Writer's Block (Blog?)

The fact that my last blog is some kind of "prose" on the joys and sorrows of teaching preschool says a lot about the current state of things in my creative life and I'm not pleased. I think that my job 007ed its way into my creative life and there is a risk of it taking over. In fact, I think my job has become my creative life. I realized this when for the millionth time, I picked up my guitar and nothing happened...I plugged in my microkorg and zoned out with the thunderstorm/bombs falling sound...then I tried the ukulele with a tad more progress... I found myself beating the living room chairs with drumsticks and whistling through a recorder playing "Red River Valley" (a leftover tune from 3rd grade that is still apparently taking up precious space in the corners of my mind)... I'm in a creative rut. In fact I've used the word "creative" 5 times already within the first paragraph of this blog which is proof of my predicament. I'm finally going to put my priorities back in order... yes, the teaching thing pays the bills and it's a good job but I can't let it suck the artist out of me.

Last month I and Lindsay (aka The Loyal We) had the incredible good fortune to go on a mini tour with One One and Can Can from Tokyo to Nagoya and Osaka. One One is made up of members of Deerhoof (Greg and Satomi) and Tenniscoats (Saya and Ueno). Not only were they exciting to watch on stage but they are all very down to earth good people. It was the first time I got to hang out with (and by "hang out" I mean go on a road trip with) people who actually make a living making music and touring. Being on tour with them and hearing their positive reactions to our music made this dream of mine seem attainable. The Loyal We finished recording our album months ago and the whole process of final mixes, mastering, art work, PV shooting etc etc is moving along at a snail's pace. Somewhere along the way I lost my focus. Playing that tour and finally meeting with our label after several reschedulings seems to be getting me back on track. Hopefully my abilities of making ponchos out of brown paper bags and deigning ways to distract 3 year olds from killing each other will translate into song writing once again.

Ok now I've spent enough time on the computer and it's time to go change those guitar strings. Here are some photos from the tour :)

One One Tour