Transcript 0:00 [upbeat music] Hey, Joe. [laughs] It wasn't too long ago that we, we actually talked- No, it wasn't... uh, early in April. Yeah. It was- Yeah... it was great. I got wind that you were up to something special this week. 0:13 You're up in Seattle. What are you doing up there? When we talked in, in April, I had hinted at the fact that I was, um, getting ready to seriously consider jumping into the river again. 0:27 We were talking about currents last time and- Right... so thinking about jumping into that current of recording a new project, and it happened so fast in April, I can't even tell you. 0:39 It was just quite, quite an interesting process, one that I've never really experienced before. So it came right a- basically after we had a conversation, things accelerated at that point or...? Absolutely. 0:50 A, a great deal. I had my, um, feelers out and to two specific people that were very instrumental in, in kind of being the glue between all of the records. 1:01 And that would include the recording studio that I've always recorded at, as well as my great friend and sound engineer, Frank Brekke. 1:09 And, um, you know, uh, the stars aligned and the owner of the studio said, "You come back whenever you want, and we'll schedule you in"- Wow... "um, whenever you can." 1:19 And my friend Frank just said, "I'll do whatever you want to do another record with you." 1:23 So with that in mind, and, um, not having an idea about how, how much it was gonna cost or anything, I just trusted the fact that this really needed to happen for me. 1:34 The album is The View From Here, and s- uh, obviously you think of landscape, but there's a metaphor there because as an aging gentleman of 62- [laughs]... um, we talked about my albums, The Key and- Yeah... 1:49 other albums that have kind of a, an allegory or an archetypal journey in them. 1:54 And The View From Here can be taken physically or it can be taken more of a non-literal sense, where you're talking about, this is where I'm at in my walk. This is where I am in my journey of life. 2:06 Um, this is where I am in my transition, uh- Yeah... you know, from one thing to another. 2:12 So, uh, the process of actually composing the music literally took three weeks in April and the first week of May, and I actually composed 11 songs. Wow. 2:23 There's 12 songs on the record, but I composed 11 songs in about three weeks. And the biggest surprise for me [laughs] was I actually wrote it all out in hand with pencil on manuscript paper. 2:34 And that was the first, um, time in 12 records I've ever actually written out complete piano parts. I've always written out lead sheets, you know. 2:43 So that was, was painstaking, but it was such a, um, a cathartic experience- Mm... 2:49 and it was almost like a painter studying a, a canvas and coming back to it day after day after day and saying, "No, I don't like that color here. I'm gonna- Tweak it... I'm gonna just adjust it a little bit." Yeah. 3:00 And so here I am, you know, I'm, I'm looking at this manuscript that's, like, six pages long, and I'm like, "I don't like that voicing over there." 3:08 And so I'd go back and erase it and switch it out or do something different. And a lot of it just kind of came and, and it, it just kind of created itself on paper as I was going. So that was- You-... 3:20 a very, very gratifying experience. It's been quite a while since your last project, right? Oh my gosh, yes. My last project was a co-project with, uh, my wife, Elizabeth. Yeah, yeah. 3:30 It was called One Piano, and it was released in 2001. Yeah. And so- Yeah... after, after that release, the music industry was in such turmoil. Yeah. 3:39 And it just didn't seem reasonable to, to take any more personal risks in terms of releasing music at that point- Right... 3:47 because everything was just kinda getting ignored, you know, because record labels were realigning and, you know, 3:55 companies were chewing up other companies and cutting them in half and, and so one thing led to another and years passed, and I had other things to do, and being a teacher- Sure... and a father and all of that. 4:07 But, um, just the relocation, if any of your listeners have listened to our first podcast, they understand that about five years ago, uh, we relocated to a small town in Colorado. 4:17 And that really set, um, my barometer, I suppose you could say, about a lot of things in, personally and then just creatively. I can't believe that was August, and here I am on our very last day of mixdown. 4:31 [laughs] Um, we're actually done. My engineer right now is, is sending the waveforms to a master engineer in New York. So I'll probably have mastered mixes in a couple of days. Wow. And, um- That's crazy. Yeah. 4:45 So it's pretty exciting. That's really exciting. A- when you went into this, I mean, you've reached a... I'm gonna say it. I know you're humble about this, but you've reached a certain level of mastery years ago. 4:55 But did you find that as you were going in through this project, you were stretching yourself? I would... Oh my goodness, yes. In what ways? And, and you can get specific 'cause I wanna connect with- Yeah, yeah... 5:07 some of those friends. I- And your students too, by the way, you know. Right. And I, um... Number one, if you're, if you stop learning at any point, there's no more growth if you're, if you stop learning. 5:18 Whether it's your craft, like my composing or my piano playing, or whether it's anything in your life. 5:24 If you stop being open to being learned and you start creating a fixed mindset, you are never gonna grow any f- uh, past that moment. And that, uh, that is the, one of the biggest lessons I could ever say to anyone. 5:39 I would say that to a student. I would say that to any- anyone who would want any kind of advice from me. I would say, "Always be a learner." 5:47 So in that light, I, again, going back to the manuscripts, that's the first time I've ever done that. So that in itself stretched me. I thought, "What am I doing?" Because it- [laughs]... 5:59 it took me, you know, it really took me- Eight hours probably every day for two weeks to physically capture what I was doing. 6:11 And I just thought at, at any point during that process [laughs] I just thought, "I don't know if I'm gonna be able to pull this off." 6:19 [laughs] And, and then when I got done, I looked at everything I did and I said, "I don't think I can play this." [laughs] So- [laughs]... that in its, that in itself is- Oh, I love it... that in itself is stretching me. 6:33 And then of course I spent the next six months trying to play what I had written. 6:38 [laughs] And, um, and there's so many, there's so many technical things that I have never taken those kinds of risks in a solo piano album but to do. Mm-hmm. 6:49 Uh, just, just the virtuosity that some of these pieces have and how hard it is to really I guess, um, express the, the, the, the highs and the lows and, and just to be careful with your performances, um, really, really challenging. 7:07 So, um- Yeah. Well, that's amazing. Yeah. And you didn't back down from it either. [laughs] No. And, um- Think I'll get the eraser out and take some of those notes out... I was, I was too, I was too committed. 7:17 There was no way I was not gonna make this happen. Some of these takes my, my, my poor engineer [laughs] he's like "Okay, 43, take 43." [laughs] So, but, um, that didn't happen too often. 7:35 But, uh, it's, it's a, it's a real, um, interesting experience to get back- Wow... on a horse after 20 years. And- I can't wait... and I think- I can't wait to hear it. I can't wait to hear it. Yeah. Thank you. 7:49 Well, it really, really is, uh, I think, magical, and it's a, it's an experience from beginning to end. Much like maybe some of my instrumental albums can be, you know, listeners can feel that way. 7:59 But this is very intimate and I think they're gonna come away with sort of the same reward as they would listening to a big Michael Gettle record. So. Mm-hmm. So it's solo piano? 8:11 Are you, are you- It, it's solo piano with a-... putting anything else in the backgrounds or? There, there are some, uh, a few surprises in the background- Okay. All right... 8:19 and a couple of third, a couple of third hands and that kind of thing, so. Good. Yeah. For sure. [upbeat music] Hey, thanks for joining me today on Titans of Transition. I hope you enjoyed the episode. 8:31 Please check the show notes for additional information. Also, please like and subscribe to this channel.
