hope
the bright skies of march have begun to fill our lives in the northern hemisphere, with the sun at its strongest and the days beginning to lengthen… this and the vaccine rollout are making for a building anticipation that’s nearly palpable. you can almost hear the voices in the streets and shops, and while many restaurants and clubs remain closed or at limited capacity, they are filled with smiling people in my mind’s eye. like everyone else, i can’t wait to play the bars again, to go out to hear live music and to shake off some of the year-long fear about crowds. spring!
what did we give up? human contact. did we learn anything? we need each other. why? to know we exist, if for no other reason. like a newly-written song, how do you know if it’s any good if no one hears it? as a human being, how do i know i exist if i don’t connect with anyone? it’s ironic that the internet— the tool that makes simultaneous distance and connection possible— has been so critical in keeping us together. but it’s not the same, is it? i can’t hug your image. you can’t feel me sitting next to your screen. we can walk in the woods together but you can’t smell the ground thawing on the other end of my facetime call. so we don’t really share an experience— just some of it, perhaps. and why is this so important? because we’re humans. no video, telephony, chat or text can replace the human connection. thank God.
the van Gogh Brothers have continued to create— in person— almost weekly, for some months now and we’re arranging songs for the next album which we begin recording next month. we have 7 songs so far— all new since the album-in-waiting, “ghost,” and all fresh in their own way. we will track the vocals and instruments mainly in Boston with david minehan helming the board, but we plan to ship the tracks to los angeles to anthony resta and karyadi sutedja at studio bopnique for mixing and final production. we have made records with both david and anthony over the years but this will be the first time that we collaborate as a team. we are excited to experiment this way, and i look forward to hearing our americana foundations in anthony’s pop soundscapes.
of the 7 songs, we have a “squeeze” sound-alike, a bob seeger sound-alike, a tom jones-inspired / velvet underground-infused number, a couple of nick drake-inspired tracks, a bald and bold dylan rip-off, and an ethereal track (“saving grace”) i can’t quite define. i’m so excited to have some solid songs so well developed so soon after the last record. wow!
i am vaccinated and plan to fly again next month, first to new orleans, with los angeles (malibu in march pictured above) on my near-term horizon and, hopefully, over the pond to london and palestine in september. i have missed my gypsy life, and i got donna a new suitcase for her (fellow aries) birthday, so i hope to gain a companion on my travels.
all of these things give me so much hope — for new music, new frontiers, and bright tomorrows. the road is long, but the journey is short. carpe diem.
love,
jc