On March 12 it will be the 10 year anniversary of releasing my first solo record.
I have no idea how time went by so quick. Making that record was a huge learning experience for me- Brian Schey and Brian McRae really helped me understand the process and both of them helped make it the best thing I was capable of at the time. Of course, other folks helped, but those two Brians have their fingerprints of every second of that record.
Making recorded music in this time is a funny thing. The idea that we can preserve a particular performance is pretty recent in human history, and so is the idea that a particular performance might be the ‘authoritative’ one. At best, recordings, no matter how well done, are a snapshot. A moment in time.
Four of the songs on that record are very much in regular rotation on our live set lists. One makes an appearance from time to time. One I actually rewrote the chorus sometime later, and I hope to rerecord it at some point down the road. And one song I can't remember how to play.
When I listen to those tracks, which isn't very often, the first thing I think is ‘wow, I sing a lot better than I used to.’ After that cringe passes, I think about how much I learned making that record, how much fun it was, how much it meant to me to have done that.
Later this year there will be a new record coming out, and it will be interesting to see what people think. Hopefully I've gotten better at everything! One thing I know now is I am much better at getting what I hear in my head into the recordings. A big part of that is the work John and Derek and I do playing all these songs (old and new) live. We live in the songs a whole different way than when I was making a record for the first time ten years ago. And, what those guys do with the songs live is a huge part of what I've been trying to capture these past few years working on the next album.
As a totally indy musician, making a record is a long slog (hence, releasing all the singles as we go). One effect of that is that by the time a record is done, I have a pretty big stack of new songs in the pre-production pile.
Hopefully it won't take quite as long to get them into the world this time (I'm averaging five years per record!)
In the meantime, I'm enjoying marking the time and all March I'll be running a ten year anniversary special- you can get the Dirt and Heartache cd for just shipping and handling, or you can get a two cd deal with D&H AND Wreckage of Now. So if you felt like joining in the celebration, click the link. And post a pic of you and the cds so I can see!
So hopefully we'll see ya out there, and make sure to jump on the CD deal before it's gone. -JS