Please Believe Me

Poor Mix Master Kev. You think I’m burnin’ the candle at both ends? Kevin’s in, like, four bands, plus running the studio, plus the day job, plus he has to put up with me and my sick new addiction.

I am addicted to Eggz.

Eggz are black plastic egg-shaped purcussion instruments that sound wicked awesome on every song! (You’ll recognize the sound if you’re an avid downloader of my MP3s from The Morning Mix.) I can’t help myself. Every song, I’m like, “Kev? Did we track The Egg yet?” He rolls his eyes and says, “Go ahead.” And I nail that shit on the first take! Tamborine too! When you hear the new record, and you wonder what it is just off the edge of the mix that makes shakin’ your ass impossible to resist? Eggz, baby.

So anyhow, I doubled my enthusiasm in the studio tonight. Not just because the record sounds amazing — it does — but because poor Mix Master Kev is under the weather. I think my enthusiasm was infectious pretty quickly. Kev rallied. He found himself laughing despite his mini-puke. And I wasn’t fakin’ the funk just to keep his spirits up. Listening back to our efforts is a surprise every time. We’ve been moving so quickly — two hour sessions here, three hours there, “Yeah, that’s good enough,” then moving on — that I’m as surprised as anyone that, not only do the new tracks sound ok, they sound positively innovative. Not in some Radiohead reinventing-rock sorta’ way, but in a good, new-direction-for-me sorta’ way.

Take ‘The Rest of My Life.’ It’s built around a simple drum loop. The demo was just one rhythm track and vocal. Then CJ got at it with his simple John Mayer-esque line. Then Kev turned up the bass. Then Kev and I started f’in’ around with electronica blips and beeps. And suddenly, I find myself dancing around the studio. Dancing! To my songs! That’s unprecedented! I mean, weeping to my songs is expected, drinking beer by candle light, that’s the norm, but dancing?

Baby, please! You’ll see. There are tracks on this record that are downright sexy. Yeah, I said it: sexy. Like, NC-17 hot. With a good beat that makes you wanna’ move your hips.

I can’t wait for you to hear it, really. For the six or seven of you who’ve been playing along at home and downloading the Morning Mix MP3s, you’re gonna’ wish ‘Caramalize’ and ‘Jenny’ and ‘St. Anne’ didn’t turn all rock and hip hop on you. But trust me on this: it’s a good thing. Fifteen years into being a singer/songwriter, my songs — two or three of ’em anyway — are actually fun. And it’ll be allgood: I’ll perform ’em full on rock, and solo acoustic.

All that and a kick ass album cover? I couldn’t be more excited.

Well, maybe I could be more excited. Talk with me after our next studio session…