On the flights from Chicago to Iceland to Paris, I was scribbling in my notebook like a madman. Call it honeymoon excitement or possibly an effect of recycled air, it was nothing short of a creative cloudburst. I’ve decided to start work on a full-length album, tentatively titled “Reality Jockey”. I’d like to release 12, 15, or maybe even 17 tracks, including some instrumental passages that I wrote using original music theory based on the math of nature for my Kaleidoscope project.
While in Paris, we visited the Père Lachaise Cemetery, which is most commonly known to us Yanks as the burial place of Jim Morrison. Who else is buried there? Honoré de Balzac, Marcel Proust, Georges Seurat, Oscar Wilde, Sarah Bernhardt, Gertrude Stein, Edith Piaf, Marcel Marceau, and also: Frédéric Chopin. I’ve begun writing a song called “Famous Bones”, inspired by our day at the famous burial ground. The song is told from the perspective of the ordinary guy who had the unusual circumstance of being interred next to Chopin.
There are plenty of things I can talk about in Famous Bones and I plan to have a lot of fun with it. Is the guy buried next to Chopin jealous of all the visitors his neighbor gets? Or does he think it’s kinda cool? Maybe the guy just can’t get any peace and quiet. I could also delve into the superficial aspects of fame, and how when you’re a stack of bones it doesn’t amount to much. Or does it?
February is coming soon, and that’s the month of the RPM Challenge. In 2015, I wrote the prescribed 10 songs in a month and I plan to use that time and energy this year to go to town on putting together Reality Jockey.
If you follow my blog at all, you may know I have a love/hate relationship with sharing my work as I’m making it. I understand this largely affects people who began creating before the internet was around. I am trying, and will continue to try to share more of my process along the way.
Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more!
