Joshua Van Tassel

I was driving home last night which I often do, and for the first time had the somewhat romantic notion that I should just keep driving. The Gardiner was pretty much empty, the Festiva was full of gas, I was listening to Bill Withers tell me about his grandma and her hands, and I thought why not? I came up with a bunch of good reasons why not, but technically I could have forgot them all and kept driving. Maybe for days. Maybe I’d hit Cape Breton and turn around and go the other way. having a car in the city, or at all for that matter can be a completely expensive pain in the ass, but every so often it feels really really good to know that I’ve got some freedom waiting to go if I need it. As long as it’s not to cold and my freedom’s engine will start.

Spent the day doing a few different things musically. I’ve been trying to record drums really quietly, then over compressing them with lots of distortion. I like hearing quiet sounds loud and out of context. Here’s one of them –

In other news, one of favorite bands to play in, the Outlanders, are doing their second show of our Orbit room residency. It’s this coming Monday night, starts at 8, and it’ll be a lot of fun. I promise. How can I be so sure? Because I’m a positive guy. real glass half full type thing, you know? The rest of the Outlanders are too. So come feel good about yourself.

Lots of stuff on the go right now, spent the morning working with Sarah Kurtis on her ep, and I’m really excited about it. it’s my first real tackling of a bigger project as a producer and we’re happy with how it’s coming together. Hopefully we’ll be done by Christmas? We’ll see, I’ll throw some things up here soon.
Also working on a new duo record with Joanna which I think is going to be all over the map, and really interesting. Lots of pretty sounds, weirdo beats, and whatever else we feel like. here’s a weido beat that I made last night to give you an idea where things may head, but maybe completely not.

I’m back in town and trying really hard to finish up some music……which alway ends with me making new stuff instead. It’s a real serious issue…..I need help…..here’s a demo of something on the go……

I’ll be out of town til Monday, so no updates until then. I’ll come back with bursting with sounds previously unheard…by people on this site at least. I’ll have technically heard them, because I’ll record them. And then you can hear them. I don’t feel like I make any sense today.

My dad’s shop houses many fearsome metal beasts. 

Saint John NB, a dark alley, what appears to be a burning door, sounds like this -

I love carrots. This is the song that plays in my head when I eat carrots, made only with the sounds of me eating carrots. Mmmmmmmmmm,,…

My muse, my inspiration.

I’ve been trying hard to finish up a batch of tunes lately, but just can’t seem to do it, and I’m realizing that’s ok. I’ve been talking to some artist friends lately who show such patience in their work, and once they reach that point in a piece where they know know there’s only a couple things missing, they don’t try to force all the square pegs in the round holes. So I started working on some new stuff. Here’s a little demo of a thing I’m going to work on today.

Think what you will.

I was thinking about Steven McCarthy and his band the Elastocitizens who put on a crazy show, and I made this for him. It’s all about putting on big slippers you don’t want anyone else to see and turning up those records that no one knows you still have, and just letting it all go man.

Here’s my first attempt at making something interesting with my aforementioned new toy. It’s not supposed to be something you hum along too, it’s more music for making plants grow sideways.

Here’s something I started working on today that’s going to get completely fleshed out and probably completely overblown. But it’ll be lot’s fun.

I went to the grocery store this morning, and a very interesting man looked at me and said ” why are you wearing those things in your head?”. The only response I had was “well, I’m not sure. Why are you wearing a purple hat?” He thought for a moment, decided it was a stale mate and left it at that. Colorful characters on the Danforth, always very friendly, but a little aggressive sometimes. Today’s beat I dedicate to that man for making me wonder “why do I wear earrings?” It kind of makes you wonder.