My devoted readers! Hello! Sorry that there has not been a newsletter in a long time. I actually have been busy, but I need to start blocking out time to write these because I still love doing it. It is hard to believe that it is already mid-February. Let me tell you what I have been up to. I have been playing solo acoustic lately, which has been fun and less stressful—especially at school. There is something to be said about only relying on yourself going into a gig. I know my songs better than anyone ever could because I wrote them. I definitely mess up sometimes, but taking full accountability and responsibility for the mess-up is more comforting, than worrying about how mistakes by guys in the band impact the performance and exhibition of the art that I created in solitude. I acknowledge that mess-ups are usually fine, and while art is precious, Rock and Roll is not. It is also hard to coordinate times to rehearse when we are all so busy with school and other extracurricular activities and projects. Many of my heroes have spoken about the fact that a great song can be stripped down to its skeleton—a guy and a guitar—and still deliver the full extent of its heart and soul. That is how I write most of my songs, so it is cool to share that vulnerability with an audience. Additionally, I can perform any song in my growing catalog, and not be concerned about the band learning it. Crafting a set with a band is like a puzzle. What fits together? How do songs bleed into one another? What is the message that I want to send? Meanwhile, crafting a solo acoustic set seems like it has lower stakes. It is more loose and subject to change. Even though there is only a handful of my material that my audience knows, I like going back and playing songs that I have not played or thought about in a while. I know that I appear to be ragging about playing in a rock band, but do not get it twisted. I love it. Fronting a rock band has always been my dream, but I am just riffing about the perks of playing solo because it is my first time continually performing that way.
I played Redgate here in Syracuse last Friday on that -5℉ night. Redgate is a house venue here, and artists play in the basement. It is an excellently run venue with good organization and great people at the helm. They succeed in crafting a memorable Friday night among an ocean of Friday nights that span the ever-dwindling time that we all have here. I think it was a good set, but the audience was rowdy. I expected that, and it did not bother me for the most part because I saw a bunch of people listening and enjoying it, and that is enough to keep me going and having fun. I played the atrium of Schine Student Center at Syracuse a few days later. I had a good time. It was low-stakes. I had fun relaxing and playing music for anyone who wanted to listen. It was kind of like playing in a restaurant where you are mostly background noise, but some people watch and listen attentively. I just love playing. It was better than anything else that I would have been doing on a Tuesday afternoon.
Update on what I have been working on as far as recording! My album is almost done, but I still have to record a few more songs and make sure the mixes of the ones I have recorded are up to snuff. I will tell you that the album will likely be 11 or 12 songs. I keep fussing with the tracklist. Making this album has been both fun and agonizing because I really want it to be nothing short of amazing. I want it to have a more mature sound, writing style, and refined lyricism that holds all of the deeply personal feelings and experiences that I have poured into this album. I have not ever made anything this personal. I just hope people like it, but I am committed to putting my best foot forward. I have fallen into a trap before where I work so hard on writing and recording that I ignore little mistakes and uncrossed t’s because of how tedious they are to fix. Not this time. I do not want to tell you too much more about the album, but I will say that I wrote the entirety of my last album on an electric guitar without once picking up an acoustic guitar to write with. I did this on purpose because I just wanted to make a great straight-ahead rock album. For this album, I wrote the majority of the songs on acoustic guitar because I wanted a more folky and mellow sound spotlighting my writing and lyrics. Interpret that information as you will. I will also make a top-secret announcement that only my readers will know. “You Were There When the Ship Sank” tends to be the song of mine that people enjoy the most. I do not love the recording up on streaming services right now, so I am re-recording the song and dropping it as a single soon. Stay tuned for that. It rocks substantially harder.
Okay. Now, I will tell you what else I have been up to and why I have been so busy. I am a co-General Manager for WERW Radio; the student-run radio station here at Syracuse. I have been involved with WERW since Freshman year, and I think many of you have listened to my show once before. I have always seen the potential in WERW and it has been disappointing that WERW has not fully realized it up to this point. I do not claim to be the WERW savior—it was doing just fine without me—but it is fun to come up with ideas and execute them to leave the station better than when I found it. Over the past few weeks, my co-GM and I have been assembling our E-Board and scheduling shows. There is a lot of adversity that we had to rise above; including a limited budget with just enough funds for us to stay afloat. I like the challenge of coming up with ways to make the station better without spending significant money. The shows started Monday and my show is on Saturday at 1 PM. I have also been working on my senior capstone project. Ben Dietz and I are creating a music publishing company and throwing ourselves right into the deep end. It is a lot of work and we are learning on the fly what goes into building a successful business. It is a bitch, but it will pay off. I think. I hope.
This Week’s Rare Mnemonic Advice/Josh Carus Recording: The Piano in Pink Moon
This song is about the little piano passage in Nick Drake’s “Pink Moon.” It is so simple, but it is a musical moment that gives me chills every single time. I know that many music fans feel the same way as I have seen on music threads and blogs. I thought it would be witty to write a song about a song. It is a little folk song that is meant to be taken in jest, but I hope you also find it to be pretty.
The Piano in Pink Moon
I can be down
Sick, sorry or blue
I can feel so tired and restless
And not know what to do
So I just put on a record
And the speakers start to coo
Yeah the piano in pink moon brings me through
Yeah it starts with a g
And it ends with an e flat
At the doorstep of serenity
It’s a musical welcome mat
I just don’t know what it is
About that little passing tune
Yeah the piano in pink moon I love you
It’s only four bars and it happens twice
But it’s twenty seconds of paradise
I wish that I could pass it as my own
Well if I believe in you and you believe in me
Then let the music make this a memory
In each others arms safe and sad
Nick I know you’re out there
My hope tells me so
You could give so much comfort
It’s a shame you had to go
And I knew when I heard that little interlude
The piano in pink moon is a portal to you
The piano in pink moon, an emblem of truth
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