Live from the Struggle

     To follow up on my last post, another one has bit the dust.  I have lost another family member, and I miss her.  It is quite the trek through this valley, I must say!  But I try to chalk it up as another log in the fire that is burning under my... tushy ;)  It reminds me of when Scobra was working on the Pat's Justice album, Live From The Struggle.  We used to say it all the time while it was being recorded, 'Live from the struggle, that's why I gotta hustle' as he said.  We lost 5 people in the making of that album, some of which are even recorded on it.  The single on that album, "Scream and Shout" was a labor of love written and recorded in their honor.  And yet what a beautiful mark to leave behind, a song, a word, an action recording a singular moment in time.
    So I am still striving to do my part, and leave my mark - as mortality is all too real to me at the moment.  But even as this chapter (or album one might say...) is coming to a sonic-sensual close, another one is already a few paragraphs in.  Scobra and I are not only getting very excited about the next album (and believe me, there are songs written and recorded for it already) but we are doing some work on the soundtracks for a few feature films that are in production as well.  It is wonderful to be working with LA again (not that we ever really stopped) and also to be working with such wonderful people in an industry that has so few of them.  Sorry, but that's just the truth.  -If you think music has megalomaniacs, go make a film!  But happily, the folks that we are working with are dear friends, with sound minds and hearts... and ears that like the sound of RTB!              
     All in all, I'm still slogging along... dancing too though!  I'll admit, I'm vacillating between the two right now.  But the dance of life is returning to me, and I'm happy to be taking part :)

-Dion

Down in the valley

     It has been a little while since I wrote last.  In most regards, the news picks up where it left off - only further ahead...  Not to let the cat out of the bag, but you will soon be hearing our tracks coming from the silver screen. Yep, you got it, we have some really amazing film placements coming up.  BUT that has also meant that before finishing off all 14 of these tracks, we had to take a hard look at them AGAIN.  Think of it this way, if you had your song playing through Dolby Surround Sound, wouldn't you want it to sound perfect?  Because you know that if there is any little monster hiding in that mix, it is going to become crystal clear in that setting.... SO... we are almost finished remixing everything to the K-20 (cinematic) standard.  And our album is still set to be mastered by none other than the wonderful Bob Katz (the K in K-20 is for Katz, the man wrote the book and the programs for mastering!!!!).  So we are still, excitedly plugging away at this labor of love, and I think that it's nearly done.  -Almost time to push our little fledglings out of the nest and to see them take flight!
     But on a more personal note, it has been, and continues to be a very difficult journey.  I have lost a lot of family members in these last few years, and last month I lost my great grandmother, and my uncle.  This month I will be losing my aunt.  This snowball effect has been taking a bit of a toll on me.  On one hand, it makes me work that much harder at my art and life, because I know now that there is no pulling the wool over my family's eyes when they are no longer chained to their bodies.  I want to make them proud of how I am living my life.  And I feel that I am.  But I also have moments of feeling like I am stuck in a blizzard, trying to find my way back to camp.  Maybe I'm holding a rope that leads back to camp, maybe the rope just leads to a cliff, or a dead body, or more snow... I feel like I am straining to catch a glimpse of any familiar markers so as to get my bearings.  But it's too hard to say what is delusion, illusion, and reality, and how do I separate them?
     I do not mean to frighten people by this.  I am not entirely lost, I am not drowned or immobilized by grief, I am only trying to be truthful in how I live and feel.  As an artist, this is my duty.  And as an excavator of the human condition, I must leave no stone unturned.  As I feel this world around me changing by the moment, I have to stop and remember from time to time that TIME itself is an illusion.  And even that is a struggle for me.  There is so much that I want to give, so much that I want to love, and so much that I want to create, that  at moments like this in my life, I fear that there is not enough time.  But I shake these delusions off as best I can, and as a warrior of peace and love, which I believe takes more strength than destruction ever will, I set to task again and again.  -Hoping to create something boundless, timeless, for everyone to love and feel loved by.  So even in the valley, perhaps the valley of death, perhaps the valley that I live in, I strive not to hang my head low, but to keep it straight ahead and to walk without fear.  To walk with the knowledge of infinite love and life as it truly is.  That is my art, and that is my challenge.

-Dion Vox

Fundage

Well, at the expense of my title sounding like a Polly Shore word, I am excited to announce that we are getting ready to launch a big ol' fundraiser to put our album out.  We just lined up a world-class mastering engineer to master the album.  I just saw the sketch of the album cover (gorgeous!), and we have a studio lined up to drop all of our mixes to two inch tape before they are mastered.  Everything is coming together in a really wonderful way.  And the things that we are learning about sound in the process are mind blowing.  Even though this album has been more work than I think Scobra and I ever dreamed it would be, through all of it, this project has taken on a life of it's own.  Odd as it may sound, I feel like this album is much bigger than just something that I have been working on.  So many amazing talents have lent themselves and their energy to this.  Countless people have supported us along the way, and with all of that energy thrown in the pot... well... we've created a mind blowing monster.  :)

But back to the point!  I spent all day yesterday working out the details of our fundraiser that will be launching in the next few weeks on kickstarter.com.  If you've never checked that site out, I suggest you do.  I have been going there for the last year purely out of interest.  You can find the coolest people working on the coolest projects on that site (and of course you can support them as well).  I have even made some friends through the different projects that I have supported.  But in short - we have some great gifts that we are getting together for the supporters of our upcoming kickstarter campaign.  Not to let too much of the cat out of the bag, but we're talking handwritten lyrics, signed and numbered copies of our EP (which is a limited pressing), posters, t-shirts, even videos and performances dedicated to our future supporters.  So not only am I excited to finish up and launch this album, but I am excited to get a chance to give some soul-made goods to the good folks that support us.  I'm excited to interact with everyone, and for the chance for us all to come together to built the last bits of this magnificent castle in the clouds.  And once that castle is finished, there will be no mote, no drawbridge, and everyone is invited to every party!

I'm being silly, I know.  But I have been chipping away at this mountain with my teaspoon for a while now.  And my little pile of gravel is growing quite nicely.  But I can't wait for this opportunity for everyone to lend a hand (and a teaspoon) for just one day.  Because I know after that, the mountain will start to shift of its own accord.

Hopeful and happily working very very hard,
-Dion Vox

The Heat

     Yesterday was a whopping 94 degrees.  One would think that I would be used to this, having moved back up to Seattle from Los Angeles, but humidity here is a different game.  None the less, aside from some more sweat being added to the making of Footnotes (did I mention that that is the name of our album?) it was a productive day.  We worked on Empty Promises, which has an entirely new verse being added to it.  Actually, the verse was written when I wrote the song, but for whatever reason, it never got recorded.  So we re-recorded it and worked on it yesterday.  I also had the chance to hang with our drummer Andrew McInnis later that evening.  What a great guy, and an invaluable addition to RTB!  We have all had our nose to the grindstone very heavily for the last month, and so it was a delight to be able to just sit for a moment and catch up.
     I am also very excited to announce that we are doing a lot of work right now for our show at Seattle's first annual Founder's Day Festival.  There is going to be an interactive fashion show with several designers that is being lined up right now.  And one of them is custom designing a costume for me!!! :)  So I spoke with her yesterday, and we will be buying the fabric for it this coming Monday.  Think futuristic pin-up with some steam-punk thrown into the mix.
     So all in all, we're truckin' along, even in this new (and rather oppressive) heat.  It probably does the sound good though, a little salt to season it just right.

xo
-Dion Vox

Fingers Crossed

     Still 'singing the same song' as it were - still finishing the album.  We have completed several songs now (as in, ready for mastering) and as of last night, Too Late was added to that list.  So we're making headway... track by track, day by day.  I have also been busting my patooty trying to raise funds to cover all that needs doing before we can release it.  I applied to some small grants on Tuesday... haven't heard back yet of course.  What I really think I'm a gonna do is have a little fund-raiser... Because to be honest, I just don't know how to come up with the $2,000 that we need to actually make this album something legally protected, and in tangible form.  So far, Scobra and I have payed for everything, and it has cost us pretty much everything we had.  So now - to be blunt - we don't even have cream for our coffee, and in about 2 days, I think that the coffee will be gone too...  Not that you will find either of us complaining or retreating.  But I'll just leave it at, "you may want to stay in tune for the upcoming fund-raising extravaganza!"

     I still feel confident in saying, however, that this work of art is something that I am proud to have helped create.  Patience is bitter, but it's fruit is sweet.

xoxo
-Dion Vox

Dream Chords

     Well, to update y'all on yesterday's progress, aside from a lot of mixing.  Scobra and I went over and visited with Russ Meltzer of the Black Cat Orchestra, who has agreed to lay down some guitar tracks on our undercover hit that we are working on (the last song on the album).  When I heard some of his basic sketches, and just the sound of his guitar alone; I damn near melted.  It was beautiful.  And I also feel confident in saying that I watched and listened to Russ play his guitar, it was like no one else I have ever witnessed.  Such complete control and grasp of his instrument!
     So now the anticipation to be able to share this track when it is finished is even higher!

     Today, we will be doing A TON more mixing, and then this evening I am going to do a little solo performance of Dirty Trick at a friend's coffee shop.  Hopefully it will be a duo though, and I can convince Scobra to play along on bass.  He wrote an absolutely smokin' base line to that song!

Over and out,
-Dion Vox

Bang Bang

     Yesterday during the rather explosive holiday of July the 4th, instead of any BBQ, we sunk our teeth even deeper into the album.  I am happy to report that after a long and lovely evening, we have finalized the track order of our upcoming album.  It was an amazing experience when it was finished, to just hit 'play' and to listen to the whole thing from beginning to end.  Up until that point, I had been having a rather difficult time really visualizing or understanding the collection as a whole.  To get the flavor not only from course to course, but of the meal as well.  So the experience that I had when I was finally able to just close my eyes, and hear it from top to bottom had a profound effect on me.  I felt that in the beginning, the first track was like tumbling down Alice in Wonderland's rabbit hole, tumbling into a different world.  Then the second track was Wonderland in all it's high-energy craziness and glory.  From there the music found it's fingers around my heart, and lead me to quiet my mind and sink even deeper into the experience.  Once fully immersed in this world, I felt my soul being stretched, strained, played with, and soothed by the songs as they lead me through their beautiful maze.  I felt joy and fun in the contrast between the energies and the sounds, as one track felt like it would take me deep into the underground, and the next would have me feel that I was dancing on the rooftop of a high-rise.  Back and forth, from the moles to the sparrows it took me until there came a point where the contrast was sharp.  It almost caught me for a moment as I sat there listening.  I wasn't sure how I felt about this.  But as I listened further, I had my heart drawn in so fiercely, that I felt that this song was like a salve upon my heart and soul, and that I had needed it very much.  Then, as that song had ended, it felt as though the sun were setting at the end of a warm summer's day, and suddenly there was revelry and mayhem was being build and stoked like a great bonfire.  A party in my imagination erupted that would have made Bacchus proud.  From such fierce longing, soothing, and then ultimate release, the next song lead me to feel waltzed from such an intense catharsis, and to be deposited into a sort of surreal bliss.  Delicate, vulnerable, just a drop of melancholy, and then for a moment - a plea.  From the tenderest parts of my heart and soul - this song finally lead me to the final chapter.  Our last song, I can say with some confidence, is GOLD.  It is a song that has never been played, or released to the public.  It is our little hidden jackpot that I can't wait to break out of captivity!!  But truly, nothing could have finished off the album, or the journey that I experienced while listening to it, as completely, elegantly, and undeniably as that last song did.
     So there you have it:  all in one paragraph, and in all of it's abstract glory.  I can't wait to be able to share this whole album with everyone!  But first, I must finish it... So you can guess what I will CONTINUE to do all day today, and probably tomorrow as well :)

Happily exhausted, and yours truly,

-Dion Vox

The Beauty of Doing

     So, since I feel like I opened up a whole new can of worms in my last post: I feel inspired to follow it up with further explanations and explorations. For instance, at this very moment, Scobra is in the home studio laying down AMAZING live bass tracks on our song Dirty Trick. See, that's one of the really exciting things about finishing the album right now! You may think that you know what certain songs sound like (at least, that's what I thought). But once you open them up, and start playing with the fabric, laying down or adding to it, cutting some away, seeing what sort of form it takes... Well, some of our songs that I thought already had their classic sound to them - are now even more superlative.

     For the record {not the one we are finishing, but for documentation ;) }, I never thought that I would make music of my own in this life. Even though I did it during all of my childhood. And then studied the craft of doing other people's work, I stopped doing my own, and didn't even care that I had lost that ability. To be perfectly frank, I was also lucky enough to be surrounded by several musical geniuses, professionals, icons, and utter failures ( all different categories of people, not necessarily all the same person... although whose to say a few aren't in a few as well...) and so to put myself out there in that arena was something that I never figured myself to be even creatively capable of. So in embarking upon music once again since then, I have had an amazingly fun and free time getting to be a part of so many more musical aspects of it than just the vocals. Everyone is having fun at trying out any and/or everything! Some of what has come from it is pure GOLD! And it's a blast!

     Perhaps I am blissful, but delirious. I cannot deceive you that this has been or is a simple or painless process. And we have been regularly pulling 16-18 hour days at this for the last 5 weeks now. It's been pretty non-stop. But sometimes I find, in any art form, that when you quit thinking about what you're trying to do, and just jump in and do it - the end product is much less pretentious, and much more beautiful.  

-Dion Vox

The End and Explanation of our Journey

 These last few months have been a time of serious incubation.  We have been working on our album, and have come across many... shall we say pleasantly difficult surprises along the road.  Ramona The Band suffers from having too many songs to choose from.  Every time we get around to saying, 'we should just pick the songs, finish them, and release the album' we start picking the songs.  Then we start finding several songs in "the vault" that we had completely forgotten about.  We wrote, and recorded them on the spot, and then saved a copy somewhere strange, and subsequently we would never have listened to them since recording them.  So then we get all excited about this great new material, and so of course it should be on the album.  But often our songs start out as a scratch track with a very skeletal instrumental track of sometimes nothing more than a drum beat, and perhaps a base line and a few piano notes here and there.  That is what I will write words to, and then melodies, harmonies, etc. and record on.  So when we find these hidden gems, it is truly only a potential diamond in the rough; and A LOT of work then has to go into flushing out the basics of what we have into a nice, plump, full-fledged song.  Well, that process alone on a song or two can suck us in for a months at a time.  And also, during that time, we may just write and record a few more gems that will creep up to the surface in another six months.  So it's quite the lovely, but crazy-creative cycle that we exist in. 
      

     Thus, I hope that you can understand why it has taken us a good while to get this album "finished".  But because of all of the wonderful time that we have had, every one of the 14 tracks that we have chosen are the true cream of the crop.  In a really wonderful way, they each remind me of some monumental moment in our 2 and a half years as a band, and also, in my rather wild journey through life.  We have starved for these tracks, we have lost blood for these tracks, lost sleep, money, freedom, tears...  But we have also gained so much by committing ourselves fearlessly in the pursuit of creative truth to humanity. 
    

      Therefore, and am very excited to see how my creative truth resonates with those that it comes in contact with.  Because for me, in all of the art forms that I have studied, the ideal goal is to translate the truth of a character, feeling, or idea, to everyone that comes in contact with it.   I can't claim to know yet how my shot at musical truth will go over yet.  But I look forward to finding out, regardless of the outcome.  So thanks to all of you that have listened, seen, and even shared with us.  Because, at risk of sounding cliche, without everyone of you guys that are reading this right now, and even a good number that aren't; absolutely none of this would be possible.
 
My warmest, and happiest regards,
 
-Dion Vox