DanaPellerin.com

Tonight we hung out at KuppaJoe. KuppaJoe is actually one of the buildings at a church here in town and they let bands come in and put on all-ages shows. It’s really a cool place because there’s no liquor, no cussing allowed on stage, and most of the bands are Christian bands. So it’s a great place to see rock bands, without having to put with the crap that happens at rock shows.

So tonight my buddy Luke Mundy was playing a solo acoustic set along with three other acts. Now I’ve jammed with Luke myself so I expected him to be good, and he was. Great playing, great vocal and really solid songs. I really enjoyed it. The other bands were completely foreign to me, but I was surprised that I actually enjoyed them too.

The guy that came on after Luke was part of a band that my daughter is really into and normally doesn’t do acoustic stuff, but they called him at the last minute so he came down. The dude was really good, even though you could tell he was just winging it. But he has that really current vocal sound you hear in a lot of the younger bands. I’m looking forward to checking out his band…. but I can’t remember the name for the life of me. When I find out from my daughter I’ll post it here.

The next band was called Sing the Body. Now this is a band I would never listen to if they hadn’t been playing tonight. It’s just not my type of music. The gal who leads the band played an instrument called the Auto-Harp which is probably one of the weirdest looking things I have ever seen. The rest of the band looked like church camp counselors from the 70’s… except they were all in their 20’s. Everything old is new again. The music itself was kind of all over the place; From some hymns done a cappella, to some folksy sounding stuff, to a kind of ethereal interpretation of Billy Idol’s White Wedding. What was weird though is that I really enjoyed it. It was different, and it made me really pay attention. Again, not my cup of tea, but definitely interesting and enjoyable.

I couldn’t stay for the last band, I gotta get up in the morning for a 35 mile bicycle ride, but it was a good night. It’s nice to do something different; Something you normally wouldn’t do. It did make me realize though that I’m due for a good heavy metal show. Everything I’ve seen over the 8 months has been artsy/folksy stuff so I think it’s time to go to Vegas and see an ear splitting metal show at the House of Blues or something.

Anyway, check out the KuppaJoe website. They have bands every Friday night.

A good friend of mine that I used to jam with moved to L.A. a few months ago and started a new band. They are REALLY good and they write catchy, radio friendly rock songs. A week ago my buddy called me to ask if I could sit in for 5 gigs since their drummer was injured. One of those gigs was at the Whiskey in Hollywood; probably the most famous rock club ever.

My first reaction was to turn it down. Several years ago I left secular music altogether and decided to use all of my musical talent to play Christian music and that’s worked out really well for me. It’s brought me a real peace, has taken a lot of stress of my marriage, and God’s let me play in some really awesome gigs in front of thousands of people. But the fact that I wanted to help a friend out, and I was intrigued about playing this major rock club, caused me to give in, and I agreed to the gig.

The interesting thing about giving something over to God though is that he really lets you know when you’re screwing up. And all week I had been feeling like I had made a big mistake. I was putting myself right back into the worst possible atmosphere, one that I left behind for very serious reasons. So after much thought and after consulting with some very trusted friends, I backed out.

I will just say that a tremendous weight has been lifted off of me. And that’s evidence that I made the right choice. They say once you give something over to God, you really can’t go back. And I think that’s the lesson I’ve learned here.

I just got done jamming with my new band. Man that feels good to say: my new band. I’ve been collaborating with a group of very talented guys that Paul brought together and up until now that was basically it; It was a collaboration just to flesh out and get Paul’s ideas on tape. Or I guess not really tape since nobody uses tape anymore, but it sounds cooler than “get Paul’s ideas down on the hard drive”.

Anyway, we’ve been doing some sweet work but now Paul wants to kick it up a notch. He’s secured 25 hours of studio time for later this summer and we’re going to go in and record a CD. Then, if God wills, we’d like to do some local gigs and see where this thing goes. It’s an exciting possibility.

The music itself is fantastic. Totally something different for me. I’ve been playing Christian music at church for years but that’s really just playing other people’s songs. To actually be a part of the writing process for something that’s not heavy rock is really interesting. Now I’ll be honest, I’m the drummer so I don’t have a tremendous amount of input, but these guys are so good, I really don’t feel the need to chime in much. But it feels good to be able to write my own drum parts, my own fills, and just play whatever flows out of me. You can’t do that when you’re playing covers. So this has been a really cool experience.

So I’m excited to see where God leads this little project. I’m kind of curious to see what Paul decides to call this band. The Paul Haugen Band? The Paul Haugen Experience? The Paul Haugen Quintet? Pauly and the Haugettes? The PH Experiment?

Any other suggestions?

Last night I mixed down a song Paul wrote called “Come And See”. It’s a worship tune that we’ll be playing next week at church and I’m pretty stoked about it. I’ve been able to collaborate with some really talented dudes to make this song happen and it’s been fun meeting new people and making some great music together.

The only problem I have is that I wish I had more mad skillz. What I mean is that there’s just so many disciplines in the world, and there’s just not enough time to hone them all. When it comes to recording there’s so much that needs to be learned because as the sounds start to layer, they muddy up and cancel each other out. So you really have to learn to think ahead to choose guitar tones, arrangements, etc properly. And then you have to mix it all down and do it in a way that maintains the integrity of the song without squashing important elements or becoming harsh to the ear. Each component of the mix almost becomes it’s own discipline… compressors, EQ’s, balance, arrangement, blah blah blah…. oh and did I mention I still need to finish doing the drums? It’s just overwhelming, and I don’t ever think I’ll have enough time to become a really good producer/audio engineer, and that’s frustrating.

Don’t get me wrong though, it is fun. It’s fun creating something that didn’t exist before you touched it. It’s fun hanging with talented people and watching how your ideas affect theirs and vice versa. It’s fun learning new things along the way. And it’s fun hearing the final result and going “Wow! That’s our song!”. But it would be great to be able to mix this thing down and have it sound “album ready” instead of like a demo. If only I had more mad skillz.