Waterslide » lincoln signal

The Rarefied Spot

Waterslide — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 20:27:38 +0000

OK, now that Lincoln Signal has been out for a few weeks, I’ve heard some really great questions about it. Yes, it tells a dramatic story. And it’s not really unusual at all.

No one goes through life without disappointment. Whether it’s personal, professional or health-related, it visits us all now and then. Sometimes it’s a precursor to success. Other times it portends further frustration. We don’t know, really, until everything plays out. And that takes a long time.

Lincoln Signal is about reaching a rarefied spot where we pause and ask ourselves, “Am I doing what I was born to do? Or just doing what I’ve always done? Should I try something else?” Maybe it’s about a relationship. Or a job. Or persisting in the face of adversity. Maybe it’s about something we can never stop pursuing… because it is part of who we are.

That patch of asphalt is where we either recommit to the road we’re on… or turn on to another road.

Sound familiar?

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Interview at ‘RiffRaf’

Waterslide — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 14:05:05 +0000

The mighty RiffRaf, edited by rock journalist Richard Fulco, has a series called “Songwriting 101″ in which writers talk about the craft of penning tunes. I’m in the crosshairs this morning:

http://riffraf.typepad.com/riffraf/2012/06/s.html

We can glean something about ourselves when our words are played back to us. And I learned something today: that I would rather take an electric shock than be deprived of my favorite song.

As it should be!

And yes – Lincoln Signal is here for you:

Buy at Amazon | CD Baby | iTunes | Bandcamp

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Galahad, Quixote & Elwood Blues

Waterslide — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 12:44:33 +0000

The album, Lincoln Signal, is out this morning. Whew.

In a conversation with The Daily Vault, I talked about Sir Galahad, Don Quixote, and Elwood Blues. Turns out they have something in common with Dick Drake, the protagonist of Lincoln Signal:

http://www.dailyvault.com/article.php5?id=284

Who’d have thunk it?

Lincoln Signal is here for you:

Buy at Amazon | CD Baby | iTunes | Bandcamp

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Interview at ‘The Daily Vault’

Waterslide — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 12:01:02 +0000

Thanks to the venerable Jason Warburg at The Daily Vault for scoping out Lincoln Signal in this in-depth interview.

http://www.dailyvault.com/article.php5?id=284

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Video for ‘Spike the Tree’

Waterslide — Mon, 14 May 2012 20:33:06 +0000

OK, the new video is out for “Spike the Tree.” Thanks to Nic Beery (video direction & production) and Diana Chiritescu (who does a real number on that payphone).

Love the “fork in the tracks” at the end.

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New Song: ‘Spike the Tree’

Waterslide — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 17:36:41 +0000

I don’t know if this song is a “single” or not, but it’s one of the more upbeat tunes on Lincoln Signal. And the fun part? It’s about ecoterrorism. Our hero, Dick Drake, is getting up to some mischief, and we are not talking about whoopee cushions and itching powder.

Helmet and goggles recommended.

Waterslide – Spike the Tree (Steroid Mix)

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In the Can: Godspeed, Jon Astley

Waterslide — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 14:46:30 +0000

OK: now I can forget all about whether or not I’m happy with the sound of Lincoln Signal (which is all you think about as you embark upon tweak after painstaking tweak that only dogs will hear). The album is in the can. Engineer Jon Astley (on the left), who mastered the Arms of Kismet records (and remastered the Who catalog and George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, but you knew that) has worked his usual magic, infusing the recordings with a warm, inviting shimmer.

And it sounds right nice, too. Thanks, Jon.

Next steps for Lincoln Signal: leaking a track or two to see what you think, working with a director to make a short film or two, writing some revealing blog entries (not a red herring), and gearing up for an album release on the Wampus Multimedia label on June 19.

Damn!

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Who Will Save Dick Drake?

Waterslide — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:00:12 +0000

The last stages of making an album seem to take forever. The first 90 percent is all inspiration and songwriting and windmilling. When you’re 90 percent done, you think, “Hey, I’m just about there!” But you know what? You’re not.

You’re not because you have to step away from it before you have any idea what it still needs.

I wrote and recorded Lincoln Signal in the order in which it will play on your iPod. It was a little like writing a novel. When I was about halfway done, while tracking a song called “Off Grid on Target” about a guy who stops retrieving the newspapers from his front porch, a question popped into my head: Who, I wondered, will save Dick Drake? That name, Dick Drake, is the one I had given to this tormented character I was writing about, this guy I was “inhabiting” in the first person in every song. And here I was realizing, halfway through the story, that he probably wasn’t going to make it out alive. It just wasn’t in the cards.

Who, then, would rescue him?

I thought about this quite a bit as I worked. Surely I hadn’t created this character just to kill him off, right? Who was going to throw the poor guy a lifeline?

Well, it wasn’t going to be me.

It would have to be him.

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Standing at the Crossroads

Waterslide — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 16:30:20 +0000

OK, you’re sitting at the bar. You pull out your phone and take a snapshot of an old friend sitting next to you. By the time you show the photo to your friend a few seconds later, everything — your life, their life, the world around you — has changed a little bit.

And it changes again before you snap the next picture.

Lincoln Signal is the first Waterslide album.

Dick Drake, the album’s main character, is standing at a crossroads. Things have changed for him, and they haven’t all gone as he planned. So he considers the questions — should I stay or go? laugh or cry? fight or give up? – the way we all do, all the time.

The questions don’t really matter. The answers do.

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