Pheroze

It’s been a whirlwind my friends-  a jumbo kong-sized cyclone of frenzied EVERYTHING! I’ve been working, writing, smiling, moping, playing, obsessing and dismissing.
That said, I’m so sorry to have ignored you for over a month. You see, I’m starting to record my next album at the end of this month.
And I am super mega fucking HAPPY to announce that the writing is (pretty much) done. All songs are written, demoed and I’m almost done with pre-production.
It’s also been a reflective period for me. This is the first time in my life I’ve ever had a surplus of songs and ideas to choose from. When I recorded “Driftwood” it was like I was exorcising my evolutionary demons. Purging and expelling the material I had carried with me through previous bands, old journals, demolished 4-tracks- all that kept me in a certain time and space. “Driftwood” was a labor of love and letting go. I wanted to escape my past with that album- the limitations in expression, the lack of joy I experienced in trying to drag people up to meet my vision, the cliche’s and trappings of all the previous bands I was in. I wanted it out. And I set it free with “Driftwood”; an album written and produced solely by faith in myself and wanting to hear my older material played the way I desired.
I had the luxury of starting from scratch with this album. No older songs. No baggage. In fact I had about 30 new songs and ideas to work with, so I’ve challenged myself to focus and create the album that hones right in on where I am right now. And it’s beautiful.
About 4 years ago, when I started to work on my solo music career, I had nothing but the wreckage of the past. A good friend of mine asked me what kind of music I wanted to make. Being the arrogant bastard I am, all I said is that it not only needs to be the music I want to hear – but it needs to change people’s lives. It needs to be pivotal.
I think I’m about to record that pivotal album. And I have you to thank for it. I look forward to sharing it with you this fall.
More news coming soon – very soon.
with love
-pheroze

Friends-

I’m entering the studio at the end of July to start recording my next album. It will be the greatest thing you will ever hear ever in the history of recorded music (until either my next album or the release of “Sounds from the Monkey Cage vol. 3″). I’m in the process of writing and polishing up the songs that will comprise the album – so forgive me if I’ve been more reclusive than usual.

Want a sneak peek? Well I’ll be playing some of these new songs live this Friday, June 4 at Fontana’s in Manhattan. I have an 8PM set time and it’s an $8 cover – so just bring 8 of your friends and you’ll have a nice eight-fold path set up for you. See, I treat you nice baby. You still not satisfied? Want more? Well check out the info on the shows page.

I do hope you can make it – and remember, I have demo versions of two of the upcoming songs available for download. Just go to my music page and you can grab Kingdoms and Conversations With a Knife.

See you on Friday my little June Bugs.

-pheroze

The only thing that I “wrote” are the main melodic line and the simple thumping rhythm that make up the core of the song – Joe Renaud added his spice to the rhythm while keeping the simple pulsation cemented. We would play off of each other for the dynamics and the changes, and we would get fed the rest of the song from the audience at shows.

Hopefully, if you came to a show in 2008, you remember the song (for it had no name at the time). I’d start by asking the audience to think of one word or concept, and then tap into the collectively focused energy of the room and channel the lyrics and song structure from there. For me it was a public marriage of my spirit and music connections – and I’d like to think that for you it was, at the very least, moving.

In short, people loved it – and when it came time to record a demo of new songs last year, I really wanted to record this one. Capturing the same feel and intensity of a life improvisation, let alone one that was channeled through the audience’s energy, was a challenge to put together- and when the time came I just had to say “fuck it, it’s a demo”.

Well I think we fucking nailed it. And when I say we, I truly mean the big whole fat mass of collective “WE” (that includes you bucko). I’m just your medium on this one. It’s simple, haunting and beautiful.

If you came to a show in 2008, you wrote this with me. Your thoughts, energy, and feelings are in it. And for that I thank you. And, no, it doesn’t mean you’re getting any of the royalties so suck it.

Thanks again, and I’m looking forward to collaborating more with ya. Make sure to go to the music page to stream or download Conversations With A Knife, or just right click here and save it to your computer.

Friends,
No need to flog me. I’ve self-flagellated enough already. I’ve been away as other parts of my existence have become a little more time consuming.

On the plus side, my nourishing typing now features Alpha hydroxy and extra-enriched moisturizers clinically proven for very dry, flaky minds. Keep reading my blog and, in time, your minds will be more moist than Miss Piggy’s snout after a swamp tussle with Kermit.

Why the internet was made

Beyond keeping grub on the table I’ve been writing MUSIC. Much music. I aim to have a follow up to Driftwood released in 2010.I’ll be putting some demo tracks from the upcoming album up here for free download soon – very soon. Stay tuned!

I’ll put some more lotion on y’all soon loves. In the meantime, I implore you to work those rough elbows with the little droplets that come from following me on Twitter. (www.twitter.com/pheroze).

-pheroze

Well folks- on the eve of my going into a studio to lay down some demos of songs for my next album, I get the news that one of my songs has been selected by Microsoft to be offered as a free download for a campaign they are running for Microsoft Windows Sponsored Songs.

What song was picked? Well none other than my lovely ditty “Lorelei” – a song that was about 7 years too late to make it into consideration for Gilmour Girls theme music. And for that I am thankful. Yet tearful.

So here’s the deal – I must make it clear that Microsoft is not sponsoring me as an artist. They just dig that tune and want to give it to you for free. And they are not making me fetch coffee for them or  rub the boils on their feet or even make claims like “Ballmer pwnz ur ass.” Peter Moore did call and say he would have gotten my name tattooed on his bicep if he still worked there. Then he snorted and cackled and made my phone disappear into a puff of smoke.

Well, the song is FREE. So go download it by clicking here:

Even if you already have the song- be awesome and download it again. Even Clippy concurs.

What is Best in Life? Downloading Lorelei!

Unless I get gored during the week by a runaway wildebeest- I’ll be playing this Sunday on June 21st at 7PM at Otto’s Shrunken Head in Manhattan. Come on down for, much like that wildebeest, it’s free! Unless it gets abducted by an alien and becomes a prime representative of our species for exploratory dissection. Thanks wildebeest! Details on the show can be found on my Tour page.

This show will also mark the first live show I’ve played with a bass player in the fold! Please welcome Joe “Joey Baby” Pepitone to the fold. He’ll be holding down the low end and I’m very excited to have him on board.

In two weeks I enter the studio to start demoing songs for my next album. The new songs are coming out great and I look forward to sharing some early recordings with you soon! This time I’ll even remove my bodily fluids from them. If you want a sneak peek soon, then come to the Otto’s show – where we’ll be unveiling at least 5 new songs. Who knows, Fred Hardcastle might even show up.

Joe Renaud, Joey Pepitone and I have been polishing these new songs up – and I think you’re in for a treat. So go to the fridge and make yourself a brownie sandwich or fried cat salad,

mmmm..... Cat Salad

then put on your reading glasses and peep these new song titles:

Show Me Tomorrow

Conversations with a Knife

The Stolen

Old Sad Laughter

Kingdoms

Wreckage of Liars

Caught in the Wheel

They’re so awesome I italicized them.

More soon, things are in the works.

Yup, so I know some of you are thinking “what the shit”? What’s happened to the nourishingly sexily spastic typings that you’ve come to expect from me? Well pull up that ragged bean bag chair/ small child servant you have lying in the corner and listen close.

I’ve been busy. Busy with the many multiple hordes of things that grabbed me by my neck hairs and tied me to a high chair.

Busy with what? Well, first off busy getting my health in order. I was waysided by some stuff that came up and had to be sorted out like so many misplaced socks.  So that sucked, but all better on the other side.

Then I got a new day gig that has taken some adjusting to. And I was in Seattle last week eating this —->

Those crab legs take a while to eat.

But most importantly, I’ve been WRITING! Fuck, I have about 20 something song ideas that I’m fleshing out-  5 of them are ready for live performance, and damn if I’m not excited about it. And Joe Renuad has been killing it on drums helping me bring these songs to life.

So yes, you can hopefully expect a new album this year.

And you can expect many many live shows coming soon too. The first of which is happening in Brooklyn at Bar 4. My good friend Joe Pepitone of Dead Till Tuesday asked me to play at his video premiere party and I’m flattered and honored to do so. It’s gonna be a great night-  Dead Till Tuesday are fantastic. Check out the details on my tour page.

And yes, I will be playing the 5 new songs that night. So get excited. I wrote them about all of us.

I’m back on the radar, and I hope to see you all at a show soon. I’ll be writing more – I missed you!

love, hugs, and now give your child servant a rest

-pheroze

I straddle a borderline obsession with exploring the creative process on both a grand and minuscule scale. This often leads me to pour through writings by artists, scientists, authors and musicians who share their creative rituals, habits, and techniques. Everyone who creates seems to have their methods (predominantly of madness I like to think) of bringing their creations to life- meditation, obsession, objects they keep around, binging, purging, dipping their genitals in sparrow feces.

I recently had a quite a few of my own observations and explorations of my creative process confirmed and thrown back my way as not just being central to my own purpose, but as general guidelines applicable to all.

My good friend Asa invited me to a lecture by noted Theoretical Quantum Physicist and Nuclear Physicist, Amit Goswami. To anyone who has a chance to hear him speak, do so. He has a great ability to convey topics based on quantum physics to a broader audience. I was first introduced to quantum physics in high school – so hearing Dr. Goswami speak was a real treat.

Dr. Amit Goswami

Quantum physics, for those asking, is essentially the study of the mechanics of things at the atomic level. It’s controversial because many of the resulting discoveries and theories fly in the face of widely accepted classical physics like Newton’s laws of motion. It also spurs controversy because there are intrinsic interpretative ties between what quantum mechanics shows and what mystics throughout the ages have described as a “universal consciousness”; fundamentally dismissing the classic science versus religion argument by doing away with the duality of what both sides try to explain. But fuck, that’s all shit to discuss another time when you can all throw your crosses/beakers/jelly beans my way at will.

Back to topic! The creative process is the concern here and Dr. Goswami had a section of his lecture where he outlined what quantum mechanics means for that process. Here are the steps he discussed:

1. Preparation
2. Incubation
3. Sudden Insight
4. Manifestation

Damn, he had just described what I’ve observed over the past 12 years about how I write music.

Over the weekend, I’ll post about each of those steps and how they relate to music writing.

Have a happy snuggly Friday the 13th and a hauntingly cursed Valentine’s day.

I’m sitting here looking over notes and trying to piece together a new album – a process that I have always believed suffers in presence of a formula and thrives in chaos. Fuck the music as math credos – I want music as chaos. Organized chaos.

Maybe I need to take that notion back and reconsider my song writing stance as, over the years, I’ve found my own brand of chaos that works well for me. Part of which involves looking back over random hummings and strummings that have ingrained themselves over the past year in my phone’s voice recorder. And part of which involves looking back over scrawled scratches in the little bright orange notebook that accompanies me everywhere. And part of which involves picking up a guitar and observing where my fingers naturally fall and pushing them to go other places. And part of which involves euphoria and depression. And part of which involves stepping away from it so I can come back clearer and virginal to the songs. And part of which involves obsessing over one small melody to the point of insomnia. And part of which involves waking up at 3AM from deep sleep because some song, lyric, or image is haunting me and I have to get it out of my head. And part of which recently  involves trying to clear the fatigue, brain fog, and sometimes debilitating pain I’ve been feeling for the past four months so that I can actually concentrate on this shit.

Wiglet Can't Write Songs

So maybe there is a formula to it all. Maybe I should have paid more attention in the Music Theory classes I took high school and college that are all a blur to me these days. Classes I took because I thought you needed to learn this stuff in order to write decent music. And because I didn’t want to take math classes. Classes where I learned valuable stuff like you can’t have parallel fifths or octaves and that you should avoid large intervals. True, the large intervals rule has come in handy when crossing the street, but the rest has had no transference in my music career.

I’m not anti music theory. Learning theory in any aspect helps as a communication tool and a way to process information; especially valuable in major composition or learning other’s music.

I’m anti music formula. Formula can take the form of theory dictating composition, or habit dictating composition. Whether it’s a music theory expert that writes formulaic music or a chaos driven song writer who stylistically writes the same chords and lyrics over and over again – that shit gets boring!

At least it gets boring to me.

So as I sit down and look at a list I made of 15 partially written potentials for my next album (right now given descriptive titles such as “Disco-ish Bluesy Song” and “Runny Arpeggio Song”) maybe I’ll start sharing some thought process along the way with things that help me get out of my song writing habits and explore music creative process. Not song writing lessons, those are dumb. But explorations of things in my music tool bag. Maybe. I don’t know. If time allows.

By the way, who the fuck actually takes classes in song writing? Seriously, what the fuck? I mean I see the merit in learning some tips on creative process, but classes? That’s up there with “Social Media Experts” and “Penis Pumps” for things meant to suck money out of you based on the somewhat valid premise that people are idiots.

Ok, enough ranting. Time to get back to songs.

Known fact: I like to write
Sometimes known fact: Pig’s penises are shaped like a corkscrew
Little known fact: Pigs hate wine
Conclusion: Pigs are delicious

Welcome to Pheroze’s blog!

Or maybe I should say welcome to my blog, since I’m writing it. But Pheroze likes referring to himself in the 3rd person because Pheroze is awesome.

If you’ve been to pheroze.com before you’re probably asking where’s the playful little gnome that slaps things? Well, I’m in the process of redesigning the site so in the meantime I’ve decided to put up a blog site until I’m able to wrangle a site with the old visual pizazz. Go explore this blog, it’s got some stuff that isn’t on any of my various internet wins. If you want to check out the old site it’s here.

Be my dawg

This also means that I don’t have to bug you via newsletter as often! Hooray for anti spams! Seriously I’ll only send show announcements and big news deals (and free penis enlargement offers! Ladies beware!) to your email inbox, so sign up! Also those who sign up for my newsletter will receive offers like exclusive downloads only available through my fan list. So sign that ass up!

Add my blog to your RSS feed or subscribe via email so you can feel my tender typing nourishment. You’ll like it! I promise I won’t link to Lolcats (even teh epic lolz) or anything that is crap (literally: no tubgirl).

love
-pheroze