Blog Posts

Just how long does it take to nail a guitar solo? Even if you’re only a casual Rolling Stone or Spin reader, you’ve probably read the same B.S. I have about first takes. Yunno, Slash is talking about the “Sweet Child Of Mine” solo on “Appetite For Destruction” and he’s all like, “Yeah we just…

Four miles on four hours of sleep is not an ideal training scenario. These days find me in the center of a perfect storm of poor planning (or hubris). I’m in putting the finishing touches on my forthcoming CD, “The Invention of Everything Else,” due June 18th on Des Moines’ own Authentic Records. I’m still…

Years ago, when I was recording the first of two albums (“Almost Home” and “Love & Other Indoor Games”) at my pal Kevin Anthony’s Control One Studios, I began most sessions with a delicious, toasty Turkey Ranch Sub from Quiznos on 23d Street. Tonight, Chris and I are editing just a few blocks from there,…

I’m pretty sure I’m not a tortured artist, though I may be a masochist. Most readers flock to best sellers, pap like Joseph Hellerman, Dean Koontz, or Scott Turow. Nothing wrong with that; I enjoy a blockbuster page-turner like the guy in the next seat on the plane. My pap, though, is the rock bio.…

I’ve made two fairly boneheaded training mistakes in the last two weeks. Two weeks ago, I decided it would be fun to jog up then sprint down a mountain above Los Angeles just two hours before boarding the red eye to New York, and two days before the Brooklyn Half Marathon. And yesterday, I set…

I distinctly recall standing next to Abbi in Brooklyn, staring way down Flatbush Avenue towards downtown Manhattan. We were testing the waters together, trying to find a neighborhood in which to move. The process, though, was pushing some other buttons. “But it’s so far away!” I whined. Later, on the subway, I articulated what I…