Joshua Van Tassel

It’s quiet and it’s nice, and here’s a little thing from this morning that’s both of things I suppose. At least I hope. It’ll grow up some day soon into a real song. I promise. Enough weirdo beats and shit, I want to write songs like all my super talented friends. I beat on plastic membranes with sticks, it’s just not enough goddamnnit.

Also, speaking of growing up or not -

Thing my 6 year old Student said – April 27th

1. student – What happens once the earth turns around 100 times?

Josh – Well, the earth actually turns around more then that every year.

student – Oh. What happens when the earth ends??!?! Spaceman!!!!!!

*(he’s been taking to yelling “spaceman” a lot lately, no idea why. It is fun to say though, I’ll give him that.)

2. I told I was ready all day!!! Ooooohhhhhhhhh alllll day long hahahahahaha!!!!!!!

( this was after he did this one exercise counting game we do really well. He was prett happy about it and did what he refers to as the “Crazy Happy dance”. spaceman.)

All has been busy, I’m a little tired and so are my ears. I’m turning them off for the day and trying not to listen, see how that goes? Tomorrow I’ll be back in it, lots of ideas but I think I need a no music rainy day ..

And my phone camera is still being a weirdo in a neat way, I just wish I knew how to control it.

I’m playing with Valery Gore tomorrow night at the Drake, full horns and band, and me making some strange noises too. Come down at 8 or so and it’ll be fun, I promise.

Just helped a friend move, and although it was potentially the nicest day in months, it now looks like the apocalypse is coming. Uhhhhhh. Creepy iPhone photos. No sounds, no h4. People aren’t exactly on their cheery best on moving day, so we’ll save the audiophelia.

God bless the CBC and for posting this incredible, ridiculous, and incredibly ridiculous Daniel Lanois show at Massey Hall that I couldn’t go to and was seriously pissed about missing. The recording quality is top notch and the music is prettttttty sublime.

Played a fun show last night with Ronley and it was the usual hi jinx and fun. The Tranzac just got some new carpeting which is nice and cozy. After we were finished, someone who had a few beers started to play piano some piano quietly in the corner while I was packing up, and there was something about it that seemed like it was exactly the sound I wanted to hear at that moment.Here it is -

A nice end of the night type feeling. Also, I have a weekend off!!! Let me know if there’s anything fun going on that I can come a steal sounds from….

Another good day yesterday. We finished up 3 tunes with Mr. Cockerill that all sound like good rocking ( sometimes gently and emotionally) country music. Here’s a teacher student moment, but who’s who I’ll leave you to decide.

I also had a good time with these 60’s Ludwigs, that as we discovered after trying a whoooole lot of other drums, are unbeatable. Not pretty to look at but sound absolutely perfect and shitty in all the right ways.

After that, I played a rally fun gig with a band called the Long Haul. A really great songwriter named Matt Bailey wrote all the tunes, and they totally knocked me out. After that, young Joshua and I went to the Dakota and played some Townes Van Zant, and saw a girl who didn’t just want to be the center of attention, I think she wanted to transcend that and actually BECOME attention, embody it, you know? Like, if you thought “pay attention!” in your head you’d all of a sudden be thinking about this girl. It actually made my stomach hurt out of embarrassment for this girl. So much effort to look like a fool.

I had the morning to myself today and was listening to a few things, including some stuff that was going to go on NIghttimer, then didn’t for various reasons. Here’s a tune that got about 95% of the way there and then I let it go. I think it’s still pretty for what it is, so have a listen if you’ve got some spare time and spare headphones.

Yesterday was a great day. We started tracking for Josh Cockerill’s record, and it’s sounding good. Makes me want to dance and order a 50 and stay out too late where my cell phone doesn’t work. Devon was especially happy because he got to play a Thunderbird .

We lock JC in a cage because after a few drinks he becomes a feral animal and a task master in the studio. He breaks me down.

After that I played a crazy show with Christine Bougie and Daffyd Huges . It was the 2 of them, myself, Kieran Adams on drums as well, and Chris Banks on bass. They’re all freak musicians. The only thing better then a room full of people listening really hard to what they’re hearing and smiling is playing with musicians who are listening super hard to what everyone is doing and smiling. I was happy. The show was recorded so I’ll throw some stuff up when I get it.

Even though I don’t have sounds for you today, I do have this AMAZING lecture from deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie from the TED series. It’s beautiful, super inspiring, and really quite moving. Remember watching the Terry Fox documentary in elementary school? It’s like that. She speaks in a really unique way about listening to music with your whole body and not just your ears, and I honestly think anyone could learn a lot by checking this out, I sure did. More from the studio tomorrow, I’ll try and sneak the H4 in for some stuff.

I’ve got a few sounds I’ve been meaning to share and just haven’t had the gosh darn time to do it.
For that I’m sorry. I hope we’re still friends.

Here’s what the sky train in Vancouver sounds like. It’s actually quite pleasant compared to the screaming tree/ripping sheet metal sounds of our beloved TTC. And you can see the sky all the time which is nice.

Here’s my upstairs neighbor playing trumpet last night while I ate dinner. It was really nice and I should encourage him to do it more often.

And since NIghttimer is out and ready to go, I’m working on a bunch of other more acoustic based stuff now, something for the lovers perhaps? Those who want to make serious introspective love maybe? I don’t know. Here’s something I had played around with a while back but started to force into shape yesterday. Bare bones for now but don’t you worry about it, I’ve got plans.

ALSO – Listen to this CBC interview with the legendary Leonard Cohen. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone give answers that were more honest, humble, and thought provoking. He’s a real artist and human, and we as Canadians should be super proud to have someone as great as him representing us on a world literary and musical stage.

ALSO ALSO – Another Canadian contemporary legend in his own right, award winning author Paul Quarrington, had a very nice thing to say about our band the Outlanders. He came out to a couple shows and I may or may have accosted him and basically gave him an in depth interview regarding his novel writing and body of work when he probably just wanted to have his beer in peace…..anyway he said -

“The Outlanders play beautiful and intelligent ethereal twang. I love the way the guitar and piano interact with each other, supported with care and precision by the rhythm section. The melodies are, in every sense of the word, haunting.”
- which I think is really nice.

I got on the subway last night just down from this –

It’s actually a pretty catchy tune and she was a really cool singer, just playing to make people’s day a little brighter. It worked for me, so thanks.
Also, Webmaster Robin passed this along to me with a warning my productivity would go to zero, and I think it actually went into the negatives for about half an hour as I sat slack jawed and finger moving. Have a look and listen.

It’s here! It’s April 14th new release day!! Nighttimer is officially official right here

Watch this space throughout the day; I’ll be putting up pictures, some video, some sounds that didn’t make it, some bad jokes. etc. If you like what you hear, talk to me, and if you don’t like it be constructive with your criticism and talk to me too……

update #1 where and why and how

We all know that things have changed a huge amount over the past 10 years in terms of how records are made. The fact that I can make the music I do here –

– is pretty great. A lot of people complain about the fact that when anyone can have access to recording equipment the amount of “bad” music that gets made exponentially increases and the market gets over saturated. I’d like to think that rather then a huge influx of bad stuff, there’s some much more innovative music out there getting made, things that record companies and management people would never want to take a chance on due to lack of marketability. It allows me personally to make music in a relaxed place like my home and take all the time I need to make things sound the way I want them to, whenever I want which is why this ep was fun for me to do.
These tunes were some of the more interesting things that came out of some very late night experiments. As a musician, I get home late quite a bit, and generally aren’t quite ready to go to sleep right away. The world (especially in east end Toronto) looks a little different after midnight, and sounds a little different too. The tunes kind of reflect that time of day and how it feels to be looking at it and being in it.

I ended up doing some fun drum work with my friend Steve today for a project we haven’t named or really decided much of anything about, except that we want to do something so we’ll do it. And it may use stuff like this.

I also realized that talking about a project is sometimes more fun then actually doing one.When you’re just in the planning stages, you’ve got all the time in the world to think about only the positive aspects of a little undertaking, and not any of the facts about it taking a lot of work and sweat and tears and hair pulling to get there. But we love it. Right?? I think???