A seaflux jam, featuring Matt Wilson on bass. This was also the first real "christening" of our new rehearsal space at Flood Studios. Thanks to Feline for setting that up for us.

This is a paper I wrote at some point during my Master's work. I think I had to do it because I kept forgetting to go to class, but I don't remember putting this much effort into it. It does a decent job of describing how it felt to finally break through various mental blocks about songwriting and composition.

[most emphasis is non-essential]

The compositional process has always been a difficult subject for me to adequately understand. For a long time I put forth a lot of effort to make my style of writing fit into a particular mold, only to be disappointed with the results. For an equally long time I had an idea of the kind of music I wanted to write, but I couldn't find the right method or approach to create this sound I heard.

This diatribe is a way for me to document the various discoveries I made as I began to develop my writing. Some of these things are really "well, duh..." kind of discoveries, but for me they are a way of simplifying important concepts that I find easy to forget.

Players:
Matt Cole – drums
Matt Wilson – bass
Phil Christensen – guitar

The fruits of a recent jam session with a couple of my favorite players. We had gotten a room at Smash Studios in Manhattan, but forgotten it was right around the corner from MSG. The circus was in town (really!) and we ended up getting royally boned on parking.

The expense was well worth it, however. Although we'd all been out of practice and forced to do the "day job thing" since our respective bands dissolved, I thought there were some really nice jams that came out of this session.

"You know, the courts may not be working anymore, but as long as everyone is videotaping everyone else, justice will be done."

it's funny how some things turn out.

a few years ago, i tried making an "electronic" composition, with the intent of making fun of the various genres therin. in the end, i liked working in these styles enough that i made several pieces in this vein, including, of course, the score to inside out.

the chronology of these tracks is all over the place. this bothers my OCD to no end, but it does give a glimpse of the development of my compositional approach to this stuff. i'd also like to mention the following amazing pieces of software: propellerheads' reason, ableton live, and everything ever made by the native instruments company.

InsideOut is the story of an ordinary man who wakes up trapped. We struggle with Harold as he attempts to make sense of his new world, who he is, and why he's inside...

This music was created in its entirety for InsideOut, but in practice only a small subset was actually heard, as changes in pace and dialogue required edits in the original score. This is the full collection of pieces, complete and unedited, including a track or two that were never heard in the final version of the show.

Top Row:

Ernie Ball VP Jr., Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2+, Dunlop Crybaby, Sovtek Big Muff Pi, Boss Metal Zone

Bottom Row:

Boss Loopstation XL-20, Boss Digital Delay DD-3, Analogman King of Tone, Analogman Bi-Comprossor, Boss Octave OC-3

it's incredibly easy for musicians to say, "once this happens, i can do this other thing."

i've been trying to get (and keep) a band together for some time now, but the progress has been less than i had hoped. it seemed that every piece of music i wrote or recorded was just a demo for the band i was going to have. in addition, the unforgiving realities of my day job meant i didn't get nearly as much time to compose as i would like.

so this is what i have. this is what i like to do, and i think it sounds nice. this is me practicing, yes — but i'm hoping you won't mind. on one hand, you'll hear a few more mistakes than you might on a "real" album...on the other hand, i'm hoping the resulting freedom of this one-take, single-mic recording will illustrate some glimpse of things to come.

With Joel Bouchard. Recorded 2006-11-12 @ Joel's house in Albany.

In the beginning of April, I got some friends and cohorts together to record a live ep, consisting of some of my "classics". following a delusional miles davis complex, i decided not to give the players anything to listen to of the tracks we were about to record, so they only had one rehearsal before the big day.

i specifically wanted something filled with "the human element", and i got exactly that. this was kind of my response to the sterilized studio environment at suny purchase, and i was very happy with the results...

1. ghetto queen (Christensen)
2. pathways (Christensen)
3. who stepped on diz's horn (Christensen/Wilson)
4. harvest (Christensen/Hovish)
5. if i could see (Christensen)

The players on this session were: