New England, New Album (Day One, The Arrival)
Hey AllOne Family I've got great news! My new album with D.o.drent "Creative Differences: A Split" has been entirely recorded (at Format Audio by Ryan Stack in Amesbury Massachusetts) and just needs some mixing and design work and to be pressed and we are on schedule to release it in May! I stayed with Owen from Friday February 14-18th (tuesday)! Here is an overview of the trip in a series of thoughts and anecdotes...
Connecting With People Old and New (Friday 2/14)
The night before I left, I stayed with my Grandma, so we could spend time together and I could leave my car there and she could bring me over to the train Friday morning. She has been living alone since my Poppy passed,the one I wrote "Pennsylvanian Patriarch" for, and I can't imagine how difficult that must be to suddenly have your life switched over like that. We talk and tell each other stories and eat all sorts of homemade food and listen to music and comment on silly television shows. It is relaxing and beautiful, she is a wonderful woman who is always loving and supportive of me and my music, I miss my Poppy whenever I go over there, but I'm grateful to at least have my Grandma still with me. Valentines Day, Friday morning she dropped me off at the train station at around 10:30. It feels surreal that this time last year I was in a healthy relationship and in Houston, Texas. Appropriate to be on the road again to make something new, to have a change of scenery musically and geographically. I had to be at the Megabus in NYC(which you all need to use for travel, my ticket from NYC to Providence, RI was $1. Seriously, one dollar) at 11:45am. My train ride into NYC was fine and I was able to get a little reading done. All weekend I was reading Kurt Vonnegut's "Welcome To The Monkey House" which has since become one of my favorite works by him. The walk to the Megabus was really cold but I managed it fine.
I got on the bus and found my seat, people were looking for spots and this young guy was looking around apprehensively, I moved my backpack and coat off the seat adjacent to me and invited him to sit down. He thanked me and I went back to reading and writing. He was on the phone for a while with friends and I overheard him talking a lot about music and video, it seemed he was a rapper. After he got off the phone he saw me writing in a notebook and we got to talking. He went by the name Chris Real, and was an aspiring rap artist from the city. He was a really nice guy and it seemed like his head was in the right place with what he wanted to do with music and why. I asked him if he knew anyone of my friends from the Buendia Brooklyn crew, and he didn't, so I advised him to seek them out as they have a very supportive and tight familial group of good artists they run. I also showed him "Work In" which he flipped out on and loved it. We kept talking for another two hours about all sorts of things, he was headed to meet his girl in Providence for the weekend and we arrived not only uninterrupted by the snow, but a half hour earlier than expected! I felt that this went on to show that taking risks isn't so bad, socially and otherwise. I've yet to hear from Chris, but I wish him well with his life and music career!
Owen Arrives
Owen picked me up at the bus station, I spent a cold half hour stickering up the area. Owen arrived highly animated fresh out of work to taxi me around in his appropriately yellow car, decorated with band stickers (some of which were mine!). He took me to his home in North Attleboro, Massachusetts, which is right on the border of Rhode Island. We listened to his music of choice, grindcore/emo/hardcore, none of which is my flavor at all, and I was reminded how interested and true the "Creative Differences" theme/subject really is!
We transitioned to listening to a series of rap duos/groups to sort of get some inspiration about what other pairs of lyricists have done. This became a sort of staple throughout the weekend. We listened to the following, all of them are incredible groups and their individual participant's solo careers are incredible and worth perusing:
Our drive brought me to his beautiful house where he has three adorable dogs and where his mother and father invited me in like family. Owen was festively and flatteringly wearing his AllOne shirt and it impressed me as his mother and I spoke ,how involved and interested in her son's life musically, creatively and socially she was. She knew what friend was involved in what band and so on, she had listened to songs he listens to and knew local music history/venues as well. I don't have that support of kinship in the creatively colloquial with my own parents, so it was something I really appreciated and admired seeing. It was really cute to see "All1 Bruce coming" written on her day planner and on her several cork board mosaics of the most incredible pinback button collections I'd ever seen, and peering humbly out from the crowd was her AllOne pin! I felt like a celebrity! We goofed off imitating aggressive rappers on our way to eat something new and interesting (ended up being a sort of pizza hut type place called Papa Ginos, which Owen was baffled I'd never eaten at) I only had a salad and was munching on apples and trail mix all day, trying to maintain healthiness. We retired to his place, they'd set up a pull out couch bed for me in Owen's spacious finished basement apartment. I worked on some writing (for the split and otherwise) and we eventually I passed out mid-writing, his laughter from a Ron White comedy special in my ears.
Stay tuned for the account of the rest of the trip!
Be adventurous, take risks and meet new people!
-AllOne
Connecting With People Old and New (Friday 2/14)
The night before I left, I stayed with my Grandma, so we could spend time together and I could leave my car there and she could bring me over to the train Friday morning. She has been living alone since my Poppy passed,the one I wrote "Pennsylvanian Patriarch" for, and I can't imagine how difficult that must be to suddenly have your life switched over like that. We talk and tell each other stories and eat all sorts of homemade food and listen to music and comment on silly television shows. It is relaxing and beautiful, she is a wonderful woman who is always loving and supportive of me and my music, I miss my Poppy whenever I go over there, but I'm grateful to at least have my Grandma still with me. Valentines Day, Friday morning she dropped me off at the train station at around 10:30. It feels surreal that this time last year I was in a healthy relationship and in Houston, Texas. Appropriate to be on the road again to make something new, to have a change of scenery musically and geographically. I had to be at the Megabus in NYC(which you all need to use for travel, my ticket from NYC to Providence, RI was $1. Seriously, one dollar) at 11:45am. My train ride into NYC was fine and I was able to get a little reading done. All weekend I was reading Kurt Vonnegut's "Welcome To The Monkey House" which has since become one of my favorite works by him. The walk to the Megabus was really cold but I managed it fine. I got on the bus and found my seat, people were looking for spots and this young guy was looking around apprehensively, I moved my backpack and coat off the seat adjacent to me and invited him to sit down. He thanked me and I went back to reading and writing. He was on the phone for a while with friends and I overheard him talking a lot about music and video, it seemed he was a rapper. After he got off the phone he saw me writing in a notebook and we got to talking. He went by the name Chris Real, and was an aspiring rap artist from the city. He was a really nice guy and it seemed like his head was in the right place with what he wanted to do with music and why. I asked him if he knew anyone of my friends from the Buendia Brooklyn crew, and he didn't, so I advised him to seek them out as they have a very supportive and tight familial group of good artists they run. I also showed him "Work In" which he flipped out on and loved it. We kept talking for another two hours about all sorts of things, he was headed to meet his girl in Providence for the weekend and we arrived not only uninterrupted by the snow, but a half hour earlier than expected! I felt that this went on to show that taking risks isn't so bad, socially and otherwise. I've yet to hear from Chris, but I wish him well with his life and music career!Owen Arrives
Owen picked me up at the bus station, I spent a cold half hour stickering up the area. Owen arrived highly animated fresh out of work to taxi me around in his appropriately yellow car, decorated with band stickers (some of which were mine!). He took me to his home in North Attleboro, Massachusetts, which is right on the border of Rhode Island. We listened to his music of choice, grindcore/emo/hardcore, none of which is my flavor at all, and I was reminded how interested and true the "Creative Differences" theme/subject really is! We transitioned to listening to a series of rap duos/groups to sort of get some inspiration about what other pairs of lyricists have done. This became a sort of staple throughout the weekend. We listened to the following, all of them are incredible groups and their individual participant's solo careers are incredible and worth perusing:
Run The Jewels (El-P and Killer Mike)
Prey For Paralysis (Sadistik and Kristoff Krane)
Hail Mary Mallon (Aesop Rock and Rob Sonic)
The Contraverse (Obeah and Kontent)
Flight Distance (Bender and Patience)
Greenhouse (Blueprint and Illogic)
Deep Puddle Dynamics (Slug, Sole, Alias and DoseOne)
Our drive brought me to his beautiful house where he has three adorable dogs and where his mother and father invited me in like family. Owen was festively and flatteringly wearing his AllOne shirt and it impressed me as his mother and I spoke ,how involved and interested in her son's life musically, creatively and socially she was. She knew what friend was involved in what band and so on, she had listened to songs he listens to and knew local music history/venues as well. I don't have that support of kinship in the creatively colloquial with my own parents, so it was something I really appreciated and admired seeing. It was really cute to see "All1 Bruce coming" written on her day planner and on her several cork board mosaics of the most incredible pinback button collections I'd ever seen, and peering humbly out from the crowd was her AllOne pin! I felt like a celebrity! We goofed off imitating aggressive rappers on our way to eat something new and interesting (ended up being a sort of pizza hut type place called Papa Ginos, which Owen was baffled I'd never eaten at) I only had a salad and was munching on apples and trail mix all day, trying to maintain healthiness. We retired to his place, they'd set up a pull out couch bed for me in Owen's spacious finished basement apartment. I worked on some writing (for the split and otherwise) and we eventually I passed out mid-writing, his laughter from a Ron White comedy special in my ears.
Stay tuned for the account of the rest of the trip!
Be adventurous, take risks and meet new people!
-AllOne
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