for setting up the video.
I am hoping we get back to playing out soon!

Check out the lyrics on the YouTube page

“An Evening with John Statz” Album ReleasedJanuary 5th, 2009

I’m a little late in my promotion, but several months ago, my good friend John Statz released a live album recorded at Uncommon Ground in Chicago.

The album features previously unreleased material, and was recorded by Brandon Warrick and, I’m proud to say, mastered by myself.

Click this link to check out the album

And be sure to visit John’s Website.  He is going to continue touring around the world throughout the year.