Progressing

Squids here checking in. No major traveling going on. Sandy messed up a few sessions that were loosely planned this month. One of them was really very cool too but hopefully we'll get to do that some other time. I'm making plans to go out to LA at some point soon to consolidate some sessions for SR and Sonic Elements. I'm also going up to the NY area to do a few Lo-Fi Resistance things with Randy McStine for the soon to be released album "Chalk Lines"

Had a little back and forth emailing with Jon Anderson today. I first met him in 2005 when I got the opportunity to play a gig with him during the NAMM convention in Anaheim. We've stayed in touch and have sent musical ideas to each other. When I heard his voice over my music that was something really amazing for me personally. Such an iconic sound to his voice... and he's still 'got it' too. Bizarre that he's not IN Yes right now when he was such a huge part of it but... I don't go there. I just love and respect the music they've made.

Here's me playing "Long Distance Runaround" with Jon Anderson, Nick D'Virgilio and friends.

Are you getting the feeling that it's not a good Squids Travels blog post if I don't mention some famous rock names? Me too! Well, I guess that's part of the fun. But it won't always be that way. I hope you don't get too used to the Squids trademark namedropping thing. But while we're at it I might as well tell you the story behind that gig with Jon Anderson! 

It started with a guy I know named Randy Fuchs who was helping to put together an event at NAMM that was sort of a 'guitarist oriented gig' with Nuno Bettencourt, Yngwie Malmsteen, Jordan Rudess and all sorts of musicians. IK Multimedia and Sonic Reality were among the sponsors of the event and when Randy told me Jon Anderson was going to guest with Nuno I said "Ask Jon if he'd also do a tune with me". Turned out the answer was YES! (yeah I know... that was only the squillionth pun made about the band name since its first existence). Jon gave us two songs to choose from. It was either "Long Distance Runaround" or "Your Move". I quickly chose Long Distance and later on Steve Ferlazzo, the keyboardist for Nuno's band, said to me "You beat me to it! I wanted to do that one too!" and they ended up doing Your Move instead. Good to be quick on your feet is the lesson there. No hesitation! 

Now, somehow being the "MD" of the opening part of the gig I was able, with Randy's help, to put together an interesting mix of musicians on stage starting off with me, Nick D'Virgilio and Stan Cotey who were essentially reuniting playing together since the last time we did which was in 1994 with Kevin Gilbert as "Giraffe" at Progfest performing The Lamb. Then Jon Anderson would join us on stage followed by former members of Earth, Wind & Fire, Ricky Lawson, Neil Zazza a full horn section... it was getting pretty crazy and somehow I convinced everyone to end the set with "Owner of a Lonely Heart" (with full real horn section). But... unfortunately Yngwie Malmsteen took up the entire sound check to jam with his band! No one could tell him to stop (partially because it was so loud!) So... We didn't have a single run through of anything and it quickly went to a 'plan b' and that was to scale the set back to what we all knew best. Forget about "Owner" with everyone on stage with a horn section and not a single run through. But we DID do "Broadway Melody of '74" by Genesis and "Long Distance" without a run through and that was brave enough (especially doing a Yes song with the guy who wrote it and sang it originally!). A bit nerve-wracking but we made it and Jon loved it. Larry Dunn, Sheldon Reynolds and the rest of the Ex-EWF guys did their thing... it turned out to be a great show. But no one knew what sort of tough spot we were actually in there! I had to keep things together both musically and psychologically between everyone. So for me it was an even bigger success personally... plus of course it was a thrill to play with all those guys. 

Me with Patrick Moraz (ex-keyboardist for Yes's Relayer album)

Another interesting 'progstory' about that day is that Patrick Moraz who I've met a few times before had come up to me at the SR NAMM booth to ask for tickets to come see me play with Jon Anderson! How cool! How bizarre!!!! An ex-Yes keyboardist asking me if he can come see me play with his old bandmate? What planet is this??? Definitely was a trip. Anyway, Patrick went to the show and loved it! He was so grateful to be there because apparently he hadn't talked to Jon since the 70s when they did 'Relayer'. So I played a part in their brief reunion backstage. A fun esoteric prog moment to share with those who are fans of that album (one of my faves growing up and Moraz is a fantastic keyboard player). 

There are quite a few times I've had the opportunity to put two musicians together where it meant something to them and I think it makes for good storytelling so I'm sure you'll be seeing more of that in future blog posts. There's a really good story behind this video but I'll have to save it for another time! 

I hope I've satisfied the expected name-dropping quota. My company Sonic Reality's motto is "Sample Everything" and that philosophy extends into other aspects of life as well, particularly with music-related experiences. So there's a rather unusual variety of one off events to tell you about... and that will only lead to more name-dropping so be prepared! You have been warned. Have a great weekend! - Dave

Parsonic Reality

Ever since I was a kid I was a fan of Alan Parsons. I bought every great rock record I could get my hands on and read the liner notes (anyone remember those?). I knew Alan recorded Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon which was fascinating to me. I had all of the Alan Parsons Project albums as well which I thought sounded great. One thing I could relate to even back then was the idea of a band project not having only fixed members. Certain bands like APP and Steely Dan had a few core members and then a variety of session players which varied from song to song. Being a keyboardist and the guy with the recording equipment that sort of idea appealed to me even back in the 80's long before you could work with a variety of people outside of your hometown let alone across the country or world like you can now. You were lucky to find anyone who would put up with your picky home studio production standards... and kids resent being directed by other kids! They'd say "Who do you think you are? A producer?" But that's exactly what I thought I was.

(No there was no "Squids" back then, just kidding with the title.)

I had visions of having my own "Dave Kerzner Project" (except I didn't use my name in my mock up album artwork... I had all sorts of other "cool" names for it at the time. One of them was "Dark City Project" because I liked city lights and that was a very 80's thing... sort of glad now nothing was released under that cheesy name! haha). Here's a shot of me trying to look rock n' roll on the side of Hollywood Hills High School in Hollywood, Florida. I made a little cassette "album cover" out of this shot and the tape had all sorts of misc 'demos' of unfinished ideas... I had hundreds of those tapes! Not all of them had little album covers but some of them did... something creative to do while you're supposed to be studying math (my grades suffered so I could practice being in the music industry!).

Look at the difference between the studio equipment I worked with back in those days vs. today with Alan Parsons: 

Yesterday with my Tascam 4 track cassette studio in the mid-80s

Today (although ironically the gear I'm in front of is the mixing console used on Dark Side of the Moon in the 70's but I didn't have access to such a thing until many decades later).

A kid has to start somewhere though and all those days I spent in REAL garage bands (not to be confused with Apple's recording software of the same name now) helped pave the way for some of the things I'd eventually be doing. Interestingly there are a few things that this young version of me was foreshadowing. One was that I would eventually have a band project that is made up of guest singers and session musicians. It's called "Sonic Elements". Another was that I'd eventually work with Alan Parsons. What a trip! But when you know what you like at a young age, whether you realize it or not, you're putting things into motion in terms of your desires. All those times scribbling band names on your notebook at school actually means something as do all the demo tapes you make and all that lofty dreaming which will eventually manifest into quite an interesting reality if you allow it to. It's all a matter of how things unfold and what life puts in front of you based on the path that you take. 

Pictured here with Allen Sides (who I worked with on Ocean Way Drums) and Alan Parsons

So I'll tell you how I first met Alan Parsons. We'll have to flash forward past a lot of things but this blog skips around. It was 2008 (I think... somewhere around then) at a NAMM show party. Alan was there and I came up to him to introduce myself. I told him I ran the sound development company Sonic Reality and not long into the conversation he said "How come you never asked me if I wanted to do a sample library?" and I said "Well, I never met you before until now! DO you want to do a sample library?" and he replied "Yeah. We could do that" and then I said "Maybe we could recreate some of the iconic sounds from Alan Parsons Project albums?" and he paused for a bit and then said "Sure. We could do that." and then I thought I'd go for the big one and said "We could even recreate some of the classic instrument sounds from Dark Side of the Moon and capture the way they were recorded using the same equipment you used at Abbey Road in the 70's" and then there was an even longer pause... major internal Squids suspense... did I maybe go too far???? That was mighty bold to suggest! How many times has he heard this and that about DSOTM for decades? Here's yet another person wanting to talk about it but also suggesting he go deeper into the days of his recording past than almost anyone has asked before (I say "almost anyone" because my friend Julian Colbeck went far down that path into the whole art and science of recording with Parsons with their powerful educational DVD package). Anyway, after the long pause which only seemed long in my head he said "Sure, we could do that too."and that's how the whole thing started. As simple as that first conversation. 

Over the course of 4 or 5 years we did various sessions in different parts of the world from London to LA to NY... it's been bit by bit taking advantage of certain opportunities like being in the same place at the same time. There was a session at Mark Knopfler's British Grove Studios after a Frankfurt Musik Messe (a tradeshow like NAMM that's in Germany each year). We were both already at the AES (Audio Engineering Society, another tradeshow) in NY so I booked Jungle City Studios which is Alicia Keys' producer's studio who happens to own an old EMI TG mixing console similar to the one used on Dark Side of the Moon at Abbey Road. Here are some videos from that adventure:

This is me at Jungle City Studios in NY on a break practicing a version of Us and Them that I'm planning to do that has a little hint of "Beatles" and "Sigur Ros" influence mixed in there... and some inspired piano noodling around which is something I love to do. 

I asked Alan some Dark Side questions while we were in NY

Part 2

We also did sessions at my friend Simeon Spiegel's studio called "Blue Forrest" which is in Sherman Oaks. There we recorded all sorts of stuff with Alastair Greene of the Alan Parsons Live Project as well as members of the Floyd tribute band "Which One's Pink?" who Alan had worked with before. I had also worked with guys from a Florida-based Floyd tribute band called The Floyd Experience. I explained to Alan that these days I not only produce sample libraries but my project "Sonic Elements" (which ironically has a similar approach as the Alan Parsons Project in terms of guest musicians and singers) does actual MUSIC as well, putting Sonic Reality sound libraries into musical context... because that's half the fun of making the sample libraries and it also lets people hear these sounds in action. It also makes it a rare thing that you can listen to a full song that you actually like (as opposed to some quick demo for 30 seconds) and as a musician you can purchase interactive versions of the sounds you're hearing that you can use in your own music. That's mind bending if you think about it. How cool is that? I don't even know what I would have created as a kid if I had the tools people have today in their computer-based recording set ups! 

Here's Alastair Greene doing a guitar solo take on the song "Money" by Pink Floyd

Since then Alan and I have expanded working together to include a session on Nick Mason's own sample library SR is doing as well which I blogged about a few pages back. We did tons of great interviews in London and New York but earlier this year in Sherman Oaks, Keyboard magazine's Robbie Gennet caught up with us to do a video interview with Alan Parsons and myself. That's just now been made public and that's what prompted me to make this blog post so you could get some background on how this fascinating "Alan Parsons Sample Project" started. There will be a lot more about it in coming posts but if you're a Parsons or Floyd fan (or Pilot fan!) this video has some interesting factoids to share about the past, the present and the future of how certain 'vintage' sounds are being 'preserved' and recreated now for musicians to be able to use in their own music. These are useful whether musicians want to play authentic sounding covers or write their own songs mixing up the sonic flavors. It's a virtual reality experience to just jam with inspiring sounds as if they were in the studio with Alan Parsons! It's something that I've been personally very fortunate to do and my company's mission is to bring a taste of that experience to cutting edge music technology from IK Multimedia, Propellerheads, N.I. and more so that others can share in that experience and create with deluxe sonic 'tools' that would otherwise be extremely rare and difficult to get. 

Alastair Greene, Squids, Alan Parsons

Me with Natalie Azerad and Dan Johnson

The long version of the interview has me asking Alan questions as well. The Keyboard Mag version is mostly Robbie asking Alan and I questions about the new SR sample library in the works, the 

"Alan Parsons Sample Project"

THE KEYBOARD MAGAZINE INTERVIEW WITH ALAN PARSONS & SQUIDS

Click here to read the article and watch the video blog of me, Dave Kerzner, and Alan Parsons with Robbie Gennet

Drawing the Chalk Lines

Squids here. I'm back in Miami right now getting ready for the next wave of Sonic Elements and other projects in the studio. A lot of albums I've been working on are almost ready to be heard. The first full album release of music I've been involved in over the last year or so is one I co-produced with Randy McStine for his project called "Lo-Fi Resistance". The album is entitled "Chalk Lines" and it features a variety of great musicians like Gavin Harrison, the drummer for the band Porcupine Tree, Colin Edwin on bass who is also from Porcupine Tree, John Giblin of Brand X and Dug Pinnick of the band Kings X (lots of tree and X's involved). I play keys on the album and Randy McStine sings, plays guitar and a bit of everything.

First, let me mention that Burning Shed has now put the album on pre-order which you can purchase here. On burningshed.com you can listen to the title track "Chalk Lines" streaming and you can also get a limited time FREE mp3 download of another song from the album called "The Silent War". Check it out!

I'll give you some backstory to this and tell you how this album came to be. Randy was already working on his second Lo-Fi Resistance album. His first one, "A Deep Breath" featured my old bandmate from the Kevin Gilbert Thud days, Nick D'Virgilio. Randy was only 23 years old when making the album Chalk Lines. He's extremely self-motivated and he got the funding for his second album by using a website called kickstarter.com which allows people to support a creative business project by purchasing various special packages from the project in advance. In Randy's case he sold the album and extras for different levels of participation. I think it's a brilliant idea and it worked. He put together a great video for it that also tells his story and a lot of the background to the album in the first phase:

In the second phase of the album I got involved and it started with me seeing a video blog where Randy was sitting on a chair in the middle of the woods talking about how he got Gavin Harrison of Porcupine Tree to play on his record. I admired how genuine, candid and clear he was in his mission to make a great album. I made friends with Randy and invited him to play guitar and sing on various songs with my progrock project called "Sonic Elements". Then at some point I asked him how it was going with his album and offered to help in any way I could. I suggested he come down to Miami to record at SR Studios. He's a Kevin Gilbert fan and I happen to have Kevin's old Neumann U47 mic. It's one of the best vocal mics you can find. So he came down to record vocals and we did some experimenting in the studio, co-writing together and some re-arranging of certain songs he had for the album.  

Randy then went to see John Wesley (also of Porcupine Tree, their live band guitarist/vocalist who helps Steven Wilson get great guitar tones in the studio) and Randy worked in Wes's studio to get some great guitar sounds. Check out these videos from those sessions:

Then, Randy came back to SR Studios in Miami so we could do final overdubs of me playing vintage keyboards. All the while Gavin, Colin and the other players had been sending in their tracks which they recorded in their own studios in different parts of the world. 

Here I'm playing a Hammond organ part for the epic last song on the album called "Face Another Day"

This is me trying out a guitar part on the Rhodes Suitcase instead. We ended up going with this. 

My creative contributions were in the select places where it made a difference. Randy had a very clear vision of what he wanted for the album and had most of the songs already written. It's the second half of the album that had the most room for my input at the song and arrangement level. We collaborated well together and I think the results are fantastic. Wait until you hear "Fading Pictures", "No Readmission" and "Face Another Day". You really get a blend of our styles and taste. It's also more moody, atmospheric and some of our 'prog rock influences' start to come out more. That said, the first half of the album is intense and full of catchy riffs and hooks from Randy who is not only a great singer but a very melodic guitar player. The whole album benefits from the brilliant drumming of Gavin Harrison and the tasteful bass of Colin Edwin (here's Colin's latest blog) as well as other great contributions from John Giblin and Dug Pinnick. Not only is the guest list impressive on paper but they really put their own tastes and talent to use in this new context. We all did and that's what makes it exciting. 

Colin Edwin played Upright Bass on "Isolation Tank"

There's a lot more story to tell and I will blog more about "Chalk Lines" as we get closer to release. There's more video from the sessions, interviews and all sorts of insight into the making of a great progressive rock-influenced Alt Rock album. I tell people that if they like bands like Jellyfish, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Genesis, Yes, Keane, Muse, Porcupine Tree, Radiohead and The Beach Boys then they're likely going to be into this album. It delivers both substance and sonic frills in a very concise way and the songwriting, the performances and production was done to a high standard which I find refreshing. Here's the track listing for the album "Chalk Lines":

1. Isolation Tank (5.56)
2. Chalk Lines (6.50)
3. Fall (6.45)
4. The Silent War (4.21)
5. I Move On (2.18)
6. Fading Pictures (6.33)
7. No Readmission (3.54)
8. Face Another Day (14:29)

Again, Burning Shed has now put the album on pre-order and you can also get a limited time FREE mp3 download of the song "The Silent War". Enjoy!

Squid Barret & The Floyd Experience

Dave "Squids" Kerzner and Alan Parsons at a previous recording session in LA

It all starts with the work I've been doing with Alan Parsons on what we call the "Alan Parsons Sample Project" where we've been recording various samples for Sonic Reality that he's recorded over the years starting from the early 70's on. We've recorded iconic sounds from Dark Side such as deluxe grand piano miked the same way he did on the album through an old EMI TG console just like he used at Abbey Road back in the day to sessions with various musicians and singers who have contributed to the Alan Parsons Project over the years and more. We've been doing it on and off for years now. But then an opportunity came up to work on something else that's particularly related to Pink Floyd specifically... and it just so happens that by chance Alan was on vacation in England the day I wanted to do a session with Guy Pratt and Nick Mason of Pink Floyd! What are the chances? Pretty amazing synchronicity. 

Amazing bass from Guy Pratt

Enter Guy Pratt. Despite the fact that Guy and I both played with the incredibly talented singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Kevin Gilbert (Guy with Toy Matinee and me with Thud) we actually never met in person until a session I booked with him at "State of the Ark" studios in Richmond Surrey England on October 29th, 2012. There is a certain affinity the people who played with Kevin have that's hard to explain. But Guy said to me "any friend of Kevin's is a friend of mine" and that set the stage for some good hang time in the studio and more. Besides Toy Matinee, Guy is best known for playing bass in the post-Waters Pink Floyd (Momentary Lapse and Division Bell tours). Although he's played with a long impressive list of artists ranging from Coverdale/Page to Robbie Robertson to Brian Ferry to Madonna and many more. Not only does he have some incredibly interesting music industry stories he is also a stand up comedian who has written a hilarious book called "My Bass and Other Animals"  So, we had a great time recording and sampling his basses. There's so much more to that story but I'll save it for later. For now though I'll show you a moment where we were talking about what's on his iPhone. Here's Guy telling me how IK Multimedia's AmpliTube app and iRig helped him get the effects for "One of These Days" in a pinch situation. 

Enter Nick Mason. On October 30th we had another session at producer/songwriter Terry Britten's studio "State of the Ark". This time it was with Nick Mason, drummer of Pink Floyd and Alan Parsons who originally engineered Dark Side of the Moon. Here I am directing the session and conducting interviews with all of them and I'm in 'the zone'! I was really getting some great stuff! The energy was fantastic. Nick was really nice. I never met him before but he was a total pleasure to work with. He also has a great sense of humor and I have to say that, being one who likes to laugh and make people laugh, this is something important when you're in the studio. Music and recording can take long hours and it's way more fun if there's some comic relief... even if it's subtle. Graham Collins was there again to help out with the drum kits. Manon was the staff engineer there and she pulled some late hours with us... all went extremely well! 

If you would have told me as a kid that I'd be in the studio with the rhythm section of Pink Floyd and Alan Parsons just after playing a gig with the guitarist of the original 5 man Genesis I'd insist on seeing your crystal ball and make sure it was working properly. But, the novelty and fantasy aspect of it is just on the surface. These guys didn't all come together so Squids could live out his childhood fantasies. There was a strong purpose and genuine reason for all of these things to happen. One thing leads to another and there's a trail behind it and a path moving forward that puts everything into its right place.

Alan Parsons, Dave "Squids" Kerzner and Nick Mason

Alright so, as you can imagine, there must be a whole HUGE story behind how this happened, all kinds of details on what exactly happened in the studio with these guys, what they said in the interviews etc. I'll have to save most of that for later. But, the UK trip blogging would not be complete without showing you something from the session so here is just a little 'fly on the wall' teaser video for now. Then all will be revealed at a later date. Needless to say it's very exciting and I'm thrilled and honored to be working with all of them. This trip was off the charts and full of incredible moments I will never forget... and to think this is just the beginning! Wait until you see what's coming next!!!!

The Travel Section

Okay, so if the blog is called "Squids Travels" then there should be some more of the in between travel stuff as well so you get a sense of the context these musical adventures are taking place within.

Whenever I travel to a place in another part of the world I like to try the food that it's known for. You won't ever find me eating in an American chain restaurant or fast food joint outside of America (let alone in America... not usually my thing unless we're talking late night post-session Denny's which every musician has done... and the non-musician night owls). In England the main thing to get there for me is fish n' chips (even if it's as cliche' as pizza in NYC... it's still good!) and a "curry"... also known in Cockney Rhyming Slang as a "Ruby"... I learned some of that for fun from some friends years ago. Sor'ed.

If I have time and I'm in the right place I usually like to go to what the locals consider one of the best places for a particular thing. I didn't have that luxury on this trip so I took a chance wherever I was and it worked out alright.

That place was pretty good and I also had a nice plate of crispy cod later on the trip:

So, now that you've got SOME context let me tell you what happened next on this trip. After I left Cumbria early in the morning on Monday Oct 23rd I took a train down to Richmond Surrey (South of London again). I had two session dates booked at "State of the Ark Studios" which is an incredible place that has vintage gear that was used on albums recorded in the 60's and 70's including EMI gear that was apparently used on Dark Side of the Moon! 

Now, if you are a Pink Floyd fan as I am then you may know that "The Travel Section", the title I used for this blog post, is also in reference to something else! It's what was on Dark Side of the Moon originally in the spot where "On The Run" was between Breathe and Time. I'll tell you a little bit about this portion of the trip next but because it is so deep and complex I will save most of the story of these sessions for later. 

Childhood Revisited (Hanging with Hackett)

A major 'bucket list' moment for myself, Francis Dunnery and a stage full of musicians was getting a chance to play live with Steve Hackett, the former guitarist of one of our favorite bands growing up... Genesis. Francis and I both recently guested on Steve Hackett's Genesis Revisited 2 album. But playing with him live was like a visit back to your childhood fantasy of wanting to be on stage with your musical heros. There we were doing it and it was so natural. Really felt great!

So let's start with Steve Hackett arriving for rehearsals... We’re on stage rehearsing and both Francis and Steve go back and forth talking about Genesis songs with Steve showing Francis the tuning for Musical Box, Cuckoo Cocoon and others that they just start jamming on right there on stage! It was like a private show. I caught a bunch of it on video but just to be there while it was happening was fascinating! Here was Steve Hackett being super cool and improvising on Genesis tunes with us on stage!

Francis played “Ace of Wands” with  his own finger picking guitar chords underneath which Steve really liked. Everyone there from Frank to Brett Kull and Paul Ramsey of Echolyn to Paul Brown to John Dunnery to Gary Gerson to ANYONE who knew were just over the moon seeing this interaction. We might have even played some of these tunes live!  But we did have an agenda already and one last minute addition was to get Steve to play on one of Francis’s songs from It Bites called “Still To Young To Remember”. So of course Steve Hackett being super cool said “Sure!” and we did it. We also did a Hendrix cover (actually a Dylan song) called “All Along The Watchtower” just to do something completely unexpected. That was Steve's suggestion. Then we worked out “Blood on the Rooftops” with him which I played keys on and Frank sang while Steve played beautiful nylon acoustic… he did a great classical guitar intro that also featured bits from Horizons off of Foxtrot. 

Here's a video of various highlights from the rehearsals and gig from my perspective being the keyboard player... keep in mind I also had to play so could only be camera man for so long! Francis could hardly contain his excitement. "Steve-O!!!". Fun stuff. Check it out. Francis playing Gulley Flats Boys for Steve, talking about Joni Mitchell, jamming on Steve's "Ace of Wands" and all sorts of stuff. 

We worked out a jammy version of “I Know What I Like”!!!!! At this point we were all in SUPER HIGH spirits. Steve had space to do some really cool atmospheric improvisation. It was great. Also, any sort of stress from before went away and we just had a BLAST the whole night when we did the gig. Francis was looking over at me and without saying anything his smile said “It doesn’t get much better than this” which is exactly what he said to me later. I felt the same way. I think Steve knew he was in a good warm place of people who thoroughly appreciated his art, his presence and his sacrifice to be there. I'm so glad I was able to play a part in helping to make this happen for me, Francis and everyone else. 

Someone in the audience posted a clip of "I Know What I Like" from the gig. You can get an idea of how much fun it was.

It was an unforgettable experience playing with all of the people in this gig. We played some of my favorites of Francis's songs like Soldier, Gulley Flats Boys, I'm In Love, My Own Reality, Whoever Brought Me Here and so many more. We also did a variety of songs with other artists such as Brett and Paul of the band Echolyn doing a song called "Past Gravity" from their latest album "Echolyn", we did a beautiful song called "Oh Marie" with Stephen Harris as well as great songs from Aquarian Nation artists John Gilmour Smith and Lars Mosin. I didn't get a chance to really talk to Lars but John drove me back to the hotel to change my shirt and we had a nice chat in the car. All really nice people. 

Here are some pictures of some of those guys (and if you want to see more join my Facebook page): 

Me with Paul Ramsey and Brett Kull of Echolyn

Squids & Sconna: Me with John "Sconna' Dunnery

Got to have a short but great hang with Stephen Harris. The story behind his album is incredible.

Paul Brown, me and Francis Dunnery

The Francis Dunnery Band on stage with Steve Hackett

There was also a great sense of relief when the gig was done. A lot of pressure! But we did it... a major high to come down from. The next day we did a charity walk around Ennerdale lake in the cold wet rain. We had the option of walking just to the bridge or around the whole lake which included slippery rock climbing and water streams going down the back of your neck. I chose the bridge because I couldn’t get sick since I had some big sessions coming up (and I also like living… I didn’t have the right ‘boots’ with me to do that). I had some nice chats with the people who were at the gig that do house concerts with Francis. Stewart, John, Sue, Clare… all very nice people. They loved the show and appreciated that we rocked out and were louder than usual!

Me (wet) with John and Sue

Squids and Stewart (Sav) Savage

I'm really thankful and grateful to all of the people that sponsored me for my walk for the charity. I brought in very close to my goal (91%!) of $1,000 to help children with diseases like cancer and that's a great thing! Everything about the event was positive and I hope that everyone, whether you donated or not, got to have a taste of that energy and experience from the pictures, video and stories shared after the event. I promised a few song downloads to those that sponsored my walk and I will come through for you but I will need you to be patient for it is all. Thank you for your support and above all I am sure there are children and their families that are grateful to all of us for a wonderful thing we did. There should be more of that in the world... and there will be! 

Here's me cold, tired and hungry on the walk around Ennerdale Lake in Cumrbia. (puns intended for FD and IB fans...). Honestly I could go on and on about this weekend with more pictures, video and stories but at least you get an overview of what it was like. A very memorable time. I happen to know what's planned for next year already. I can't reveal what it is but if it does happen... wow! What a great thing Francis and Erica have going with the CKDCF. They work so hard to make it amazing for everyone and they deserve a lot of praise for that. 

Preparing for the gig!

Our first rehearsals for the CKDCF charity concert were at the Seacote Hotel where most of us were staying. Steve Hackett, the guys from Echolyn and some other guests were staying at a more posh hotel that was supposedly haunted. But more about that later! Haha. (No there was no ghost appearing with a fox head and a dress or anything like that). We went through the tunes just with me, Francis, John "Sconna" Dunnery and Paul Brown.

All of those guys have played with Francis before but I haven't so I had no idea how he was on a gig or in rehearsals. I saw a whole other side to him and he was tough! It was like boot camp because he's an amazing musician with decades of experience and everyone else, by comparison, 'dabbles' with it. After all the things going on with my brother's wedding, juggling an overload of things on my plate and some shameful procrastination, I didn't come as prepared as I should have and he let me have it... all the way to the point where he joked around even at the gig itself saying I hadn't learned the songs and I was winging it. Of course by the time we did the gig I had learned the songs or we couldn't have played them... that's not to say I didn't have plenty of cheat sheets on my music stand and some winging it missed the mark. But it didn't matter then and in actuality I made no less mistakes than anyone else. The energy was high and the spirit of the event took front seat to everything.

To get 'there' I did have a few extra road blocks to overcome. I had a few buzz kills like my Nord Wave keyboard that I had lugged around England on trains and the Underground sort of 'blowing up' the minute I turned it on. That's because, despite what a few techs told me, it was not able to handle UK power (on a deeper level it was because I was 'out of alignment' and that gave room for something like this to happen). I saw it light up for a second and then POOF it was gone and my heart sunk. Fortunately enough my own company Sonic Reality's sounds and IK's SampleTank music software saved me! I had everything I was doing on the Nord Wave right there on my laptop. Cool to put our own products to the test! I should have just used my laptop in the first place but I do like that Wave for live use because I can reach for a knob on the fly. I did still have my Nord Stage 2 with me (rented... ie 'smart') and did some on the fly knob twirling and foot pedaling on that. The rig turned out just right in the end.

SampleTank with Sonic Reality sounds on my laptop at the gig

I have to say that it was one of the most challenging gigs for me to have 20 songs down, an unexpected change in my set up and sounds plus finding that 'magic sync' with Francis which reportedly really only happened for 10 seconds in the song "Heartache Reborn" (according to Francis... according to everyone else the whole show was on the money! haha).  

Here's a video of the next phase of rehearsals the day of the event. We didn't have too much time to rehearse everything which was like a fire under everyone's asses to get it all together... and I was the resident keyboardist playing on everyone's tunes so I had a heavy work load! Fortunately Gary Gerson, Francis's tech, loaded me up with Red Bulls which was my fuel to get through it. Phil Beaumont was also there to make sure I had everything I needed. Paul Brown, Paul Ramsey and John Dunnery, the other main players in the band, were extremely supportive and cool with me (being the newest to be part of that 'family'). The band chemistry was instant and fantastic. 

So, when Paul Ramsey and Brett Kull of the band Echolyn (check out their latest album titled "Echolyn". It's great!) arrived we were able to finally rehearse "Whoever Brought Me Here" and everything else with drums. We also went over the powerful Echolyn song "Past Gravity" in rehearsals which you can hear a short bit of in this video. You can see my rig, Hackett's rig and a few other things. 

I've been working with Francis on my "Sonic Elements" projects and we've become really good friends. I helped him get on the Steve Hackett "Genesis Revisited 2" album which then led to Steve Hackett's guest appearance at this charity gig so we could all cross that off our bucket list finally after all these years! It was amazing. It really was an honor for me to be there with all of those great people.

I'll post more about Hackett's arrival but for now I'll share with you a cool video montage of our celebrating his presence at this event which was already an incredible group of people. Steve and his wife Jo were so nice and friendly. It was great of them to come. They seemed genuinely happy to be there and all of us were beyond ecstatic. People who have known Francis for years say they've never seen him quite like this. He couldn't contain himself. "Steve-o!!!!" Haha. Priceless stuff. Watching Francis Dunnery and Steve Hackett improvise on Steve's "Ace of Wands" was magic. But that's just the tip of the iceberg...