Jeremy Larson

New Music!

Two friends of mine have some new music available.  The first is Sleeping At Last.  They have released number 11 of their Yearbook Ep's!!!  One more to go!  You can purchase a copy here:

http://www.sleepingatlast.com/indv.html

Second, Pepper Rabbit is streaming their new full length album here:

http://hypem.com/search/pepper%20rabbit/1/

But I will attempt to embed the player right here if I can.

 

It appears to be working.  So Enjoy!

Jeremy

The King Of Limbs

I'm taking an hour to listen to the new Radiohead Album.  I'm about half way through and don't have any strong opinions just yet.  I guess that says a lot in and of itself.  We've been looking at some drafts of our album cover, and things are going well.  It's hard for me to get a feeling for what the "pulse" of the design world is right now; especially since this is the cover for the new Radiohead:

Actually, now that I look at the larger image, it's not as bad.  As a thumbnail it looks a little.... um... terrible.  But I'm not a designer, so my taste can't be taken too seriously.

Still been practicing singing for a few hours a day.  I think I've mostly corrected my "flatness" problem, or at least I'm getting a lot better at hearing it.  

Well, I've just finished the last track of King Of Limbs (there are only 8 songs).  I think my disappointment can't be fairly easily understood.  I keep hoping that their next album will involved a lot more orchestration by Mr. Greenwood.  If you've read this blog for any amount of time, you know that I adore the work he did on "There Will Be Blood".  And I keep hoping that more of that will creep into Radiohead's music.  But yes, I'm being a little unfair, since that is not what they do.  But they really got my hopes up after releasing "Harry Patch (In Memory Of)" a few years ago, I really thought they were going to move in that direction.  There are some really nice moments on this album though.  Lotus Flower and Codex are some highlights.  Thanks for reading.

Jeremy

Ps, if you are a music blogger looking for an interview or album review, please email me at band@jeremylarsonmusic.com  we are doing those for the next few weeks leading up to the release.

 

Discovery

(blog redesign still in progress.  thanks for your patience)

I've made a startling discovery about my voice this week.

I've been singing an hour and a half to three hours a day to try to get my voice in shape for the show.  Most singers don't have to do this, since they are touring much of the year and are always singing.  I very rarely do shows,  so it takes a lot of preparation.  I am not sure why I never figured this out before, but what I previously mistook for my voice being "tired" was actually just a speed bump in the warming up process.  I've discovered that after 30 minutes of singing, my voice will start to sound warmed up.  This is actually a false alarm, because about 45-50 minutes after I begin singing, my voice goes through a horrible cracking-squeaky phase.  I used to think that this was my voice getting tired.  It felt kind of pathetic that I only had a 15-20 minute window of "good" singing time.  HOWEVER I've now discovered that this is the cycle my voice goes through.  First 30 minutes of singing are terrible.  I don't sound like myself.  The next 20 minutes are good.  I sound more like myself, and my range increases.  The next 15-20 are full of cracks and squeaks; full of embarrassing moments.  This awkward period is followed by a solid couple of hours of singing.

How did I not discover this before?  Simple.  I keep my rehearsals short.  Usually an hour or so.  I would always quit when I thought my voice was getting tired.  On days that I had shows, I would avoid talking or singing until I got up on stage- I thought this would guarantee my voice would hold up until the end of the show.

I've also discovered that I NEVER sing sharp.  But I almost ALWAYS sing flat.  There have been certain songs that I just could not pull up to pitch.  No matter what I did, when I listened back, I was flat.  The solution?  I learned that if I perform the song a half step higher three or four times, when I put it back down into it's proper key it will be in pitch.  Yes, I've been learning a lot this week.  I am slightly concerned about the fact that I don't really know the long term results/effects of singing for 2-3 hours a day.  I'm not sure if I will still be achieving the same results a month from now.  

Thanks for reading.

Jeremy

New Music!!

As promised, here are some clips of new music.  If you came out to any of the shows on this last tour, some of this may sound familiar.

Clips 2

I have a bunch more to talk about, but I'll save it for tomorrow.  Suki says hello.

Thanks for reading,

Jeremy

Beach House

I try to stay away from doing actual "reviews" on here.  I think it's a little bit ridiculous for me to make public to everyone the idea that "I don't approve of this and that".  If they didn't approve of me, I'd prefer that they keep those comments to themselves as well.

So, what am I listening to now that my commitment to Pet Sounds has expired?  (I still listen everyday, and love every note of it...)  I've gone from Beach Boys to Beach House.  It's a duo I recently learned about from a friend.  It's haunting and beautiful.  Watch this video:

In other news, I've started working with a dear friend of mine named Elly Swope.  She's a very talented singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist.  She's been taking some video each night, so I'll ask her to send some to me soon. 

Thanks for reading!

Jeremy

New Music

Ok, I'm about a week late on this.  I've put together a track of some clips of new music I've been working on.  I'm not sure how much of this will end up on the album, but at least three of these will be.  At this point, the plan is to make a longer album (maybe 15 tracks) with several instrumental pieces, maybe even four or five.  It's hard to say.  The string tracks have been moving along a little quicker lately; so it's looking more promising.  Initially it would take me hours to stack 13 overdubs of violin or viola, but lately it's taken more like an hour.  This are still in the rough draft stage, so they  will probably still change considerably, but you can get the idea.

 Clips

 Thanks for listening,

Jeremy

new video

This is the most recent Sleeping At Last video. These guys are incredibly talented and it's an honor to tour with them. Jeremy

Green Screens by Sleeping At Last from Javan Ivey on Vimeo.

Embryonic: The Flaming Lips

There have been several times in my life where I have fallen in love with an album before ever actually hearing any music from it. That has been the case with every single flaming lips album I've encountered in my adult life, including their latest, "Embryonic". I truly believe that no one sounds like The Flaming Lips, and they do not sound like anyone else. Oddly enough, embryonic has very little to do with anything this band has done before (especially in the last 10 years or so), and yet this album seems to be the ultimate incarnation of what they have probably always wanted to do. That doesn't necessarily make it my favorite album of theirs, but it sounds like they had a lot of fun making it. Instantly a classic. 

I now have a twitter. Add me if you'd like updates about my music, tour and blog. 

Today is the first official day of my tour with Sleeping At Last.

I'll post a full schedule in the next day or two, but here are this weekend's shows... 

10/23:  Gordon College - Wenham, MA

10/24:  The Scarlet Cord - Brookville, PA

Thanks for reading, Jeremy

Inspiration

I've been working on learning a new piece by Paul Hindemith this past month. I've also been writing two songs of my own and trying to take advantage of this window of inspiration. I'll write again soon about the things I am looking forward to in the coming season. I had a photo shoot this past weekend. I'll share photos from it tomorrow. 

Thanks for reading. Jeremy