MANTRAS Album Release

by j | Jan 20, 2019 | art and artists I appreciate, family and friends, music marketing and business, my music and performances

After five years of production, I launched MANTRAS on New Year’s Eve, Dec. 31, 2018 because it is an album of resolutions. You can stream it below or at Spotify, YouTube, iTunes, and purchase at CDBaby or Bandcamp. For hand-decorated CDs and t-shirts, buy em right here, directly from me.

MANTRAS uses reggae and ska-infused tunes to chant my intentions, like…

• No more shitty gigs
• Get Outside
• No more waiting to be discovered
  No more waiting to get signed
• I use my system to capture information
  I use my system to structure inspiration
• Show up for practice
• Everything’s connected, everything’s changing
  Pay attention, this is what it’s like right now
• Keep your word and do your best
  Don’t take it personally or make assumptions
• I’m not gonna to try to change anyone but myself

My dreams of having a horn section came true working with Mark Gonzalez, the trombonist and arranger for Grupo Fantasma, Brownout and others.

Dan Bechdolt (sax), Kevin Flatt (trumpet), Mark “Speedy” Gonzales (trombone) tracking at Tonehaus

Robert helped me turn my sketch of my dreaming head with repeating thought bubbles into a great graphic that can be filled with the mantra of your choice. Maile, Anais and I decorated the first 50 CDs by hand with watercolors.

Anais made this great version w paint and Sharpie on wood. (I added the LOVE sticker.)

Along with the album release I am proud to premiere the video for Not Gonna Try, the last and longest track on the album and certainly my most involved video production to date. Grey Gamboa, an RTF student at UT, did a perfectly trippy job editing and creating pulsing psychedelic colors (using oil and water dyes between curved glass).

Lil sprinkled her digital fairy dust on this screenshot from the video.

I made tees and stickers for patrons and fans, and this site now features a shop where you can purchase all the j stuff.

For the third time, I am grateful to have recorded my album with Thomas “Tbone” van der Brook at Tonehaus. In the video above are Gray Parsons on drums and Doug Snyder on bass (getting sounds at the original recording session in 2013) who supported me every step of the way personally and musically. And I would likely not have finished if not for months of great help from Danny P. finalizing and mixing. Thank you all, my brothers in music.

Big thanks to Mark “Speedy” Gonzales for arrangements and trombone parts, and to Dan Bechdolt (sax) and Kevin Flatt (trumpet), especially for their trippy solos on I’m Not Gonna Try. Thanks to Derek Morris for playing keys on few tunes, especially for such perfect accompaniment on Bright Eyes Shine. Thank you, Karla and Maile and Anais for singing backup on several tracks. Thanks to Brad Bell for mastering. And thank YOU for checking it all out, I hope you enjoy the tunes!