Merry Christmas, all

I want to wish everybody a merry Christmas, a happy New Year, and all that good stuff.

Just to bring you up to speed, the enormously talented Merideth Kirry has recorded her vocals for the new album.  Needless to say, I am incredibly pleased with how they came out -- the downside being that I have to redo some of my harmonies to try to bring them up to par with Merideth's singing.  But it's a nice challenge.

Christmas day will mark five weeks until my wife's due date.  Crazy stuff, my friends.  Crazy stuff.

And finally, what with this being the Christmas season and all, I thought I'd share my lone original Christmas song.  I had toyed with the idea of a Christmas album a while back -- I'm still planning on it sometime in the future.  In any case, enjoy!



I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season.  Be well, laugh often, and be good to each other.

Cheers,
Aaron

www.aarongabriel.net

Update: new album and Free Range Theatre

Goodness, how the time flies.  The better part of three weeks, and not a peep from me.  Of course, some, most, or all of you might think that's not such a bad thing.  And if so, well...I was trying to think of something clever, and I came up empty.  I suppose you could ask, "Well, gee, Aaron, you're typing this thing and posting it at your own discretion.  Why not take the time to actually come up with something clever?"  The answer is twofold: laziness, and the desire to be as honest as possible.  I'm not going to mislead the (I'm assuming) dozens of people who might be reading this into thinking that I'm a quick-witted master of repartee.  I'm not bad, but I'm not brilliant, and I don't want to come across as otherwise.

Well, that was an odd beginning.  Let's move on, shall we?

Progress on the new album is coming along swimmingly.  I think I can safely say I'm at least 2/3 of the way through the recording process; on my end, at least.  I'm hoping to get the very talented Merideth Kirry to sing on a few tracks -- if that happens, I'm going to be very happy, because her voice is tremendous.  There's also the slight chance I might be getting someone to play a violin solo on one of my songs -- stay tuned on that one!  And once I'm done with that stuff, I'll be passing along several tracks to my brother Adam, to add some bass guitar tracks.

I've said it before, but I am very excited about this album.  It will definitely be bigger than my last album, in that there will be more elements to it, giving it a big, full sound (or so I hope).  It will also be different than my last album, but I don't view that as a bad thing -- I went into this not wanting to make a carbon copy of my old stuff.  I like my old stuff.  I also like my new stuff.  I think they can both live in harmony.

I had my first read-through of my radio show-themed project this past weekend.  Turnout wasn't great, due to conflicting schedules and what-not, so there were only four of us there.  Even so, it was a lot of fun, and something I'm definitely going to pursue.  My brother Nick (one of those in attendance) dubbed this venture Free Range Theatre, which I absolutely love for a title/descriptor.  I'm hoping to get at least one of the skits recorded in the near future and put it up online, see what people think.  I'm not really expecting to make much of an impression with this -- it's just a nice way to get together with people I enjoy and have a lot of fun in the process.

My wife and I are around 18 weeks.  Everything's looking good so far.  Very exciting.

Be well.

Aaron
www.aarongabriel.net

A new video, plus Cactoid Jim

 I figured I'd take a step back from my somewhat political rant last time and focus on more music-related stuff this time around!

 

Work on the new album is still going smoothly.  I'm trying to take my time with it, which brings its own annoyances, mainly because I'm really impatient, and I'm really excited about the new album.  I think it's going to be good.

 

After some (somewhat strange) insistence, I went ahead and made a Youtube video for "You Don't Know My Heart."  It is nothing fancy -- just some various pictures made into a slideshow.  But I guess it helps to get a more "official" video out there.  Take a look:

 

 

I'm not sure if I've mentioned before or not, but I am a huge fan of the Thrilling Adventure Hour, an online program done in the style of old-time radio.  It is really funny, the music is fantastic, and the actors involved are some of my favorites.  I decided to invoke my inner nerd and do my own rendition of the Cactoid Jim theme.  Cactoid Jim, King of the Martian Frontier, is a recurring character voiced by Nathan Fillion.  I sent them my song, and they liked it!  How about that?

 

I've been thinking a lot lately about what I want to do after the album is done.  I've mentioned about working on a Christmas album, but what with my wife and I expecting a baby this winter, I'm thinking shutting myself away for hours on end to record would just be kind of unrealistic.  I've got some ideas swirling around for at least two musicals, as well as ideas for my own radio-themed comedy show -- those ideas involve more writing than recording, so it might work out easier to squeeze in while raising a baby.

Who knows?  The future is looking rather exciting.

Cheers,
Aaron
www.aarongabriel.net

My most political blog yet!

I tend not to get into politics on this blog.  People are entitled to their own beliefs and opinions, and I don't want to sound preachy.  However, this is my blog, and I can do what I want with it.  So here I go!

Yesterday, June 26th, 2013, the Supreme Court struck down the Defense Of Marriage Act, and in my opinion, it was about bloody time.  I have no idea why people are so horrified at the thought of same-sex marriage -- "It's an abomination!  The Bible says so!"  Well, the Bible also says you can stone your wife and sell your daughter.  My point is, picking and choosing what parts of the Bible to zealously enforce and what parts to completely ignore is absolutely ridiculous.  Also, I'm pretty sure the Bible is anti-divorce, but that doesn't seem to stop more than half of our "sacred unions" from ending  up in divorce.  If people truly love each other, I don't see how orientation has anything to do with it.

Anybody remember Jesus?  You know, the son of God who came among us to preach about love, forgiveness, and brotherhood?  The same guy who told us not to judge, lest we be judged?  I thought you might.  People spend so much of their time and energy hating each other that we forget one simple truth: we are God's children, and He loves us.  And if God loves us, shouldn't we do the same for each other?

Don't get me wrong -- I am by no means a perfect man.  Far from it.  But I don't understand what is so wrong with allowing my fellow human beings, my brothers and sisters, to be accepted by our society, regarded as one of the best on the planet, as equals.

Speaking of equals...what is with the misplaced anger towards women?  And why do politicians seem almost gleeful when showing their contempt of them?  Society seems to be in this strange atmosphere of making women feel ashamed of themselves for just being women, and it's absolutely horrendous.

I'm going to be honest with you: I love women.  I am a big fan of the female form.  Does that mean I'm completely unable to control myself when I'm around women?  Of course not.  Self-control is not a horrible burden on my lifestyle; shaming women into blaming themselves when men act completely inappropriately towards them only reinforces the concept that men don't have to take or accept any responsibility for their actions.  That's the crux of the thing: men pushing responsibility away from themselves and on to others.

I'm happily married to a wife that I love and adore.  Some of my closest, dearest friends are women.  In my life I have found women to be strong, brave, funny, and (more often than not) a hell of a lot smarter than I am.  Do I resent them because of these things?  Of course not!  It makes me appreciate them all the more.  I do not feel threatened or emasculated by them -- I love them, and they love me.  My wife trusts that I will behave myself, and I'm gratified by her trust in me.

I'm going to dip my toe a bit into the issues surrounding women's health these days, particularly when it comes to abortion.  Make no mistake: I don't like abortion.  I am not a fan.  But who is?  Are there really people walking around thinking, "Man, I can't wait to get pregnant, so I can have an abortion!"?  I just don't think that's the case.  That being said, I believe wholeheartedly in a woman's right to choose.  It's her body: I don't believe that I have any right to decide for her what she can or can't do with it.  It's particularly disheartening when old white men (for the most part) feel that they do have the right to decide what they can or can't do with their bodies.  The sad truth is that abortions will happen, and if we remove the capacity to have them performed safely and efficiently, then all we're doing is asking for procedures done in conditions that are dangerous.

Whew.

I think it's time to wrap this up.  Sorry to get all preachy, but this stuff has really been on my mind a lot lately.  I've discovered recently that I can get really passionate when I read and hear about women being treated unfairly -- it really bothers me.  And I'm sure there are more eloquent ways to say what I'm feeling, and I'm also sure there are things I've left out, but I think the gist is there.

I'm not trying to offend.  Like I said, you are entitled to your beliefs.  I just felt like explaining mine.

I promise my next blog post will have more to do with music.  I'm very excited about the new album: a lot of ideas swirling around.  I think it's going to be a good one.

Cheers,
Aaron
www.aarongabriel.net

Everything is new

My goodness, it has been an awfully long time since I last posted a blog.  A lot has been going on, so I figured I'd get that done first.  Ironic, because normally I live a rather boring life -- now I'm too busy to write up a simple blog.  Go figure.

Time to bring you up to speed!  I've been doing a tremendous amount of work on the website, trying to make it a little more eye-catching, a little more streamlined, and a little more user-friendly.  And while I'm certain I'll be tweaking things here and there for a good while yet, I'm pretty happy with what I have so far.

www.aarongabriel.net

"You Don't Know My Heart" took 5th place in the Indie International Songwriting Contest 2013.  Wasn't really sure what to expect, but I'm pretty happy with that.  Here's the link to the Winner's Page: http://indieinternational.com/winners.php

I had been thinking about putting out a Christmas album, but I've decided to put that on the backburner and wait until I've finished my next solo album.  Speaking of which, I think I have a good idea of which songs to include on the next album, and if it pans out like I hope it does, I think it could be pretty good.  I've tentatively called it Ghost in the Pages, but we'll see where it goes -- I might even come up with a few ideas and make it a contest or something for which one gets chosen.

Took part in "Chewelah's Got Talent," a local American Idol-type show put on by the local radio station, KCHW 102.7 Chewelah.  A lot of crazy good performers -- I was lucky enough to be awarded an honorable mention, which was nice, because I was not all that pleased with how I did.  Then again, I very rarely am...

My wife and I are trying to get pregnant.  Not really music-related, but it's a pretty huge deal, and it makes me happy thinking about it, so I thought I'd share.

Still trying to get awareness of me and my music out there.  Good grief, what a slow and tedious process.  It's an interesting position to be in, because I'm not usually very quick to sing my own praises -- self-deprication is sort of my thing, which creates its own set of problems.  That said, I'm still scouring the interwebs for reviewers, promotors, blogs, anything that caters towards the more independent-minded musicians; sites that cater toward the more independent-minded folk musicians are the real diamonds in the rough.

Once again, I apologize for the length between these last two posts.  I hope it's not a recurring theme.

-Aaron
www.aarongabriel.net