I should probably explain what the dealio is with “Canyons.” “Why?,” you might be asking. “How come Canyons?! Where are my sweatpants?” The only answer I can give really is that I liked the name more than I liked the others. Not to say that there was no hard working, sweat-inducing, snarl-provoking mental strain involved. You see, for those of you who have never had to name their band (fake bands count too…and so do club names), you may not realize just how terribly difficult it really is to create a good band name.
Most importantly, you must choose a band name that speaks for the music the band is creating. My friend Gina told me tonight about a band named “Vampire Weekend” because she thought I would really like it. I trust her musical judgments, and yet the name “Vampire Weekend” suggests a style of music that I normally wouldn’t listen to. Had it been “Apple Sauce Weekend,” maybe it would’ve been a different story…
To date, the best band name I’ve come up with is “Ebonic Plague”. It was the name of a band I played bass in. It was a Bagpipe, bass, sax, percussion, Kazoo, free jazz quartet. We played one gig, and cleared a full house out with in 5 minutes.
The worst? “Allah’s yo Mamma”
So anyways, I decided “Canyons” really encapsulated my sound and myself. I’m happy with it and now, I can be Canyons no matter who I play with. I like you and I hope you like Canyons too.
It was either that or “Apple Sauce Weekend.”
I’ve returned from London finally after studying there for four months. I found it very inspirational and I wrote more new music in a four month period than I ever have before. I have written 13+ new songs since the release of All Day Dreamer and continued to improve my production skills. I’ve lately been listening to a lot of Dance music (thanks London!) and trip hop and so have been experimenting with hip hop production techniques in the context of my own music. I’ve been really happy with the songs I’m coming up with. Since my return to the states, my writing muse has left me so I’ve been focusing on performing. I played guitar at a few shows with a band called Liquid Theory over my Christmas break. They are a Jam band based in Sedona that plays a lot of Phish. I love Phish and know most of their songs by heart. I was a die-hard Phish Head early in my high school, and its left a deep impression on the music I play today (although perhaps subtle). I started out playing trombone with them for about two years and was part of the “Big Girls Don’t Cry Brass Band” with my good friend Reid Watkins, who plays saxophone. Reid and I have found ourselves playing horns together numerous times over the past couple of years as we were the horn section in another band IBM as well.
As awful at trombone as I am, playing with the energy of such a loud electrified band is always inspiring to me. It’s such a great feeling to play for a large crowd of people drunk with energy and I always realize that its hard to recreate that kind of energy with just an acoustic guitar. Thusly, I’ve been experimenting with ways of giving my acoustic solo shows more energy, or at least until I find a band. Mainly, I’ve been using Propellerhead’s reason software to produce beats and backing tracks for live shows. The hope is that these backing tracks can also be used as my demos for the EP I hope to record this summer.
I still need to find a band to play with. But until I have musicians lined up for Canyons, I suppose I’ll always be in The Big Girls Don’t Cry Brass Band if I need gigs.
