Hello blog my old friend, I've come to write on you again.

Denizens of the interweb, witness my triumphant return to the blog-o-sphere!

So what's been going on since my last post in.....September 2013???

First and most importantly: I GOT MARRIED!

Secondly: I MOVED! Alas, the sweetheart deal I had on my Greenpoint apartment couldn't last forever, especially with the neighborhood becoming more and more Williamsburg-ized. We're now living happily in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn. So many musicians in this hood! Adam and Phil from Old Time Musketry live blocks away, Jesse Stacken lives down the street, and I bump into more people on a daily basis all the time.

But some musical activity has also been percolating! I have a recording coming out soon with a new project called Waver, a collaboration with sound artist Michael Clemow. We've been working on an improvisational project for piano and live-sampling electronics on and off for a year or so. Mike samples what I play in real time and manipulates the sound through his computer and sonic adventures ensue. The music ranges from cinematic ambient soundscapes to intense bursts of fractured electronic sound. Stay tuned for news about a CD release show!

Old Time Musketry went into the studio in November to record our second album, the long awaited follow up to our critically acclaimed first album, Different Times.

I'm also planning to start doing some solo piano shows again, and for the first time ever I'm going to include some classical pieces!

Jesse Stacken on his Messiaen Project

Here's an interview with pianist, composer, and all-around music lover Jesse Stacken. He is currently involved with his Messiaen Project, where he writes a piece every week using the compositional techniques of the modernist master composer Olivier Messiaen. Recordings of the pieces are posted weekly on his blog.

The interview is great, and Jesse's honesty and openness about his creative process is really refreshing. I particularly enjoy his perspectives on musical influences, the effects of social media, and the struggle to stay true to your own creative instincts.

"At the end of the day, I guess I try not to worry about what others think or what others are doing, and just be myself, with myself, experiencing the beauty of nature, and allowing what I love to be apart of the music I create. It’s not always easy to do that, but a little struggle and discomfort is good."

Old Time Musketry at Pete's Candy Store tonight!

OTM is playing our first show in Brooklyn since our tour last month. The tour helped to solidify an album's worth of new music which we will hopefully be recording soon. We will be on a bit of a hiatus after this show, as I'm getting married next week, and our drummer Max Goldman is on tour with dance music legends Midnight Magic for a while.

SO COME CHECK US OUT TONIGHT!! That's at Pete's Candy Store at 9pm.

John Zorn at 60

Just listened to the Fresh Air interview with John Zorn. A glimpse into the mind of an intensely focused and driven individual.

Old Time Musketry August tour dates!

So excited to take to the road with Old Time Musketry this week on our east coast/midwest tour! Please help us spread the word if you have friends in any of these cities who would like to hear some indie/folk/jazz from Brooklyn!

More about the band here: www.oldtimemusketry.com


August 8th: The Windup Space, Baltimore, MD w/ Snail Knights and Talking Points.

August 9th: The Electric Maid, Washington, DC

August 10th: Private Event, Huntingdon, PA

August 11th: Merrimans’ Playhouse, South Bend, IN

August 12th: The Black Sparrow, Lafayette, IN.

August 13th: The Whistler, Chicago, IL

August 14th: The Garden Theatre, Columbus, OH

We've got some new music in the works, preparing to record a second album....

Pandora's Box

I've been reading up on the unfolding saga of Pandora's fight to decrease royalty payments to artists. Pandora is currently in the process of lobbying congress to lower their already absurdly low royalty rates by 85%. The singer David Lowery recently wrote in a blog post about being paid $16.89 for over 1 million plays on Pandora of the hit song "Low".

He was also interviewed on NPR's Studio 360.

Many other artists, including Pink Floyd have been speaking out about this issue, and also about Pandora's attempt to get artists behind them by writing "letters of support" for internet radio.

Pandora's founder Tim Westergen claims that the 85% royalty cut is "misinformation", but doesn't really address what they're hoping to achieve in their negotiations with Congress.

Internet radio streaming services like Pandora and Spotify offer an incredible experience for listeners, but the fact is that they make no sense as business models. Both of them lose money every year and they'd prefer to find ways to pay artists less rather than improving their business models. At least Spotify has a subscription plan! It will be interesting to see what becomes of these companies in the near future.

Minerva at Spectrum tonight!

Minerva is playing at Spectrum in the Lower East Side tonight. I'm excited to play the Steinway grand!
This is the 2nd installment of the Canyons music series, here's tonight's lineup:

Tuesday, July 2

@ Spectrum (121 Rivington)
Admission: 10 bucks (suggested)

8pm, Minerva:
Carlo Costa
JP Schlegelmilch
Pascal Niggenkemper


9pm,
Ben Gerstein, trombone
Gian Luigi Diana, laptop/live electronics
Morgan O'Hara, pencils/live transmission drawing

Free-improvisation for trombone and live electronics with attention and performative drawing.

10pm,
Todd Neufeld
Eivind Opsvik
Flin van Hemmen

Flin will be premiering a brand new piece in which preconceived sound meditations and improvisations will be in close dialogue. Possibly these lines will be blurred until one is not sure which is which, for life is a composition. Eivind plays bass, Todd the acoustic guitar, and Flin will play piano as well as drums.