Community! Yeah!

Heeey Jude.

Well, we're home! We flew into Milwaukee last Thursday night around 11, shuttled to Pete's car, and drove home. Even in Milwaukee Pete made the comment, "the buildings all seem so spaced out!" I'm still sort of adjusting to the difference in pace, in lifestyle, but that's a common thing these days.

We played at the Farmers Market Saturday morning. That was a treat as it was acoustic. It was great to play unplugged. It was great to see family and friends and community members.

Saturday night I went to the Oshkosh Music Art Series Concert at the Algoma Club. It's a fundraiser for music education in Oshkosh. Dorothy Zerbe, The Guilty Wanted, and Copper Box played. It's not often that I'm in Oshkosh during the weekend, and it was so fantastic and encouraging to see the Oshkosh community getting together to celebrate art and say that it's important. I was reminded of how incredible our community here really is and how much it has to offer. Leif Larson also painted throughout the night and auctioned off his masterpiece near the end of the evening.

Whoever you are reading this, if we were sitting together with a drink I'd toast with you to lovers of art, lovers of people. It's an incredible thing to be a part of.

"What a long strange trip..." (San Francisco Part 4)

-Thursday night

And here we are in Studio D doing some rough mixes. It's late and we've been sitting in here most of the day. Breaks here and there- we just climbed up to the roof. Climbing on top of roofs seems to be a metaphor for me- a mark of a special night, and a mark of transition, change, growth I hope. Stared up and looked at the stars, the moon, the wall art, the people on the street, the tops of the trees...

Mixing up some of the tunes is a little surreal. Tunes that started blooming five years ago and tunes that were born five months ago. And then here I am. He we are.

And tomorrow everything begins new again. Just as I was starting to sink into this lifestyle. A day on the plane and then we'll be in Wisconsin and what comes next? That is a big question mark and one that even caused me some suffering for a while during our stay here. Just letting that go, and now we go home. 

Nonetheless, our time here has been magical. We have been honest because we haven't known anything else to be.

I tried coming here with a state of mind of effortlessness, welcoming the change, the new- moving with flow of things. And I guess I should approach going home the same way.

Something has been created and we've been not only immersed in it but immersed in a completely new environment. So to go home now and to hear it with fresher ears.... hopefully to hear everything with fresher ears, see everything in a new way...

"Oh, what a long, strange trip it's been..."

The Tenderloin District (San Francisco Part 3)

In the Tenderloin District


I see bright light sunshine, worn down buildings, old men smiling, drug transactions, people and their little dogs, old woman dressed in all red leather with a cowboy hat, cowboy boots, and a purple scarf

I hear French accents, accents of all kinds, children, change jingling, dogs barking, voices muttering, voices yelling, horns beeping, outdoor music playing, pigeons cooing

I smell life, I smell restaurant foods mingling, I smell joints burning, I smell bodies unbathed for who knows..

I taste their hunger

I feel my past path ghosts, I feel present, I feel my many "selves"- past, present, future, I feel ghosts from my past, ghosts who surely exist alive somewhere? I feel eyes

homeless folk and junkies and dealers and folks walking their little dogs and the sun on my skin and the cool polluted but still so fresh ocean air

and men calling me "princess" and wishing me well in California. "You a musician? Yeah we see lots of musicians standing in front of here. You sing? Yeah you look like a singer."

and I walked down the street in the morning trying to muster a genuine smile for these people instead of looking so serious and sleepy-eyed

and I tried to think of something to say to Joe at the coffee place while we sat outside- me smoking a cig and him smoking a roach he found on the ground. I tried to think of something to say.. to say.. instead I just sat with him and watched the tourists walk by because we weren't in the Tenderloin- I don't think many tourist folks go to the Tenderloin- not on purpose anyway.

And if I can't muster a smile I try to muster a nod- but not the kind of nod that implies anything- I don't want to do that. just a nod of respect. cause I haven't felt an ounce of disrespect from anyone in the Tenderloin. Everyone's doing their own thing.

And other times i'm aware my smile is in my eyes and that's all that's necessary- that's all that is.

How to draw a cartoon (San Francisco Part 2)

In a way, meeting Stephen Barncard like this and having him produce our record in a relatively short amount of time is sort of like meeting someone for the first time completely naked.

It would be like... if you got a brand new recipe and taste-tested it by tasting each ingredient individually. 

There were actually a few moments the first day that I worried that he would think we aren't very good or maybe even that he wouldn't like us as people or be able to work with us.

It turns out Stephen is a pretty wise and laid back guy and we've all been having a lot of fun together. Long days playing, long days sitting in the control room and playing back.. over and over and over again.

Stephen has compared the album making process to creating a cartoon of a performance. It's that ever-present predicament all different types of artists find themselves in... specifically for musicians, do you want your album to sound exactly like what you do live? Are you tailoring your album after your live show or vice versa? Or are you just going into the studio to make something that sounds neat?

For example:

Do we add drums on a song?

We never have drums at our show, but there are drums here and there are drummers. So if it sounds good on the track do we use it?

Most of all there's one main characteristic I wanted to focus on for our album and that is "honesty." And I think I want to spend the rest of our days here meditating on that.

In other news, we're doing fine over here! A good friend visited us yesterday and it was nice to have new energy in the room. Tomorrow we work again and then have a show in the evening. If you know anyone in the area, send them our way! We play at the Riptide at 730 PM- no cover.

I haven't had much contact with anyone from back home- I truly hope everyone is doing well. We had such  a great time at Deb's for the send-off. We're doing our best out here and hope you all can get something out of it when it's all said and done. We're so thankful for all the support and encouragement that we've been shown so far. 

I could write volumes about my thoughts regarding recording and San Francisco and music and album making, drawing cartoons, but honestly I'm tired from thinking about it all day every day. 

Instead, I'm going to write a list of five of the best highlight-worthy moments of the last couple days:

Here we go:

1.)Tim making us pancakes this morning
2.) Kayla visiting us (and bringing us goodies!)
3.) I met a cute tiny little pup outside this morning named "Neenah"
4.) A person off the street followed me into a convenience store and stopped me to ask if I am Russian. I said, "No," and he immediately disappeared.
5.)  We pranked Tim during one of his vocal takes... Jack turned on an effect that would switch Tim's voice to chipmunk mode on playback. Tim, of course, went along with it and played the part. He had the whole control room roaring with laughter. 

Still rolling! 

And here we are (San Francisco Part 1)

Three days later and we're here and we're in the middle of making an album.

The day of flying here is a daze. Flights went smoothly- boarding two different planes and trying to keep our instruments safe...

Arriving at the San Francisco airport, Dan went to pick up his bass. We sat outside the terminal and Tim picked away at his mandolin, we waited for our friend, Jack to show up.

Took the subway, took the bus, walked a few blocks and entered into Hyde Street Studio. The warm air, the green grass and leaves and... the human beings. Sometimes, especially when I walk in bigger cities, I feel like I'm watching a study on the race of human beings.

Tour through the studio and the layout, a little bit of the history... looking at the albums hanging on the wall. (Turns out even 2pac recorded here!)

And we crashed.

Yep, we've been sleeping at the studio. I've been sleeping great.

We've gotten to walk around a bit the last couple of mornings. It's been gorgeous and sunny and I love seeing all the people, the architecture, the culture and the feel. The studio is in a part of town called the Tenderloin- it's been around since 1969 (it was called the Wally Heider Studios until 1980) and has some really magical history. (You can google it if your interested:)) We even get to work with Stephen Barncard who has been producing records here for years.

And we've been recording...  getting the feel of things, adjusting, learning a lot.. Finding new ways to communicate, function and make decisions, taking musical risks.

Went to a Farmers Market today with Stephen, Pete and Dan.

Drank some of the best coffee at Philz Coffee (twice.)

Listened to our DayTrotter which just got released! Check it out: (You can get a free trial subscription to hear it if you don't want to purchase a year subscription.)

Dead Horses Daytrotter Session

We've been recording a lot of what's going on (besides through the console I mean!) So we'll have more to show you later, but here's some pictures I have access to right now...

We're rolling right along I'd say.