Ladies and gents... The Idle Hours!

Here I am, many months later.  I promised I'd be better about blogging, but the last few months have been kind of an overload of thoughts and things happening.  You would think this would be the impetus for more blog posts, but it's the opposite with me.  I start to feel the snowball effect; I get lost in the thoughts and ideas and, instead of getting them out here, I kind of roll along with the avalanche.  Sorry, truly.

But let me attempt it anyway.

I've had a project going on in Nashville for 3 years now with Marc Lacuesta.  He's the producer behind half of "World Go Blue," and has been the other half of a duo I've started called The Idle Hours.  We write songs that we love, and we've been aiming to have them placed in film and television.  Much of that is out of practicality - Marc isn't an artist in the traditional sense and doesn't have time to tour - but we also have been interested in exploring the outlet of licensing a bit more.  Nashville (also lovingly known as Nashvegas) is a town that is built heavily on the idea of publishing music, so it's a very tangible goal for us.  I could tell you so much about working with Marc... but it'd be a hefty novel, so I'll tell you about the product of our work instead.

We are releasing our first-ever EP next week.  Not a lot of clamor or publicity about it, but we're OK with that.  We are quietly going out into daylight.  I feel like we're letting these songs escape into the world with the thought that doing so is accomplishment enough.

These songs have been benchmarks of our time as friends and collaborators, co-conspirators and penpals (2,000 miles of distance! Oy!)... there's lots of great nuggets in there, including one song that features Jeremy Lister from Street Corner Symphony, and another with prominent pedal steel genius B.J. Cole.  We tried to get Marc's bestie Ruby Amanfu in there, but her rock star schedule wouldn't allow.  :)

I learned so much in 3 years of writing and recording with Marc. The project has been half the reason for my 7 trips to Nashville since 2011 (the other being my last solo record, of course). It's also seen me and Marc through a lot of life changes.  When we first met each other he was single, and I was unsure about my own relationship; now he is engaged (to a very lovely person), and I am happily sure about my relationship (same guy; rough road, now behind us).

The good news is that even before these songs were really out in the open, we'd gotten "Bergenfield, NJ" placed in an upcoming indie film called "Old Fashioned," and have just been approached about placing it in another film as well (that one I will mention once it's final).  I guess it helped that this song was on "World Go Blue" as the final track.  During the week I spent in Nashville this past June, we were approached by a publisher about an exclusive pub deal, which means we may be on our way to accomplishing the goals we had for our songs (here's praying!).  After our EP comes out next week, we'll release a new music video, which I am producing alongside the guys at Homeroom Creative.  I'm really excited for this one, since it will be an illustrated video, with a story that is near and dear to me.

All good things.  But at the heart of everything, it's just amazing that Marc and I set out to do something and have completed it... or at least, gotten it rolling.  We've still got more music in store... but before I jump ahead of myself, I'm going to do what I'm not that great at doing: take a look at all that was created, and see that it is good. :)

WAR! Teaser // Season of writing.

"WAR!" is debuting on April 22nd on ISAtv, but here's a quick teaser courtesy of Conrad, the director.

I've been transitioning back to a season of writing, and the whole thing feels slightly off-kilter for me. I've learned that the best way to get into creativity is to find a sense of calm.  A lot of the time, this means that normally minor distractions can start to feel like frustrating ones.  That doesn't mean they aren't good distractions - I just played the songwriter's round that I host at Renaissance Hotel last night, and am gearing up for a showcase I'm playing with my publishing company in a few weeks, not to mention I'll be MOH at my sister's wedding in 2 weeks - but my first goal is to be more productive with songwriting. So hyper-focused am I at getting to this goal, that I often forget that the trick is sometimes just to let it go (cue that song from "Frozen" that I'm not actually a big fan of. Sorry.)

So far I've averaged a song per week.  That's OK, the gears are just warming up.  More scratches to come soon...

   By the way, here is the flyer for the showcase I am playing next month.  It is hosted by Gas Can Music, which publishes "World Go Blue," and is open to music supervisors looking to license.  If by happenstance you are a music supervisor who's stumbled onto my blog and would like to join the event, you can email Licensing@GasCanMusic.com.