What time is it? I don’t know. If you do, don’t tell me I don’t care. Sun goes up sun goes down. Make up your damn mind. Anyway.
This post is to basically set the record straight on what I’m doing, have done recently, and am about to do. Regarding music, live and recorded.
Sam Arnold’s Jazz Perturbers. After winding down our stint at Knomad last year, we’re now in the 4th month of our residency at Tiger Lilly, splitting up all the Fridays 6-9pm with Wes Haynes band. It’s been a blast playing with Zack Humphrey and Will Krause and bringing in other folks when the opportunity hits. The goal now is keep a good thing going, expand the arrangements with a 4th musician when I can, and keep getting better and better with cool arrangements of my originals, classical tunes, soundtracks, and familiar standards. Tiger Lilly has a chandelier spiral staircase for selfies, so next time you look as cute on the outside as you truly are on the inside on a Friday evening, come by and get your glamour shots done while nerdy jazz is playing. We just added some Andrew Lloyd Weber and John Carpenter to the set to give you some idea.
Stop Motion Orchestra. 5 songs are in the bag for a new record, the first output by our 2 year old iteration as a 7 piece. Can’t wait to play live more and record more new songs. Mohadev has been working hard and delivering one brilliant composition after another. Hoping to get on a festival or two next year.
Dream Eater. I recorded 3 of our songs earlier this year in my home studio, and we are slowly releasing them as singles. Hull of Jetsam is out for the public now, but an updated mix of that and 2 others is in my November Patreon grab bag. Learning to track whole bands in my studio is a learning process, but I love how these sound. We’ve got more tunes to record and hopefully make into a full-length next year.
Opposite Day. After 24 years, this band is indefinitely on hold due to the difficulties of distance and schedules. However a new album recorded in 2022-23 is about done and we will find a non-pointless way to release it. Unlike the bells-and-whistles b-side heavy Colossal Nests of Metal and Glass (no shade I love what we did there), Snow Cobra has more of the songs that seemed to get a live response and stand on raw trio power. So you’ll dig it.
Andrew Nolte. I just finished producing 7 of his proggier songs for a collection called You Vs You. Andy has lent keyboards to several of my projects including as a member and co-songwriter in Sam Arnold and the Secret Keepers. Not only is he an extremely busy in-demand sideman these days, he’s a big deal frontman of his own. I was honored to spray my special nerd sprinkles all over a piece of his output, tracking Zack Humphrey on drums in my studio in June and me and Andy tracking the rest over the summer. The work is available for streaming everywhere. Check out his recent podcast interview where he talks about it. Inside scoop, this project is the first i finished in Reaper, a new DAW that will help me up my home studio game.
Peter Stopschinski. I’m playing electric guitar for a new classical project based on his piano-guitar-centered compositions and we’ve been tracking demos for the last few months. I shared one with my patrons yesterday I hope that’s ok! Kinda gentle medieval punk to accompany your deepest thinking time. We’ll be working up a full set and expanding the ensemble before playing live or releasing anything, so not yet ready. Meanwhile, it’s been a rewarding workshopping experience with some challenging stuff for my little guitarist brain.
I got to sub a few times with Big Sky Collective, which I recommend checking out. I hope to play more with this awesome band, based on the piano compositions of Braedon Avants. Prog rock with bassoon and euphonium veers from funk and latin into djnt math metal and back, always with majestic melodies. There’s also about to be a new song by Starmind Ceremony I played on our there. Those bands have several members (and a couple songs) in common.
So besides raising a toddler, traveling, listening to death metal, and worrying about the world, that’s pretty much all I’ve been doing. I’m gigging about as much as I want for my parental obligations. As for studio, With the Andy Nolte and Dream Eater recording projects (and several others over the summer) off my harddrive, I’m eager to get into some more songwriting/composing and using new synth and samplers made possible by my new studio gear. I have stuff in the works along the lines of Etherfaring Vessel, Opposite Day, and Meatbots ready to get recorded and mixed anytime I can simultaneously find the time and energy.
Musical inspiration is constant and unquantifiably abundant. So art is 100% perspiration. And I’m a sweaty boy.
If only there were exactly one more hour in the day.
Sam Arnold, Musicianator 