Just when I thought I was out? They pull me back in. Is working on two projects at the same time cheating? Is re-using material in another project ethical? Pacino. Rossini. The Lone Ranger. A Clockwork Orange. Laziness. Michelangelo. David. Trailers?

Roger CortonSo after last week’s digression into finance, we agreed to get back to ‘music’. How’s the new record going?

JCHWell, I keep getting pulled back…

RCLike Al Pacino

JCHUh, yeah. Just like that. I keep getting pulled back and forth between the new record (Progress) and the new opera.

RCWhich we keep meaning to discuss.

JCHBut something keeps pulling us…

RCYeah, yeah, yeah. But let me get this straight. The new record is due this winter. The new opera isn’t supposed to be for a couple of years. Doesn’t this […]

New shopping cart. Same old whining about being an artiste. Outrageous French Accents. Fulfillment costs. More on Versions and Lord Of The Rings.

Roger CortonSo you have a new shopping cart, I see.

JCHYes, if you’ve tried ordering in the past few days, you might’ve noticed some (cough) ‘technical difficulties’. I had to change the entire order processing system as I started ranting about in here.

RCWell, I’m glad it’s fixed, but it also looks a lot better. I found the whole ‘digital’ versus ‘cd’ versus ‘songs’ thing confusing. My question is, “Why wasn’t I asked to beta-test?” (laughs).

JCHIt’s hard to get dis-interested testers. People who don’t know what they’re doing. But I made a ton o’ changes.

RCSuch as?

JCHWell, the first thing is that I finally shifted to SSL.

RCIt’s a rocket ship?

JCHThe https thingy. Everything is now encrypted. Not to get all geeky, but every site that collects yer data […]

More on Prince. Tavis Smiley interviews. Re-invention. Fan trust. Covers. What’s in a name? Lenny Bruce. Goyish or Jewish?

Roger CortonI read your post on Prince. You’ve talked many times of the difficulty in mixing yourself.

JCHIt’s awful. You tend to hear the music as you wish it sounded. You don’t hear it as it is. I’ve rarely talked with other musicians about it, but it’s as clear to me as a sky of azure that almost everyone suffers from this to one degree or another. Which is why it’s so dangerous to be a one-man-band. But he had that gift. Apart from all his other talents, that was the deal–seeing reality for what it is.

RCSo you’re downplaying his playing (sorry.) But you do the same things. You do it all.

JCHI’m gonna get punished for this, but from what I can hear he was an OK guitar player, drummer, whatever.

RCSeriously? ‘OK’?

JCHLook, I’m not Trump so don’t […]

Second details on an upcoming new album called “Progress”. Calculus or just derivative? Chaplin vs. Lucy and Ethel. Jon Anderson. Fusion guitar shredding. Guitar quartets at 120db. Self-driving cars and a total loss of control.

Roger CortonIn our last action-packed episode, we started talking about your new album progress, and the concept behind it. You said that you thought that “progress” was inevitable, or at least that we all think it is inevitable. We are so indoctrinated to the idea that progress is good that we can’t imagine life any other way. You even compared it to gravity; a hidden force that we all assume is ever present.

JCHWhat a concise summation, dear friend. I salute you.

RCAnd I salute your salutation. You also hinted at the music. Care to comment on that?

JCHSure. When I started thinking about this record, I fretted and fretted and fretted and fretted.

RCAnd not on the geetar.

JCHCute. As I was saying, I […]