Tea With Warriors

I just finished working on a collaboration with a Pittsburgh lyricist/singer, Michael Blackstone. You can hear samples here or on iTunes. He came to me with lyrics for a couple songs, and sent me some files with him singing what is in his head. I wrote music for it, and produced everything here at my home studio. It is also my first project using Addictive Drums, which I can't say enough good things about.

Now that that is done, I'm thinking about and starting to work on my next CD. Like with "Niagara", I don't know what the outcome will be, but I have a direction in mind. I think it will be based around percussion/guitars/violin again, but don't hold me to that. I also have a lot of nice electronic pieces I made in the early 2000's, which I've never released. I would like to get them into the mix as well, but haven't figured out how yet.

If you're looking for a daily dose of contemporary experimental music, my neighbor in Greenfield, Kerrith Livengood,  has a blog where she is making a new piece every day for a year. It's hit or miss, but some are really awesome. My favorites are the flute-based ones (that's her main instrument), but the other day there was a really nice one with poetry and manipulated background noises which I thought had a really nice texture and rhythm. I read about her on the Pittsburgh New Music web site, but it turned out she is a friend of a friend due to her involvement in Alia Musica, which is a local group of composers/players who put on a concert of new music every couple months or so.