This is a sweet video taken by Tom Kubis on Saturday’s big band gig at the Hotel Del. We were asked suddenly to play as a jazz quartet because the trumpet players needed to go play a fanfare elsewhere in the hotel.
I don’t know if I can help moving around that much when I’m playing.
If there’s anything I have learned from working in Hollywood, it’s that you never, ever, ever count your chickens before they hatch.
It doesn’t matter how much of a ‘sure thing’ anything is, or how great and solid an opportunity something is supposed to be, or how many reassurances you’ve gotten. It doesn’t matter how much the label is into it or how much money they’ve spent until now or how big a star someone’s supposed to be.
Nothing is for sure until there is $$ in your bank account.
It’s that simple!
Luckily this lesson has been learned by me in countless low stakes situations and dues paid. Now when major things don’t happen after they were about to, the impact is much softer. Seriously.
So learn that lesson.
Tags: Hollywood
My friend/homie/partner in crime, Dru Decaro and I have been collaborators in many senses of the word. In 2008 we spearheaded a pro jam session at ‘The Viper Room’ and later ‘The House Of Blues’ every Sunday night. We had a band of sick nasty killers and we shed our asses off every week to devise crafty new setlists of timeless RnB and modern top 40. The House Band smoked, but what was so great about this night was that we had seasoned vets swinging through and sitting in like Bobby Brown and Tony Royster Jr.. Later on Dru and I helped build the Skeetox band with Dj Skee and Ryan Tomlinson. That band has been chronicled well in this blog, so I won’t retread it all here.
But lately we have been collaborating in a different sense: as producers. We have branded ourselves ‘The Smashtronauts’ as a production team. Soon, everybody will want to mess with the Smashtronauts.
Here is one of our first fruits, a song called ‘Future’ that we wrote and produced:
Expect to hear a lot more from the Smashtronauts soon.
Tags: Bobby Cressey, DJ Skee, Dru Decaro, house of blues, Ryan Tomlinson, Smashtronauts
This is my mom’s Baldwin Acrosonic from the 1950s. She learned to play piano on it. When I was 9 (or 10?) she gave me my first piano lessons on it. We then moved to Scotland and I played instruments over there in the two houses in which we lived. We moved back 4 years later and we somehow loaded this piano into the back of a minivan down in Del Mar where it had languished at my sister’s house during the early/mid 90s. It has been in L.A. ever since. It’s the piano on which I got my sh*t together. It was my main home axe until I got my Kawai grand in 2005. Friday will be its last day in L.A.. It’s moving with my mom down to San Marcos.
Tags: 1950s, acrosonic, baldwin, baldwin acrosonic, kawai, mid 90s, piano, piano lessons, san marcos, Scotland, spinet
Just finished a gig with a San Diego band called ‘The Mighty Untouchables’. They are a corporate style band that plays covers and top 40 stuff, has a high energy vibe, and packs the dance floor. We were playing at a place called Club M in Del Mar.
I had a realization tonight. And it’s not something I didn’t know or haven’t experienced before. But I was reminded of it as it came back into focus really clearly at the end of the night during our huge finale songs. The following information shouldn’t be a surprise, but it’s so easy to forget as you get caught up in the minutia of crafting your beautiful art. This is that information:
The audience doesn’t really care about your bop licks. The audience doesn’t care about your sick chord substitutions, or your playing outside the chord changes. Nope. Unless the audience is a bunch of jazz heads, that stuff won’t make them go crazy. What makes the audience go crazy is when you play the keyboard like a rockstar and make grimaces and pretend like your blowing your own mind with what you are doing and that therefore their minds should also be blown. When you play a zillion notes in succession, pound the keys fist over fist, gliss up to a high note and open your mouth like that note is just amazing, and quote ‘San Diego Super Chargers’. Do that, and the people will come up to you after and say ‘That was amazing, how long have you been playing piano?’. They will remember the keyboard play was FABULOUS and AMAZING. And they’ll dig the show. And in a band like this, that’s the name of the game.
Tags: Grand Del Mar, Mighty Untouchables, Performing, San Diego
I have a new place I can’t stay away from on the internet. It’s called Karmaloop.com and it’s an online clothing retailer. They have a lot of edgy hip hop fashion stuff for men and ladies. My sister Jenny gave me a gift certificate to Karmaloop for Christmas. I cashed it in days later. Because of all the holidays, shipping has been slow. But my stuff finally came today.
Here comes my Karmaloop Order
So stoked! In fact, I’m so fired up that I’m going right back onto their website and ordering some more, because they have a wicked sale happening. If anybody wants to get me Karmaloop Gift Certificates, you’ll be greatly appreciated.
His last EP hooked me into Dubstep hard. His latest EP dropped right before Christmas, and I’ve been listening to it hard. Lots of sounds to digest here. The goal is to produce stuff this ill in 2012. He makes it feel so HUGE.
Tags: Devil's Den, dubstep, production, Skrillex
2011 is officially in the past, and 2012 is here. I feel nothing but positive things about the future and the coming year and can’t imagine what it must be to look on the future with anything other than excitement.
Before kicking off 2012, it’s worthwhile to take a glance back. 2011 was an incredible year.
-I played the NHL winter classic with Skeetox in Pittsburgh to ring in the New Year. We opened for Styx.
-I reprised my role playing organ for the San Diego Padres, and increased the number of games I played.
-I was part of the music video ‘Purp and Yellow’ featuring Snoop Dogg and Game that was voted #1 video on MTV.com.
-I performed on the George Lopez Show with the Skeetox band and Game.
-I Got Married!.
-I went on a tour of Mexico with the Glen Miller Big Band
-I had music placed on several Cable and Broadcast Networks as well as on broadcast radio.
-I began writing with the Skeetox crew creating the brand new Build Destroy catalog.
-I made great relationships with several high quality bands in San Diego and performed in a lot of cool SD venues.
So what does 2012 promise? Are there more opportunities on the horizon? Will this personal and professional growth continue?
ABSOLUTELY. See you soon.
Been a crazy great 2011! Too much going on to time find to write. Will write more soon.
