REALITé
Looking back at my calendar for the last year, I see now that I worked virtually every day for the last 12 months—a few notable exceptions being a few days of quiet (but very few) at the beginning of the year, a week or so of down time in June, and the days I spent on Ile de Re in August and September, which in the end were not that many. Basically, I worked like a pack mule for almost 12 solid months. And, it’s not like what I do is drudgery, by any means, and I can say that the results of my hard work for the last months are really significant—I have a new album to show for it, the Disciplines album, which is more or less completely recorded, and I have memories of great shows all over Europe, in the States, etc. – including visits to new places for me—Bosnia, Luxembourg…in fact, 2007 was The Year of more significant philosophical change than any other for me. I stopped worrying and learned how to love the bomb. The ‘bomb’ being the explosion of opportunity for positive effect on the world at large. I ingested a good dose of Buddhism, without adopting a religion per se—but the perspective of human (and other’s) suffering, and our obligation to administer alleviation to and not further contribute to the civilization of misery…well, laugh at me if you will, but that interests me, more than ambition, more than fame or acclaim. Many times, more than art itself. There are a lot people who definitely aren’t curing cancer, who act like they already have (re: like, EVERY band in England, it seems at times). You know, we as artists are pretty good at getting recognition for our work. And, then, there are legions of people in service of the world at large, who could give a shit about recognition. Again, these people impress me.
So, after being immersed entirely in music and music culture for the last months, with almost no other perspective…it was great to come home and reconnect with my family, and just wander aimlessly a bit. Last Sunday, we worked very hard and managed to finish everything on our list in the studio. I went to my flat and had some wine with my flatmates, and we started to listen to the tracks, and after one song, the upstairs neighbors (who have had quite a few loud parties themselves) came down and told us to turn it down…well, that’s a good sign, no?
Well, lightweight that I am, I woke up with a rather crude (considering we were drinking Bordeaux) hangover, and I couldn’t bring myself to get out of bed and go hang with the Revolver crew—I was going to give them a preview of the album. But, my bandmates and Jon Marius and I pretty much agreed not to play the album for many people until it was mixed. So, I guess, the hangover was part of the Greater Plan. I got up at noon and headed home. My stay in Oslo was great…as it covered parts of two different calendar years, it seemed like I was there for ages—in fact, it was just over three weeks. But it was highly productive!
Getting home that evening, we got right down to business—presents! As I had been away for Xmas, I had presents for Aden, and some others had come for her (and me!) in the mail, plus Dom had held some back in case I couldn’t find any good ones. So Aden made out like a bandit.
This week I have generally been going to bed at, like, 9—and getting up at 7 to get Aden to school. It’s a pleasure—I am always more efficient in the morning and early afternoon, and I feel better mentally when I sleep early and rise early, it’s all the Benjamin, yo.
Monday I played Dom the rough mixes and she was really impressed---even she couldn’t find a song to eject from the 15 song lineup. As it is, the 15 songs take only 47 minutes to play. Good news started to arrive that very day—I was alerted to the Toronto Star (Canada’s biggest newspaper)’s picking up on the Disciplines—music editor John Sakamoto put ‘There’s A Law’ in his ‘Anti Hit List’, a selection of should be hits from the underground. Read
here.
And we received 2-3 more morsels of good news that I am not going to reveal just yet!
In the meantime, I spent the week settling back in to being home, visiting my favorite cafes, meeting with a few friends, shopping the sales with Dominique (I really only bought one shirt, and one pair of shoes). I got rid of some junk cabinets in my rental flat, and started to tackle the problem of a mysterious water leak that appears to originate in the flat’s bathroom pipes. I started going to Pilates (and my shrink) again. I bought a new stereo—Dominique’s finally gave out, it was a kind of cheap Panasonic all-in-one deal, probably 15 years old, and it was just falling apart. So, I went in to one of those big home appliance boutiques, the sales still on, and tested everything in the shop. I ended up with some pretty big JBL speakers, and a Denon amp and CD player. And it sounds great—and it wasn’t that expensive, and it was delivered (a couple of days later). However, there was no speaker cable included, and the salesman implied there would be. Being the impatient type, I found online that the BHV department store was open for 30 more minutes—special hours during the sales. So, I hopped on a bus, last night at 7.30 (the delivery was at about 7, and I had to dig thru everything to make sure there were no cables in there somewhere. So, no problem—I got on the bus that stops right by our flat and goes direct to BHV. Except, evidently at 7.30 on Saturday. It stopped, with finality, only at La Bastille, like, 1o minutes walk from our place. So I had to flat out run to BHV to make it, and make it I did. I guess it was ultimately healthy, and an hour or so later (bus ride home, strip and cut wire) I had music playing in the house, and it sounds KILLER. This morning, I played the first thing sort of full volume, which was the new Syd Matters record, “Ghost Days” which is coming out next month here in France. It’s beautiful, delicate, and human. You who read this blog regularly might know I’m a real fan of their last album, ‘Someday We Will Forsee Obstacles’. There are notes of Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, and Radiohead, but it’s never derivate. The lyrics are far from obvious but never pretentious. For more info—check
their lovely website. The reason I have the album is that on Friday, Dom & I had café with the singer, Jonathan Morali, and also dropped in on SM’s label, Because Music (Daft Punk, Klaxons, et al) to talk Disciplines. Jonathan is as gentle and intelligent as his music would suggest. By the way, “Which one’s Syd?” is the new “Which one’s Pink?”
That afternoon Dom and I had the freedom to walk thru Paris, shop in a bookstore, take a long lunch. Really, these simple things have been out of bounds for so long. Dom’s job came to an end recently, the company she worked for is in its death throes (death throe tull?) and gave her a nice exit package, plus she still manages Olivia Baum, and gets her monthly stipend til she finds a new job. So we have spent most of this week together, and it’s much needed/long overdue.
Also coming up on my stereo this weekend was
Le Concorde, with the ‘Suite’ EP. Six songs of brain-massaging organic & electronic, even danceable, lovely pop music for thinking listeners. I sing on one of the songs, ‘All These Fragile Unions’, with some great vocal interplay between myself and mastermind Stephen Becker, Ph.D. The EP was produced by David Gamson, who was in Scritti Politti (‘
Cupid and Psyche ’85’ was a favorite of my high school years). Recommend!
I went to the movies for the first time in countless months. I watched ‘Paris, Je T’aime’ on DVD. Dom & I went to a restaurant together and held hands over a table. I collected two top-class bottles from my wine storage (a
Chapoutier Hermitage blanc and a
Weinbach Tokay-Pinot Gris botrytised sweet wine) and drank them. Aden had her friend from school, Colleen, over, for a raucous ‘princess party’--I do believe they acted in a manner not inconsistent with the behavior of real-life royals. Dom, Aden & I went to the
Marché d’Aligre this morning and bought fish & cheese. We took her to the park and chatted with other parents. This morning, we sort of slept in. I had nothing to do, really…I still can’t fully elude feeling guilty for these seven days of respite from labor. I mean, I * was * emailing, faxing, calling, organizing, etc. all week. I wasn’t in a virtual hammock the whole time. But, it’s quite different than the planes, studios, and stages that have been the three rings I have been circulating around.
I feel enriched, and strengthened, and looking forward to a productive year. I go back into the studio tomorrow.
Love
KS
Paris
