Tour Journal number 2 (February 14th)
February 14th, 2010
Valentine’s Day and one week before rehearsals begin in Stockholm. Many have asked why am I doing band shows now, how this band came together, and who are the folks I am performing with, so I will give a short background on this day of celebrating ‘love’.
Rob Daiker, the electric guitarist from Portland, Oregon, and I have a long history. One of Rob’s first album’s I co-produced with him over 15 years ago. Rob is a great singer/songwriter and two of the former DRN members, Blake Sakamoto and Dan Pred played with Rob in a band called Generator after the DRN days had finished. Coming full circle Mr. Daiker has over the years co-produced material with me, including 6 of the new songs on ‘Coming Up For Air’, and playing drum elements, electric guitar, synths, singing background vocals, and mixing the songs.
Bengan Jonasson and I met via the web while I was living in Jerusalem. I had heard some of his own compositions and was moved deeply by his chordal bass musings and fretless work… melodic and uplifting, and invited him to play on some of the songs I was recording there. We accomplished this via the web, sending tracks back and forth and you will find his playing on a few songs on the new album… especially noteworthy is his fretless work on ‘The Dictator’, a song which has been up on Youtube this last year. Bengan joined me on stage with Tommy Denander for a short Swedish tour this last year, and it was magic.
Robert Ikiz, the drummer/percussionist, was introduced to me through Bengan, and after one meeting and short jam session in Stockholm last year, I was convinced Mr. Ikiz could add the colors and subtle rhythmic nuances the new music required. We spoke of my recording time in Jerusalem and the rhythms of the Middle East. I learned that Robert Ikiz is from Turkish decent and was well versed in the instrumentation and stylings if Mid an Far East. This sealed the deal!
Tommy Denander is a whole other story, as he and I met in Stockholm over 20 years ago when he was a young, but talented beyond his years, guitarist and composer. In the years following he found himself working with some of the biggest names in the business, Toto being one of them… a band that inspired me greatly growing up in South Dakota. Tommy and I met again through Jens Lundberg, last year and did some writing together, and I was invited to sing on a track for his new album that has just been released on Frontier Records. Tommy has joined me on my acoustic tour in New York, Vienna, London, Paris and Stockholm, and although he is well know for his electric guitar work, I was floored by the acoustic work he added to the set, and have asked him to continue this tradition we started in 2009 with the new band.
Finally, Brooke Lizotte from Los Angeles… we met back during the Network days when we use to play up in Seattle, Brooke’s home town. Through a mutual friend Art Ford, I was introduced to Brooke and once visited his loft studio in Seattle after a DRN show one evening, and had a long night time jam session. 20 years later we found ourselves in his and Art’s studio in LA, working on a song for soundtrack. Brooke comes from the old school of piano, B3 organ, and stings arrangements, as he has spent that last decade scoring film projects and creating soundscapes for many projects.
With the release of ‘Coming Up For Air’ finally approved, it was time to represent the songs as they are recorded on the album, with not only a full band, but with artists that will take those recordings, those snapshots in time, and interpret them in their own way. This collection of artists seem to just naturally come together over the years, and we shall soon see if the experiment comes to life as it is in the imagination!
These are all musicians that live and breathe music daily in a number of projects, and I am honored to be touring with them and creating something new… a true ‘love’ for music. Happy Valentine’s Day.
