Category Archives: writing

For Whom The Bell Tolls

I know I haven’t been updating this blog in years . With all this COVID bullshit, I’ve been blessed with a lot more free time to work on my to do lists.

Last night I finished reading For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway. I had tried starting this book back in 2017. I came back to it last year. I finally knocked out the last 300 pages this week. If I’m being honest, it was my least favorite Hemingway book to date. I’ve read The Sun Also Rises, The Old Man and The Sea, and A Farewell to Arms.

For Whom The Bell Tolls was good, I just didn’t enjoy the story as much as his previously mentioned works.

**SPOILER ALERT**

Aside from ramblings and flashbacks, The story takes place over only 3 days. The book is almost 500 pages! 400 of those pages is all a huge build up to blowing up this bridge. I didn’t have the patience to get through it.

Hemingway sort of breaks the 4th wall to talk about his family. He talks about his his father’s suicide and how that affected him as a young man. Talking about his father he went from ashamed to angry and back again. It seemed as though he still blamed his “bully of a mother” for the loss of his father.

I resonated with the main character, Robert Johnson. His idolizing of his grandfather and how he wished he had more time with him. The internal dialog/conflict of Johnson was very realistic.

I also have to take into account the age of this book. Nowadays we’re spoiled with these epic war movies and interactive video games. This book had been one of few that dove into the grit of guerilla warfare.

There were a lot of parts to this book I enjoyed. It was difficult to grind through all those pages, without much action to happen. Perhaps now that I know the ending, the book would read different? Sort of like those kind of movies. This will be my first many book reports to come.

New Song: Glassing

Well I got dumped in August.
I spent the next month avoiding everyone and recording.
This is one of the songs that came out of that.

It’s pretty much an immediate sequel to Für Annalyse.

It’s been a strange year or years for that matter.
At least I’m getting my shit together.
Thanks for listening.

 




Here’s some other streaming links!

Spotify

Apple Music

iTunes



NEW SONG – Für Annalyse

To celebrate Anny and I’s 5 year anniversary…
I wrote/recorded her a song. I’ve intentionally never put someones name in one of my songs. After putting up with me for 5 years, I figured she’s earned it.
I was worried she wouldn’t like it. Thankfully, she loved it.

The art I used for the track is from a photo I found. I took it back in September 2013, when we were first dating. I was playing with my camera while Anny was doing her makeup down the hall.

Happy 3 Years of “In Strifes”

I can’t believe it’s been 3 years since I published that record. I was so happy to be done with it. It took a couple of years to get everything tracked right. I did rush through some things, that looking back I would redo. But that’s how it goes. Once you release your little art-baby, you have to just let it live out in the abyss.


The tracklisting of the record was done more chronologically. The record starts with a song of arrogance, Far From Home Sick. It comes out swinging, complaining about how all my friends are dumb and I’m the smart one for moving away. Spare Love and Reasonable Confidence should be more towards the end of the record if we’re going story-wise. I chose to move them up for the listener. They felt like “sturdier” songs as to keep up a momentum.

A Stand Off Waltz was important to me. It was one of the first songs I wrote for this record. When I finished its demo, I felt like I was a REAL songwriter. I’ve written dozens upon dozens of songs at this point, but it was the first one that didn’t sound like me… It sounded professional.

The middle of the record goes into snapshots of living in a toxic relationship. Wake Up Blondie was the weakest of the litter in terms of my songwriting. I chose to keep it in because it’s the only song that I blame myself. Lyrically the album is lopsided. I noticed that I played the victim in most of the songs.

The record concludes with songs of defeat. Blind Spot is a howling of denial. “I ain’t going to miss you, half as much as you’ll miss me” It’s almost a cliche you can’t quit you’re fired scenario. In End Of March, I talk about moving back home to all my burnt bridges and how I have to rebuild/repair myself.

I was convinced everything would start happening for me once I released this record. NO ONE GAVE A FUCK, but that’s life. Could I have advertised more? Yes. Could I have played more shows to promote it? Yes.

Maybe I should have documented my “process” better. Maybe I needed to give people a better look into how I made a record all by myself.

I believe watching someone make an album is like watching someone go to the bathroom. It’s intimate, but far from glamorous. I’d be too distracted, while trying to get my shit done (sorry for the pun). If you’re the type who enjoys that much attention, you’re probably making music for the wrong reasons.

At the end of the day I could/should have done things different. The record is a success in my eyes because I FINISHED it. I don’t care about sales or notoriety. There was a voice in my head telling me to make this album all on my own. I felt like I wouldn’t be able to progress without doing it. So I went for it.

Few “Artists” can say they wrote, performed, mixed, mastered, and published an album all by themselves.. WITHOUT FAKE DRUMS AND AUTO-TUNE, but I DID!

DBX 160X Compressor – Repair

From 2008 to 2010, I worked at a Sam Ash Music Megastore. While they didn’t treat their employees too well, I look back at my time there as a positive experience. I met some amazing people, I learned so much about guitar and recording gear, and I had a lot of fun. The majority of my time there was working in the warehouse. I was the store receiver. My sole responsibility was to receive and organize all inventory brought into the store. Every day I’d open 50-200 boxes of product, scan them into our system, and then organize them into storage. Depending on the products, some would go straight out to the sales floor.

johnny nichols

ME – playing on Sam Ash’s iMac. 2008

I worked in the warehouse with two other dudes. John V. was in charge of all outgoing product, and our Operations Manager, Bomba. Stock transfers, outgoing repairs, and recalled equipment were John’s responsibility. Bomba’s job was to make sure we handled our stuff, and keeping the available inventory and repair inventory as accurate as possible. They were some of my favorite coworkers I’ve ever gotten to know.

johnny nichols

ME – goofing off in the warehouse. 2009

That was just the warehouse department. There were several other departments: Customer Service, Brass and Winds, Pro Audio, Drums, and the Guitar department. Adam was the Pro Audio dept manager. He had actually got me the job at Sam Ash. He had recognized me from our time at Los Angeles Recording School.

One day Adam was throwing out a DBX 160X compressor. I asked what was wrong with it. He said he wasn’t sure because the TRS jacks were broken. He explained I would have to wire up leads to the back terminal to figure out the issue. I figured one day I would get into fixing it, so I took it.

Cut to 7+ years later I finally grabbed it out of storage. I dusted it off and plugged it in!

I wired it up into my system and it sounded like it was working. The TRS jacks worked fine, but the gain reduction meter was blank. So I thought perhaps the LEDS were blown. I googled the issue. I couldn’t find any info on blown led meters for the DBX. Instead I found that there are supposed to be two jumpers on the back terminal. I looked back there and there were missing. So I took some small stranded wire and screwed them in.

I plugged it back in… DONE! It’s works and looks beautifully!

I’m not even sure you could call this a repair, but I turned someone’s trash into a $200 dollar piece of pro audio gear.

Taking a break from Music Writing

I know. I haven’t even been at it for 6 months and I’m already quitting. Pathetic. The truth is I’ve been so busy with my other jobs, I couldn’t give my work at HappeningInDTLA.com the attention it deserved. I was missing deadlines and not making enough time for research. I don’t like having to leave them hanging, after they’ve been so good to me.

I figured if I’m not going to do this as well as I could be, I need to give up my slot to someone who will work harder at it. I can’t believe they let me just dive into writing, cannonball style. I had ZERO experience writing articles and interviewing.

I left on really good terms, and would love to work with Happening down the road. If you don’t already, follow them on INSTAGRAM! They have a great roster of writers, Seriously awesome people.

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