The Time/Space Continuum

Just so you know, I’m back in New York City, safe, sound and struggling to stay awake.

I just woke up from an hour-long power nap, and I’m due over at Chris and Jen’s new place, so I gotta’ be quick. But I just wanted to say, real quick…

Um, what did I want to say real quick?

I used to love the red eye. Used to do it all the time. LAX to JFK and straight into The MTV. (Reference ‘New York’ on “Almost Home”). Not so sure anymore. One dirty martini, one Ambien, and six hours in 36A later, I’m not so sure anymore…

I listened to ‘California’ as I stared down the baggage conveyer. The song’s barely two years old. I wrote it during the fall of 2002 at the very Doubletree I stayed at this week. I was watching local news broadcast footage of Santa Ana-fueled fires and freeway chases and such. And I was falling in love (or something resembling it). The recording is from just last summer. And listening to it there in the steely confines of JFK, I could barely recognize the guy singing and all the sounds around it. Who is he? And what the hell is he talking about? And why is he whining?

I get back to the work on the new album this week (what do you think of the title, “Love And Other Indoor Games”?). I listened to the rough tracks in the car on The 10 a few times to try and get some ideas for harmonies and instrumentation and such. And in contrast to “Almost Home” and everything that came before, these new songs sound so much more like me. I’m not pushing for the high notes, or trying to impress ya’ll with my tenor. It’s very natural, very low, very full. Which isn’t what I logged on to write about. I just wanted to say hi. And say that I’m okay. And still thinking a lot about the question “When am I not being me?” And wondering who me is, and how does bicoastal travel, the time/space continuum, and of all those bent moments in between change who me is.

I’m talkin’ about voice here, people. Voice.

And I guess I think it all relates somehow. I mean, everything’s connected, right?