I get a number of questions re. what I play and how I do things. This article is basically a list of the instruments I play, the songs you’d hear them on and some links to more information on them.

KEYBOARDS

Kimball Upright Player Piano. I got this from a girlfriend who owed me money. When she walked out she left me a note saying I should take it in lieu of payment. Seriously. But a piano is a good thing to have; even a crappy piano. I had it tuned by a friend who remarked, “Well I’d say sixty two or three notes sound OK. That’s not a bad average.” That said, there’s something nice about feeling the sound as you play… and not having to wait for some electric device to ‘boot’. Good, bad or indifferent, there’s nothing like a real instrument.

All the synthesized sounds you hear are various pieces of software played from a keyboard directly into the computer. These include Native Instruments, Inc. B4, FM8 and Kontakt; […]

I wanted to comment a bit on the kinds of gigs I play and why you haven’t seen much of me lately.

I just got back from Santa Fe, NM where I played a gig at a convention for psychologists studying the effects of various music-based therapies and the unique emotional challenges and personality disorders which tend to affect people in the creative arts.

And let me just say, you’d have to be nuts to play in front of a bunch of shrinks.

<rimshot>

I’m keeeeeeeeeeeeeeeding. I booked the gig months ahead based on a recommendation of a fan who also happens to be a psychologist. If it had been a ‘normal’ gig and I had not already committed, I probably would have backed out. But it wasn’t normal in any sense of the word.

What I do is targeted. When people come to see me they know what to expect and they expect me to docertain things. Because of the nature of this gig, meaning that people had no idea who I was, I […]