Last night’s show…

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a nerd. Always have been. I’m a tech junkie, but only in the years that I’ve owned an iPhone have I realized how dependent my life is on technology. Most musicians in today’s world are slaves to modern gadgets, and this became all the more apparent to me this past weekend. My journey into tech purgatory started on Thursday, with my teaching job at the Popakademie. I was armed with all the tools I normally use to do my job: laptop, iPad, audio interface, microphone. My students are preparing for their semester exams (each student must perform a 45 minute live looping set using only their voices and a “loop station”, either hardware or software based), which require loads of tech that...

As a child, I always dreamed of traveling to great European cities. I’ve had the great fortune to visit most of the cities I’ve dreamt about, and this weekend I performed in one of my greatest childhood dream cities: Athens, Greece. My road trip started on Thursday, when I spent two days in Mannheim, Germany teaching at the Popakademie. It’s getting close to semester exams, so I spent the time preparing my students for their big day; a 45 minute live looping performance. After my time there I travelled to Aschaffenburg for rehearsals and a gig in the evening. The gig itself was fine; I performed with a talented up-and-coming singer named Jennifer Washington. After three hours of sleep in my hotel it was off to the airport and my highlight gig of...

This weekend’s road trip was an especially interesting one, for many reasons. I got to see some beautiful old (and new) cars, experience extreme sleep deprivation, and visited a city that had been considered the capital of “the evil empire” for most of my life. Here’s a recap of the 48 hour road trip that took me to Essen, Germany and Moscow, Russia. Preparation for the coming adventure had begun a couple of weeks prior, when I received a call from my colleague and good friend Worthy Davis. He asked me if I could cover for him on a gig he was scheduled to do in Moscow. Normally I would immediately say yes to the chance to help out a colleague in a jam, but hearing the word “Moscow” admittedly gave me pause. As an American, one generally grows up with...

Thursday night at the King Kamehameha Club. We just finished our first set, and I was surfing the Net on my iPhone, reading my favorite news blog, the Huffington Post. The first headline in the Breaking News caption: Michael Jackson Suffers Cardiac Arrest. The news was shocking, but I was hopeful that he would eventually be OK. I went to the bar to get a drink, then I returned to my seat to continue reading. I hit the refresh button, and in an instant, my heart dropped into my stomach; Michael Jackson had died. Feeling quite numb, I spread the word to the people around me that the King of Pop has died. The most common reaction was, “are you kidding me?” People couldn’t believe it. My colleagues Tiffany and Worthy, two singers who like me are known for their...