My band, Fire On McGinnis has started working on a new music video. I have no idea how long it will take to be completed, but from the animatics I have seen it looks like it is going to turn out pretty cool. I thought I would share these behind-the-seances drumming photos with everyone.

When MP3s started to make an appearance in the 90s they had one large advantage for the causal listener and one large disadvantage. The advantage being that file size of an MP3 file was is very small. You could store hundreds of MP3 encoded songs on one CD. This was huge and lead the way for music players like the Apple iPod.

The big disadvantage to MP3s for people like me was that since the audio was compressed to be a smaller file size you could hear the compression or the missing audio data when listening to an MP3. This drove me nuts!

I have friends that to this day swear up and down they can not tell the difference when listening to a song on a CD or when listening to the same exact song from an MP3 file. To me the differences have always stuck out like a sore thumb. Which at times I can’t even believe since I have been a rock drummer for so many years and I have to be experiencing some form of hearing loss by now.

So, because I can tell the difference between the lower quality audio as a result of an MP3 file and a CD I have just always bought CDs.

Very recently I have been educating myself on the virtues of the Free Lossless Audio Codec, or FLAC for short. Because FLAC is a lossless audio format it sounds just like my CDs sound. I can not tell the difference when I am listening to a FLAC audio file verses listening to the same song on CD. Everything I have educated myself about FLAC says that there really is no audio difference between the CD audio file and the FLAC audio file. The lossless audio codec was specifically designed for audio and the resulting file will drop down to at least 50% if not more of the original audio file from the CD.

So, why do I care about all this? Why don’t I just continue to listen to my CDs? Well, I do still listen to my CDs at home, but we now live in a world with lots of portable devices that were made for our connivance. I would like to take full advantage of my devices.

When Apple announced the iPhone 4S, I ordered one right away. At the same time I started researching FLAC audio files as a solution for my portable music listening pleasure. I found the following FLAC audio encoding guide and FLAC audio player ‘Golden Ear‘ for my iPhone. I also ordered a pair of really great headphones that I can’t say enough good things about right now. Sony Dynamic Stereo Headphones MDR-7506 Professional.

Based on the audio guide I found I started encoding my CDs right away. I received my headphones a few days later and then my iPhone 4S arrived. I purchased and loaded a copy of ‘Golden Ear’ on to my phone and transferred over a few songs to test out the application and my head phones. I was amazed! Every song sounded wonderful and crystal clear. The ‘Golden Ear’ audio player works a lot like iTunes for the iPhone. You have the quick access controls from the home screen as well as a play list of music to scroll through and choose from.

If you are really into audio quality like me, I can tell you I am so happy that I found this solution. I wish I had found it sooner. It would have saved me years of frustration.

Sons of Norway Hall

Late last week I traveled with my band, Fire On McGinnis to Petersburg, Alaska. We were invited out to Petersburg to rocked their annual Oktoberfest Celebration. It was a challenge for us getting all five members of the band and our musical gear to the town of around 2,800 people. But seeing all the happy people of Petersburg as we took the stage at the Sons of Norway Hall made our adventure of playing outside of Juneau totally worth it.

Wednesday even several of us loaded up an old musty orange van with all of our musical gear. We were being careful to load things in a way that would not damage anything during the transport. After the van was loaded Mark, one of our guitar players, would drive the van down to the ferry docks and the rest of us would meet up with  him there before loading up on the ferry for our eight hour boat trip to Petersburg.

On the ferry we all gathered in the galley. With a guitar and fiddle we played music for most of the whole eight hour trip. It was a lot like this.

It was after dark when we landed in Petersburg and that did not stop the mayor of the town from meeting us at the dock. He along with his wife took us to the Sons of Norway Hall where we unloaded all our gear and setup most of everything. When we finished that evening we headed to the Tides Inn to crash for the night. We would be staying at the Tides Inn for the next two nights.

When we woke up the next morning we all got some breakfast/lunch before heading back to the Sons of Norway Hall to finish setting up the sound system and performing a sound check. Sound check ran a little longer than normally, but we where in a new place with different acoustics. I was also testing out for the first time a pair of wireless monitors which are just expensive ear buds that act as my monitors so I can hear the rest of the band. They where working pretty well during the sound check.

We finished our sound check just as the people of Petersburg starting bringing in their home made chili and beer to be judged at the Oktoberfest Celebration. I had some really fantastic corn bread.

There was some time to kill before we where scheduled to play so Mike, another guitar player in the band, and I headed to the local radio station. We wanted to stop in and thank them for advertising the show and for playing our band’s CD on the air the last several days.

When we returned from the radio station the winners of the chili cook off and home beer brewing contests where bring announced. Once that was finished we took the stage to a packed hall. Our set started off with the normal ‘Bells of Dunblane’ which leads directly into the high energy of ‘Paddy’s’. Not one minute into ‘Paddy’s’ and my earbud monitors slipped out of my ears because I was sweating. They would be useless to me for the rest of the show which was not good because this ment I could not hear the band well. To compensate for this I had to play quieter than I normally do and really follow the visual queues and body language of the rest of the band. This worked out well enough that I made it through the whole show with out making to many mistakes.

We played two sets that night and the high energy of the people of Petersburg kept us all going. They all cheered and danced as we played our music. It was amazing.

We ended our second set with a song I had not played live before called ‘Snow Light’. At the end of the song each member of the band takes their turn putting down their instrument and walking off the stage leaving only me on stage playing the basic beat to the song on my drums. One limb at a time I stop playing the song. First my left hand which I use to play the Snare drum. Than my right leg stopped hitting the bass drum and finally my right hand stop playing the shakers. I stood up and waved good night to everyone, but before I could get off stage everyone in the hall was chanting “One More Song!” over and over again.

We could not leave like that so we all took the stage one more time to play one of my favorite ‘Fire On McGinnis’ songs, ‘Charlie And The Wheelbarrow’.

At the end of the night we where all thanked heavily by everyone in the hall. They where so happy that we came out to play and put on such a good show. After the fact I heard that the event raised twice as much money as they did the year prior.

We packed our equipment back up into the old orange van and hung out by the docks. Mike, picked up some cigars and we all had a celebratory smoke as we talked about how amazing the night was. Its not a night, or a gig for that matter, that I will soon forget.

With the van packed up and everything ready for the ferry ride to Juneau the next day we all walked over to a local bar called, ‘Kito’s Kave’. When we walked in we where greeted by everyone in the bar hollering ”Hey, it’s the band!” Several people came up to us and shook our hands and said ‘Hi’ and thanked us for coming out. It was clear to me that Petersburg was very grateful to have a night of great food and music.

The next morning Mike and Martha decided to get up early and fly back home to Juneau. Three of us, including myself, stayed back with the gear to catch the ferry home that afternoon. We met up at Seaside House Restaurant for lunch. The restaurant, which was over the water atop pilots, made me quite nervous as it seemed to sway back and forth randomly. The ferry was supposed to leave sometime around 1PM. Mark said that on his way over to lunch he stopped by the ferry and saw that the departure time was pushed back a couple of hours and we all just assumed that the ferry was running late. So we had a long lunch and spent the time talking mostly about how well the show went.

When we got to the ferry we were told that the boat left just after 1PM. Mark said “But the sign?”. The guys in the ferry house came out to look at the sign and admitted that they changed the times on the sign, but failed to update the date. The later ferry date was for next week. So as a result we missed our ferry ride home. Shocked and a little upset we changed our tickets to the next day. Luckily there was a ferry leaving the next day late in the afternoon. The eight hour trip means we would not be back in Juneau till 5:15 Monday morning.

Facing the fact that we where going to have to spend another night in Petersburg we checked back into the Tides Inn for another night. The nice people at the Inn gave us a discounted rate after hearing our tale of missing the ferry.

After we got settled back into our rooms Mat, the bass player, and myself decided to go catch a movie. Petersburg does not have a movie theater. Rather the high school students of Petersburg run a program where they bring a movie into town and play it in the high school auditorium. So sitting in the auditorium the two of us watch ‘Contagion‘.

Before calling it a night we also went back to ‘Kito’s Kave’ where the bar was having an 80s themed night with 80s music and most people dressed in 80s garb. It was pretty fun.

The next morning was a slow and lazy one which we spent loitering around town till it was dark. Than we made our way to the ferry dock and hung out till after 8PM when the ferry finally loaded.

We all had a lot of fun in Petersburg. I have never come into a community and felt so welcomed in all my life. Thank you people of Petersburg for inviting us out and letting us play some music for you all. I hope you will have us out again.

Thanks goes to Bo Anderson for making these recordings. I really appreciate buddy!

I am pretty excited about this. My band, Fire on McGinnis will be playing a 4th of July show on July 3rd at the Rendezvous bar.

Some of you who are not from Juneau Alaska might be scratching your heads and wondering; why on earth should he be excited about playing a show the day before the 4th of July? Well the answer is this. Because in Juneau its light out most of the day this time of year. The only time it gets dark enough to celebrate Independence Day in Juneau is at 12:01 AM on the morning of the 4th.

I have always had a good time playing shows at the Rendezvous and I am looking forward to this one. So if you happen to find yourself on Franklin street celebrating the holiday come on over to the bar and celebrate with us!

Silver Bow

The band I drum for Fire On Mcginnis, has an opportunity to play a roof top gig above the Silver Bow in Juneau this Friday, July 1st. This last Sunday a couple of members of the band and myself headed over to the Silver Bow to check out the roof and to start figuring out the logistics of getting all our equipment up all the stair cases as well as how we where going to get power for all the amps.

My breath was taken away as I saw the view looking over the capital city. I snapped some pictures with my iPhone to share with everyone. If something happens with the weather or whatever that might prevent us from playing I am really glad I had the opportunity to see all this. I don’t know how many people get to look out over roof tops and see what I saw, but it was beautiful.

The band and I now have a mental plan of how we are going to get everything setup and we will be spending the next couple of weeks working with the owner the business so we can make it all happen. Lets just hope the weather works with us. I can’t imagine doing anything cooler right now than playing a roof top gig in downtown Juneau Alaska.

Last Thursday night was my gig with Fire on McGinnis at the Rendezvous. I got out of work late that day and one of my band mates had to haul my drums over to the venue. I showed up fifteen minutes after 5pm and as soon as I got their I started tuning and setting up my drum set as fast as I could then stepped out-of-the-way so the rest of the band could setup their equipment.

By around 6:30 we where able to perform our sound check and everything checked out fine and good. We all wanted to go get dinner so we just agreed to come back by 10pm to start playing at 10:30pm.

I came home and made dinner and hung out with Hannah for a little bit. I also took a few minutes and updated the set list I was given to include my drumming notes. I still don’t have all the songs down 100% and need a little mental refresh for several of them.

Hannah came with me back to the Rendezvous to hear me play. My brother showed up and a couple of friends too. It was encouraging to see all their familiar faces in the crowded bar.

We played the first set and we played it really well. People where dancing and laughing. We where really on that night. Before start of the fourth song I had to stop the band for a few minutes to tape up my fingers. They had blistered and popped and it was getting painful to keep playing.

I once asked the drummer of Local H what he did to protect his hands. He told me he used golfing gloves when he played. I need to make a mental note and go out and try some out.

With my hands tapped up we continued playing and finished out first set. We took a ten minute break and came back to play a second set.

I really had a good time and was grateful to the Rendezvous for letting us play.  They where grateful for us playing as well. Turns out they had such a good night on St. Patrick’s day that they ended up paying us five times more than the original agreed amount.

Hope everyone had a wonderful St. Patrick’s Day.

Waiting Out In The Cold For People To Show Up For Band Practice.

With St. Patrick’s Day tomorrow my band has been stepping up practices by playing longer and learning new songs. We have a gig at one of the local bars in juneau called the Rendezvous. We have played their before and the people that show are have always been supportive and happy to see us play so I am really looking forward to this show. I understand will be playing from 10:30pm till 12:30am. The only negative thing is that I have to go to work the next morning and am normally up by 5 AM.

Yesterday scheduling a practice was hard but we pulled it off. Hannah had some plans for the day that could not be broken so right after work we just packed up my drum set and dropped it and me off at one of our band members houses where we were going to practice for the day. I sat outside in the cold for maybe 45 minutes waiting for people to show up.  The things we do for music.

I hope some of you can make it to the show tomorrow. I think it is going to be one of our best ones yet!

There will be a Bonfire, along with a touch light parade and fireworks!

God I love FIREWORKS!

So if you got some time this Saturday please stop on my to hear some great music and watch a killer light show from Eaglecrest!