According to Merriam-Webster, “The meaning of TESSITURA is the general range of a melody or voice part.” I chose this title because I’ve been singing the four songs on this recorded EP for years now and therefore feel confident with the vocal ranges of the keys of the songs being: E, Em, G (changes to C) and G. While I am constantly working on and writing new songs, as it’s one of my favorite things to do, I am also sometimes stifled by the older songs that I haven’t got around to recording yet. Which is why I had to record and release these songs. I have decided that I am content with them and I recently learned that word for ”happy” in French is “content.” I say this because of course I hope you enjoy listening to them, yet regardless of that outcome, I am content with what I have created here. Best to you and yours and thanks for taking the time to read this and listen.
“Tessitura”
“Going back to what I no longer know” is something I came up with today. I’m not 100% sure what it’s the title of, but it’s intriguing, or at least thought-provoking. I like to come up with titles before I have a song; a theme (even if a bit vague) gives me something to work with. Of course, I can come up with something from scratch, but things work a bit more smoothly when you have a theme in mind. I listened to a couple of songs today that got me into an inspirational mood: one was Ronnie Carrier’s “The Sound”, and the second was the first track off Dr. Dog’s new album. If you are anyone (and you are because you’re reading this), you’ve probably been compared to someone. I was once compared to Dr. Dog and Tom Waits before I even knew their music. Find something that inspires you today, whether it’s music, a book, a movie, a show, a speech, or a public figure, and use it to do the thing that will help you find joy and inspiration. Taking inspiration from various sources can lead to new creative avenues, enriching your work with diverse elements that resonate with different audiences. Keep your mind open to new influences, and let them guide you on an exciting creative journey that fuels your passion and drive for expression.
A guy sits on a bench in a park alone. Sunglasses on and a black backpack by his feet. The grass is green, clean, and well manicured as the trees make for cool shade on this humid Sunday of 79 degrees. His arms are crossed, legs sprawled out, also crossed he barely moves, sometimes shifting positions, as a park bench is only so forgiving. 30 yards from him is a shirtless man, red shorts, somewhat fit, seemingly homeless, with an overturned shopping cart, also red, a shopping bag, full of miscellaneous things (unknown and unseen). The shirtless red shorted guy paces. He’s got sandals on. How’d he get in this situation? The park bench guy, has khakis on, a navy polo shirt. He’s been sitting at the same bench with his shifting rear end on the same coated wood for at least an hour. Is he just killing time until he flys out to work on Monday? Is he contemplating murder or suicide? Did he just leave his wife, have a fight with his sibling, son, or daughter? Why would a man sit on a bench in khakis and a polo shirt all day in a park in downtown San Jose? I may never know, and I may never need to. I won’t break the code of imposing on his life as he won’t on mine, the casual long haired tank top wearing observer on the park bench at an angle of 60 degrees and 25 yards away from him. We could have the world in common but only the world will know.
On June 28th of 2011, my first solo full length album was released. To commemorate the 5 year anniversary I’ve released a video for the first track “A stupid thing called love.”
A lot of the time when a band makes a “live” video it’s not actually live. The Beatles, one of my all time favorite bands have several “live performance” videos that are obviously just them lip syncing to the studio recording and several bands do this making a video look “live” when there are overdubbed harmonies and whatnot that aren’t “performed.” Do I sound like a hater? I’m not trying to hate on bands who do this by any means, usually the songs are stellar enough for it not really to matter and a lot of people probably just like being able to look at something (the band) moving while they listen to the song(s). Anyways, getting to the point, we decided to go into Robert Lang Studios in Shoreline and record two songs live, one being the title of this post and the other being, “Southern Bastard.” We genuinely recorded these songs live with video footage by Echo Prospect Productions that is legitimately live. You may like your songs completely polished and I respect that, but the last two that’ll be on our (Wes Sp8 & The Apollo Proxy) EP are completely live recordings and from the bands perspective we think that may just be how we record our records from henceforth. The first four songs we recorded for this EP, we did the whole isolate all the instruments, overdubs and spent a lot of time mixing them. For the two live ones, we got the sound we wanted, hit record, then we mixed it on the spot. While I know the band is excited to be finished and start writing new and hopefully better songs, I can say I’m proud of this little EP we’re putting out and that’s a pretty weird place for me to be in, being my own worst hyper critic. I’m sure I’ll ride the roller coaster of emotions about it but today I’m excied and that’s a good place to be.
This post is also an introduction to the band and as you’ll see from this song to “Southern Bastard” we are somewhat eclectic. Our EP “You May Proceed” will be released May 6th 2016 at the High Dive! We’d love for you to be there and celebrate with us! We will be sharing the stage with Seacastle and Mts. & Tunnels. For more info about the show go here Facebook Event
Lastly, thanks to Michael Dimitre who suggested I change the title to “Sunny Day Lament,” to Rob Edmondson of Echo Prospect Productions who makes wicked good videos and lastly to Glendon, Cassidy and Jordan who engineered our EP at Robert Lang Studios. Mastered by Justin Cronk.
Scared not afraid
Having one of those moments where I want to release something and am doubting its significance. I read the news almost everyday, followed by social media posts which can be a combination of inspirational followed by a huge downer and vise versa. Patrick Galactic, one of my favorite songwriters said on a blog post a while back, “I write sad songs, so I don’t have to be sad.” What a beautiful statement. As we’ve all seen there is a lot of unfortunate news going on in our world today, it saddens me that we don’t seem to evolving but rather backtracking to a time of hate. We have to share this earth, and the whole reason I’m writing this post is a hope to feel significant, it’s all it ever is. My struggles feel so insignificant compared to someone else’s but they’re still my struggles. When I wrote the song “Self righteous suicide,” the feeling was already there, the words came quick and the music even quicker. I wanted the feeling to be thing that drove it along, as it’s about someone’s struggle with contemplating life and the thought of ending it. It’s something I imaging a lot of people deal with, go through and don’t want to talk about, which is exactly why I’m still hesitant to even put this out because suicide is a tough subject. But I did. My next show is July 31st at the Skylark and I’m thrilled to be joined by Ian Harper who will be playing monster drums alongside. It will be a relentless rock set and I’m stoked to get nasty.
Tour notes day four
Enter Santa Barbara. Creek side Inn, 2 sets, 2 1/2hours, day drunk fan man, cops, cuffs, abandoned dog, volume knob 3, grandiose compliment, jacksons, fish tacos by the pier, vatos cussing through family conversations, bikers inside & outside through congested lanes playing with death. Onto Palm Springs.
Exit Oregon, Enter California, drought, 6 car wrecks, one fire, Montery, cool weather, nice people, 2 sets, Lincoln, Jacksons & fifteen dollar salads, on to Santa Barbara.
Tour notes day one
Tendencies to want to impress, let go of all of those and play, when you’ve got something to say you cannot be afraid. How swell that rhymed well, forget the plans and be. Slept under the full moon by the cottage grove lake with a pocket full of jacksons to spend on coffee and petrol. Day two Ashland Oregon.
Why is nothing all?
The writing process is fairly inconsistent for me and I like it that way, which leads me to believe why I’m able to write such various songs that rarely sound the same or delve in sonic resonances. Though, it is easy to have a biased opinion. I first came up with the riff for “Nothing is all,” and kept it on the back burner for sometime until I revisited it, came up with the concept in my little brain and then decided to take a chance on the concept and just hit record instead of flesh it out completely. I’m content with the result and it’s possibly the first time I’ve ever been able to press record with only a riff and come out content. Why should you care? You shouldn’t that much, but the point I’m attempting to make is that overtime I’ve become better at songwriting because I’m consistently inconsistent. What does that mean? I’m consistently writing, which only makes you improve and I’m inconsistent with the environment I put myself in and the choices I make in said environment. Environment meaning, in my bedroom, outside, in the living room, on a walk, taking a poo, or taking a big risk on a riff idea and hitting record. As you may already know, I’m going to be releasing a 16 track self titled album next week and I’m having the usual reaction of feeling fully confident to feeling uncertain. There is a lot unknown, that is part of this journey, but what I do know is that this album is the most honest I’ve ever been and I can only hope I continue to feed this honest compulsory and hold steadfast of fear and instead feel resolve and reason. Thanks for taking the time to read this and for your continued support. Lastly, here is the video for “Nothing is all,” which I’m releasing before the album comes out, which is probably not the best marketing idea.
w8 
