a new music project in the works

I've decided to record and release a new collection of songs. They'll be of just me playing my guitar and singing -- no overdubs, no effects, no rehearsals, no fancy equipment, and...no audience. But that's why I have you! I'm going to call it "dKOTA - live with coffee and wine in an apartment". There's no need for metaphors for this one. I'll work on it over the coming weeks, recording songs as I see fit, and in the key of my mood of the moment. And of course, with coffee or wine, depending on when I find myself behind the microphone. I'll play old and new songs, traversing what I've realized is about 10 years of songwriting.

When it's all packaged and ready I'll post it up for audio download on dKOTA's website/bandcamp (and maybe even iTunes and Amazon) as an "official" release. Each song will also have a video component as you see below. There's probably no need to share all the videos, but I'll post a few on dKOTA's site and on the dKOTA YouTube channel.

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NPR's Tiny Desk contest

I decided to submit a video to NPR's annual Tiny Desk contest. What a treat it would be to earn the opportunity to perform for them (despite having a clearly disheveled appearance after rolling out of bed to record this)!

Moving forward with my music, I think I'll slowly finish and release "polished" songs individually rather than this whole "album" thing, which I think is becoming irrelevant. I think people want to feel more engaged in art and its process, especially after years of art being compressed (and I mean that literally) into digital mediums. And I think releasing songs as they're made, or even as snippets of low-fi recordings from time to time, allows people to get more engaged. Art deserves more engagement and embracing imperfection will allow the subject to experience the organics of art in a way in which they can relate. This is what people are hungry for in 2016. Who sings and performs perfectly all the time (autotune and pitch correction software)? Who looks in the mirror and thinks they look great every day (Photoshop and grocery isle magazines)? Who prefers ultra-glossy films with impossible physics (Hollywood's addiction to post-production software)? And, back to the music, who prefers a bombastic, impersonal, and echoed arena concert to the intimacy of a small club? In 2016, I think people will begin pushing back towards the analog, the imperfect, the personal -- the humanistic.

People don't relate to perfection. If art is pasteurized through digital perfection then people won't relate to the art. And if people don't relate to art, then the creation is just a bunch of sound waves, paint strokes, and images -- nothing more than snapshots of chaos. Art's role is to organize the Universe's chaos into a story; art is the anti-entropy. Perfection is the core story we strive for but will never obtain; hence, imperfection is our humanistic attempt to make sense of the perfection we can't know or possess. We must start incorporating and celebrating our humanistic rough edges in the art we create. And in science. And in politics. And, ironically, in religion. This will be the subject for an upcoming blog entry. Art is our analog technology.

But for now, a rough and imperfect Sunday AM version of Heaven From Here. I hope you enjoy it. Wish me luck with NPR!

**update: i've since deleted the video because i've finished and released the live album [see above] / but below is the final audio version of the song i submitted to NPR's Tiny Desk [here's a little secret though: i didn't win anything...but you know, that was expected - it was fun to take part]

the day is done

Today I extemporaneously carved my way through a snow-spired Coastal Range to drink some beer and watch surfers. And there was a sunset. And I thought of nothing at all.

2016 has been a pretty good day thus far.