after we release an album, it usually it takes me quite a long time to dive back into the writing process again. but lately i’ve been really, really craving being in that world again. over the weekend i finished cleaning up our studio, shook the dust off of our recording gear and hopefully some ideas will pour on out soon. having a clean, organized creative space always feels like an encouraging blank page. it’s a nice feeling. of course, i’m still probably ways away from having any completed music to show for it, but it excites me a lot to begin the baby steps!

not sure if i’ve ever written about this before on the blog, but my writing process consists of collecting. in both worlds: lyrics and music. for lyrics i keep a journal, where i try to consistently fill up with ideas, lines, single words that i like the sound of, etc. really anything goes. the important thing being that i’m always working to fill it up, to exercise that part of my brain. the same goes for music and melody… i have a small recorder (i use the olympus ls-10 or more recently, FourTrack on my iphone!) always nearby, where i can record small snippets of melodies or chords that i come across on my piano, ukulele, acoustic, whatever… and i file ‘em all away and forget about them for a while.

it feels really good to continually build on those collections, even if a lot of the ideas weren’t even worth a second look. it just feels extremely satisfying to gather up such a heap of little ideas. and it’s an especially wonderful feeling to reach back through some of those journal entries and recordings that i’ve forgotten about to find something i really connect with. (it’s like digging for gold! there’s a lot of dirt to sift through before you find anything to write home about) a lot of our songs have been born in this way: “keep no score,” “naive,” “unmade,” “a skeleton of something more,” “hurry,” “levels of light” and several others.

so even though songwriting has no recipe and can never ever be forced or planned – i’ve learned that through my little process of collecting, i’m at least preparing for it, whenever a song floats on down into my hands.

so, dear songs, if you can hear me – my studio is cleaned up and i’m ready for your arrival!

love, ryan

so, I was a bit late to the finale-party, but I finally finished watching LOST. i still have no what happened in a lot of ways but after watching the finale, I’m okay with that. i’m a fan and have enjoyed the ups and downs of the shows existence from the first episode on. although I think season 1 was so much more focused, interesting and was overall my favorite (by a mile or two) but as a fan, I’ve been thouroughly entertained. yes – occassionaly frustrated and nearly alwas confused, but totally entertained!

I felt like the finale was a fitting end to the world of LOST. with the direction the show has been heading for the last few seasons, there was really no possible way to tie everything up (wayy too many people and storylines happening at once) and in a way, I’m super glad they decided to focus in and ignore some of the nonsense that was going on from time to time. I had a really nice time watching it and I even felt a little sad to see it end (which is good because I was looking forward to it’s end for a while there.. but I couldn’t give up six years in!)

satisfied. still have no clue what happened in a lot of ways… but who cares, it was super fun! and it was filmed in my favorite place on earth, Hawaii.

how about you?? we’re you pleased? comment!

love, ryan

a year or two ago, i bought an app for my iphone called “FourTrack.” it’s made by sonoma wire works. it is, of course, a 4 track recorder and couldn’t resist turning my phone into a mini studio. low and behold, i never ever used it. then, while on tour in CO, a very good (and talented!) pal of ours named, david wilton showed me some recordings he had made with his iphone using FourTrack and i was totally impressed! so, recently i’ve begun to mess around with it and i totally love it! absolutely perfect for jotting down musical ideas and playing around with harmonies and random ideas to layer on top of ideas. it’s very conducive to creativity because you just want to fill up all of the 4 tracks!

it’s a beautifully done app too… really well thought out.

when i began writing music, i used an old, big and clunky tascam 4 track and made some pretty sweet 4 track cassette tape demos. ha. so, this little app brings me back to my early music adventures. fun.

debating about buying the 8-track version for the ipad… pretty cool. anyway – thanks, dave! for making my previous purchase worth it now.

love, ryan

this is my old “studio”

I just got home from taking my dog, Oskar, to the vet.  Just for some routine shots, but man does he hate it.  He likes to ride in the car so that doesn’t bother him.  But as soon as we walk in the door to the office he knows what’s going on.  He starts jumping on me and looking at me like “GET ME OUTTA HERE!”.  Then I look at him like “Sorry, buddy”.  He’s a beagle/poodle mix and he’s awesome.  He has tons of energy and loves everyone he meets.  He reminds me a lot of Dug from “UP”.  I wish he could talk too.  Thanks for reading.

Love,

dan

here’s some photos of the little guy.

Hello there!

It’s been a little while since we last wrote. We’ve missed you! Last month we wrapped up an incredibly fun and successful tour out to the West Coast! For those of you that came out, we cannot thank you enough for making it such a wonderful tour for us! Means so much! I can honestly say it was our favorite tour thus far.

UPCOMING TOUR PLANS

We’re settled back in at home and have already begun work on several upcoming projects that we’re super excited about! (More on all of that soon.) In addition to our “secret” projects, we’re also currently hard at work booking for the rest of our 2010 touring plans! Here’s an outline of where we are heading:

In early September through early October, we plan to head out to the Northwestern quarter of the US (including another West Coast visit!) Then in late October through mid-November we plan to head out to the Eastern half of the country (including New England, as well as the South!)

So very excited to get back out on the road and to bring new color and life to our live music this year! Should be a lot of fun.

20% OFF COUPON!

To celebrate the arrival of Summer, here’s a coupon for 20% OFF anything ($10 and up) in our online store! Shirts, CDs, etc… Just use the code: SUMMERLOVIN at checkout. The coupon expires JUNE 12th. Visit our online store HERE.

BLOGGING IT UP

About a month ago we announced our new Blog, which we’ve been thoroughly enjoying keeping up with! For those of you that haven’t checked it out, here’s a link: http://bit.ly/SALBlog

We’ve been updating it daily with all sorts of things… things we love, things we think are funny, things that are strange and things about Sleeping At Last and otherwise. It’s been a lot of fun.

That’s about it for now, pals. Thanks for reading! We think you are wonderful by the way.

Love,
 Ryan & Dan – Sleeping At Last

P.S. here’s another list of things we love right now… 

• 1. The unreleased iPhone (golly – a front facing camera for ichat, higher res screen and lens… sweet goodness, sign me up!)
• 2. Netflix (we’re totally loving netflix instant, especially since it streams to all of our nerdy gadgets!)
• 3. Life (the new bbc nature series! david attenborough’s latest. can’t wait to own it soon. we also love regular, everyday life too.)
• 4. Pepsi Fusion Soda Machines (okay, so you get to choose what brand of soda AND then you can add a flavor to it! what!?!? amazing. grape mountain dew, please)

for more stuff we love, visit our blog HERE!