new album is out!

bio_[il]logic is found on all the usual suspects: iTunes/Spotify/Pandora/Amazon/etc. But I do like Bandcamp because it includes the lyrics and credits -- a lost art (literally) in our digital music age.

anyway -- nothing more needs to be said about this album than what i already been said below about this / it gives me such joy to finally share it / a release show for late winter is still in the works...

negative space_

three and half years later, and I still have something to say / about nothing, ironically enough // this is on the forthcoming dKOTA album, but i'm not releasing it as a single or anything -- just sharing here_

negative space  [01_03_2018]

say no more to me, love

i think i’ve got all i need

your silence spells your words forcefully

a novel i don’t want to force myself to read

alone and in the shadow of no one

frightened by the lack of blame

a stone to throw beyond the speed of sound

a musical in your name

so lovely, now i think it’s your turn

to speak your mind if you dare

even though the song you’d sing
is sad enough to make me bleed

a little hurt is all i need

to know that you’re gone

alone and in the sorrow for fun

frightened by your wicked game

a stone to throw beyond the speed of sound

a musical without a name

if i could let you know that i never did let you go

then i’d know just how to fall down

if you could let me know that you’ve gone away and let me go

then i’ll know just how to hit the ground
_

"shape shifter" >> the first single of my new album is now available!

download & stream via all the major avenues soon - iTunes / Apple Music / Spotify / Pandora / Amazon /etc.

and, of course, the full album is yet to come_

new album progress

tracking is complete and it's time for mixing this week / mastering is to follow this month and then the album will be finished! it's shaping up to be the best sounding collection of songs i've ever made / i couldn't be happier / check dkotamusic.com for updates and announcements on an album release show_

here's a short video clip of adam lee (also the lead sound engineer and mixer) absolutely shredding some strings_

d.J presents >> bio_logic

this is a three part mix engineered for summer, with the first third hopping through pop house, tech house, and deep house (and a sprinkle of trance), the second third unapologetically taking glitch control through half-timed dubstep and trance-step (yes, I'm now poking fun and making up genres), while the last third says "ahhh....goodnight" with a blissed-out, over-the-stars injection of ethereal down-tempo dopamine // this isn't my most cerebral mix (ironically, given the dopamine star art), but given the meticulous (if not intense) focus and journey of my last mix (below), this one provides some needed waggishness to the catalog / and just in time for summer // enjoy! _

new dKOTA album in the works

I'm excited to share that I have the privilege of recording a new album in one of the best studios in Portland, with some of the best talent and equipment available. Indeed, quality music -- of which I can only aspire to make -- ultimately comes down to the songs themselves, but I've never had the proper opportunity to package my songs in a way I felt delivered them properly. Previous efforts have been either me in my apartment with a $99 microphone and GarageBand, or in a decent studio at the mercy of limited resources, rushed schedules, and semi-invested musicians (to their credit, it was a volunteer hobby for all involved).

But now I have the unique opportunity to translate my songs onto the best medium possible: one of relaxed schedules, with the best equipment available, and with nothing but fully-invested musicians at my back (and sometimes lead). It's like finally finding a clean mirror to reveal an honest reflection, for better and worse. But as an artist, this is the pinnacle of actualization. It doesn't have to be perfect, or even good for that matter -- just honest. I've never had that. For so many years I've made songs, tracked them, translated them with meager tools and multifarious limitations, and accepted their grainy and cracked reflection as though one accepts their reality through a compromised mirror. But it's all I had.

The album is being recorded in a place that looks more like a livable art installation than a studio. There's really no other way to describe it. I've found "wooden spaceship" to be accurate. It consists of five stories, multiple bedrooms and bunks, a skate pool, a bar, mini golf, meticulously detailed and aggressive architecture, and a recording studio that's stacked with some of the best resources available. It's a private locale, catering mostly to the local band, The Decemberists, but also housing the likes of other local greats such as Stephen Malkmus (formally Pavement) and Portugal. The Man. The engineer, Adam Lee, happened to record Mr. Malkmus's as-yet-unreleased new album, whereby the first single has garnered recent acclaim (I've heard snippets and it's fantastic). Adam has also engineered for Built To Spill, another Pacific NW legend. And to add to the insane talent mix, the live strings trio layers real strings to the songs (FINALLY REAL STRINGS!) has played for My Morning Jacket, Band of Horses, the Decemberists, dot, dot, and dot... accomplished and talented musicians nonetheless.

At any rate, this feels like "name dropping," and I suppose it is. But it's testament to the respected musicianship and engineering at hand. I couldn't be more excited. In fact, the initial trackings are sounding just lovely -- beyond my already high expectations. And the strings are just melting me. I can't wait to get this out there and hopefully play a show. It's been a while. Too long, in fact. Stay tuned!

Farewell, Stephen Hawking

In accordance with his requested epitaph, here is scripture from one of my era's greatest clerics of reason:

"My own mind is my own church"
~ Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason, 1794

Two Thousand and Eighteen Years

Dates are arbitrary. We are supposedly in the year 2018. Two thousand and eighteen years since what? Of course, I know the popular answer to that, but it's no academic answer. Just like the unit of Kelvin for temperature, perhaps we should use the Big Bang as year "Zero" and count up from that, obviating any need for negative, arbitrary time such as "B.C.". But even "Big Bang Time" is an estimate. Everything is an estimate.

When I was a child I would disassemble legos and realize that my plastic castle was nothing more than a construction of smaller plastic blocks. But what were the plastic blocks made of? I would saw one in half only to have two smaller plastic blocks. How long could I do that? Eventually I learned they were made of molecules, which were made of atoms; and then I learned atoms were made of subatomic quarks, leptons, and bosons, as well as other unidentified, non-matter elementary particles; and then I learned that these subatomic particles may be just vibrating strings of energy in 11 or 12 dimensions. And so everything is just an estimate, from the momentum of an electron to our current "momentum" of arbitrary units in the space-time of 2018 on Planet Earth. It's all just an estimate.

When does life begin? When is the moment of death? What is the value of a dollar? What is the speed of an African Swallow? Of course, Einstein articulated this better than anyone in his (relatively) eponymous overtures on estimations called "Special" and "General Relatively" -- with the emphasis on "relativity". Physics aside, relativity in the form of estimates is all we have to work with in constructing our reality. Perhaps we should invite statistics to help quell our, shall we say, uncertainty. We should choose our reality (and yes -- humans really do choose a reality, oddly) based on what is most statistically consistent. For example: is the sky blue? Well, it depends on where you live and what time of day it is; in fact, the sky may rarely be blue. Ask an Alaskan in the late fall and the sky may be mostly magenta; a Beijinger may say the sky is orange and brown due to smog; right now my sky is mostly black, although living in Portland, Oregon I'm fancied to say the sky is mostly gray (which is untrue). Hence, there's so little room for absolutes in our reality.

And so as I move into this arbitrary year of 2018 years since something I'm not sure even happened (nor does anyone currently living, by the way), I'd estimate that it's most likely to be a better year for me personally simply because I statistically had a few sour, untoward years that nearly broke me. The chances of that happening yet again -- correcting even for petulant animosity mixed with irrational human emotion I hate to own -- are low. In other words, I'm optimistic about the year 13.75*10^9 because probability favors the positive manifestation of previous years hard work in career staging, songwriting and music networking, and relationship building among friends. Romantic relationship building, on the other hand, remains in complete and utter disarray, which is most likely to persist into 2018 due to my unfortunate, irrational human-cased influence overcoming statistical odds...but I can't win it all. Besides, that's what my guitar is for.

I want this year to be better than the previous three. Those were some trying, tumultuous, downright sad years -- personally, professionally, and inter-personally. Indeed, it takes a mindset to actualize on opportunity, and I recognize that not all that happens is chance. We do largely own our destinies, at least when we're given such grand opportunities as what I've had growing up when and where and I did: middletown America during one of the longest non-war stretches in a generations. But chance plays a role too, no doubt. And if you've got the resources -- i.e. tenacity -- then you keep playing until you win. So deal me in for another round.

Happy New Year, Planet Earth. Don't blow yourselves up. We can do this life thing. In fact, we can even make it better. Thus far, statistical estimations have been in our favor. That's enough for us all to deal another round.