FUN TIDBITS

The mallets I use are a pair of drum sticks with old socks wrapped tightly around the ends.

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The crazy whooshy sound in "A Better Life II" is a recording of my kitchen's heater wall unit turning on, with some distortion and other effects applied.

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Sometimes the cheapest and crappiest-sounding drums give me just the sound I need. Nicer drums are often too clean and lack the "dirt" that give a song character.

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With the exception of "Air In The Night", my wife does all my female vocals.

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Most of the shakers you hear in my songs are plastic toys that my wife got at a children's consignment store. If these don't cut it for a song, I rummage through the kitchen to find the right jar full of dry oatmeal, corn kernels, quinoa, rice, etc.

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The clanky sounds towards the beginning of "A Better Life II" are piano strings that I physically pinched with my fingers to muffle all the sustain.

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I have never used a single computer music sample. I don't even know how to. Only recently did I begin to use an actual keyboard to record a few supplemental tracks.

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Many of my acoustic guitar tracks were recorded late at night. In a few of my songs at the very end, you can hear the subtle hum of my boys' sound machine from the room next door.

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Banging on stuff is fun and always will be. Hence the prominence of rhythm and real percussion in my music.

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The smooth bass in "Sunspot - Film Mix" is actually a PVC pipe played like a didgeridoo, using the circular breathing method. The original version of this song on my debut album, Nomad, was about 4.5 minutes long. I had to play it all the way through without stopping.

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I learned classical guitar while I was studying abroad in Costa Rica. My entire host family was awesome at it. Regular acoustic guitar, however, is still my nemesis.

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The lyrics from "Butler Playground" are a true story. It all happened at Butler Playground in downtown Ashland, OR one afternoon while I was there with my son. I wrote the lyrics in my head during the walk home, then wrote the music later on.

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Most of the airy, ambient elements in my songs are real pianos or guitars with lots of reverb.