November 1999 Journal...

So. I spent two weeks in Colorado, holed up, writing. Battling the muse, climbing the mountain, and definitely feeling the altitude! I'm demoing and cutting and pasting and honing in on the final versions of things. I'll be on the road a bit in the next few weeks trying out the new ideas in a pressure setting! It's always nice to let the songs evolve a little before actually recording. They change so much in front of an audience. I have two dates in LA and two in NYC and I'm going to bring the spanky band for those.

Meanwhile I've been working on a couple of weird songs that I might want to offer up for downloading. There's an old traditional folk song called "The Death of Queen Jane" that I've remembered from somewhere over the years. I've been experimenting with looping strange sounds and warped vocal textures, and this tune has been the perfect guinea pig. I'm so intrigued by the haphazard musical collisions that happen when you don't try to line everything up. Then floating the melody over that. Stay tuned.

We got a little website photo op in the October issue of Electronic Musician. They used our website home page as an example in an article on effective self-promotion. There you have it. Shameless.

We never made it to Europe this fall, big disappointment. Circumstances did not permit. But hopefully I'll get over that ocean sometime next year. It was nice to see some of you crazy Europeans making the trip this way -- Elmer, New Jersey and Toronto, ONT -- who knew? Thanks for such avid support!!

I plan to start recording after Thanksgiving. But I'm keeping the ideas loose and flexible. Anything could happen.

What else?? VH-1 is doing a series of specials about artists and the internet as an alternative means to their ends. They came over and did a little interview with me. Where do I think the www will be in ten years??? Is the internet the end of the music business as we know it? Who knows! I'm still nostalgic for LPs and turntables!! And albums being of a whole, not a couple of "singles" and some filler. What happened to that sense of music truly being a record? -- a piece of work representing a piece of time and life. Am I so old fashioned? Don't get me wrong -- I think it's a wonderful tool, especially if you're established, and it's been a wonderful outlet for me, and an empowering statement. But videos never replaced movies, downloadable, disposable goods will never replace the experience of finding, touching, dissecting a beautiful piece of art (Plus downloading is hard and time consuming). I'm afraid we'll lose our sense of the value of things -- the value of our work. Maybe that's a precious concept but I think I'm not the only one to worry. Evidently they're going to be posting my interview on their website in the near future so check it out if you'd like.

Anyway, I digress, and run on, and on onward and over,
Jonatha