demos

recording demos is sort of like inking drawings in a sketchbook. the demos are not quite as rough as the initial sketch, but not nearly as polished as the final song. the purpose of a demo is to invoke the feeling and energy of the song, without getting hung up on specific arrangement ideas.

neil has this great new program for scratching out great drum tracks quickly. they are samples of real drums, so they aren’t quite as cheesy as the casio keyboard drums we used to demo the first album. it’s great because it gives us a pretty solid idea of the feel of the song. obviously when a real drummer comes into the studio to track, that’s when it really comes to life. but again, in the demo phase, this is just fine.
then neil throws down a guitar track and bassline. maybe keys or piano if he thinks the song needs that. i take this stuff into garageband until i figure out the melody and lyrics. it’s perfect for me, because it lets me play around with things, recording multiple takes until i get something i like. sometimes i just play with rhythm, no melody, no lyrics. when i get something that feels good i start scatting a melody of nonsense words. then its a matter of poring through my index cards, matching up phrases with the rhythm.

for this stuff, i’ve been sketching out a general format for each song. what i want to happen/say in each verse. progressing towards the them or meaning of the song. then i try to find the most concise or fun way to say what that verse needs. there’s a lot of back-and-forth going on at this point. push and pull. like a painting.
when i’m painting, it’s always a conversation between me and the piece. i’ll talk (paint) for a little, and then i’ll listen (look) for a little. i try not to push too much. i like to stop at points and see what the painting needs. it’s like that with songs too. sometimes i get stuck in the forest, and can only see tree trunks, and so i’ll bring it to neil. usually he’ll find a spot that’s out of place, or weak, or just not right. then i can go back in an rework that stuff.

then we record a scratch demo vocal, which of course sounds better than me singing into my macbook. everyday we burn a cd of our newest pass, and we listen to that in the car while we go out to lunch or dinner. that way we can start to make notes on what’s working and what’s not. and we know what to play with for the next day.

[studio shots] [audio clip? demo?]

writing

songwriting has always been a tricky gypsy lover for me. like any creative endeavor, sometimes everything falls into place serendipitously, and you have a good song without much laboring. but most times, it’s a hard-fought battle to bend the wills of words and melodies. you wrestle them into submission, but not so hard that you hurt them.

the first album came with its own set of tricky issues. a lot of the songs were older songs, from college, that we had to rework. so they required new arrangements, new melodies sometimes, and almost always new words. ‘mr b’ is probably the song that survived the most intact from its first incarnation. most of his siblings on the album got wrestled pretty bad.

with this album, we are starting completely from scratch. all new songs, and all new ideas. which is a lot of fun for me. it’s like buying a brand new sketchbook. blank pages waiting to be filled. so this was a welcome challenge.

my approach to writing songs is a lot like how i approach painting. usually my first step is to get a kernel of an idea and then research it to death. i fill index cards with weird phrases and bits of trivia. character traits. possible titles. then i spread them all out on my floor and start making connections. putting cards together. re-ordereing and ranking. i think it’s important, when dealing with an open-ended problem, to limit the possible solutions that i’ll spend time on. so a good first pass is a shotgun approach. shoot wide. generate too many ideas. then filter them down. keep everything for later, but limit the scope of the material i have in front of me. i’ll have to do this a few times, each time whittling the cards down.

meanwhile neil is recording demo versions of the instrumentation for the songs. when he finishes them, i throw them into garageband and start matching up themes and ideas with songs that fit the vibe. then i can start playing around with melody and lyric ideas.

or [picture of index cards]
for example, here are a couple index card worth of goofy notes/ideas:

~another fine mess we’ve gotten into
me and leroy
hercules (to ioulaus)

~triskaidekaphobia (tris-ky-deka-phobia)
napolean? roosevelt? afraid of all things 13

~dirty harry had a magnum and magnum had a 45

~the serpent of the nile - cleopatra (medusa?)

~planet mercury has the shortest year
new year’s eve parties are more frequent?

i think i’ve got something for ‘me and leroy’. or ‘leroy and me’. that sounds better.

pre-production

i flew to kentucky this week to hang out with neil. we’re starting pre-production on album two, which is very exciting for me. i love playing live; playing all the songs from the first album. but that project is over two years old now. so i’m definitely ready to make some new music.
we’re approaching this album a little differently from our last album. we’re hoping to make it a little funkier. maybe a little bit of a sixties and seventies vibe. (i guess we’re working backwards through the decades! the 20’s album should be awesome). so we’re referencing a lot of ‘sly and the family stone’, ‘bill withers’, ‘jackson 5’ and aretha franklin.
so the next step is to start writing and demo-ing songs. then we can choose the most successful ones and record them for real.

happy oh ate

hello furry monkeys.
so i had this big plan to do a 'year in review' NMK style, but alas i am lame.
it was going to be filled with all the cool things that have happened this year for us. things like having our first album in stores, getting my first song on the radio, having my first music video played on teevee, winning our first awards. you know, that kind of stuff.

oh, and then i was gonna tell you all about the cool new stuff we're going to do this year. things like an animated video for 'michael jump in", a great dvd of the behind-the-scenes from the 'sweep the leg' video shoot, a new animated comedy series called 'found object theatre', beginning production of our second album. that sort of thing.

but i didn't. i never got around to doing it because i am a dork. so i apologize.
in any case, i hope the first two days of this glorious new year have been good to you. and i hope you have at least 363 more glorious days this year. i know i will.

-pete

bottles of sound

too much free time. and too many empty water bottles.

bottles of sound

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-pete

me and my LAMA

hello my little cornflowers
we won our first award the other night! it was so fun! neil and i went to the awards ceremony (LAMA- los angeles music awards) dressed in spacesuits. for some reason people kept thinking we were knights of the round table. they asked us if we played dungeons and dragons. but we had fun. i really never expected to win, so that was a pleasant surprise.
last night i saw an excellent improv show at improv olympics in hollywood. i've been seeing a lot of great stuff there these past few weeks. last night's show featured tim meadows, former SNL cast member. he was great, all the performers were.
and also, if you get a chance, please go check out my buddy david martin's new christmas single 'fall la la in love'. its on his myspace page here: http://myspace.com/davidmartin
and its also for sale on itunes, along with his cover of 'the christmas song'. go check em out!
i think that's all i have to say. i still haven't seen 'no country for old men' yet, and it's burnin me up! but i ran into billy zabka last night at dinner, and we decided that we'll go see it next week. on a little date. a forbidden date. i made this awkward didn't i. sorry.
-pete

nmk online merch store open

hello my lovlies. so, finally, our store has launched! which is good for me, because previously you either had to come to a show or you had to come to my house to get a shirt. which was awkward. for everybody involved. and what a perfect way to save three dollars! think of all the cool stuff you can do with your extra three dollars...gummi bears...a brushless car wash…the first 25 minutes of a feature film. anyway, please check out the store. we've got big plans for new merchandise items coming soon. and until then you can buy enough shirts to clothe the cast of Rent.


click here to visit the store: nmk store

-Pete

a video message of thanks.. and a plea

hello hello.
i made a little video message for yalls. it's scratch-and-sniff, so sit close to your screen.
-pete

thankyou!

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it worked!!!

holy crap! all of your clickety-clickin' worked! we're in round three!
i'm gonna send a bottle of advil out to everyone! and next time i see you, i will hug and kiss your little clicky fingers! (unless some of you used your feet to vote... then, you're out of luck.)
i really don't know what to say. i know every band thinks they have the best fans, but in my case, i really do.
thanks so so much to everyone who helped get us in round three. rest up, and get ready to start voting again! hehe! it never ends! =)
-pete

boyzeee

woohoo! we had a superfun show in boise tonight. we got to play with a great band, 'mistress and the misters'. we played with them last time we were in town, and we were very excited to learn that we'd be playing with them again tonight.
it was great to see so many people from last time. and people did their homework! more than half the audience knew my lyrics better than i did! it was a very fun time, and i can't wait to come back. such a supportive town.
oh, and i apologize again to anyone who had to hug my sweaty body. next time i'll hire a stunt hugger.

and thanks so much to everyone who voted to get us in round two of the mtv thing! i just found out about all of this tonight, and i'm so grateful/excited that we were able to get over 5000 votes. i'm not sure how far into the contest we'll make it, but it's great to have such supportive fans. with such itchy clicky mouse fingers.

-pete