Summer2010

Summer2010
www.StarfishandtheSun.com

Monday, October 18, 2010

time and passing time..

many things to say.
not much time today.
been traveling and doing shows.
in cities I can reach from Las Vegas with two free days a week.
working the rest of the time.
wishing, always wishing to be watching the world fly by from the driver's seat of my van.

it rained today.
a nice change of pace.

help us get to your city!
you can buy most any of the paintings you can view, as long as we still have them...
shipping is available, so don't be shy.

wish I could write more than a few quick sentences......more updates soon!
(new single, music video, and much more on it's way!)

-will

Thursday, September 2, 2010

New Video

Last summer I got a few friends together and did a free-form jam session that we recorded on my computer...I played acoustic guitar, Preston Holiday gave an awesome spoken-word performance, and Devin Holmes backed him up with some vocals...it was very much thrown together and completely unrehearsed, we just got together and did what we love to do - express. I put the video up on youtube earlier tonight, our username or channel name is 'StarfishSun', there are a couple other videos up, so check em out!

I could probably post another video from that same night, but I'm feelin a little lazy...so I probably won't unless I get a bunch of requests for more...we'll have some newer videos up soon, so hold tight! Possibly even a music video for one of our songs on the first album. Lots of big things coming soon, and we're very excited about it :]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R7MlXnfOOY

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

anyway...

I am sorry for my unprofessional and immature use of this blog, but I had to get my point across and that was the only form of communication that I knew would be heard. Immature, yes. However, the whole reason that blog was written in the first place was because the person I was talking to refused to handle the situation at the time and now in the present was trying to play it off like it never happened. I will be taking that blog down tonight, so if you didn't read it, good. It was none of your business anyway. If you did, don't try to get involved because it's not important enough to care about.

So anyway, we had an art show on Saturday night at a local jazz club! This group of people that we recently met in Las Vegas are so talented, it blows me away! They call their gatherings Shower Music.

 People just like us, with desires to create a better world to live in and an environment where people can fully express themselves. An encouraging and  uplifting environment where people can share ideas and explore new thoughts. There were two guys on acoustic guitars, then a group of percussionists, then a spoken-word poet, and lastly a jazz quintet! Each group was incredible! My personal favorite was RJ Reynolds, the poet...that dude tore up the stage and spoke words of great wisdom...even brought tears to my eyes during a couple of his poems...I felt like a wussy, but I didn't care...he was speaking about life and much of the ideas he spoke about resonated very strongly with me, so I'm allowed to feel that way without being a wuss. Look him up on facebook.

Justin has been very busy with his new job at the salon, so we haven't painted on any more on the piece we started the when we did the live painting...I want to figure out a better website than stickam to do the live painting on...probably ustream, but I'm a little technologically impaired so I'm having a hard time figuring out how to use it...can you do mass feeds with skype? anyone know? I sure don't, I'm just now figuring out how to use it...had a long distance relationship for as long as I did and never used it...oh well, I'm learning and growing.

Music is coming along, some friends of ours will be collaborating on some bigger pieces soon and it's very exciting considering the fact that we've been talking about this project for somewhere around 3 years...there have been several jam sessions and things of that nature (which reminds me, I have another video that I need to post!) over the past few years, but this will be the audible equivalent of a collaborative painting...just MUCH more complicated seeing as how some of our artists live in Utah...but we're going to make it work, record 5 songs that are visually represented by the 5-piece set we finished several weeks ago...it's pretty amazing how everything is just kinda falling right into place...I'm diggin it. Eventually you will see all sorts of releases from us and the people we work with - acoustic songs, rock songs, swing music, crooner jams, and whatever kind of music we feel like making. Still working through the details of how everything is going to work, but our website is under construction and I'm sure we'll be making some big improvements in about 6 months or so...adding some sort of a song hosting page where you can buy the music we're selling and download the songs we're giving away...we'll work with that later on, for now the focus is this music/book/art combo album...then getting it to as many people as possible! aka - fall touring!

Let me know where you are and where the good venues in your town are! contact info is a plus :]

peace!

Sunday, August 22, 2010

the end of the line...

last night I played my last show for probably a good little while...who knows though, I might be performing with another group of musicians soon...but I do know that I am now focusing solely on Starfish and the Sun...Justin and I have been doing what we could for this 'band' as a side project, but we are stepping it up...we've been writing music and lyrics for our first music release and we'll be jamming with some of the musicians involved in our artistic community to add to the musical development and make the songs better...it won't be long before we're recording and then after that we'll be releasing 'Part II: Finding Home' - an album that displays our art and music and begins our book series...a painting for each song, corresponding story-line and lyrical content, and an array of very talented musicians will make this album very unique...but we will most likely wait to have our first live music performance until we put out the second book, tentatively titled 'Part III: Part Of Something Larger Than Yourself'...we might just call it Maricopa, but it's still Part III either way...we'll be releasing it next spring and we're going to organize a couple big events to raise money for charity...we'll have a full art gallery, live painting, tattoo artists, our live show-piece and who knows what else...bounce houses? it's a possibility...

instead of touring with a full band this fall, I want to tour with a whole bunch of artwork...we'll set up by the merch of the other bands and paint live, sell original artwork, promote Part II, and also sell prints, posters, t-shirts, stickers, buttons, whatever else we can...you can pick up our album there, or you'll be able to order it online and you can come with questions I can answer or topics to discuss...it's a little bit different than what you normally see, but we have done shows with some bigger names like The Ataris last night, Horse The Band, In:Aviate, and many local acts from the various places we've been...we're also quite a bit more versatile than a traditional band because we can pull up next to a busy sidewalk and have a full display set up within a couple minutes...and just as easily we can pack up and be on our way...we can go just about anywhere - I've set up displays everywhere from dingy bars to high end casino lounges all while this has been a 'side-project'...I can't wait to take it on the road full-time! woohoo!!

I'm going to try to continue updating this often and talking about what we're doing and rambling about random topics and blah blah blah...all I'm saying is, keep checking back here for new posts, cause they're gonna be frequent :]

-will

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Concerning "Love".

eventually this blog will be used more as an 'update from the road' sort of thing, but from time to time I'm sure I'll go off on a rant...I like to write and express my thoughts and feelings, doing so makes me happy, and therefor I write.

I remember my first Love...it was like nothing I had ever experienced, yet it took me a long time to realize that it had been there all along...there wasn't really an 'ah-hah!' moment or anything, but when I first sat down and started trying to write out my own music I realized that the feelings certain songs can bring to people could quite possibly be the most powerful weapons known to man...weapon isn't really the proper term because that word usually implies some sort of physical danger...but you tell me what isn't dangerous about the stupidity of the lyrical content of the party-scene music that has been plaguing the land and encouraging people not to care about anything but 'gettin crunk' or what have you...the ideas expressed through song are indeed capable of being harmful. That was never my intent though, I always wanted to sing about funny stuff and social/political issues I had feelings about...well, that was after my first band told me to stop writing so many songs about girls - which I am very thankful for them to this day for...I can weave lovely lines all day, but it gets old hearing about the same topic over and over...

There is a song I have been playing since I first got a guitar, and even more so after I lost the tip of my middle finger at work and had to rethink the way I play a guitar with three and a half fingers instead of four...I began tapping, sliding, and using pull-off techniques to create a melody and a new perspective on my Love for music. listen: www.myspace.com/StarfishandtheSun

I thought I was in Love a few times, but it never really stuck...of course there are those adolescent loves, but the topic I'm writing about is the real kind of Love. Some might argue that young love is still Love, but I guess I just never had one like that. Yes it was nice, and the emotions were there, but there was a girl I met later on in life that showed me how to Love with my Soul...I guess I can't really say I met her because to this day I still have yet to hold her hand, but I can honestly say I Loved her...it took me years to give her that word, but I think that is understandable considering the communication gap between us...I did feel it, but I had been hurt a few times before and nothing was scarier than falling in Love again so I wouldn't say it...'I Like You' was good enough and it pretty much meant the same thing, just in the developmental stages...off and on we tried to be Lovers, but our current demands in our own worlds created a distance that could not seem to be bridged...between the schooling for her ambitious career goals and my ambitious attempts at creating a career in the music industry we just never landed in the same place at the same time...communication was disconnected so badly that multiple attempts to meet turned into disasters...one time while she was working for the Red Cross helping with the disaster relief in Louisiana and Texas while I was scheduled to be on tour with my friends In:Aviate, which was cut short by one month, I was offered a spot guitar teching for my friends The Cab whom I had tour managed/ran merch/teched/driven for in the past...after hours of relaying messages through an angel of a National Guardsmen I was able to communicate with my Lover through a radio (at her camp out of cell range) that was being held up to a telephone (at another location) and we decided that it would be a good idea for me to take the tech job while she stayed to work on a special team (handling human bodies and parts) checking DNA and finding the names of the lives that were lost...an hour later I find out that I can't be given the position because the guy they had working for them was still under contract...she would have been in my arms two days later if I wouldn't have received that phone call. We made a strong effort, but recently gave up...I guess...she stopped talking to me and there was never any closure...or much of anything for that matter...just as she had popped into my life, she was gone...

And so alone and confused I waited and waited...two weeks later I received an email from her telling me she had received the gifts I had given to a mutual friend to deliver for me...it was a nice note, but pretty much said nothing about her absence which has continued ever since...eventually I realized that she wasn't planning on coming back any time soon and the best thing for me would be to move on...which would be much easier if I wasn't haunted by this woman...every night when I stare at the moon she is there staring back...distant as two people can be, yet somehow so very near...or maybe I'm just a lunatic. The point is, I have picked up my things and I am walking in the direction of my dreams...if she doesn't want to walk with me and hold my hand during the process, fine! I hope I at least get to meet her when I get there...meanwhile I'm going to focus on the Love that never let me down or hurt me...well, I guess thats not true, I'm 24 years old now and I've been playing music and working with every aspect of bands and live performance for about nine years, helping my friends live their dreams and calling it "school"...I guess I could write my own diploma and hang it on my wall cause I'm graduated and I'm ready to make this dream of mine a reality.

A couple years ago my friend Justin and I started this project we call Starfish and the Sun...well, thats really just when we decided to name give it a name and call it a 'band'...we created this awesome vision for a superband that was multi-dimentional...art, music, poetry, life...it has been mostly a side project since then, though it was around the same time I stopped touring with The Cab (just a few weeks before they rolled their van and trailer thanks to some black ice - I could have died!) and Starfish and the Sun was kind of a big reason for that...the first book of our series has been mostly completed for a few years now, just adding poems from a few new friends we've made along our journey and letting it collect dust while we dealt with our current lives...but now it's all finally coming together. The release date I'm shooting for is Justin's birthday on the 10th of October 2010...10-10-10...perfect tens across the board? I don't know...I don't really know if anyone cares, but somehow we're gonna make em care...or something...I think I've gotten a little off topic...but anyway for the past two and a half years I have been painting with Justin much like how we used to jam music in our old band Maricopa...working together to create something we think is cool...after we had a big stack of canvases I started getting us shows to set up displays at just like most bands have merchandise displays...we didn't play any music, but our music was seen throughout the night...some shows we've done live art and had as many as four artists as well as fans at the shows painting while the music was rocking and the lights were flashing...most recently we had a display at the House Of Blues in Las Vegas where we started painting the view we had from our booth spot...our good friend Coby Wilbur (or Walter Prescott depending on when you meet him) came down from St. George, Utah with his van loaded up with several pieces (that are all awesome) including a 3'x4' freehand of lil wayne...or someone like him...I don't know, I've been living in a cave for the past few years...if I went on a gameshow with pop culture as the topic of the questions I would fail terribly...I now have the piece we started painting at that show hanging on my wall begging for a live painting online video stream...still working out the when of this event, but I'll keep you posted...should be soon.

ANYWAY......

Love is an amazing thing...even in its most simple of forms...I Love music and painting only helped me see that everything you do in life is an art...create something awesome, even in the most simple form of it...even a little bit of awesome is still awesome! We want people to hear our words and find their own ways to improve the quality of their lives...feedback helps us to do likewise...so it becomes a big connection of people helping other people...and that seems like something awesome. So when I spend long nights awake and alone I focus on the Love I have for music, art, and poetry of my life and the lives of my friends...romance may or may not come my way, I'm really socially awkward, probably an effect of Loving someone through telephone calls and emails...but I don't need to waste time worrying about that because there is a whole world out there waiting to be explored! I've already been to lots of places in the US, but that was just while working for other people or small trips of my own making...this fall I will be going as many places as possible in 4 months time...I'm shopping for a booking agency to work with and a sponsor or two to help us get some merchandise to put up for sale while I'm on the road...I'll be bringing my friend from 3rd grade Donny with me and possibly others, so we'll probably do live art at shows and set up displays outside of gas stations and on busy streets...keep an eye out for a tour schedule...right now a west coast tour with Caravels, our friends from Las Vegas, is being booked beginning near Halloween going up through California, Oregon, Washington, on to Idaho, Utah, and back to Las Vegas...I'll be posting dates when we get them.

I guess the point of this blog was to say that I Love what I'm doing...and I'm really excited about the next 6 months of my life. The End.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

youtube

so I just made a youtube account and posted a couple videos from a couple years ago...I'll have some new ones up soon :]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa98Gb2mzg8


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPXZu_NLKZo




watch and share...but don't judge, I've gotten better at making videos...kinda...haha


Stay Tuned!

Saturday, August 14, 2010

step 1: cut the potatoes

always remember that, step one is always 'cut the potatoes'

so I did a couple things to the settings and now you can interact a little bit better...so please, feel free to interact...it won't be long before I'm out on the road again meeting new people, which means that interacting might help you meet awesome friends you never existed...plus, once the book series has been released we will have online forums where book discussions will take place...there you will help act as our teachers while we learn how to get better at writing :]

I just started up a ustream.tv account...I don't know how to use it yet, but there may be one or more test runs within the next couple days...possibly tonight, while most of you are sleeping, haha!
oh, the link to it is or should be www.ustream.tv/willtakeover
I'm sure there will be tweets and status updates and blah blah blah...

we'll be starting up a street team in the very near future, if you would like to be a part of it then send an email to: willtakeover@gmail.com and explain to me why you would be an awesome street team member. help us out and we'll hook you up for doing it! maybe we'll give all our street team members a painting...or something...it's all still in the works, but send me your "application" now because it might all be figured out tomorrow, you just never know with this project...some paintings take years to finish, some take hours...strange.

well...I don't know what else to say right now...I think I'm gonna try to figure out that ustream thing...next time I'll try to have more to write about haha