Jeremy Larson

Fingerprints: Part I

You'll have to forgive me, I am a little tired from looking at my monitor all night.  I am working with some of my close friends of some amazing music, and we just finished about 30 minutes ago.  So, try to ignore all of the type-o's etc.

As I mentioned yesterday, there are many people that have had an influence on the music I'm making right now.  However, there is one person that stands out as having the strongest and most positive influence of all.

And if you are reading this, there is a good chance you are coming here from her blog.  Elsie works harder than any person I've ever met.  She never stops, and she is extremely dedicated to her work and to mine.  Her positive encouragement is hidden behind every one of the hundreds of violin tracks, and it was her drive that inspired me to take on the biggest endeavor of my career so far.  

She makes me look cooler than I am in pictures:

She designed my stage plot:

She made me into a marketable icon:

And she designs my merch:

 

Without her, this album would not be made.  Thank you Elsie.

Jeremy  

 

Fingerprints: Introduction

So I posted a video the other day of Elsie crying at the end of an episode of The Biggest Loser, and I admit, it was a little childish.  To even the score, I'm going to let you in on a secret; tonight, sitting alone here in bed, I also cried a little (no tears, but you know what I mean).  The culprit?  This piece of music:

This video has the first two of five (I think) movements of an amazing piece of music.  From 6:45 on, it is purely bliss.  There is one problem, this kind of music has been intertwined so closely with movie soundtracks, that it can be distracting.  May I elaborate?

I love watching movies more than most people I know.  Music has a lot to do with whether I will like a movie or not.  But it's gotten to the point where music like this seems to always accompany some dramatic blockbuster hit.  That is a shame.  This music is a masterpiece and it stands on it's own, it should not be used simply as a crutch for poor writing.  I hope you are able to listen to this music as an entity of it's own.  Listen to the music for it's own sake.

That brings me to the point of this post.  I'm going to be posting a series on people, places, and things that have a fingerprint on this album that I'm working on.  This is not to be confused with my "Inspiring People" set from a while back, although there will be some overlap.  This video of the opening of the Durufle Requiem should get us started.  So, listen to it, and try to experience it in the way it was intended- (a free low quality mp3 on Youtube?)  It'll have to do.  

Updated Tour Schedule

We've added a few shows to the upcoming tour, including a show here in Springfield!  Thank you to those of you that posted requests for the set list.  To everyone else, I'm building a set list for this tour, and I'd love it if you'd cast your vote for which songs you'd like to hear live.  Just cast your votes in the comments section.

Apr 14 2010 8:00P The Luminary Center for the Arts St. Louis, Missouri Apr 15 2010 8:00P Ida Red Boutique Tulsa, Oklahoma Apr 16 2010 8:00P Q Enoteca (Acoustic Set) Springfield, Missouri Apr 17 2010 7:00P The Backroom (behind Bridgeway) Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Apr 19 2010 7:30P The Prophet Bar Dallas, Texas Apr 20 2010 7:00P Common Amarillo, Texas Apr 22 2010 7:00P The Lobo Theatre Albuquerque, New Mexico Apr 23 2010 6:30P Mission Community Church (in the student center) Gilbert, Arizona Apr 26 2010 7:00P Hotel Cafe Los Angeles, California Apr 30 2010 8:00P The Walnut Room Denver, Colorado May 1 2010 6:30P Everyday Joe’s Fort Collins, Colorado May 4 2010 7:00P Murdock Theatre Wichita, Kansas May 5 2010 7:00P Bridgeport Art Space Kansas City, Missouri May 7 2010 6:00P Taylor University Upland, Indiana

I'm pretty exhausted.  I did over 100 tracks of strings in the last 24 hours.  This was the breakthrough I was needing.  I may finally have an opener for the album.  

Last night I watched the most jaw dropping documentary I've ever seen.  Elsie and I were in a constant state of shock as we watched "We Live In Public".  

The trailer will help explain what it's about.

We Live in Public trailer from interloper films on Vimeo.

I think I had my hand over my mouth at least 80 percent of the time.  It really is shocking, disturbing, and requires a strong stomach to get through it.  Not for kids, and probably not for a lot of adults.  But as documentaries go, this was one of the best I've seen.  If anyone has seen this, I'd love to know what you thought.

Thanks for reading.

Jeremy

Video Of Elsie Crying

So.... Yeah, this is a little cruel, but it's more funny than it is cruel so it's ok.  We've been watching The Biggest Loser every night online, and she tends to get a little emotional during the elimination; in fairness, we all do.  I actually have a whole collection of these.

Elsie Crying from Jeremy Larson on Vimeo.

Thanks for reading.

Jeremy

Breakthrough, Free Download, Help Please!

Tonight I had a small breakthrough.  I started working from scratch and came up with a string/piano idea that I'm enjoying.

Piano/String Idea from Jeremy Larson on Vimeo.

It's just a rough idea, and it will probably get simplified a bit.

I'm going to add some more new tour dates soon.  Sorry I've been a little slow at getting those posted.  Speaking of touring, I stole this from the Sleeping At Last blog:

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FREE Song, 2010 Tours & Store Coupon!
Category: Music

Good day to you!


FREE SONG (EXCLUSIVE RECORDING!)

As you may already know, we recently asked folks to sing and record an "A#" note and send it to us, to be
used in a new version of our song "All This To Say."  We got TONS of wonderful recordings sent to us from all
over the world and all of 'em were lovely!  We were pleasantly surprised to hear so much "choir" talent in our
listeners! Nice work, guys!  Thanks so much to those of you that participated! (Scroll below to see a full list of
our "A Sharp" singers!)

We're excited to announce that as of right NOW, this exclusive version of "All This To Say" is available as a
FREE* download for everyone!

*Free with a tiny catch: In trade for the FREE song, we would very much appreciate your help in spreading the
word about us!

We'd really appreciate you just telling your pals about us in some
small way (via your Facebook or Twtter, etc.  However you see fit!)  After sharing, just visit the following page
and there's a link to download the song FREE!       http://bit.ly/FREESONG

In past, we've asked that you report your Invites and Facebook/Twitter posts in order to get the free
download, but you guys are wonderful people and we trust you!  So the link's just there on the event page for all to enjoy.

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So just tell your friends about Sleeping At Last or some of our shows, and get a free download!  I will probably be doing something similar very soon. 

Also, I wanted to let you all know that I am working on putting together a set list for this tour and would love your input.  What songs would you like to hear live?  Just post your favorite(s) in the comments, and I'll look over them.  Keep in mind, I'm playing by myself, not with a full band.  I may end up using the most popular request as the song for the free download too.  Thanks!

Jeremy

Two Videos, One Amazing.

This is what happens when you give someone like me a phone with picture/video- excessive shots of my puppy, and insignificant studio clips.

Drums from Jeremy Larson on Vimeo.

This was mainly a test to see if the mic on the phone could handle loud volumes without clipping.  It appears that the brilliant minds at Apple thought to put a soft limiter in there.  Good work!

I have been completely incapable of writing a single note that I like these last few days.  I realize that it's just part of the cycle, and that it will be over soon, but it doesn't feel like that at the moment.  I have this overwhelming feeling like the album is complete, but it certainly isn't.  I just feel locked out of the music; it's as if the completed songs have formed a clique and won't let me in.  

Have I ever mentioned my good friend Brandon Goodwin on here?  He's done most of my videos (the professional looking ones, not the cheap looking ones that I do) and several of the MuteMath videos.  Here is one that was never officially used, but AMAZING!

I don't want to ruin the magic of this video, but I do want you to know that each of those poses was a picture that was taken, then cut out, then staged one at a time.  Brandon's a pretty talented guy.  By the way, he's the cowboy/villain in this video.

I'm sorry I don't have more to report right now.  I've been feeling a little "bleh", and I better stop writing before you catch it too.

Thanks for reading.

Jeremy

Cello Clip and Michel Gondry

Here is a short video clip I took today while I was recording cello:

Cello from Jeremy Larson on Vimeo.

Tonight was a tad frustrating.  I'm basically caught up with all the changes that needed to be done to my existing songs.  I attempted to start something new, but didn't have much luck. 

I noticed that Michel Gondry has a new movie coming out

It's called "The Thorn In The Heart" and it's a documentary about his family.

 

And Please Watch This:

I'm pretty excited about his documentary, but that may have something to do with the fact that I haven't seen a new movie that I was the slightest bit interested in since "Up".  I'm not looking forward to that part of my life (still years away) where I have kids and they are begging to see "Daddy Dare Care 5".

Thank you all for leaving some recommendations on the reading material.  I will certainly look into those asap.

I am headed to bed now.  Thanks for reading.

Death List Revised

It's probably time that I bring out this list again and check our progress.  (In case you missed it, I posted a "to do" list for the next album a month or so ago.)

Jan. 6th "New Key":

    1.  Write lyrics

    2.  Track vocals

    3.  Wrap up ending

INST Song:

    1.  Re-track vocals

    2.  Write lyrics for bridge

    3.  Write ending

    4.  Pre-chorus needs something...

    5.  Song kind of sucks right now.

    6.  Mix sounds awful.

Pending:

    1.  Re-track vocals

    2.  Track additional strings on chorus and bridge

    3.  Simplify drum comp.

Fictional:

    1.  Re-track vocals

    2.  Additional strings on chorus and bridge

Empire (Song):

    1.  Re-track violins on bridge

    2.  Add percussion to last chorus (maybe timpani or marching bass drum)

Empire (Instrumental)

    1.  Remix the whole thing

Other Instrumental:

    1.  Re-track all strings

    2.  Write ending

September 21st (Song):

    1.  Finish Lyrics

    2.  What are the drums doing?  Really?

    3.  Re-track Vocals

September 21st (Instrumental)

    1.  Start over

Write Three More Songs

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Not bad.  As I mentioned yesterday, I also wrote an instrumental for Jan 6.  The main issue is going to be writing three more songs...

I've been reading a lot more lately.  It's possible that I've even spent more time reading than I have working on music.  It seems to compliment the writing a great deal, getting new perspectives on different topics.  I especially enjoy learning about extreme perspectives; ones that make you think.  I mentioned the other day that I'm very fascinated with history.  It's interesting because it seems so malleable.  The events in the past happened as facts (people were doing specific things at specific times which caused a specific outcome), and slowly over time, they change shape and morph into heated opinions.  "What was the Civil War fought over?", "Did the 'New Deal' under Roosevelt improve the economy?".  The answers that people give to these questions are constantly changing and polarizing.  It's not always important to me what the actual reality is, I'm mostly curious about the way that people view these things.  

By the way, a lot of you have been leaving really nice comments on here and I appreciate that so much!  I'm never sure if I should comment back, or if you would even see it if I did...  So I usually don't type a response.  But I do read all of them, and it helps me to feel like this is more of a conversation than a monologue.  So thank you!  It really does mean a lot to me.

Thanks for reading.

Jeremy

Suki Is Worn Out

It's been a long day for Suki and I, but a productive one.  Suki woke up late, ate breakfast and then went for a short walk.  After that, she walked around the house for about six hours and occasionally chased a ball.  She was pretty tired by late evening and went to sleep.

I was able to spend most of the day working on the instrumental that I started yesterday.  I came pretty close to finishing a draft of it, but I never know what will actually work until I listen with fresh ears the next day. 

I've been occasionally questioning the whole idea of doing a lot of instrumental pieces on this album lately.  I myself do not actually listen to a lot of instrumental music; I'm too drawn to vocal melodies.  I'm not really sure how people will respond to these pieces, but I know that this is an album that I have to finish.  There may not be another time in my life where I have this much time and energy to put into it.

Here's another clip of a piano idea:

Piano Clip from Jeremy Larson on Vimeo.

Quick question: Does anyone use myspace anymore?

Thanks for reading.

Jeremy

2 Studio Clips

Acoustic from Jeremy Larson on Vimeo.

Here's a little clip I recorded on my phone yesterday.  I'm pretty pleased with the quality of video that the new iPhones take.  The guitar that I'm playing in the video was a wedding present from my mom to my dad.  I think it sounds pretty good recorded.

Tonight I had a pretty big breakthrough on one of my songs.  I had written three different sets of lyrics for this song before realizing that it was actually the melody that was bothering me, not the lyrics.  So, I completely threw away the verse progression and recorded the first thing that came out (on the piano).  I liked it so much, that I immediately began working on some strings to go along with it.  I will probably try to also make an instrumental based on this simple progression.  I recorded the audio with my phone. 

Side note:  I realize that it's not wise to be playing low quality audio of new ideas on my blog.  It probably doesn't create a very good first impression, but I really want you all to feel like you are a part of the process.  I like the idea of sharing these things as they happen. 

Piano and Strings from Jeremy Larson on Vimeo.

Thanks for reading.

Jeremy