I Do Love A Bargain!

Well, I got me a new drum kit. I haven’t even played it yet, so it’s hard to comment beyond saying that I got a good deal from this Nigerian guy on this farm out in *EBF. Typical story: got it for a teenage son who played it about five times and then decided XBox was more entertaining. This new piece of craftsmanship is made by the same company that built my beloved Ringo, but sadly, the 2010 version is made in Taiwan of materials that were probably sourced from the Taipei Home Depot. For some reason, this fact has just told me it must henceforth be known as

Rudwig.

Because that’s the kind of humour I live for.

Why get a kit now? All summer as I’ve sat here not playing, I’ve been thinkin’ and thinkin’ and thinkin’ about the various criticisms I’ve received about my non-prog ‘prog’. And the loss of the drum kit got me thinkin’ about even more about what I practice in my drumming […]

After nine years? The first record from JCHMusic will finally be available as a professionally remastered version.

As long-term listeners know, in late 2007 I embarked on a plan to re-master the first four records prior to the release of Home. For some reason, I released them in reverse order, starting with Balance — then Compartments and Superpower. Then all heck started to break loose in my life and I had to leave off.

Until now, this has always been a great personal sadness for me. After more than twenty years playing other people’s stuff, Positive was a chance to finally get the music out there that I wanted to do. So, like many artists’ first records, it contains some of my best stuff (in fact, the sophomore jinx so many artists encounter is often simply the result of one simple fact: they’ve usually had umpteen years to develop ten great songs for their initial offering […]

…with apologies to Oscar Wilde (not the most serious guy in the world, but what-ehveeeer.)

In my last death-defying rant I talked about the terrifying trend towards twee.

This time I’m giving you the flip side–the road less travelled. Or at least, the one that I have decided upon after some reflection and pain and suffering.

We all know that famous quote from Hamlet

This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell, my blessing season this in thee!

The thing people tend to forget (or never learn) is that when Polonius says this to his son Laertes, we’re rolling our eyes.

I’ve taken a lot of criticism from you dears fans (we few, we happy few, we band of broth… OK, enough with the high-school Shakespeare already.)

As I was ranting, my ‘base’ has been on me for the past several years about my downward spiral towards ‘pop’. Not that I ever reached the levels of Pomplamoose (that would […]

As I said last time, I put out a number of ‘blind requests’ for musicians to rebuild the band. I got a bunch of people who listened to my stuff and then replied that though they thought what I do is nice enough, it sure as shit ain’t prog, buddy! I beg to differ. And I’m gonna tell ya why using a number of specific examples from my ‘oeuvre’ to demonstrate the points I wish to make. But first, I’m gonna tell ya why I’m gonna tell ya why!

I’ve started work on an opera called ‘Detroit’. Really.

No really. 😀

A Fearful Background

I have been wanting to do a large scale piece since I was in college. But frankly, I never had the material to work with. I remember reading how Brahms struggled so hard to publish his first pieces. He felt so unworthy and ‘unprepared’. And if Brahms felt unworthy? I mean we’re talking Brahms. Have you ever seen a picture of Brahms? Well, I just happened to have one in me back pocket…

I mean seriously. Unprepared? This is a guy who looks like he prepared just to take a dump every morning.

The thing is, the more that I’ve learned about writing music, the more I understand how he felt. Because the more you write, the more you realise how easy it is to cheat.

Look at most Hollywood film scores. Even the best ones tend to be weak these days. Why? Everyone learns in their first composition class how to take one or two melodies […]