Hello. A rainy Sunday June afternoon in New York City. Watching “In the Line of Fire” after making waffles. And, natch, catching back up with music. Work and the new graduate program I started last fall pulled me away for most of the past seven months. Zen Luck Ticks is now mastered. I’ll post it shortly. I’m reading up on the Creative Commons licensing, which I plan to use for the first time, and I’ve begun on the next EP.

The next one’s tentatively called “Jinx.” It consists of two tracks. It was reinforced to me last summer that I should be realistic about how much time it takes to record. One was written in the spring of ‘06 and slated to be on Zen Luck Tricks. I characterize it as a dreamy, happy folk tune. No vocals, just some instrumental twists and sound effects. I’m imagining a cinematic quality. The second song was written a couple of years ago. Let’s see how I’d describe it…I’d say it’s a rock, R&B-ish inspired groove. The chords, which I’ve very recently decided on (like, this morning), is Brazilian to well too. Overall, it’s a minor blues, really.

I’ll launch into my Brazilian fascination another time. I noticed with ZLT, and even more so now, that I retrun often to the basics. When I was in music school, I seemingly wanted to overturn the conventions every way I could. Looking back I guess that was healthy. There’s also much less singing on Jinx. The minor blues has a repeating chorus. I’m inspired here by some acid jazz and Santana. The second track is purely instrumental with influences from psychedelic folk and Chick Corea.

I’m happy to be locked back in.