When I was working for the American Youth Symphony, they commissioned a piece from an Icelandic composer named Daníel Bjarnason. I watched this video online of one of his pieces, and, to be honest, was pretty blown away. [youtube “http://www.youtube.com/v/QLwyQFthE1M”] I picked up his CD, Processions, but never really gave it a good listen until…

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Here’s what it looks like after the aforementioned swap with Matt: In the process I decided to switch the order of the Freeze and the Empress Tremolo, so that I can have the trem going on what I’m playing without chopping up any infinite-sustain type things that may be happening. That’s all for today.

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My good friend and Honest Iago bandmate Matt and I may be swapping pedalboards (not pedals) this weekend, mostly for the reason that his is about a foot larger than mine, but I have way more effects running than he does, and have run out of room. With that in mind, and the fact that…

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ATTENTION EVERYONE! TODAY ONLY! COMMISSION A PIECE, 50 PERCENT OFF!!!! COMMISSION ONE AT FULL PRICE, GET THE SECOND ONE FREE!!!!! See the following guide from Meet the Composer for prices before discount:

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I finally bought a new amp. And I think the process of doing so acts as a strange allegory to my recent thoughts about writing for orchestra. To begin, the amp that I have played with for the last four or five years has been a Peavey 6505+ half stack. For those of you that…

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A couple of posts back I mentioned my love of Alastair Reynolds’ Revelation Space series of books. In those books there’s a thing called the melding plague, which infects mechanical devices and causes them to spread to and engulf whatever happens to be around them. I think a similar thing happens in Akira, but it’s…

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First of all, read this: It’s from Dinosaur Comics, an online comic strip by a guy named Ryan North, who seems to have all kinds of insights that happen to be pertinent for making and distributing music today. This comic in particular neatly summarizes and/or makes a fable of something I’ve come to wholeheartedly believe,…

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I’ve always been a good bit of a space geek. I grew up loving Star Wars and still rank Empire among my favorite films of all time. I think that Battlestar Galactica is one of the greatest shows ever made, save for The Wire. And when Mass Effect 3 comes out this winter I’m probably…

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1. Ma Nolan’s Cheeseburger in Nice, France, with goat cheese instead of cheddar. The South of France is the goat cheese capital of the world, and when you ask for it on the burger they put on an ENTIRE WHEEL like you might buy at a fromagerie to last for a week (or a day,…

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I’ve taken a short break to consider a lot of things in my work on Moon Songs, and during this time managed to write a guitar prelude. It’s totally unmeasured, which is a first for me. There’s a way that I play it, but I’m literally curious to see what other rhythms other guitarists will…

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