Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 293

Year Four

April 20^th 2012

Los Angeles, California

Off Day....Sort of

With the Win that was San Diego behind me I had one more day between me and LA . No Gigs but plenty to do.

The Agenda

1. Lay Around All Morning
2. Meet Up With Melinda Rice at the Musician's Union
3. Meet Up With Mary for a quick writing session for tomorrow's show

I had no problem with one. Laying around meant I could take some phone calls, mostly from family members and friends. I have a lot of thoughts on my life recently and it was cool to share them with people I care about. Coffee was involved once I got my ass out of bed.

Step Two would be a little bit harder.

I agreed to show up at my high school classmate and friend Melinda Rice's violin class to talk to them about music. At first I was like “Well what the hell do I know all your students probably read better than me” when she explained she wanted me to come in and talk to them about my life as a musician to this point I was like “Well I can probably do that”

I've always thought working with kids in some capacity is important to do. None of us shall be here forever so it's important to pass on whatever you think you know to the next generation so they don't make the same mistakes you did. Admittedly I was nervous. I wasn't sure if they would be receptive. Kids are smart for the most part and you can't really get anything past them and truthfully it was a little rough at first. I basically condensed this blog into a five minute introduction and then we chatted about music for a bit and I wondered how things might be different had I been exposed to music in the right way at that age.

Melinda and I also went through most of the set for tomorrow's show in front of the class and she basically taught them about how to interact with chord progressions as she and I basically rehearsed. I gotta say that I love the way she plays, she's not stiff, she gets what's happening, I can go ahead and add her to list of genius musicians I know. Then she asked the kids to play a long with Ex-Girlfriend. So there I am in the middle of this class with like 12 kids and Melinda playing along as I play my acoustic guitar and sing. It was an epic moment. I brought some CD's and they sort of all ran to grab them and they asked me to sign them. All in all it was a pretty amazing experience and I probably learned more from them than they did from me. I left not only having enjoyed myself thoroughly but pretty confident that tomorrow's show would be good.

Step Three involved me leaving towards the parking lot to meet Mary Scholz. Mary's an old friend from Philly with whom I have any stories. She's good people and we've done quite bit together show wise in the past year or two. So when I asked her if she could set something up for me in LA this weekend and she said yes I was over the moon.

Whenever we do shows it's customary that we pick a few songs to sing/play together. Normally they are covers but since we couldn't agree on anything we decided to write something together. Generally I hate working with people cause I've never found the right person to write with. I never found my Lennon or Garfunkel or Oates. But Mary and I are like minded in the sense that we like to get stuff done and the most important thing is that the song is good so I figured that this would work.

It was an interesting window into someone else's songwriting process. There are certain things she does that I picked up on and will likely incorporate. I love that she follows her instincts and kind of knows what the stuff should be about. Def be interested in doing that some more.

3 hours later there was a song an hour after that I was asleep.

LA Tomorrow

Get Excited

Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 292

Year Four

April 19th 2012

Los Angeles

I've been here about 3 days or something. Staying with my cousin and her room mates. Still not used to the time change. Going stir crazy, you need access to a car out here to do anything really which I would have if I were licensed to drive. The past few days have been relaxing to say the least to deprogram my brain from worrying about stuff on the home front was a lot easier than I thought it would be. But as the days/weeks leading up to this mini-west coast run flew by I realized that I was burnt out for two main reasons

1)Not enough time devoted to my own music. I went the non conventional/day job route so I could focus on making music and see how far I can take this and frankly I've been spending more time working with other bands/artists then doing my own stuff.

2)A lack of creative focus/direction. The only thing more frustrating than not being able to write, is being able to write and not thinking the stuff you're doing is any good or it not painting a clear picture as to where you wanna go.

I decided that I would leave all the home stuff at home (frankly there's but a few things in Philly that I miss this week) I had set everything up to that the clubs I work at would have stuff and my house was in order and even if something went wrong in Philly, there's nothing I can do about it 3000 Miles Away.

It's amazing what a change of scenery can do. To be in a place like this full of driven people. I've even been able to crash a few of the ASCAP Expo events. But I can't spend more than a couple of days sitting around and doing nothing. Tonight was San Diego and I was very excited.

Tours, even super short ones, are my favorite part of this whole music thing. To be out for a week or month or two and not have to worry about anything other than playing the gig is liberating. I've been doing a lot of solo touring in 2012 so far trying to round out that aspect of my game so that I can always hit road if I want or need to. It's gonna make me better as a performer. I can't afford to bring the band out here yet, so I'm basically out here trying to establish a West Coast Foothold so that I can bring California the full show shortly.

Danielle (My Cousin) and I left for San Diego around 5...and it took us an hour to get out of LA because of the traffic. But it was good to use that time to catch up with her and get focused. I had to sort of come out of vacation mode and be clear about the task at hand. The objective here is to come and play well. My friend Ashley J had booked me tonight, I had people coming, and Lestat's is an important club for people at my level, so no missteps, no bad notes, no fooling around. I have 30 minutes to convince everyone that gettign on the Boy Wonder train's worthwhile. And Then I saw it. As we pulled into San Diego and drove by Lestat's I saw something that I rarely see.

A Marquee with my Name On It! Even the most jaded and well traveled of us get a little giddy when we see something like that. When I saw my name in lights I knew it was going to be a good night. My fan club files in filled with (oddly enough) many people that have recently moved to the area from Philly, a little piece of home so far away. People here takes the pressure off...a little. The Orange Pickers play a great set and then it's my turn.

Set List
Get Me To California
Slow Dance
Sexy Machine
I Don't Dance
Never Gonna Give You Up
Psycho
Swim (w/Ashley J)

'Twas a strong outing. The only things I felt were wrong were things only I (in all my anal retentive glory) would notice. There was a lot of love in the room, people that came felt it was worth their time and Ashley's people seemed to like it. All Good Things. After coming off and watching Ashley's Set I jumped up and did a couple of songs with her...Mainly Toxic and Super Bass.

After the show was over we jumped in the car and headed towards LA. I have some stuff to do in preparation for Saturday's show but other than that not much on the agenda. I have a feeling that LA's going to be good but they've got a lot to do to top San Diego Tonight. Truly one of the best nights of my life.