The Back Story

My relationship with my wife was truly forged on our spur of the moment trips, which we started taking as friends. These trips were more her and me tagging along. But, at a time in life where inspiration was lacking this brought a new lease on life and led to an amazing friendship and marriage.

 

Fast forward a bit and we still love spontaneous adventures. It doesn’t always have to be anything crazy, but little trips to beautiful spots and places that are interesting have become a great joy. We have a lot of our favorite places we return to again and again, which has now given my daughter a chance to connect with these places from the time she was born. We also try and find new places and add them to our repertoire . We have taken fun journeys and epic ones, and some have been completely off the beaten path. Traveling, even if it’s just to the woods nearby, does so much for the soul, and I have watched the amazing effects of it on my daughter at almost every stage of her  life. The world, the country, and nature are amazing wonders that can offer endless inspiration.

 

When my daughter was born, I became fascinated with photography. I wanted to be able to show her everything and everywhere we have been and for her to have these pictures that will last forever. I don’t have many pictures from my own childhood, and believe most of it was lost. So when she was born I took our security deposit from our apartment and bought a used Neumann Microphone which in turn I sold and returned the deposit with enough left over to buy a DSLR camera and I was off and running.

 

I brought that camera everywhere and added other cameras as well. The added bonus is the quality of what an iPhone can accomplish, which has become pretty impressive as well.

 

I, of course, have a lifelong passion for music. When I was a kid, I’m not sure if I read it in a music book or the back of a guitar magazine, but I remember a written lesson by Steve Vai where he discussed the idea of using a picture, experience, or a feeling to create a melody. This concept has stuck with me. Over the years, when I’ve played on someone else’s music I always ask them what the feeling is or what they are picturing. There is something very special when you can feel the emotion as you perform, and I feel like it comes out in the music or art. I’ve always tried to teach my students the importance of playing with conviction and feeling above all else.

 

I got the idea really almost two years ago exactly. I wanted to stop whenever I would see a view that inspired me and take my camera and shoot a little video of it. Sometimes, I got nice long uninterrupted videos and sometimes it would be short because something was coming into the frame or lack of time. I wanted to take these videos to make a melodic scrapbook. It would let me relive these amazing moments at these great locations, while also being a great exercise in creativity. My other hope with this venture was to complete these in a timely manner and not get hung up picking everything apart. I wouldn’t envision these as typical songs, with parts per se, or that they are part of an overall composition of an album .  

 

As I am putting the finishing touches on the first one, which I did write within a day of shooting the video, but then put on the side for two years like I’ve done with 100s of compositions over the years, I’ve pondered that maybe I need to work on letting go and to stop picking my own music apart until there is nothing left.

 

I hope to make many more of these and try and give a little background to each as I do.