Here is another preview. This is a first mix of Sao Paulo, from the album The Santa Fe Sessions. There is a new bass intro, but I also want record the new intro we do live, which is Stephen’s electric guitar over Jon’s keyboard. I will add that later… an intro to the intro.
My song Santa Fe is now twenty years old! This version was recorded for The Santa Fe Sessions but not released on that album. If you have seen us perform live you will recognize some of the extra bits and pieces…
Yesterday Jon modified his bassline for Heart Still/Beating and sent the new parts to me via DropBox. For some reason that only DigiDesign understands, the .sd2 files could NOT be read by my ProTools computer. When he sent .aif files instead they were read and located perfectly. Our theory is that since .sd2 is a proprietary file-format DigiDesign can do some black magic when the file travels across a non-ProTools computer. A file typically journeys from his ProTools desktop computer to his non-ProTools laptop and from there to the DropBox on the Information Highway. Then it is downloaded by my non-ProTools laptop and carried on a pocket drive to the ProTools computer in the studio – which has never been connected to the internet. No big deal, just won’t use .sd2 (Sound Designer II) files anymore. I have only used .aif for years, but we still used .sd2 when we recorded The Santa Fe Sessions in 2001-2002
Worked on a third Lava track, this one called Gothic Rock – how DID we come up with those titles??? Nice dynamics. These new Lava mixes sound so much better to me than the old ones.
Received an advance copy of Roy Rogers’ new album Split Decision, which will be released next week, I believe. I played a Flamenco guitar solo on the track Your Sweet Embrace.
Matt Schoening permitted me to make my rough mix of Kites Over the Playa available to you next week. It features the guitar a little more than the album mix does and I quite like the way it sounds.
Tuesday evening I made dinner for Roshi Joan Halifax, who just returned from Dharmsala, India. She told me about new scientific findings regarding meditation. Amazing stuff. And, check out this photo Roshi took of Kazuaki Tanahashi. I love the band of color in an otherwise nearly black & white image.
Breakfast with Jon @ Counter Culture. My fixed gear bike was locked up outside. The weather was cold, but sunny and by the time I headed home it was getting too warm for a shirt and a jacket. But, winter might come back briefly as there are snow storm warnings for Santa Fe – for tonight and Saturday.
In the afternoon I added Jon’s new fretless electric bass guitar parts for Sao Paulo – I am re-mixing The Santa Fe Sessions for a 2010 release. Sounds amazing.
A glass of wine (1997 Merry Edwards Pinot Noir) on top of my iPhone running the free Amazon Kindle application – I am reading Bruce Sterling’s latest novel. I like reading from the iPhone. I think it will be really nice to be able to carry a dozen books on the phone when we are touring. Jon also finds the iPhone easy to read from, but K doesn’t like it at all. Being able to have a bunch of books on the iPhone will be fantastic for international tours – by the way it looks like I will do another Solo tour in Germany in October, followed by a visit to Milan. Hope to have dates to share within a couple of weeks.
Friday afternoon I spent in the studio working on a new mix of Sao Paulo from The Santa Fe Sessions (currently out of print and no longer available from download sites – although we do have a few in stock). I am taking a look at the whole album for re-release in 2010, re-arranging, editing, adding and subtracting. I think I took a nice step forward with the next album I released, 2004’s La Semana, and would like to apply some of that sound to TSFS.
This morning I did a drive-by delivery of the data for Sao Paulo when I slowed down just enough to throw the data-CD into Jon’s yard. Jon will have a fresh listen to the song (sans acoustic upright bass) and will add new fretless bass guitar and synth parts.