The Graylings Session is a collaboration with film director John Metcalf and engineer Billy Burke to produce live music videos of songs that will be on the forthcoming album of Zach + Bridget. Over the next few months we thought it would be interesting to share the bare skeleton of these songs before they go through the many machines and re-writes that happen in recording. We shared a rough cut of this first one back in May but this is the finished video // Graylings Session #1 "Pale Moonlight"
Harvard & Stone • Hollywood, CA • w/ King Washington
What Child is This Christmas Hymn
What Child is This? - is a Christmas Hymn by William Dix. Dix wrote this Hymn in the midst of suffering from a deep depression. I have always been fascinated with the stark contrast between the brooding melody and the lovely lyrics depicting the manger scene of Jesus. The question posed in the title - "What Child Is This?" implies a lack of certainty that most advent hymns don't have. Like a warm cocktail on a cold night this song stirs of equal parts beauty, sadness and mystery into my soul.
Paisley Dress - Live
Paisley Dress is a live recording we did last month. This song really brought out a new direction for my songwriting and Bridget's voice.
JULY 21 - SALT LAKE - WITH TIFT MERRITT
CODEX Radiohead - Rearrangement
Most of the muscles in our body are situated into antagonistic pairs to bring balance of movement and hold our skeleton in place. As one muscle flexes another muscle relaxes. I find the same pairing between the 'head' and the 'heart' when it comes to the labor of creative work. Music for me can start in the head and move to the heart or vice versa. Then there are the rare times it finds a balance between the two. Lately I have been fascinated with reverse engineering influential songs from other artists. Excising the emotion from the lyrics, cataloging each chord from the progression and investigating its core elements separately as a biologist would a cadaver. Then I put these songs back together with my musical faculties and my emotional core. Hopefully breathing life back into what I dismantled...
Music Monthly February - As Tears Go By
One of my most nostalgic CD's (20 years ago on cassette tape) was the Rolling Stones Hot Rocks compilation with a Matryoshka Doll looking profile of the band members heads as the cover. This compilation was what inaugurated the sounds of the "British Bad-asses" to my young ears well before I could form complete sentences. Though I love Exile on Main Street and Sticky Fingers, my go to is Hot Rocks for the Stones... It is one of the few band compilation disks that I think is worth a damn.