booyachacka

I'm sitting in the courthouse in downtown Portland, waiting for my name to be called for Jury duty. The people around me all seem relatively calm but I'd guess most of us are all filled with conflict. A small part of us wants to be neighborly, but mostly we want out.

So it's been about a year and a half since I first began my venture in the media world. I've written looooots of music, learned lots of things, and had some mighty successes. There have been some key successes along the way which give me hope for the future. The Advent Conspiracy promo landed over 800,000 hits, I landed a final with Massive Music New York which aired on National Television. I got the chance to work with Brent Asbury (Pinback), Dennis Culp (Five Iron Frenzy) and other exceptional people at Singing Serpent in San Diego. I also landed a final with them(a la Al Green/70's r&B, who'd have thought!) for Glory Foods.

Amongst the most exciting developments in my professional career are those surrounding Blue Scout Music. Blue Scout is a Portland based music production and licensing studio. We write music for many Portland based agencies and production companies, and we place music on lots of hip TV shows. Joey Prather is at the center of Blue Scout. At first I was a bit pessimistic that Joey's interest in working with me would materialize, but we have a studio space in downtown Portland and are proudly making our livings doing what we love.

I am learning quickly that the as long as I am in this industry, my spiritual duty will be to keep it from dominating my life. That is why I am forming a band with my wife.

Life is short.

Advent Conspiracy

Did this with Jon Collins. He's very talented. You should hire him. In fact, you should just watch the video, it will inspire you toward universal benevolence.



Merry September.

-b

don't hate, Canada is cool too.

So for the past 9ish months, my life has been about proving to myself (and Amy) that I can make a living in the music industry. It's taken me a long time, I've had some bumps and scrapes. I've disappointed some people and impressed others. I've worked on many low or no pay gigs composing for corporate web-only advertising, online flash games, private corporate presentations, and web sites, I've finally accomplished something really substantial. There is a Canadian clothing company called 'Blue Notes.' They actually have really hip clothing. Anyway I will have my music on a big budget, nationwide TV commercial for them. I got the gig through Massive Music NYC. Anyway it was an amazing feeling and quite truthfully I hope it's the first of many. It's crazy to me to think about how many hours of work and prep this accomplishment took.

I can't post the video yet because it's not airing but when it does you can be sure.

HOORAY FOR CANADA.

music for web pages

hey all, here's some loops, etc. that I've worked up over the last few months for friends/clients...

Tyler Gould- This is a newer friend of mine. He's a Portland area photography/video freelancer. Highly recommend his services. In order to enjoy the track I created you must locate the mp3 player at the bottom right and select 'seeking new hope.' Tyler asked me to compose this piece as an imitation of an older Nine Inch Nails track. It was a suprisingly beautiful and atmospheric track to start with. other track on there is by an old friend of mine, the exceptionally talented Jon Hastings. He was in several bands out of Salem a few years back and is now a designer and session drummer in LA. His brother Kevin Hastings, plays keys for the legendary pop icon, Rihanna. (unda my umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh). Props.

Monica Pynch- My sister-in-law is another exceptional talented media person here in Oregon. She designed my web page and I highly recommend her. She just finished her web page. Several months back she asked me to compose a loop in the vein of Death Cab for Cutie for her web page. Not a problem

Casa Kimball- This was another job from my good friends at Jess3. I've done other projects with them but this one fits the theme of this post so yah. I had a lot of fun doing this one.

swamped...

Lots of work right now. This is a good thing. I'm officially part of the team at Atomicon. That'll be a blast. Atomicon is a promising new music house venture in the Portland area headed up by David Weiner. Hopefully we'll be able to break down the doors of Weiden , BPN, and other big agencies here in Portland and abroad. Working on a Royal Bank of Canada spot right now. That on is for Massive in NY. Also it looks like I might get a chance to do a few demos for Singing Serpent in San Diego. These guys are doing some fantastic work, check it out.

In other news, Amy and I have been talking for a while about putting together a fun band. I dunno, just beats, happy melodies, summer time, and fun. We've worked out a few songs. Long ways to go if we want to be presentable. I also have jammed a few times with Ruth and Bryan Beck. They are more talented than me.

I finished Ezra Carey's album. I also recorded a few tracks for my good friend, Colin Woekel.

k, bye.

update

Lots of interesting stuff happening. You can see/hear a bunch of my work here and here.

Just finished Ezra's album today. It was a wonderful project and I am very proud of the final product. Still working with blue scout. Starting to really miss TJU.

So um yah. Hope everybody is good. You are my pride and joy.

this one deserves attention...