Entries from March 2006
The virtues of the download format is that music can be released quickly and economically. With that in mind, I woke up this morning and decided to do just that.
In 2002 I wrote, arranged and recorded a suite of music for a PBJ Dance Projects show; the show was a tremendous success and the music equally so. I’d always wanted to release it and even went so far as to design the cover art and such in early 2003. Well, the release never happened and the music has been in storage on various hard drives since then.
Now you can get it from my site for $4.00 CAD. It’s one of my most favourite projects and features the vocal talents of Laurel James and Lester McLean. The band is great, and I had the opportunity to layer lots of percussion on the tracks (berimbau, moringa, cowbells, cajon, triple hand claps even!). I’ve always been very proud of this project, I hope you will take the time to check it out.
DOWNLOAD IT HERE
Categories: downloads · journal
I’ve put some videos up via YouTube on the LISTEN page at my site. This YouTube service is useful, and will hopefully mean I can post more vids more regularly.
check ‘em out.
Categories: downloads
I’ve put some videos up via YouTube on the LISTEN page at my site. This YouTube service is useful, and will hopefully mean I can post more vids more regularly.
check ‘em out.
Categories: downloads
I’m very pleased to say that Ed Zankowski and I have been offered a slot at Leftover Daylight on May 19 to perform as a duo.
Stay tuned for more info.
Categories: concert dates
Mike Barrington just phoned me and rounded out my weekend with a generous-paying gig on Sunday afternoon/evening. Thanks Mike!
It’s a showband-type situation backing up multiple artists; charts, a rehearsal before the show, etc. Should be a positive but pressured situation. Fine with me!
Categories: concert dates
Something has been looming in my thoughts for some time, and it is starting to finally crystallize.
I have operated for many years under the assumption that is a priviledge to make music for a living; that playing the drums in any context is preferable to everything else.
Well, I think that assumption is fine for a while, but definitely wishful thinking. What occurs to me a lot lately is that I spend most of my “work” time commercializing my music, and not making it. At some point, I can see an imbalance resulting in the degradation of the music (when you spend more time commercializing it than making it sooner or later one would run out of music to commercialize…).
I am starting to see some advantages to the establishment of a dual career. I have many colleagues that have “day jobs” or other trades that they generate some or all of their living from, thus leaving their music making free of the constraints of the market. Now, perhaps these people would rather not be doing their other gig, but I’m starting to envy them.
The fact is that I spend more time updating websites, setting up a MySpace page, photocopying, phoning, emailing, and other general office-type work than I do practicing, performing or composing. I am sure this is a fact of life for many musicians, so I know I’m not offering any revelations here, but many of the skills I apply daily to the commercialization of my music are valuable, marketable skills that in their current application go essentially unpaid. (If I factored all the hours I work away from the drums into my average pay on a gig I’d be making sweatshop wages…).
More than ever, when I am weighed down by thoughts like this, I am humbled and grateful for the support and interest people have in my music. I hope I can continue to produce it as long as I (and you) have ears to hear it.
Categories: journal
I recently re-connected with a musician friend from my childhood. Jon Brooks and I went to the same high school in King City, Ontario. Jon was (and still is) a few years older than me, so we didn’t hang out too much, but I often imposed my 14 year-old conga playing self on him and his bandmates.
About 6 years or more ago I ran into Jon in Cabbagetown (Toronto) when I was doing a tight little touring circuit of the intersection of Winchester and Parliament streets (I was playing dance classes at CCDT and TDT basically 7 days a week back then), but it was very brief. Anyway, fast-forward to now and an email that lands in my inbox from my old bandmate Pat Simmonds, whom I had the pleasure of doing some touring with in Jon Eccleston’s band some years ago. Pat’s current band was playing a St. Patrick’s Day gig and Jon Brooks is opening the gig. Pat had produced Jon’s latest record, so my world suddenly shrunk a little bit more.
I order (paid for too!) Jon’s record off of his website and (not surprisingly) it’s a very fine work. Ultra-literate (yet plain-spoken) songs that never try too hard to do anything but tell their stories, which is very hard thing to do, what with the tempations of over-production always looming. Jon and I have traded a few emails, and I’m hoping to be able to go see him soon (he’s gigging everywhere, you should go). Jon and Pat are working on a new record so I’ll of course be doing everything in my power to weasel my way onto it. 
Categories: journal
I realized today that 2006 started off quite busy, and in some ways, the first wave of activity has now subsided. The year began with in January with the Joey Baron clinic and lessons, led quickly into the David King master class, and then a month of Drum Mondays, including two of my own gigs. Amidst all of that, cc3 pumped along on Thursdays and Hot Buttered Soul managed a couple of gigs too. My days were filled with dance classes, and then I went off to NYC to play with Rob Price and Mariano Gil. That essentially brings me to today.
Things are a little slow right now, so I’m compelled to start booking some new work and events. Here’s what my calendar will (hopefully) hold for me (and you) in the next weeks into May:
- sideman work with a new artist (new to me), Lee McCormack and his band Moon Violet (we’re doing some rehearsing and one showcase gig May 5th in Toronto, so far…)
- a duo gig with Ed Zankowski on May 12 or 19 (stay tuned)
- finishing the final studio version of the score to Paula Skimin’s “Fleeting” dance piece
- continued Burlington domination by cc3
- another trip to NYC and hopefully bringing RP back to Toronto with me, and maybe a gig in Buffalo along the way
More to come, I hope. Thanks for your continued interest and support!
Categories: concert dates · journal
..for anyone who’s been trying to reach me on my mobile phone, I’ve just discovered my voicemail was cancelled (in error by the phone company) sometime on Tuesday. I thought it was a “roaming” issue while travelling in the USA, but it’s not.
It won’t get fixed until Friday night I bet, so email me if you need to reach me. chris@chriscawthray.com
thanks!
Categories: journal
