SOOOO much going on right now. Trying to blow the dust out of Remy Zero’s circuits and create a little flow ahead of the October shows. RZ always draws a lot of my CPU, even when nothing seems to come of it. Old habits die hard I guess. Also keen to get new O+S music to Orenda before the Azure Ray tour kicks off. We’re way behind and it’s my fault. The wait will be worth it though! Have also been in the studio with Barrett Martin and Solon Bixler this past week and am very excited about the potential results. Not sure exactly what this music is going to be or what channels it will travel to reach people’s ears but I do know it’s going to be super cool. All this on top of finding the right living situation now that I’m back in LA, getting reacquainted with my people here and searching for chests full of coin with my name on them equals one helluva juggling act. On a tightrope. Over wildfires. In the wind.
My friend / collaborator / co-conspirator Michael Patterson calls his studio The Gloryhole. It’s ridiculous I know. So is he. But he’s also a bit of a mad genius and has become a touchstone in many of the projects in O+S world. He mixed O+S and toured with us; mixed the forthcoming Azure Ray album Drawing Down The Moon; will be releasing the Dead Snares album on his POPANTIPOP label in September; will be co-writing and producing music with me and others for a new collective project; and today is lending his ideas and assistance to the reactivation of Remy Zero. RZ is doing few club dates down the west coast in October (not officially announced yet but the word is already out, so there you go…) and we’ve decided that new music, new web presence, new ENERGY should go along with the shows. And since I’ve just moved back to LA and haven’t got my situation fully set up The Gloryhole is sort of our unofficial air traffic control center. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Mike for that and for his many other valuable contributions, and also to wish him a Happy Birthday tomorrow! Here’s to you, Maestro… (S)
The brown, baldpate standing behind the singer is a Scalpelist. Also appearing is O+S tour guitarist Jason Orme, in this case playing percussion stage left… (S)
I’ll be playing with Alanis on The Tonight Show tonight, doing a song she wrote for ‘Prince Of Persia’. It’s always fun hanging out with her and the band, and it’s a very nice “welcome back to LA” thing for me. Check it out if you’re so inclined… (S)
Sitting in the control, going through Gregory’s old sessions. Cinjun and Darrel (Thorp, longtime friend and engineer) are supposed to arrive tonight. Tomorrow we start 3 days of recording which will hopefully yield beautiful music. Feeling excited, nervous, melancholy, afraid. This will be the first time we’ve all made music together since Gregory passed. I’m looking forward to it but it’s heavy. And of course Cinjun is caught in an apocalyptic storm / flood in Tennessee. I’d like to consider it a good omen - Remy Zero sessions are never born easily! Gregory is probably getting a kick out of it. I’m missing him terribly right now. Always, but especially right now.
