full time artist

Shattered

Shatter:
[shat-er]
verb (used with object)
1.  to break (something) into pieces, as by a blow.
2.  to damage, as by breaking or crushing:  ships shattered by storms.
3.  to impair or destroy (health, nerves, etc.):  The incident shattered his composure.
4.  to weaken, destroy, or refute (ideas, opinions, etc.):  He wanted to shatter her illusions.
verb (used without object)
5.  to be broken into fragments or become weak or insubstantial.

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The only thing that is still the same in my life right now as it was 18 months ago, is that I am currently breathing and have a heartbeat.

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david bowie

She’s a Total Blam-Blam…and other revelations

For those of you following along at home, I’m in the process of educating myself in the realm of rad rad music by listening to the Top 100 Albums of all time by mid-September.

Already, this is more music than I’ve listened to in probably the last 5 years put together.  I’ve realized that I really don’t ever just sit down and listen to a whole album.  Or very rarely.  So this has been really fun.  Some days I just have to walk away because I feel like my brain/ears/heart will explode.

Secretly I’m curious to see if doing this project will change my own songwriting process.  Part of the reason I think I don’t sound like anyone in particular is that I never listened to anyone before. I really just write what I hear in my head.  We’ll see if this changes that.

After the first post I was all caught up, so now I’m actually writing these while I’m listening to them, which is way more entertaining.  For me, at least.

Onward…

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kat downs

My Music Education Project

Truth:  Even though I’ve been a musician my whole life, I don’t listen to a lot of music.  Never have. Mostly because I always have music playing in my head, so sometimes I really can’t because it sounds like two radios playing at once.  Yuck.

In school, I was trained in Classical music.  The history of it, where it came from, how it evolved, branched out, church vs. secular and all that… but I never studied rock music.  Or really any modern music outside of the “played-by-a-symphony” area.  Mainly because I never planned on being a rock musician.  Funny how that worked out.  (Now I know why I felt like I never quite fit in.  Haha – retrospect is awesome. )

So, recently I decided that I wanted to educate myself since this is my career and all, so I poked around online and from several different places put together a list of the 100 “greatest albums of all time” that I want to listen to before my birthday – which is September 17th, by the way.  Gifts are always welcome.  🙂

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My Relationship with Songwriting

Me and songs.  Specifically, MY songs.  If I can call them that.  They feel very alive to me.  I am the gateway that brings them into the world, but after that they are their own beings.  They grow, develop and have small, beautiful, precious moments that only I get to be a part of.  They say things I would never expect.  They take me places I would never have chosen to go.  They make choices that make me cringe and infuriate me.

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At the SKS Studio

Life, The Universe, and Time Management

The Virgo is trying something new this month.

I began by actually sitting down and writing out my job description.  I included all the tasks I own from the most obvious (Create Music) to the most mundane (Prepare food for the week).   I also made sure I included all the stuff I always WANT to do, but feel like I don’t ever have enough time to do (Creative Writing,  Arts ‘n Crafts – because who else is going to make hand crafted decoder rings and SKS buttons?).

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The Healthy Artist

It is perceived by most (and seemingly proven time and time again) that most artists are in some way shape or form, insane.  But do they have to be?

Beethoven heard music in his head so strongly that he had to write it down immediately, no matter where he was.  Rumor has it his landlord ripped out the window sashes after his death and sold them at auction because they were covered in his handwritten music.  Van Gogh, of course, cut off his own ear.  Dali saw owls on peoples heads among other things.  The Beatles were infamous weirdos, not to mention the extra levels of weird once Yoko came on the scene.  Syd Barrett, Michael Jackson, the list goes on and on.

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Mission Bells

Van Life

There are only 9 days left on the tour.  As much fun as I have had, I am ready to go home – we all are.  It’s been one hell of a journey to say the least.  It’s been tough.  A lot of nights of sleeping in the van, very few vegetables, not getting to bed until 7am, and the unforeseen van and equipment trouble.

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