IN THE WORKS
Pickle Juice in the Milk (Single)
"Pickle Juice in the Milk" is a social commentary song born in the late spring of 2020. Earlier this year, at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, I wanted to take advantage of new found "free-time" to work on creative projects with other creative people, something my typical schedule had made difficult. I called my friend Kyle Furusho in Kaneohe, HI (co-writer and guitars) to help me write this piece and in so doing also formed a writing/arranging/performing/producing collective with fellow Swiss-Army knife musicians A.J. Sealy in Los Angeles, CA (also played bass on and mixed this version), Eben Drost in Santa Barbara, CA (lyrical input and some rhythm guitar), and Jarel Paguio in San Diego, CA (keyboards/synthesizer). Kyle and I wanted to write and produce a song (entirely remotely) that was funky and fresh. Leveraging video conferencing technologies, Google Drive (for sharing session files) and tracking with compatible DAWs, we got to work on a song that we thought could speak to the culture at such a time as this. We knew we wanted to write a social commentary song and the theme of "pickle juice in the milk" seemed to lend itself well (who'd have thought) to such a project. Though all "good art" should be multi-referent and lend itself to multiple interpretations, we wanted to address themes of "whiteness", "white fragility", and "white privilege" in particular. As the primary author for the lyrics of "Pickle Juice in the Milk", I recognize that the text speaks to my own struggles with cultural whiteness just as much as it is an indictment on other perpetrators. Please be advised that this piece is not yet publicly available and should not be downloaded or disseminated. Thank you.
My Contribution(s):
music, lyrics, arrangement, drums, vocals
My Contribution(s):
music, lyrics, arrangement, drums, vocals
1B (Single)
Info:
"1b" is a piece I helped to co-write with my good friend Aditya Rao. Aditya is a first generation Indian-American who lives into his transnational identity through music in particular. He's a trained Carnatic singer with experience and ongoing aspirations to bring an unapologetic, authentic representation of himself and his experiences to the music he creates. Aditya's musical capabilities and intuition transcend typical genre classification, something I certainly relate to. Aditya came to me with a concept for 1B and an introductory musical motif that we were able to build upon. A few months in the making, "1B" is loaded to the brim with layers of polyrhythmic, percussive interplay and rich harmonic character. Please be advised that this piece is not yet publicly available and should not be downloaded or disseminated. Thank you.
My Contribution(s):
music, arrangement, drums, percussion (Chendra), conceptual advisor
"1b" is a piece I helped to co-write with my good friend Aditya Rao. Aditya is a first generation Indian-American who lives into his transnational identity through music in particular. He's a trained Carnatic singer with experience and ongoing aspirations to bring an unapologetic, authentic representation of himself and his experiences to the music he creates. Aditya's musical capabilities and intuition transcend typical genre classification, something I certainly relate to. Aditya came to me with a concept for 1B and an introductory musical motif that we were able to build upon. A few months in the making, "1B" is loaded to the brim with layers of polyrhythmic, percussive interplay and rich harmonic character. Please be advised that this piece is not yet publicly available and should not be downloaded or disseminated. Thank you.
My Contribution(s):
music, arrangement, drums, percussion (Chendra), conceptual advisor
Frequency Prayer(s)
The "Frequency Prayer" was co-created by myself and Aditya Rao. The idea was to offer some sonic solace to folks during the first major lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic. Set in Bb (tuned to 432 Hz), this is a collection of brief prayers/meditations sung in different languages from different religious traditions. We hoped to create something that could evolve into something of a movement and so we were delighted when this offering received positive feedback from people around the world. From this feedback, we invited other vocalists to contribute to a longer piece, set in the same key and designed to serve the same purpose. This recording (not featured) was substantially longer and more diverse in terms of harmonic texture, religious traditions/prayer language incorporated, and participants. This longer version is still being produced, and so is unfortunately not ready for distribution. That said, if you would like to hear the preliminary mix of the longer piece, I can provide it upon request.
"Covered in Honey" (Collection)
The "Covered in Honey" collection is a growing number of cover songs that I've been putting my own spin on. I hope to have an album's worth of material done within the year.
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Can't Buy Me Love - originally by the Beatles
My Contribution(s): arrangement, all instrumentation, vocals, mixing, and videography. |
You Make My Dreams Come True - originally by Hall and Oates.
My Contribution(s): arrangement, all instrumentation, vocals, mixing, and videography. |
Published Works
The Rhythmic Search for Wisdom (Commissioned for Spark and Echo)
As Published on sparkandecho.org:
Where does wisdom come from? What does it sound and/or look like? Navigating through life, its highs and lows is a task that no degree of strength or intellect is truly ever sufficient for. It would seem then that to be ‘wise’ is to know how best to respond in the midst circumstance. I think this is what Job is all about. We can certainly speculate about the universe and perhaps even glean some minute amount of insight–Job reminds us that ‘fear of the Lord’ or said another way, understanding your smallness and simpleness is wisdom; departing from evil (when complacency and distraction become idols) is understanding.
Read the passage below and then watch/listen to the video. Let the textures of the drumming remind you of the text and let the visual on the screen provide a focal point for meditating on this most important question: Where does wisdom come from?
My Contribution(s):
composition/arrangement, drums, mixing, and videography.
Where does wisdom come from? What does it sound and/or look like? Navigating through life, its highs and lows is a task that no degree of strength or intellect is truly ever sufficient for. It would seem then that to be ‘wise’ is to know how best to respond in the midst circumstance. I think this is what Job is all about. We can certainly speculate about the universe and perhaps even glean some minute amount of insight–Job reminds us that ‘fear of the Lord’ or said another way, understanding your smallness and simpleness is wisdom; departing from evil (when complacency and distraction become idols) is understanding.
Read the passage below and then watch/listen to the video. Let the textures of the drumming remind you of the text and let the visual on the screen provide a focal point for meditating on this most important question: Where does wisdom come from?
My Contribution(s):
composition/arrangement, drums, mixing, and videography.
The Future Ain't What it Used to Be (Single)
I actually wrote this song as part of a final project for a Theology and Culture class at Fuller Seminary in the spring of 2016. That said, it will certainly feature on a forthcoming studio album. The song makes light of those prognosticators of doom who's world (ironically) falls apart when their predictions and eschatological beliefs to not come to pass when or as they expected.
My Contribution(s):
music, lyrics, arrangement, guitars, bass, drums/percussion, and vocal.
My Contribution(s):
music, lyrics, arrangement, guitars, bass, drums/percussion, and vocal.
Pacific Sessions (EP)
I recorded and released this EP while living on he island of Oahu. All songs are my original compositions/lyrics.
My Contribution(s):
music, lyrics, arrangements, rhythm guitars, cajon (on "For the Day") lead and some backing vocals.
My Contribution(s):
music, lyrics, arrangements, rhythm guitars, cajon (on "For the Day") lead and some backing vocals.
Here, There, And Everywhere In Between (LP)
I recorded and released this LP in my first year out of college in San Diego. I'd been sitting on a number of songs for a few years that came to ultimately form this musically diverse project. Apart from my cover of AC/DC's "Back in Black" (track 3), the songs are all my original compositions, with lyrical input/support from Grant Kay (tracks 1 and 7) and compositional/arrangement support from Jeremy Clifton (tracks 8 and 12)
My Contributions
music, lyrics, arrangements, rhythm guitars, drums, percussion, keyboards (Story Song), lead and some backing vocals.
My Contributions
music, lyrics, arrangements, rhythm guitars, drums, percussion, keyboards (Story Song), lead and some backing vocals.
CREATIVE AFFILIATIONS
Soultone Cymbals
I am presently an endorsee of 'Soultone' Cymbals. This video showcases my arrangement of (of Marcus Miller's arrangement) of Edgar Winter's song Frankenstein.
Beyoncé Mass (Touring)
My Contributions
Drums and Drum Programming
RECENT EVENTS/LOCATIONS: Claremont Colleges, Spelman College, The Kennedy Center (Washington D.C.)
Drums and Drum Programming
RECENT EVENTS/LOCATIONS: Claremont Colleges, Spelman College, The Kennedy Center (Washington D.C.)
Gandhi/King Global Initiative (Stanford Univ.)
Video below is my arrangement of (a mash up of) Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" and A.R. Rahman's "Ishwar Allah". I'm singing the lead on the Dylan and plaything guitar.
My Contributions
Drums, Guitar, Vocals, Hybrid Arr. of "Ishwar Allah" and "Blowin' in the Wind"
RECENT EVENTS/LOCATIONS: The Gandhi-King Global Initiative gathering at Stanford University.
Drums, Guitar, Vocals, Hybrid Arr. of "Ishwar Allah" and "Blowin' in the Wind"
RECENT EVENTS/LOCATIONS: The Gandhi-King Global Initiative gathering at Stanford University.
Hyde Park UMC (Tampa, FL)
I am a staff musician and video producer at Hyde Park United Methodist Church. Here are a couple of recent projects I arranged music for, drummed on, sang backing vocals on, produced, mixed, and edited the video for.
My Contributions
arrangements, drums, backing vocals, keyboard strings (only 'Let Justice Roll') audio mixing and production, video concept and production.
arrangements, drums, backing vocals, keyboard strings (only 'Let Justice Roll') audio mixing and production, video concept and production.
The Gin Joint Collective (Tampa, FL)
I'm one of the house drummers for CW's Gin Joint in Tampa Bay, FL.
George Williamson w/ Westfall Gold (Touring)
I work with recording artist and worship leader George Williamson at Westfall Gold strategic fundraising events (for non-profits) all over the country. Often the events serve faith-based groups that incorporate times of corporate worship into their gatherings. I usually (predominantly) drum for George, but I often play guitar and sing too... sometimes all at the same time!
Fuller Theological Seminary (Pasadena, CA +)
For 4 years, I worked as either a chapel assistant (more involved in planning, etc. or was an on call musician). The videos below showcase just a couple of the ways I contributed to the Fuller Chapel program over the years. Highlights (not displayed) include:
- Arranging John Rutter's "Look at the World" and performing my world music-infused arrangement for him in person
- Leading 2 plenary sessions (2016 and 2018) with my team at the Calvin Symposium for Christian Worship
- Recording in the studio for "Revere/Restore" (2016) and forthcoming unreleased materials
- Collaborating with artists like Andre Henry, David Gungor, Joy Ike, Sandra McCracken, Ian Morgan Cronn, Joe Kye, Eric Lige, Eric Sarwar, He Qi, and Makoto Fujimura.
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My Contributions
Drums, arrangements, vocals, drum programming, guitar, bass, liturgy, musical direction
Drums, arrangements, vocals, drum programming, guitar, bass, liturgy, musical direction
Aditya Rao
Please refer to two examples ("1B" and "Frequency Prayer") at the top of the page for examples of my ongoing work with Aditya.
September Penn
I met September at Fuller Theological Seminary working together on the chapel staff. The video below features a Gospel song she co-wrote with Eben Drost called "Hallelujah (Come Bless the Lord). Having been around at the inception of this song, I helped to craft the arrangement and some of the musical motifs heard in this final rendition. The song was recently No. 1 on the independent Gospel music charts.
My Contribution(s):
Drums, arrangement support/input.
Drums, arrangement support/input.
The Power of Song Inc. (501-c3)
(Click the the title above to open a link to the non-profit's website).
My Contribution(s):
Director of Programming (operations suspended during Covid-19 Pandemic), Development, Drummer, Vocalist, Guitar, and Presenter.
My Contribution(s):
Director of Programming (operations suspended during Covid-19 Pandemic), Development, Drummer, Vocalist, Guitar, and Presenter.
Future Project Ideas
- The Rise (and Downfall) of Mars: An Ecological Account (LP + Film/Visual + Book of Poems)
For a year or so now, I've been conceptualizing a music project that chronicles the rise and fall of an ancient civilization once local to Mars. As I imagine it, this civilization's ultimate downfall/extinction came as a result of its ecological exploitation and negligence. Suffering the delusion that new technologies afforded unlimited progress and greater significance, the Martian civilization's collapse came from a failure to steward recourses and find contentedness in a simpler life. Only a remnant of the civilization escaped Mars as it became the uninhabitable wasteland it is today. This is the sort of project in which I would rely upon creative collaborators and the amalgamation of previously constructed materials (poems in particular) reimagined and hemmed together to help tell this cautionary tale. I also imagine this project having a visual component that is influenced (in real time) by the rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic dimensions of the music.
- Animacene
I've long been interested in conceptions of secularity, sacrality, spirituality, and the supernatural. Philosopher Charles Taylor describes "conditions of belief" in which an individual might be characterized as a "buffered self" or a "porous self ". The "buffered self" is unaffected by or outright disregards metaphysical possibilities. The "porous self", lives in a world that is profoundly impacted by external forces (oft invisible), and though metaphysically different, these forces affect day to day life. Living in the secular west, I have (at least) come to a place where the "buffered self" is an option I can choose; it is my own "condition of belief". The degree to which people (in my own context) can frame our existence is a relatively new phenomena in human history. Much of the art and music created before (and still after) the "Enlightenment" was done so presupposing that supernatural forces were at work all around and in us. Whether as a central theme in the art (supernatural explication for observed natural phenomena, i.e. the sun rising) or providing the impetus to create (composing a devotional work, praise, appeal, offering, etc.), the supernatural, divine, or simply the metaphysical-other undergirds much of the human experience.
The term "Anthropocene" is being increasingly used to describe a new epoch in world history. Humans have come to a place where we affect the natural world in marked ways and are changing the earth as we know it. We are affecting the climate and material-earth in such ways as previous (non secular) generations would have only attributed to supernatural causation. In some cases, we've surpassed even the wildest ideations of what these previous generations might have conceived their gods, spritis, etc. capable of. Ironically, religious convictions and belief in the metaphysical-other has helped to ideologically drive the emergence of the Anthropocene (manifest destiny, subduing of creation, heaven(s) is apart from earth/spiritual dimension).
Animacene will feature musics that emerge from religious/philosophical traditions that hold the material earth in high esteem. Employing various socio-cultural perspectives, Animascene will affirm that the natural world is in fact "enchanted", suggesting a commingling of the oft distinguished physical and metaphysical world(s). In the secular west, our rational and scientific modes of inquiry frequently lean into the "how" questions; it is also true that "porous-self" peoples often appeal to supernatural "how" answers. Animacene will look to musics that deal more pointedly with "why" questions and answers, hopefully inspiring "buffered-self" and "porous-self " listeners toward material action in the work of Sustainability and ecological rescue.
The term "Anthropocene" is being increasingly used to describe a new epoch in world history. Humans have come to a place where we affect the natural world in marked ways and are changing the earth as we know it. We are affecting the climate and material-earth in such ways as previous (non secular) generations would have only attributed to supernatural causation. In some cases, we've surpassed even the wildest ideations of what these previous generations might have conceived their gods, spritis, etc. capable of. Ironically, religious convictions and belief in the metaphysical-other has helped to ideologically drive the emergence of the Anthropocene (manifest destiny, subduing of creation, heaven(s) is apart from earth/spiritual dimension).
Animacene will feature musics that emerge from religious/philosophical traditions that hold the material earth in high esteem. Employing various socio-cultural perspectives, Animascene will affirm that the natural world is in fact "enchanted", suggesting a commingling of the oft distinguished physical and metaphysical world(s). In the secular west, our rational and scientific modes of inquiry frequently lean into the "how" questions; it is also true that "porous-self" peoples often appeal to supernatural "how" answers. Animacene will look to musics that deal more pointedly with "why" questions and answers, hopefully inspiring "buffered-self" and "porous-self " listeners toward material action in the work of Sustainability and ecological rescue.