Miggs Musings
Thursday, October 11, 2007
there's a fire burning out her heart...
so we've spent the last week holed up in tampa working on the album that is to come out in scandanavia in the new year, as well as doing pre production for the NEXT release internationally. it's a crazy time. we have all this music and want to share it but don't want to introduce it all too early and then when the album comes out, you're all like "been there, done that" on us!
but the UNRAVELED album is coming along nicely, thank you very much. we just got the mixed version of NOTHING and it sounds pretty great. look for it to post on myspace for a little bit. if you've heard the acoustic version from LATE NIGHTS & EARLY MORNINGS, it is that on steroids- complete with brian totten smacking the drums and electric guitars (remember the acoustic version has no electric guitars and jason played brushes-no drum sticks).
this album will contain some songs already released but redone in the current format of miggs, which is a bit more raw and stripped down. we're doing this album for IMPORT and decided to mix the last 3 albums since the european people didn't get the first albums (unless they went to iTunes or something like that). and then we will try to get a completely new miggs album out in mid 2008 so stay tuned there.
where was i? ah yes, so we're mixing some stuff and it's been cathartic revising these songs and playing with expectations a little. INVISIBLE was a song i really loved and am excited to rethink and finally put on an album. the orchestration that jason gianni did to that was magnificent and i want people to hear it. in fact, you should leave here now and visit jason at jasongianni.com. tell him we said hi.
if you didn't go yet, thanks.
go buy bruce springsteen's magic. i'm not 100% sure i LOVE every bit of the album or am just so impressed with his ability to tell a tale and write a relevant album that isn't missing the commercial mark. i appreciate that he is out there. and i think i do love the album cause i listened to it for 5 hours today flying from tampa to LA.
ok, off to vegas for some shows. be good.
Labels: anyway, insomnia, killers, late nights and early mornings, miggs, miggsband.com, myspace, perfect, tour, truth, unraveled, youtube.com
Monday, July 16, 2007
"sometimes not being able to sleep means you're more awake"
i like that. no, i LOVE that line. bono said it in the last vanity fair i read. amazing.
well, i'm wide awake and it's all so clear.....
ok, so i threw my own line in there. had to do it. from now on when i'm not sleeping, like i'm not now or since wednesday night, this is how i'll choose to think of it. now i feel good. and you?
tonight while i was answering a backlog of myspace email i put the TV on. i got reality TV. i don't ever turn the thing on but the house felt lonely and i wanted some company. oh, and i read that posh spice had her show on tonight so i HAD to see if that was as bad as i predicted. i never made it through the first commercial. that would be a yes. as expected.
why do you people (the general YOU, not YOU) watch this crap and keep people with little or no charisma in the spotlight? you are feeding these people, and their children and their nannies and their freaking gardner. i suspect the gardner works hard so maybe i should thank you? and i bet "these people" are mostly not that good at parenting so a nanny is like a humanitarian act, helping us from a drugged out, lunatic roaming the streets trying to kill me cause he hates his mom and dad, right? alright, the glass is officially back to half full. thank you for working this out with me.
ANYWAY.........so i flipped the channnel and CRASH came on. seriously, is this not the best movie of the last decade? again, i'm a bad reference since i haven't seen that many movies but the best I'VE seen? who in it DOESN'T give the performance of a lifetime?
and if you didn't cry when that man shot the blank bullet at the little girl and her dad, you have no heart. check, cause you MUST be dead. or on a ventilator, you tell me.
just amazing writing and the point is so the point of this life. we're all connected. we're all the good guy and the bad guy. we're all fucked up and perfect.
now, before this all happened. go back to yesterday. we drive 6 hours home after a long night and i'm beat but i want to be inspired so i throw on U2 DVD from the last tour. man. it gets no better than that live. 4 guys and all that music. not sound, music. i realized that while we are playing as a 3 piece, i can play more edge-like (read: simple, open) and not try to do guitar runs from hell to impress myself. thanks edge. my jumping will be limited but it'll make you come back next time we play near you to see if i've stilll got hops...
now, i was reminded also of such a funny story that i somehow forgot to relay. it involves my mom and if you knew her you'd totallly say "of course" after i tell you this one. and if you know gail, a friend of ours from myspace- she can probalby tell this better than me so ask her.
ANYWAY.....
i'm playing a solo show in FLA and my mom and dad are there. nice, huh? i'm lucky. good people, too. and she goes outside of the venue. there are two doors INTO the venue in the front. the main door and there is a door TO THE STAGE. should it be locked? should there be a sign? a curtain? all yes and there may be but those signs were ignored becasue i'm singing and who WALKS IN? mom. not in but ON the stage. doesn't register. she shuts the door behind her and starts to walk. on the stage. i look. sort of amazed. i mean there are lights, there are monitors. it's a STAGE. i'm just thinking we should all be aware of this, no? is it me? so i say something like "just when you think you're all grown up, your mom walks onstage and embarrasses you." to a big laugh, except from her becasue at this point she's not exactly sure what is happening. she DID figure it out, so that was good.
ok, that's it from me......
see you on the road.
Labels: anyway, beckham, bono, crash, late nights and early mornings, miggs, miggsband.com, perfect, posh spice, reality TV, spice girls, U2, vanity fair, wide awake, youtube.com
Sunday, July 15, 2007
"there’s a windshield staring at my face, there’s this rearview saving my mistakes and there’s a few..."
this trip i've been on- making music with miggs- has been a crazy one. changes and more changes. it's all cool for me and i love the journey and am glad you alll are taking it with me. i know it's weird seeing new faces over and over again and i wish i had an easy explanation. being in a band is hard work. it's close work. too close for some. i'm probably not the easiest guy to work with- who knows. but at this point, i don't see how i'd replace michael and brian. i believe i will play with these two as long as they let me. both want to be IN miggs, and that matters a lot. we'll see where it leads but i'm stoked (i was just in santa cruz area so i've adopted the lingo for you to read) to share a van with these two. they just love to play. wherever, whenever. it's cool. give them lot's of love when you see them live or in myspace, please...
we just got back from the first leg of the tour and i'm exhausted tonight. we played a place called the brookdale lodge in ben lomand, ca. it's supposedly haunted, making the night always more enjoyable. rumor is that while our friends in silver griffin were playing, the ghost was messing with their sound, making the speaker go in and out. it sure SEEMED like a technical glitch but who am i to know, right?
we always stay in rooms there when we play and i do half expect to see something of note. something besides michael's ass climbing into the bed across the room, that is. it is white, it is scary but it ain't a ghost.
our friend richard spent the night and i would like to publicly thank him for keeping me awake with his little snore-fest. i love him for it.
so, the show. we did play a show. and we did it as a three-piece. i've resisted this for a long time. i hate miggs as a 3 piece but instead of playing with people we KNOW we aren't going to keep or aren't really interested in staying with us, we've decided this is how we'll play until we run into the right person. what does this mean to you, the person spending money to see us? well, it means i will certainly do less moving around, likely it will mean you will get sub par guitar solos but hey, i never said i was good! and you'll hear the songs without as much icing. can you handle that? i knew that you could......
friday we played bakersfield at jerry's pizza. it's this basement venue that has a very cool vibe and it felt good to go down there and sweat it out. it was also brian's first "awaY" show with the band and he didn't wet the bed or need to leave in the middle of the night to go home so we considered it a success. our boy seems all growsed up.
and the tour leg started thursday night at the famous malibu inn. conveniently located about 5 minutes from my house so i LOVE playing there!LOL john carta stopped out and played guitar for us, which was fun. and aron and matt came out to watch so it felt like reunion night. i half expected to see jason gianni walk through the door....
speaking of jason- he is kicking ass and taking names in NY at the drummers collective. go to his site, drummersbible.com and say hello and see what he's up to.
the best part of the touring is knowing that we'lll have new videos up at youtube.com, pictures in the forum and friends made. oh, and making brian listen to all my favorite music to see what he likes. so far, so good. guy's got good taste to go along with his good hair.....
seize the day,
d
Labels: arizona, ayn rand, insomnia, late nights and early mornings, miggs, miggsband.com, myspace, new mexico, Q time patio, youtube.com
Thursday, June 14, 2007
"sometimes i do this all the time"
i've been away so long from the journal and all of a sudden, i'm blogging like i get paid by the word. go figure.....
recently i did an interview and this question came up. the person did a history check and saw the evolution of the band and all the changes through the years and asked the obvious...what happened?
it's complicated and it's simple i told her. we grew up, grew apart, had different ideas of what we wanted, etc.
in some cases, the people never really belonged and we were filling a spot. in other cases, it was the perfect fit with the wrong time. it happens.
in the end, i appreciate the time and effort EVERY member contributed, big and small. it all brought me here today.
"and what is today?", she asked.
another good question.
MiGGs is MiGGs. It's a band thing, it's a solo thing. i guess today it's a collective of sorts. it's a FEELING, a place in time and if you see it tomorrow, you may see it differently than you remembered and that's not a bad thing. that's the "way we roll" these days so expect what you may not expect. we know SOME people want their McDonalds to always taste like McDonalds but we bet there are a whole lot of you that like to eat at off-the-beaten-path places and don't mind an element of surprise with their latte and maybe want to believe that you can still be floored by a taste, a feeling, by music, by a place and a time and that you might go back to that SAME room tomorrow and put on the same music but feel a completely different feeling. MiGGs wants to be better than a good pop band AND our promise is to keep that spirit while trying to shoot out the freaking moon at the same time.
i was asked what my music means to me:
my music means life to me. i can pick out the years, mark the moments, see where i've lived up or down to the potential of that minute. it's a roadmap, my personal atlas. how i got from here to here....
it's my muse and my enemy, music. a new song either delights or haunts me. last night i woke at 3:15. why? because i was ONE LINE SHORT of finishing a new song. one line. i could just rhyme something. i could just repeat something but no, this freaking line has to BEG to be written. and when begging isn't enough, it starts kicking and screaming until i can't get rest with it undone. that's what music does to me. and when it's perfect, it's like seeing a great wave or a sunset. it just happens and all is right in my world.
and do i miss the "guys" and the all for one and one for all of original miggs? yes. every day. but as 2Pac says "life goes on" and i can't dwell. i miss white mist guys, the alliance guys, aim cryer guys- all of them hold a place in me. and when it ended uglier than it should have, i have learned to accept my part in the wrong and then i can just remember the good.
i'd like to think that the music is bigger than the characters. maybe that's grandiose but it's what i'm ending this on, so there....
Labels: insomnia, late nights and early mornings, miggs, miggsband.com, youtube.com
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
"can you hear me now?"
ok, two posts in just a few days. i'm on a roll or something like that. we've been talking about re-releasing the Late Nights & Early Mornings EP with a small twist but one i'm kinda in favor of. we would release the original masters.
i know, "what do you mean by that don?"
well what i mean is that when chris manning and i originally discussed this album, the idea was to do an intimate recording. maybe even just guitar or piano and vocal. somehow that got away from us. actually, it was the fault of the song "nothing". as we were doing we thought it was a shame not to fill that one out a bit. it seemed bigger than that. we stuck with no drumsticks or electric guitars, though. so we did and then the rest of the songs sat funny when listening back so we dressed them all up except the title track. i wanted that to be me and a guitar and that's it.
where was i with the reasoning again becasue that paragraph above isn't the reason......oh yeah.
so we sent the album in to a great mastering company and what they do is they give the songs that added punch and depth. and they are the reason some of your albums are louder than others. and if you notice, the new albums you're buying are WAY louder than anything else in your iPod, right?
there is a huge debate going on right now in the industry that louder isn't better. in fact it's compromising the quality of the recordings becasue the louder you make it the more you "crush" the mix, losing the dynamics- making the instrumentation indescernible. i hate it. i know that old recordings are lower but the SOUND of them is better. we're fooled becasue these recording seem "crisp".
man, this is a long explanation. chris and i were really happy with the initial mastering but when we put it on the iPod, the songs soulded flat. especially against other acoustic albums, so we kept pumping up the volume and mastering, which makes the song sound smaller in a weird way. it compresses and crunches it. i'm sure chris could explain this so much better than me, sorry.
in the end, i went against my heart and released the EP as highly compressed as we could. i love it but i feel like i've littered in some way, if that makes sense. or i've contributed to the dumbing down of music listeners and then my manager started reading about the backlash and she agreed with me and this idea came up to release the "producers cut" for us. and if some of you want it, even better. but be warned, it will not be a NEW album of material so don't waste your coin if you don't want to be frustrated when you put random on the iPod or CD shuffle. got it? good.
i'm going to make a commitment to myself that the next full album we release will NOT succumb to the trend of the day. we will master this album to sound full and rich but not just LOUD. see, the other kicker is that radio stations compress the songs for radio so they get an extra "mastering" and are even louder. this is why if you ever hear your fave song on the radio and then listen immediately to the CD, there is a difference.
man, that wasn't easy.
be the ball, danny...........
Labels: DVD, insomnia, late nights and early mornings, mastering, miggs, miggsband.com, mixes
Sunday, June 10, 2007
"cause the truth about the truth is that it’s not going away..."
i'm sitting in the sky lounge at LAX, waiting for my flight to tampa and decided to say hello. who knows who reads this but i appreciate that i have a place to talk to myself if that's all that happens!!!!LOL
i've been reading BLINK and another book called THIS YEAR I WILL... and that's about making changes that actually stick. it's been a great read so far. it's amazing how we KNOW what we want to do and that that fact rarely is enough to have us do it, in the end. people eat, tell themselves they should stop. but can't. they smoke. they cheat, they lie. whatever it is and it got me thinking about the line i wrote up top when it comes to the truth. it's there. you can hide it but it doesn't change so it'll come out.
i got to this thinking becasue i've gone through some crazy personal stuff where these questions have come up and where i've found myself defending some things that i KNOW are facts and not being able to convince someone. what i realized is that every time i work so hard to convince someone, i'm cheapening the truth or making it harder to find. does that make sense? so it's best to just say your piece and let it go becasue it'll come out as it should when it should. and i'm finding great comfort in that and also get to shut up more, which is a good thing!!!!
i was just in europe. actually on my honeymoon if i must say too much.....
anyway, it was so cool to see the world as we did and see history from the BC period. i mean, we saw the acropolis in athens. how the hell did they build that without computers and all the technology we have today? forget the freaking CRANE to lift the millions of tons. just mind-boggling and beautiful.
and prague????? my God. to walk those streets. wow.
we also visited paris and then london where i was able to finally use my favorite quote from the movie FLETCH...."look kids, big ben, parliment. i can't seem to get left!!!"
classic.
if you've not seen these countries. go now....
new music:
jesse malin: glitter in the gutter.
get past his voice at times and it's great stuff. i'm a fan of early bruce springsteen and the repplacements and this gives me that fill.
hold steadys: boys and girls in america.
heard so much about it. it's SO new jersey i laughed but it's good stuff
black rebel mototcycle club: new one.
haven't gotten too much time
KISS: LIVE box set
now i have all their live CDs. oh goody.
maroon 5: new one.
it's produced well
Linkin Park: new one.
rick rubin is a great producer. drums and sounds are all great. some good songs. some mediocre ones but it's always entertaining.
ok, plane is a coming....be good
Labels: black rebel motorcycle club, insomnia, late nights and early mornings, miggs, miggsband.com, truth, youtube.com
Sunday, April 22, 2007
"just for the record, the weather today is..."
pretty damn cloudy actually. it's sunday and i've been thinking it was saturday. oh well, a day slipped by me somehow.
let's see....i just watched the DVD from the cafe du nord show and it was a fun show. there are some camera and sound glitches and i completely trainwreck "to be alone" but i think we'll spruce it up a bit and release it as a live DVD. any takers? what should we name it? tell me.
there have been a bunch of emails about the new pictures at myspace.com. it's funny because to me it's just the same old same old but i like hearing from you so thanks. last night we took some others as a band and those will begin appearing places soon.
the new website launches on or about May 10th so look for that and commment, of course.
the touring has been going well. where have we been lately again? hold on, i'll go look at the schedule.
ok, arizona was fun. really fun. people are all so cool there. i think i already told the border patrol pull over story so i won't waste your time again here. we were at a venue in newport beach the other night and some kid was doing backflips in front of the stage. full on. it was funny as hell and i wanted to put the guitar down and break off a little flip my own self. course, i'd probably slip and land square on my back but i still had INTENT.
we played the skate rink in san jose last night. it's weird doing that but it's cool cause then younger kids can see us and we like playing for them, too. my mic was all static-y for the first 2 songs and then just went out so i was running over to michaels mic to sing and then back to mine to see if it was on. finally got all sorted out and we didn't get rattled, so i consider it a success.
has anyone been watching this season of south park!?!?!?!? my GOD is that funny stuff. i bought the first 9 seasons and have been going through it but michael gets the latest on his iPod so last night Aron and I snuggled in the van and watched while mike drove. it was nice. and the show was good too...
i also watched rocky balboa and still love that series. go rocky.
there are too many books to get into here and i feel like it's all i've been talking anbout lately but i will say that this week i go visit corona del mar school and we're going to talk about the fountainhead and atlas shrugged. they've been reading them after we spoke recently so i want to go listen in and get into the debates....freaking cool.
i've had blue october on my iPod for a while now and barely checked it out but yesterday gave it a good listen. it's really goood. i wish he'd not always double his voice and i'd love to hear the rock ROCK more (people can say this about us, too!) but it's strong stuff. "hate me" is a powerful song.
and that led me to put the killers sam's town back on and that is a strong ass album. it's not as immediate as their first, hot fuss, but it is just better all around. some points in the lyrics really grab me, the melodies are damn goood and the drumming and guitar playing are so inspired.
ok, sopranos tonight. no shows until friday and some catch up time.........
d
Labels: atlas shrugged, ayn rand, DVD, late nights and early mornings, miggs, miggsband.com, south park, the fountainhead, tour, weather
Today we learned that a friend, the guy who was working on our new website was killed in a motorcycle crash. what i read was that he was driving late at night, pretty fast, and lost control of the bike heading into a truck. no helmet, not that it sounds like that would have helped.
life is THAT fucking fragile. tomorrow you are dead. stop complaining about what you don't have or where you are if it isn't where you want to be. stop petty arguments with people. practice peace. practice forgiveness. respect that you will NOT GET ANOTHER CHANCE TO LIVE THIS LIFE and live it. for you, for your parents who gave birth to you, for duke grey, who doesn't get a choice anymore for a second chance.
pretty damn cloudy actually. it's sunday and i've been thinking it was saturday. oh well, a day slipped by me somehow.
let's see....i just watched the DVD from the cafe du nord show and it was a fun show. there are some camera and sound glitches and i completely trainwreck "to be alone" but i think we'll spruce it up a bit and release it as a live DVD. any takers? what should we name it? tell me.
there have been a bunch of emails about the new pictures at myspace.com. it's funny because to me it's just the same old same old but i like hearing from you so thanks. last night we took some others as a band and those will begin appearing places soon.
the new website launches on or about May 10th so look for that and commment, of course.
the touring has been going well. where have we been lately again? hold on, i'll go look at the schedule.
ok, arizona was fun. really fun. people are all so cool there. i think i already told the border patrol pull over story so i won't waste your time again here. we were at a venue in newport beach the other night and some kid was doing backflips in front of the stage. full on. it was funny as hell and i wanted to put the guitar down and break off a little flip my own self. course, i'd probably slip and land square on my back but i still had INTENT.
we played the skate rink in san jose last night. it's weird doing that but it's cool cause then younger kids can see us and we like playing for them, too. my mic was all static-y for the first 2 songs and then just went out so i was running over to michaels mic to sing and then back to mine to see if it was on. finally got all sorted out and we didn't get rattled, so i consider it a success.
has anyone been watching this season of south park!?!?!?!? my GOD is that funny stuff. i bought the first 9 seasons and have been going through it but michael gets the latest on his iPod so last night Aron and I snuggled in the van and watched while mike drove. it was nice. and the show was good too...
i also watched rocky balboa and still love that series. go rocky.
there are too many books to get into here and i feel like it's all i've been talking anbout lately but i will say that this week i go visit corona del mar school and we're going to talk about the fountainhead and atlas shrugged. they've been reading them after we spoke recently so i want to go listen in and get into the debates....freaking cool.
i've had blue october on my iPod for a while now and barely checked it out but yesterday gave it a good listen. it's really goood. i wish he'd not always double his voice and i'd love to hear the rock ROCK more (people can say this about us, too!) but it's strong stuff. "hate me" is a powerful song.
and that led me to put the killers sam's town back on and that is a strong ass album. it's not as immediate as their first, hot fuss, but it is just better all around. some points in the lyrics really grab me, the melodies are damn goood and the drumming and guitar playing are so inspired.
ok, sopranos tonight. no shows until friday and some catch up time.........
