Challenge!

Hello people! So a few days before Christmas, my old record producer MD was in town from Houston. We haven't done any work together since we recorded The Pool Table Matter EP in late 2005, but we still keep in touch. I met him and his wife Amy at Cafe Lalo on 83rd and Amsterdam for lunch.

Anyway, we got to talking about what I'm doing and the new songs I have slated to concoct what will eventually be my fifth album, November Sessions. I hadn't played him anything from the collection of new songs since he's a busy guy, so we just talked about where my songwriting's gone since the first song we recorded together. I hope you'll agree with me on the notion that it's matured a bit, mostly lyrically, and somewhat musically. One of my buddies says the songs are a lot more diverse - something done intentionally unintentionally (or vice versa) ... if you know what I mean.

So MD presented me with a challenge. He wants me to write 12 songs in 12 days. Doesn't matter what comes out - just write 12 songs in 12 days and see what happens. This challenge excited the hell out of me and I immediately starting thinking of ideas, trying really hard not to put anything on paper just yet. I have a really cool conceptual idea which was suggested by the wife, and I think I'm going to follow through with it. I started yesterday and wrote a song called "Cruise Control." I'm about halfway done with a second song today, tentatively titled "Avalanche."

Sorry, that's all I'm divulging at the moment. Who knows? We may ALL be in for a surprise!

Anyway, this may produce a whole new album right away (don't worry - I'll still release November Sessions, as it's an album I've been working on for three years now), but it may produce 12 songs of crap. Hopefully at least a handful of gems. We'll see ...

By the way, saw Yes Man with the wife yesterday. Was supposed to see Frost/Nixon, but unfortunately it was sold out. Yes Man's OK. Not the best Jim Carrey flick. Was great to see Rhys Darby in action, though. And Zooey Deschanel is adorable as always. But in all honesty, you can wait 'til TBS inevitably airs it on a weekly basis.