your hand in mine

i really believe that we are a culture that values words too much and genuine touch and affection too little. i witnessed this moment (pic above) with a person who has dimentia on such a high level that she really cannot comprehend words coherently anymore. but she gets touch. she gets it. and someone gave that to her. and she accepted it. and she felt loved.

she.
felt.
loved.

i hope my music does this. the words, eh, theyre ok. i try hard with words. sometimes they're good. sometimes they're not the best. it's not my strongest strength. however, i know i'm a good enough songwriter and musician and it's my hope that the vibe from the music will connect with people on a level that perhaps can't be understood with words.

so i keep trudging on with writing and recording. i'm eager to release this stuff, but the timing will have to be right for that to happen. in the meantime, appreciate the picture above and also caila and my brilliant version of mmmbop, listed below. we practiced that one a lot before recording it and i think that will be evident.

not gonna explain this

just enjoy it as much as we did.

yay

just recorded "brightness." also just wrote lyrics for it earlier. ive been trying and trying to get lyrics and they finally hit. so outside of a few punches for pitchiness, i have one song down. yay!

happy happy happy.

AHHH

trying to record vocals for "how beautiful the mountains are!"

very frustrated. not productive. not hooky.

GRRRRRRRRRRR.

GRRRRRR.

GR.

websites and runways

i have a website now. its matthewcavanaughMUSIC.com its just a baby so far, but it'll be world changer soon enough :p

oh yeah. so i just got back to pasadena (from chicago). the plane was about 2+ hours delayed. we boarded the plane and then sat there, not moving, for 2+ hours, because of some luggage misrouting whatever. i tell you, though - that plane was ready to break into pandemonium. flight attendants were conspicuously absent. people left the plane and didn't return. lots of people pacing and yelling. babies crying. so weird old lady kept looking at me and half-smiling. it was uncomfortable, to understate things.

hm. that's all i think i'm going to share right now. bye.

galway alehouse

here are a few of my friends and i chilling out at our local hangout: the galway alehouse. sorry its dark... the lighting is dark in there and i left my movie spotlight at home.

oh yeah, ps. merry christmas. ok bye.

goofing with my cousin

myself and my cousin jammed out a bit today at his apt in chicago. here's us covering "fields" by christie front drive.

updates, vocoders, and airplanes

update: all of the guitars are done on the demos. hooray! seriously, it feels good. i can pack away my line 6 pod for a bit, now, and i once again have a nice spot on my desk to rest my feet when i lean back in my chair. on to vocals...

i have recently acquired an obsession with vocoders. when i say obsession, i mean OBSESSION! an obsession on the level that urkel had with cheese, chicago has with pizza, and old dads have with wrangler jeans. obsession.



and now im off to fly to chicago for a very brief holiday stay. here's hoping LAX is kind to me tomorrow morning...

blue + green

just recorded the demo guitar part for this one.
mark my words: this is, by far, the best song i've ever written. and the guitars sound really really good. i'm really excited. the end.

progress progress progress!

that would be a fun name for an album, huh? :-)

everything has been converted into protools. ive finished all the guitar demo stuff for mountains, glow, brightness and both, heavy and my new life, are totally finished (with vocals). lots and lots of progress. if i have it my way, all the demo guitars will be finished by tomorrow night. and maybe i can even exceed that goal. that would be ridic! (that one's for you, blair campbell!) but when you're in a groove, you're in a groove, right?

anywho, drop me a line and let me know you're alive! that would be rad.
also if you have suggestions on fun youtube videos to make, let me know. i feel like some movie making soon.

im gonna go reward my creative efforts with some pizza hut transfats. rock. peace.

!

officially done with conversions.
now just working on guitar demo parts before recording vocal demo parts.
already have demo guitars done for "how beautiful the mountains are."

!!!

randomness

now that all of my guilty pleasures are out into the open, i can once again resume normal blogging. which = randomness.

if you're a booking agent or club owner or coffeeshop owner or bar owner or you know a person that books shows at their venue or living room or arena, let me know. i want shows. lots of em. i'll play wherever. doesn't matter.

i've been working on converting all of the current Reason files into protools files. sounds fun, right? it is. well maybe not, but its good to get the grunt work out of the way. its kind of hard to explain the process... but its the equivalent of taking handwritten notes and typing them into a document file. once they're typewritten, your text can be edited easier and printed out etc... same goes for music files/reason files. i can't really do much with em in their native form, but in protools i can manipulate them and also start recording vox and gitz. oh yeah, ps: reason is the program i use for all of my looping/sampling stuff. guess i coulda explained that earlier.

anywho, but yeah, i've converted these songs:
heavy
my new life
act i holding on act ii letting go
what i wish i could say
blue + green
brightness
you will glow once again!
Why? (goodnight and why cant i be like them?)

and i still have to do these:
how beautiful the mountains are
tomorrow
open your eyelids and see for the first time!


my goal is to finish all of that today and to start recording vocals. a little longer term goal is to have all of the demo's finished by new year, and at least 5 done before i go back chicago on december 22nd. progress WIN!

im off to go meet a friend for coffee. peace.
oh yeah, and here's another video on you tube for you people that watch em. its actually audio, but it still rules.

guilty pleasures #5 - the final one!

guilty pleasures #5

so the fifth and final guilty pleasure i'd like to highlight this week: "don't wait" by dashboard confessional. some of his songs are really good pop, imho, and some aren't quite the best - but this song just does it for me. and this video is super cool.

so there you have it. there are some of my guilty pleasures. what are yours?

guilty pleasures #4

guilty pleasure #4:

this one is so guilty, i can't even write much about it. just want the link below and then feel free to make fun of me endlessly.

guilty pleasures #3 (and a bit extra)!

so before the regularly scheduled broadcast, i would just like to say that i now have a youtube channel! woohoo! you best be favoriting this one because i plan on putting TONS of goodies up there!!! here's the first vid from last night:



...now for the regularly scheduled program...

Guilty Pleasure #3: Colbie Caillait. Make fun of me. I don't care. She's good at making catchy pop and she has some platinum to prove it. Oh yeah - and she surfs. WIN! So enjoy:

guilty pleasures #2

andrew wk.
this guy is nuts. actually not. his purpose, according to interviews with him, is to make music that makes people feel alive and good. i like that. you can say what you want about his music or weirdness, but i think this is just pure fun. so yeah. guilty pleasure #2:

guilty pleasures #1

pastors have sermon series.
discovery channel has shark week.
and i am not going to take a short while to showcase some guilty pleasures.

#1
the merge of techno and emo. it sounds like an awful mix. it actually kind of us. yeah. but its great for the treadmill or dancing or something.

enjoy.

a little bit of music biznazz

i've been lyric'ing a whole lot the last couple days, mainly from my secret coffee spot in studio city. it's a quaint little get up, attracting patrons from every which way of life. i found myself last night saddled between two tables, which formed a very polarized dichotomy: one table had two girls at it, who were doing some sort of bible study, laughing a lot, and just enjoying their time there in a really respectful, kind way. the other table was inhabited by four girls who said some of the worst stuff i've ever heard people say. to give you an idea, at one point during the night, they were talking about a girl's "ugly, cracked, dry skin" and her heavy weight... and how she just made them want to punch her because of those characteristics. my heart was on the ground listening to this. yuck.

however, it was fertile ground for lyrics writing, and lyrics writing i did. and i continue to do. the last couple days, music hasn't been coming quite as it had been, but that's ok. lyrics still need to be perfected.

the cd tracklist has been revised:
1. heavy
2. my new life
3. act 1: holding on, act 2: moving on
4. what i wish i could say
5. blue + green
6. brightness
7. you will glow again!
8. tomorrow
9. open your eyelids and see for the first time!
10. goodnight
11. why can't i be like them?

this isn't the order, per se, but those are the songs making the cut right now. however, i have a need from all 2 of you out in blogland! i need a name for this disc. gimme your suggestions!

one more thing of note: i've begun a youtube channel. in the coming months i will be posting videos for your viewing pleasure! so check it out HERE!

glee

i, like every other musician alive, am a huge fan of glee. if you don't watch it, you're missing out on one of the fun things of life. glee is awesome and the finale last night was just ridiculously great.

there's an actress on there who gets about 4 lines per show but they're always the funniest lines of the show. she has a youtube channel, where she posts movies that she and her friends make at home. they're way funny and ridic. check out heather morris's youtube channel, as linked below. oh and ps. i'm going to start a youtube channel for music stuff. so stay tuned!

new addition to the family...

i would like to welcome the newest addition to my family of assorted guitar effects: Full-Drive 2:



I have been using a Turbo Rat for awhile - and still will continue to - but I really needed an in-between pedal sound between "sweet, glassy clean" and "Kill! Kill! Kill!" I hope and pray that this pedal by Fulltone will work out. I think it will.

Onto other news, I'm done with my Fall Quarter at school, which means it's time for music, music, music. And I injured my knee, which means I won't be able to do the same amount of athletic and outdoor stuff I like... so more time for music, music, music! Music is going to become my life for the next unspecified amount of time. I'm ok with that.

Peace.

yay

hardest test ever = complete.
did i pass it? you ask. well... that's a great question, and i can't honestly be sure of that. let's hope. it was tough.

i have one more paper to write, which shouldn't be too bad, and then i'm home free until january! so...that...being...said... music writing time!!! haha. and my wonderful friends have been throwing tons and tons of music rec's at me. hint hint. i like music rec's.

here's one of em. thanks daniel long!

oh...by the way... i have shows scheduled for the next couple months :-) i guess that's major.... info on the space.

jonsi

holy crap. um. im trying to think of how else to describe the feeling i get hearing jonsi from sigur ros' new venture. but...my mind is blank. so enjoy the holy crap! i like this song so much, im even going to give the youtube video a green border! wow!

target

was shopping at target today. bought a jumbo pack of tp. ran into an attractive woman and made eye contact with her. she then looked at the tp i was holding. talk about awkward. i guess it could have fueled an interesting discussion, but i decided to quickly walk away instead. haha.

one more awesome music vid post for the day

i cannot cannot CANNOT wait for this show in feb! oh myself. wow.

you dirty, dirty projectors

i've taken a short couple day break from music. its actually hard to, because i feel like locking myself in my roomate and writing and writing and writing. i'm weird like that. i get in a groove and things just flow, and then it ends and writing is hard. im in that groove right now, but i have a HUGE test to study for on Tuesday. So... no music for Matt til Tuesday morning. Seriously. Hold me to it, blog world.

I have a new obsession. Llamas. And it's because of this music video. So good.

oh tobias, you blowhard!

my friend, heather, inspired these fun links. thanks for the reminder of the best show ever, heather!

another new one

i've got another song. its called "why can't i be like them?" its easily the most personal song i've ever written and took a matter of a few minutes to write. i think it will connect with some people though. i hope at least.

on to more writing.

beauty

this is my favorite thing ever

just like the title. favorite thing ever. if this doesn't make you want to play live, nothing will. watch it right here:

Final Fantasy @ Hillside from NOW Magazine on Vimeo.