I guess I’ve neglected my blog for a little while… but I have a really good excuse - I’ve been busy!

Seriously, lots of stuff has happened since my last post.  Yesterday, CBC Radio 1 played my song “Shame on Me” (I had no idea they were going to do that.  My friend just called me up and said that he heard my song on the radio.  I was pretty excited, to say the least.), I played a show at the Railway Club (great turn out and great bands to open for: Fuzzcat and Missing Starla), and I auditioned for the Olympics.

…did he just say the Olympics?

Yes I did.

I will be an Olympian, skin-tight body suits and all, and I’m going for the gold!

Not really.  But I did apply to play music at the Olympics.  The weird thing was that my audition wasn’t for music.  It was for “movement”.  They figured that musicians have rhythm, so they must be able to dance and move.  Little do they know…

I’m not one for dancing, but I surprisingly had a lot of fun.  We did some line dancing and other movement exercises.  I think they were mostly looking for a few things: (1) good coordination,  (2) good at following instructions, (3) good attitude.  They would then train the people that they choose.  Apparently they are auditioning 3,500 people, so it’s a long and complicated process.  My audition was three hours long, but the time flew by.  I really enjoyed the experience and I hope to be chosen to “move” during the Opening or Closing Ceremonies.

At the end of the audition, they announced that three people will be asked to  stick around for a special audition.  They called out the numbers and I was one of them!  I was almost scared.  I thought I might have done something wrong.  But no.  This was awesome.  They wanted to audition us for carrying the Canadian flag as the Olympians come in behind us at the Ceremonies.  Could you imagine that?  If I get picked for this, basically the whole world could be looking at me on television for a short period of time.  That’s intimidating.  But it would be such an honor.

This will be my only post about Olympics stuff though because everyone who is involved in the Ceremonies is sworn to secrecy.  They want the performances to be a surprise.  They even specifically said that we cannot blog about it (I hope I won’t get in trouble for this post).  I won’t even find out if I’m chosen until September anyway, so you’ll probably forget all about it by then.

If there’s any lesson I learned from this experience it was that life is more exciting when I’m open to trying new things.  Even though my expectations didn’t line up with reality (I thought I would be auditioning for music, not movement), I experienced something new and fun.  Take this concept and apply it to your life.  Go be adventurous!

Here’s a video of me playing “Tired Eyes” at the Railway Club in Vancouver.  This was the night that I refer to in my blog post called “Free Beer and Stolen Wood”

I love it when my friends come out to my concerts because it’s always great to hang out with them and I feel supported by their attendance.  However, I totally understand that they can’t come to all of my shows… that would be a lot of time and money for them to invest.  But whenever they are able and willing, I really appreciate it.

There is actually something good, however, that comes from me playing gigs alone.  It allows me to spend more time getting to know new people, whether they be other artists, musicians, or fans.  And in an industry so dependent on connections, it is very good for me to spend some time getting to know people.

Last night I played a show at the Railway club here in Vancouver.  This is a venue that bands like the Barenaked Ladies and the Tragically Hip have played at, so I was pretty stoked.  When I got to the club, I met the other performers and found out that we were going to all stay on stage for the whole set.  This was a foreign idea to me.  Usually concerts are divided into sets with different acts - one or more opening act and then the main event.  But we were all up there the whole time.  I would play a song, then Jenny would play a song, then Super (that’s his real name, I think) would play a song.  It was different, but kinda cool.

As I was mentioning earlier, playing shows alone allows me to meet new people.  As I was drinking free beer (perks of performing), I had a conversation with a man named David.  He had a fantastic D’artagnan mustache (you know, the mustache accompanied by a soul patch).  For a living, David makes wooden horns… like didgeridoos and stuff like that.  He told me a story about sneaking into a public park at night to cut down the perfect branch to make a horn with.  He dressed completely in black and even painted his saw.  He even got a woman and her dog to come with him to be on the lookout and to also be a distraction in case anyone was coming (he also told me that this was a great way to seduce women… there’s nothing more romantic than breaking the law together).  Apparently he almost got caught by the cops once, but managed to sneak away.  He seems to think that no one would notice a branch missing from the park, but admits that he would look mighty suspicious walking past a police car, all dressed in black, holding a saw in one hand and a giant branch in the other.

Later on I had an inspirational conversation with Super, one of the other performers, about the music business.  He encouraged me to keep playing shows and told me that I have some good talent.  Encouragement is like the fuel to my music career.  It drives me to keep performing.  I think I will always play music nomatter what, at least privately, just because I love it… but in order for me to play publicly, I need to know that other people actually appreciate my music.  It would be selfish for me to play songs that people don’t even like.  A few months ago I was unsure if anyone would like my music, but now I’m starting to think that it really does connect with quite a few of people.  I just need to get the exposure so that people know about my music.  If you have any ideas or connections for me, let me know.