Music is a powerful source of life and unity.  One of the many reasons I love music so much is because it connects people.  I recently found a website that promotes peace through music collaboration.  It’s called Playing for Change. There are videos of musicians and singers from around the world playing music together.  It is all edited together to create the full song.  You have to see it and hear it.  Here’s one of the videos, but go to www.playingforchange.com to hear more:

I love traveling.  I really enjoy experiencing a taste of other cultures.  Seeing the sights, eating the food, meeting the people… I can’t get enough of it.  So please don’t get me wrong when you read this post.

People should start doing more local adventures.  It is strange that I have a hard time spending $30 to go to a concert, $10-$20 to go to a museum or gallery or aquarium or something of that nature, $100 to go skiing, and so on, when I will spend thousands of dollars going on a trip.  I happen to live in one of the most diverse cities in the world: Vancouver.  It has mountains, forests, rivers, lakes, parks, the ocean, and all kinds of more tourism.  And I rarely take advantage of it.

Yesterday I went on a local adventure.  A friend from out of town and one of her friends, who I didn’t know very well, came to visit.  We didn’t plan too much, but we decided to meet at Stanley Park around 11:30am (but we all missed a bus transfer, so we were a little bit late).  When I got to Stanley Park, I instantly realized that I had been missing out on something.  I had taken my city for granted.  This park is absolutely beautiful and I had only been there twice before.

We wandered around for a while, enjoying the trees and the flowers and the Spring weather.  We played Frisbee on a field.  Then we went to the aquarium.  I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I actually had a fantastic time.  We looked at all the tanks and saw a number of shows with dolphins, beluga whales, and birds of prey.  After seeing all that the aquarium had to offer, we were getting pretty hungry, so we took a short walk to English Bay for a late lunch/early dinner at The Boat House.  It was a lovely meal of fresh fish and local beer, while overlooking the ocean and feeling the warm sun on our faces.  We then enjoyed a few minutes on the beach before heading home.

In total, I spent just under $50, which isn’t much compared to traveling.  And I had just as much fun as I would in a foreign country (it helped that I had some great company).  All of this is to say that I don’t discourage travel by any means, but I especially encourage getting out there and experiencing your own city.  It probably has more to offer than you realize.

It baffles me how so many people avoid practicing like the plague.  No matter if you’re a singer, musician, photographer, painter, poet, or whatever, there is something about practicing that most people don’t like.  Isn’t this odd?  If you enjoy your craft, practicing should be a good way for you to get to do it as often as you have time for.  Practicing is doing what you enjoy… but you don’t enjoy it?  I don’t understand.

I have normally been the weird one who enjoys practicing and looks forward to playing music whenever possible.  However, I have recently struggled with it a bit.  I think it’s because I started practicing more than I used to.  I have recently tried my best to play through my whole set every single day.  This is slowly becoming a little boring - same old, same old.  But I have realized that I forgot about an important aspect of practicing.  I forgot about something that is very connected to the core purpose of practicing (which is to improve your skill).  I had forgotten about the element of challenge.  I need to stretch my abilities by trying to do things that I can’t already do.  Even just adding a couple different things to my regular practice routine has made it much more enjoyable and beneficial.  I have started doing vocal scales, stretching both my low and high range.  And I have started learning new things on guitar, like some challenging fingerstyle songs.

Yesterday I tried something new.  I went outside to a nice grassy hill and just played guitar in the sunshine.  I didn’t stretch my ability much, but I lived in the moment of enjoying life and music.  It was beautiful.  So my challenge to you is to experiment with your practicing.  Whatever it is you do, try stretching youself, add new elements to your routine, and occasionally change your scenery.  Happy practicing everyone!

Something was off last night.  I’m not sure if it was the alignment of the stars, or a curse of the gods, or what…  But everyone seemed to have canceled plans.  One of my friends got stood up for a coffee date.  A couple other friends had a canceled premarital counselling session.  Another friend had to mysteriously leave town.  And as for me… I had a gig, but the coffee shop I was going to play at was closed because the power went out, so the show was canceled (I’m so sorry if anyone showed up all for nothing).

This was disappointing.  I love performing and I had been practising all week for this show.  I was hoping to make new fans and maybe even sell some CDs.  But alas, no such luck.

There are a lot of disappointments in the early stages of a music career (or probably any career, for that matter).  In my experience, I’ve been disappointed by canceled shows, by not getting replies from venues, by slow CD sales, by rejection, by playing wrong notes, by forgetting lyrics, by seeing others with more success, and by much more.  And this is only the third month since my CD release.  I wonder how many disappointments I’ll have had five years from now.

Disappointment is the feeling that comes when expectations aren’t met.  Some people might be tempted to lower their expectations in order to avoid disappointments, but I think that’s a mistake.  High expectations drive you to work hard.  If you have a dream, you need to set goals and take the proper steps to acheive them.  But you need to realize that there will be many disappointments along the way.  What separates the wannabes from the real deal is how one handles disappointment.  I’m hoping that I won’t be just another wannabe, so I try to learn from my disappointments (figure out if and when I’m doing something wrong, and try to adapt) and then just let the disappointment fall away.  In other words, I get knocked down but I get up again you’re never gonna keep me down (everyone loves a nineties pop/rock reference).  So may we all strive to do our best - or even better than our best - and when things don’t go as planned, may we keep on going without looking back.

Because I’m a person that really enjoys watching things but doesn’t like paying for television, I subscribe to various video podcasts.  One of my favorites is called Best of YouTube (this link is for the website, but you can find the podcast on iTunes).  Today I found this short film called “Validation” on the Best of YouTube podcast.  It was the best short film I’ve seen in while.  I won’t tell you anything about it because I don’t want to ruin it for you, but I’ll just say that it’s worth the 16 minutes to watch it.  Enjoy.

There is, yet again, another page on my blog.  The Links page (see the tab at the top of this page) lists all of my official pages on the internet, as well as all of the bloggers in The Great Blog Off.  If you don’t know what The Great Blog Off is, join the facebook group, read the blogs, and vote for me at the end of the month!

I just spent an hour or so resizing various photographs that were taken between September 2008 and February 2009 by a brilliant photographer named Adam Loewen.  I chose the best shots and ordered them very intentionally onto a new page called Image.  You’ll be able to see how my hair (both facial and head hair) changed various times over those months… which is a pointless detail not really worth mentioning.  I’m just trying to make conversation.  Alright, moving along…

Please feel free to visit my Image page at your leisure.  To go to it, just click on the “Image” tab at the top of this page.

What’s your favorite picture?

I want to thank everyone who has supported me so far by downloading my music, buying my CD, reading my blogs, watching my videos, or coming to my concerts.  I hope it has been as good of an experience for you as it has been for me.  I look forward to continuing in this venture.

I want to also thank those who have written a review on my iTunes page.  This helps not only me (by giving me recognition and encouraging new sales), but also helps prospective fans know if this is something they would like.  If anyone else is considering writing a review, I encourage you to do so.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

My song “Death of Me” was originally a completely different song called “Autumn Leaves”.  The only parts that are the same are the guitar, a bit of the melody, and one line.

When I was recording Dark Before Dawn, I realized that the lyrics of Autumn Leaves wasn’t quite working.  The whole song was a metaphor for the passing on of grandparents, using the imagery of leaves in the Fall.  It was written decently well, but it didn’t have much heart to it, which is because I wasn’t really writing from experience… I was writing more thematically.  My producer, Adam Loewen, said (in the nicest way possible) that Autumn Leaves sounded like a teenage girl reciting her poem to an old folks home.  Here are the original lyrics for you to laugh at if you wish:

Autumn leaves, when winter comes we won’t forget your colors

Autumn leaves, you’re beautiful; your character is in your wrinkles

Fall down gently underground

Lay still in peace

In time this tree will see more leaves

In colors of gold

Autumn leaves, your history is memorable; you made a home

Autumn leaves, when winter comes this family tree feels empty

The only line I wanted to keep was  “Fall down gently underground.  Lay still in peace.” Although it lost it’s irony when it was no longer talking about leaves falling underground, it was still a good line.  I eventually thought of writing a song about a relationship dying - a love dying.  This is something that I could write about from experience.

I remember being in the relationship and both of us would always tell each other that we love each other, but we rarely showed our love.  I kept on hearing people say that love is a choice, which confused me.  I thought that if I chose to say, “I love you,” and tried to believe that it was true, then everything would just fix itself.  I didn’t realize that the choice involved real action as well.  I think the advice, “Love is a choice,” is a bit misleading.  I think the full message is that you need to choose to love someone and then act on that choice.  In other words, “Love is a verb,” like Dc Talk sang (I can’t believe I just referenced an old-school Dc Talk song!).

After my relationship broke up, I read a book called The Five Love Languages.  It’s too bad I didn’t read it earlier.  It talks about how people express and experience love in different ways from one another.  So sometime our love doesn’t get communicated because we are essentially speaking different languages.  The five languages are: service, quality time, gifts, words of affirmation, and physical touch.  People can speak all of these languages to some degree, but most people focus on one or two.

This book taught me how to act out my love (which I’m still working on).  And obviously when people don’t act out their love, it dies.  Hence my song, “Death of Me”.  You can find it on iTunes.

Here are the lyrics:

The air escapes my lungs. My God what have I done?

I knew our time would come but, not yet

My heart is slowing down. My head is spinning ‘round

My mouth is spilling out regret

Fall down gently underground

Lay still in peace

My love will be the death of me

It doesn’t suffice

I swear I read your mind. I knew you every time

But you had one surprise, you lied

You used to share with me, strong integrity

Now that ceases to be, we died

Fall down gently underground

Lay still in peace

My love will be the death of me

It doesn’t suffice

It doesn’t suffice

Love doesn’t suffice

One of the main reasons I look forward to holidays is that I usually get to spend time with my family.  This Easter Sunday I went to Nanaimo where my parents live.  There are many reasons why it is good to go home - I get fed well (and don’t have to cook), I get to relax because I’m away from my computer (which can easily consume a whole day with work, social networking, music, and YouTube), but the main reason why it is so good to go home is that I am reminded that I am part of a loving family.  I have been trying to understand love my whole life (and I will probably continue to learn what love is until the day I die… and even after that), but I see a lot of love in my family.  This is what I witnessed during this visit:

Love is…

…going to a family friend’s house for a hotdog and marshmallow Easter dinner

…helping my mom clean up molasses that exploded in the microwave

…watching TV together, even if we don’t all like the same shows

…my mom and sister helping me sort through boxes of their old stuff (such as pots and pans, cutlery, and other kitchen stuff) so that I don’t have to buy new things.  I’m a poor artist, so I need to save my money.

…my parents giving me Easter chocolate, even though I’m twenty two years old and live on my own.

…accompanying my mom on her errands (dropping off recycling, getting film developed, and buying a bridal shower present for someone I don’t know.  It’s not my idea of fun, but it was time spent with my mom)

…going for an evening walk together while holding a formal debate about pointless matters (such as the definition and purpose of the term “sub-division”) 

…everyone having a say in the colour scheme of the new house renovations.

This is what love looks like at the Hawker house.  Love is found in the simple everday activities.  It is about being a part of each other’s lives.  Love has to do with existence and presence.  That is what I learned this weekend.  What did you learn?