We have a very interesting guest this week: Jamie Schultz, the author of PREMONITIONS! He's got a very cool way of keeping busy when he's not writing a book. I think you're really going to enjoy this one, guys. :)
The thing about writing is that it’s both solitary and cerebral—basically, you spend a lot of time alone in your head. I’m on the short list of the most introverted people I know, but even I need a regular break from the inside of my head. As everybody knows, the logical alternative to quiet contemplation in the silence of one’s office is LOUD ROCK AND ROLL IN FRONT OF GOBS OF PEOPLE.
So this is me, in my other natural habitat:
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You play better if you make the appropriate face.[/caption]The nice thing about playing music, especially when improvising, is that there is no time for thinking about things. Everything is happening right now. You strap on your guitar, wiggle your fingers, and pray nothing awful comes out. If done properly, you find yourself in a place of total abandonment to the music. At a party, I’m the guy in the corner with a drink and an anxious expression, but stick me on stage with a guitar and I become a jumping, gesticulating, flailing maniac. One of my friends refers to my stage persona as Tyler Durden—a crazy, anarchistic alternate personality that only manifests itself under certain conditions.
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The first rule of Fight Club is—AUGH! My eye![/caption]I am currently between bands, however, because of a terminal personality conflict between me and any drummer that ever lived (I wish I could explain this, or better yet, fix it, but I’ve had no luck so far. If you happen to know a drummer who is capable, reliable, local, and won’t shower me with unwelcome amorous advances, drop me a line). As a result, I’ve been holed up working on a solo act and recording a mess of songs in my home studio, which I refer to as the Kingdom of Stray Voltage.
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This, and worse, is what goes on behind all those super nifty recording consoles you see in studio pictures. Cables. So many cables. I have nightmares about cables.[/caption]Left up to my own devices, I specialize in songs full of bizarre imagery, weird references, and a kind of desolate vibe. Think Neil Young on acid, reading from the book of Revelation, and that’ll get you close. This tune (“Behind Closed Doors”) is a good example, though I should warn you: I graduated with high honors from the Neil Young School of Vocals, majoring in Pitch Inaccuracy. This one (“All Gonna Lose”) comes from a similar place, though from a rather more absurd angle. It features the Devil getting a tattoo.
When I’m working with Darren—bass player/singer extraordinaire and my partner in musical crime—we tend to specialize in songs full of bizarre imagery, weird references, and a kind of desolate vibe that are also groovy. Here (“They Told Me”) is one of our works in progress. Recording is complete with the exception of the final vocal tracks, which currently feature scratch tracks doing placeholder duty. We’re angling to finish recording an album’s worth of tunes this year, so I’m pretty excited about that.
Music is great because it gets the demons out. Then I can hang up my guitar, go back to my desk, and… well… get a wholly different set of demons out.
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Thanks so much for visiting us, Jamie! For more about Jamie and his work, check out the following links:
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Here's the scoop on PREMONITIONS:
TWO MILLION DOLLARS...
It’s the kind of score Karyn Ames has always dreamed of—enough to set her crew up pretty well and, more important, enough to keep her safely stocked on a very rare, very expensive black market drug. Without it, Karyn hallucinates slices of the future until they totally overwhelm her, leaving her unable to distinguish the present from the mess of certainties and possibilities yet to come.
The client behind the heist is Enoch Sobell, a notorious crime lord with a reputation for being ruthless and exacting—and a purported practitioner of dark magic. Sobell is almost certainly condemned to Hell for a magically extended lifetime full of shady dealings. Once you’re in business with him, there’s no backing out.
Karyn and her associates are used to the supernatural and the occult, but their target is more than just the usual family heirloom or cursed necklace. It’s a piece of something larger. Something sinister.
Karyn’s crew and even Sobell himself are about to find out just how powerful it is… and how powerful it may yet become.Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository
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