gschmitt Blog – What’s going on

Hey all,

I know many of you have been curious about what I’ve been up to since I’ve been out of the internet fold recently. I just got back on twitter after about a 3-4 month hiatus and I’ve been getting a lot of “WHERE U BEEN’s?” and “MISSED YOU’s.” One dude thought I got eaten by some large, predatory animal. I’m glad to let you all know that I have not become prey to anything and I am still working on my playing and writing.

I figured I would write a quick blog to let you guys know exactly what’s been happening. For starters, I have been gigging with Pasado Meridiano on a pretty regular basis at this point. We got hooked up with Heineken and that’s the main sponsor of most of the jazz performance on the island. We announced a couple steady hotel gigs and one out in the [ridiculously beautiful] town of Rincon over the past months… they were all a trip.

Also, I went into the studio with Pasado Meridiano and we have a disk coming out pretty soon. There are just a few little things to do with that, and then you’ll be hearing all about it. (It sounds GOOD)

And as far as MY MUSIC is concerned, I’m very excited to say that I’m about to go back into the studio soon to record a few new tunes…. I’m beyond psyched about this. The songs are in the demo stage right now and I’m about to drop them off with the musicians. The thing that’s exciting me so much about this is that I’m not going to be recording them in the same way I did the last record…. I feel like I’ve grown so much since then and the way I track these songs is going to reflect that.

On “The Year in Pictures,” I did everything in a ‘studio’ format – we pretty much tracked each instrument at a time. It was super-perfectionist and hugely time-consuming. I’m very happy with the results of the CD, but I was ready to try something else. These new tunes that I’m going to be tracking are going to be done in a much more ‘live’ format – we all just hit the record button and PLAY. Besides the obvious time-saving benefits of doing it this way, I like how it’s going to expose each player in the group much more because the ability to edit is going to be extremely limited in comparison…. I play with MONSTER musicians – I’m excited to hear what happens when I call on them to record like this.

Anyway, thanks so much to all of you for hanging in. I love hearing from you and getting your responses to my tweets in twitter, my videos (one should be coming down the pike shortly) and my blogs. I cannot wait to announce to you all that there is new music available for you to listen to…. soon enough.

Until then, all the best.
-g

gschmitt Gallery – Gaspar gig

Photos of gschmitt and fellow band members at a Gaspar performance.

gschmitt Gallery – Gaspar CD Release Party

gschmitt produced an album for singer/songwriter Gaspar. This gallery contains photos from the CD release party where gschmitt performed with Gaspar.

gschmitt Blog – Letter to Gaspar

Jorge,

HOLY SHIT man! What can I say? I’m attaching the last Excel document with the hours tally for the project with what can only be described as an intense mixture of emotions. The first one is an incredible sense of calm; I actually got to sit down yesterday with my guitar and engage myself in some disciplined practice – something that I haven’t done for the last 8 months. It was exhilarating. The second one is a bit of excitement; I don’t know what i’m going to do next – is my next project going to be a new gschmitt CD? Is it going to be someone else’s? Should I start scouring the local music scene for somebody to produce? The possibilities seem endless and to not “have to get ___ done” in every spare moment of the day is just exciting. But inevitably, the third and last one is a bit heavier-hearted than the other two….it’s that of a subtle sadness because the “Produce and direct Gaspar” chapter of my musical life is over – and it truly is. Even if we do continue to play gigs, which looks like it may be the case, the keys to the machine are now faithfully being put in your deserving hands. Your work (and your humble WILLINGNESS to do the work correctly and dedicatedly) has played a huge part in making this project what it has become – and it’s an example for me that I doubtlessly will be drawing from in the future.

It has been an honor working with you and helping you turn your musical ideas into a solid disk of high-quality material that sounds like nothing else in ANY market. You trusted me with something as personal as your song ideas and I can’t possibly thank you enough for that opportunity. These last 8 months have been surreal and the way that this project came together with everyone who played a hand in it is nothing short of magical. Be PROUD of your disk, Jorge. It’s one of a kind. The synergistic energy created by the unique mix of people involved in this project and the intelligence of your original ideas made it one that not even the most talented musicians can ever come close to recreating.

I’m proud of the music for its quality and uniqueness; proud of you for your hidden talent, dedication and effort; proud of Ariel, Raul and “the Juans” from Pasado Meridiano for their “holy shit” skills live AND in the studio; proud of Mara for an amazing job singing (damn…talk about “hidden skills”); proud of Sakko for his ears and his god-given-gift for making hard, hard work seem like a day at the beach with friends….FUNNY-ass friends; and maybe even a little bit proud of myself, too.

Thank you for giving me the chance to feel this good. Really. Whatever you could possibly need from me in the future, I’m just a phone call away, brother.

- Greg

gschmitt Podcast – Episode 2

In this month’s Podcast, gschmitt discusses his continuing Blog series, The SONG; the next step in his producing effort for Latin rock artist, Gaspar; working as the house band for an international television show; performing his own music, live, in a trio setting; and his most recent Video, Reconciliation.

Listen to gschmitt’s Podcasts here.

gschmitt Video – Reconciliation

In this video, gschmitt gives an acoustic performance of his song A Reconciliation of Sorts from his debut album, The Year In Pictures.

A Reconciliation of Sorts – written by gschmitt

I -

If all we’re judged by is what we fare – and what we lost was never there,
then, why is it that I still care?
Though I’m amazed to see your face – The changes that have taken place
Tangled in your own distaste
The subtleties behind these tears – Have kept me from appearing here
And doing what I’ve always feared
Though it seems I’m quick to run – Guess I’m not the only one
Who’s contemplated moving on

II –

all this time I’ve spent fighting you
seems so worthless to bank frustration like I do and
I didn’t come here to tell you that I’m sorry
But after all these years, I am

III –

You look away – and you must find it in your own self
to forgive me soon – or someday
and come what may – we will have covered what we couldn’t handle
and what time has fixed – for me, anyway
and all these things I can’t control, – I offer them to soothe the soul
And write it off as “I don’t know.”
Ascending to this point of view – The more I still have left to do
And the less it has to do with you

IV –

All this time I’ve spent fighting you
seems so worthless to bank frustration like I do and
I didn’t come here to say that I was sorry
But after all these years, I am

V –

Though I had searched, I still can’t find it. I’d circumvent and look behind it.
But it’s in front of me this moment; will not let it slip away. In every idle thought, I’d be reminded
Can’t think about my chance at restoration, ‘cause leaving here right now is preservation.
And a reconciliation, if just for me, is what you see – if only for the sake of my being free
- if only for the sake of my living free.

gschmitt Blog – The SONG, developing the idea

Hey everyone. Thanks for checking in and keeping up with what I’m doing.

I’ve definitely been keeping myself busy producing a project for another songwriter, Gaspar; steady Television and live gigs with the jazz group I play with, Pasado Meridiano; and my own gschmitt songwriting project – the main reason for this site! If you’re following me on Twitter (www.twitter.com/gschmittmusic), you’ll know that I’ve been going out of my mind a bit with everything that’s been going on, but man, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

My last blog entry was the first of a few that I decided to write about actual songwriting. If you had the chance to check it out, you know that I think the absolute most important aspect of the craft of songwriting lies in whether or not the original idea is good enough to work. I definitely put more emphasis on it than any of the other steps in the process. What I want to discuss this time is what happens once I have an idea that I deem “worthy.”

I guess we could call this next step the “development” step. This stage is where a little bit of discipline is needed; as opposed to the first stage, where I could only describe what was needed as “magic.” This is the part where you have to work through your first concept and start molding it into something you can build a song around… and this step can often take up to a few YEARS to happen. It’s one of the reasons I keep organized files (pretty organized, anyway) of all of my song ideas. They can get lost and be forgotten immediately, only to be revisited at another time and developed… and sometimes, those are really the best ones; you are a different musician than the one who originally came up with the idea.

This begins the more disciplined side of songcraft, so you have to sit down and START taking your ideas to the next level and actually decide which of the many you’re going to do it with. I named three possible song beginnings (“song zygotes”) in the last blog, but if you cut through the way the song ideas come to me, you begin to see that it’s always in the form of a melodic vocal line/hook. (Be it through random singing, instrument noodling or a lyric concept that “sings” to me.)

Once I decide on the idea to develop, I’ll put the guitar in my lap and a pencil in my hand and identify what the song is going to be about in its lyrics and it’s harmony (read: backing music). Most of the time, the original idea tells me where to go at this point, but sometimes it takes more molding. Assuming I know exactly where I’m going with the tune, I start filling in the blanks as far as vocal melody in the verses, or the verse chords, or maybe the rhythm. I always have the tape recorder with me to capture whatever comes up, since sometimes the best way to make this work is to just jam on it a bit.

One thing I can say about this is that whatever work I do in the beginning of the week can and often does change completely by the end. I made a rule for myself a while back: the original idea can’t be changed, but everything else after it can. (Think about it: if I came up with something to motivate me to WORK [not an easy task], why the hell would I alter it and change that first impression? Doesn’t make sense.)

This “plugging in” verses and lyrics and rhythms, etc. is really all about trial and error, so I can’t stress too much about what I put in there to make it work. There are songs of mine that have 20 verses written for them… and they’re only 3 verse tunes. It’s just how it works. I should be careful about quotes because I always manage to screw them up, but Leonard Cohen once said, “If I get one line out of an entire day of writing, it’s been a good day.” (Caveat: I guarantee I messed that up, but the point still stands: it takes a lot of misses to get a hit.) Now, I don’t know if Leonard’s exaggerating to make a point, but I’m saying that this idea underscores my point: let the “error” part of “trial and error” be an error….and be subsequently thrown away….even if it’s 17 superfluous verses that each took a LOT of consideration and time. (That may be the ultimate songwriter’s maturity test right there.)

Okay, I’m going to shift gears a bit and end this with a note for those who struggle through songwriting dry spells: one of the coolest things about writing is that the more you develop your ideas, the more you get that creative need to come up with new ones. It’s a cycle: writing and working on songs begets more writing and working on songs. I tend to go through song idea waves. I’ll get three or four song ideas that could turn out to be very cool in a matter of a week – a few days, even. And then, I’ll just fall off a cliff and nothing will come for a month or two. As a younger writer, this used to piss me off to no end, but I’ve found it to be just my natural creative cycle telling me to focus more on developing some of my older ideas and I’ve learned to listen to it.

Really, it relates to the last blog’s mention of “understanding the creative environment around you” when you get an idea. This, however, is more about understanding yourself and how you naturally go through the process over a much longer term. You must be in touch with it because it’s easily something that will throw you off track completely if you let it. (Years ago, I’d stop for months and call it writer’s block… well, most writers know that writer’s block is best averted by writing.) I know myself well enough now to recognize the early warning signs of a potential dry spell. Developing older ideas is a fantastic remedy.

So, that’s it for me. I hope I’m helping some of you out here with these blogs. I’d love to hear what you think about it, be you a songwriter, poet, journalist, doctor, housewife, whatever. Just hit the “leave a comment” link under this and follow the steps!

‘til next time,

Greg

PS – songwriter quote I once heard: “Songwriting is the opposite of a crossword puzzle: the more you fill in, the harder it gets.” (or something like that… hehehe)

gschmitt Gallery – With Pasado Meridiano

New gschmitt Podcast series

gschmitt begins his new regularly updated podcast series which allows you to have a behind the scenes view of what is going on in his world and what is keeping him busy. Be sure to check back often for this podcast series.

In this first episode, gschmitt discusses his work with Pasado Meridiano, producing an album for Gaspar, social networking, new additions to the website, and much more.

You can check out this new podcast series here.

gschmitt Video – Daze

In this video, gschmitt gives a sneak peek performance of his new, unreleased song Daze.

Daze – written by gschmitt


I may be livin’ in a daze, but baby, there are days I think about you all the time – it’s true
I’d be content to pass my blurry days with the picture of your face; [the] clear cover of my crowded mind –

I do….only ask that you stay, and watch as I try
And give me the Time to get it right
‘cuz I’m still settin’ my course – to you

I may be living in a daze, dreaming up the ways
That I could be a hero, too – it’s true
But thus far, the closest that I came is a superhero cape and a taste for Johnny Walker blue. –

And you….might be less than impressed…and less than amused
Waiting on me to get a clue – well, let’s hope I do

I don’t wanna grow old; in fact, I don’t wanna get no bigger
(But I) got my impulse in a choke-hold
Still got some vulgar in my tongue, and your patience on a hair-trigger…go figure
You don’t even have to say a word – don’t you worry none, cause that look will do

I may be living in a daze (vamp)

Yeah, you don’t look impressed (one time only)

(bridge)
you say there’s a part of me that I can’t see
there’s a part of you that lives in me
there’s a part of me that thinks this to be

and I reply – despite all that I may put you through
there’s a part of me that lives for you
there’s a part of you that knows it’s true.

I may be livin’ in a daze, but baby, there are days I think about you all the time – it’s true

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