Last night I think I played the best show of my life so far.  It has reignited my passion for music.

The concert was at the House of James in Abbotsford.  I used to live in Abbotsford and I never thought that it was a great place for gigs, but after experiencing my fair share of dull gigs in the “big city” of Vancouver, I realize that smaller cities and towns are fun to play at because they have less events and places competing for their attention.  And I think this affects the way the people respond to hearing some good music.  They want to support the artist and really get connected (or so I assume from what I observed).

There were quite a few people who bought my CD, plus people payed cover to see the show.  So I made a decent amount of money.  It feels so good to make money doing something I love.  And it’s not about the money in itself.  I’m very content with a simple life and am not in it for fame or fortune.  It’s a weird psychological thing that I’m talking about.  It feels good to get paid for playing music because it shows that people value my work.  They ascribe worth to my music when they pay to listen to it, whether live or on a recording.  Payment is a sacrifice.  In the old bartering system, people would exchange goods or services for other goods or services.  Now we have money as a middleman.  So when I get paid for a CD or concert it’s like people are saying, “Good job.  Your music is appreciated.  I will trade you this for your work.”  Hearing the verbal encouragement is nice too, but it doesn’t take much sacrifice on their part and, therefore, falls a little flat.  I remember the faces of people who buy my CD.  I don’t always remember the people who said, “Good job.”  But in the moment I still appreciate it.

I also want to mention a few people who made the night so great:

- Lando, the owner of House of James who let us perform there

- Adam Roper, who organized the event

- Brad and Shannon who drove me (I don’t have a car)

- Barbara Swain and Josh Hyslop who both performed phenominally as well

And last but certainly not least…

- Emily Ewing, who sang with me and did a fantastic job

Thanks also to everyone who came out to listen.  We couldn’t do it with out you.

Writing songs is one of my favorite things to do.  Over the course of a few days this past week I wrote two songs as well as took my first stab at composition.

Writing the composition was quite the adventure.  I didn’t even start working on it until midnight.  I “finished” at about 4:30AM… and then tweaked a few things for a couple hours the next day.  Inspiration just happened to strike at midnight and I couldn’t sleep until I had my ideas out.  It’s interesting how much late night energy I can get when working on something creative (juxtapose this to the fact that I can rarely stay awake to see a whole movie, and it really is quite impressive).  The composition is written for piano, violin, and cello - mostly focusing on the piano, with the stings just filling out the sound.  It is a fairly short instrumental experimental classical piece that depicts a day in the life of a spider.  I wrote it on a cheap version of the Finale notation software called NotePad.  The program allows me to hear what I’ve written on MIDI playback (it basically sounds like crappy keyboard versions of sampled instruments).  I enjoy listening to “Spiders”, but it’s probably not that good of a composition (it is only my first attempt).  I hope to one day record it though.

The other two songs that I wrote were pretty good though.  They’re both upbeat and fun to play.

I normally don’t do this, but I’m going to show you the lyrics (I usually prefer to have people hear the lyrics rather than read them, but “what the hey!”):

Beyond My Control (a song about the uncertainties of life after death)

I don’t want to die, but one day when I do, I think that I’ll be fine
I’m confident I’ll get through
But still I seem so scared, and oh so unprepared
For a new creation beyond imagination

So much is unknown and it don’t make me comfortable
So much is at stake and I just have to wait
So much is so strange; it’s so easy to complicate
Beyond my control, it’s beyond my control

There’s little information about the transformation
Into that second body, while the other one is rotting
So where do I go? And what is my soul?
How long is forever? How many meet together?

So much is unknown and it don’t make me comfortable
So much is at stake and I just have to wait
So much is so strange; it’s so easy to complicate
Beyond my control, it’s beyond my control

Better Man (a song about life change)

I was a broken man - a heartless beast
Among the damned and amid the least
You were beautiful
There was something new that I had to have that was inside of you
A quick and sudden change;
There’s really something strange about this

You’re a miracle. You’re the reason why I’m a better man.
You clear my mind
You’re innocent. I was so corrupt, but it balanced out.
You lifted me from the rut
I’m on the level ground. I’m never going down there again

And all you ever did was nothing else but live,
And teach me to forgive myself

I’m curious to know what you think.  Feel free to critique or completely tear me apart.  You can bluntly tell me which lines suck.  All is fair…  But if you want to say something nice, I like that too.   

What a week!

I’m dog tired, and sick, and I have to wake up early to travel to the Interior for a wedding (which I am looking forward to, it will just not help the tiredness).

“Why are you so tired?” you say in an inquisitive and mildly concerned tone.

Well… the main reason I’m tired is because of kids.  About 40 of them to be specific.  This week I helped out with a kids camp called VBS.  It was a blast, but it drained me.  I spent hours upon hours running around, chasing kids, lifting kids, being attacked by kids, singing, jumping, yelling, dancing, playing “grounders” and other games, etc.  For a relatively-out-of-shape-non-athlete like me, this is pretty intense.  Oh yeah, I also had to wake up at 6:30AM everyday, which is also intense for a mostly-self-employed-rockstar-wannabe like me.

Crazy kids and no sleeping in would be managealbe by itself, but this was also busy week with music.  I was burning the candle from both ends (is that how the saying goes?)

Here’s what I’ve been doing:

- finding students and writing curriculum for guitar lessons
- finding musicians and starting auditions for a cover band
- playing shows (I had two this week)
- playing on a radio station

Yesterday, I met Julie Lee.  She is an amazing violinist and we got along really well.  She was so good that I invited her to play with me at my show that night (which Julia Spitale hosted so wonderfully).  We performed some songs that she had never even heard before and no one in the audience would have known - she’s that good (it’s like playing with Brielle, for those of you who saw her play with me).

The radio appearance was really cool.  It was at Simon Fraser University’s CJSF 90.1 FM station, on a show called Melodies in Mind, hosted by Ryan Fletcher.  There were three other performers - Aidan Mayes, Dana Marie, and Day Cart (four if you include both guys of  Day Cart - whose name is a reference to philosopher Rene Decarte) and we did a song circle.  We traded songs back and fourth.  All of them were really talented.  In fact one of Dana Marie’s songs almost made me cry.  It was a great show in general.  You can hear a few of the songs at http://www.myspace.com/melodiesinmind

Or download the full show here in two sections: one and two

Anyway, it’s been a hectic week!  I feel wrecked.  But what keeps me going is that I absolutely love everything I am doing.

This post is kinda late… oh well.

Canada Day this year was pretty awesome.  I started out with a block party.  I helped set up and tear down, I played music, and I fell into the dunk tank innumerable times because whenever the kids missed the target, they would so kindly walk up and hit it with their hand.  It never stopped being funny… for them.  I also floated around to help with whatever else I could.

Then after a quick nap at home, I headed out to my weekly Live Music Wednesdays show at Bean Around the World.  Two amazing acts from Abbotsford came out to play: Barbara Swain and Cale Stanage.  They brought a good group of people with them too.  Barabara’s voice is like an angel and Cale’s songs are so fun - one of his songs borrows the line “I scream for ice cream, you scream for ice cream, we all scream for ice cream.”  We were all sing along to that one.  When I played my set, I felt so alive.  The audience was really energetic.  People were clapping to the beat and singing along and cheering with enthusiasm.  I wish all shows could be like that.

To cap off the night, a group of us watched the fireworks from the park.  What a perfect day.