Out of Here

Out of Here started as a simple acoustic guitar riff. Something simple and flawed. Then slowly I built up the mood with some atmosphere and a little bass.

There are a few songs on the album that deal with the theme of letting someone down. This is one of them.

“Don’t want to wait for death; I hear it coming. Maybe I’ll catch my breath; as soon as we get out of here.”

Burned by the Sun

The first song that I wrote for the album, incidentally is the track that starts the album. Burned by the Sun came out of playing with bits of my own sample pack. The sample pack was created from recording my cover of the Johnny Cash song, The Man Comes Around. During that process I had accumulated a bunch of low guitar hits and swells, weird atmospheric vocal harmonies turned into pads, and random bits of percussion. So I brought everything into Logic and started messing around with it all.

Then it came time to make the music video. I knew I wanted a Mad Max style lone survivor in the apocalypse vibe to the video. I had been growing out my apocalypse beard for a while! So it was time to put it to use. Luckily here in Las Vegas, we have tons of mountains and desert areas to film such a thing. So after a stop at a thrift store for apocalypse clothing, I set out to film the video.

New limited edition print of the month

For a while now, I’ve wanted to hold myself accountable to making a print each month available in my shop. But up until now, I could never seem to make it a habit. So for fun I thought I would let it be a battle, and let people vote on which image wins the honor of being printed.

This month, I chose two candidates from an ongoing project of mine called Lightbearer. It’s a project based loosely on Mayan and Aztec art, and it’s something I’ve slowly been picking at for years.

The two candidates battled it out.

These are the two images who battled it out this month, and the Seated Guardian on the left arose as the victor.

I’m also trying something a little different with these prints. Firstly, the edition is limited to 20, so it’s a super limited edition. And the second thing is, they will be signed and numbered on the front, in the white border. Which is something I’ve never done. Usually I sign prints on the back.

The victorious limited edition print.

The print is available to purchase in my online shop here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/775028523/seated-guardian-limited-edition-print

Lunchtime beat-making and Mayan art

Lately I’ve been playing around a lot with the Pocket Operator PO-33. It’s a fantastic pocket-sized sampler and step-sequencer, which means you can make fun little beats out of almost anything. Which has become one of my favorite things to do.

My new habit is to take it to lunch with me and sample the surroundings, and then turn that into a little looped beat. My most recent lunchtime beat-making adventure was at In-n-Out.

After lunch, I took it to a nearby park, and made some drum sounds by banging on things. I found a metal pole that has some great resonance, like an old bell, so I sampled that. It became the basis for another lunchtime beat.

Then I made some new art inspired by Mayan and Aztec culture as part of my series Lightbearer.

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I have always been fascinated by Mayan and Aztec art. There's such an interesting otherworldly feel to the stuff. A while ago I started a project called Lightbearer, which was inspired by the art of those cultures. The idea is that there are keepers of the Light. Guardians who protect it from the Beasts. The Beasts want nothing more than to steal the Light.

This week, I made a bunch of new images for this series, inspired by Mayan and Aztec art. Check them out in my shop.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/daspetey

Visualizers and Loop Sketches

I’ve been making a bunch of loops lately, and creating visualizers in After Effects for them. It’s been super fun! I’m hoping to pick the best of these and try turning them into full songs, with lyrics and everything. But I need your help choosing which ones to work on.

If you have time, could you listen to the loops below, and leave a comment with which one is your favorite? I’ve compiled them into a single video, with each separate bit numbered.
Thanks so much!!
-pete

Making Meaningful Progress

I'm thinking about how I will continue to work on all the project ideas that I have.

I want to make meaningful progress in each project and i want to find ways to focus so that I'm not spreading myself too thin. If I do, then projects won't ever get done.

I know that I have a two-fold problem of:

1. Letting a project get so big that I feel overwhelmed by it's magnitude

2. Feeling like there's too much to say to let a project be too small

So if this is true, I can find ways to work around these blocks.

I like the idea of chopping them up, or starting to make progress on a project and then choosing a cut-off. This will be volume 1. Or part 1. Or chapter 1, or some other designation. That way, when I'm ready to come back to the project, I'm starting on part two. I can keep things small and manageable, but still allow myself to fully explore a topic. I can release some piece of it, knowing that I'll come back to add to it.

So as I move forward with my main plans, I can continue to look at my project ideas master list and promote the coolest ones to the top. Those will be the candidates to be the next project I start. This can be a list that I continually sort. And as I make more notes on each project, I may move projects around on the list. As things move out of the abstract and get more clarity and detail, they become better candidates for the top of the list. Then when I have an open slot, I can look at the top three or five projects and choose from there.

I'd like to give things time to marinate. Time for me to peel back layers. Build up layers. Find metaphors. Poetry. Meaning and depth.

I like being exploratory. I like gardening the ideas. I like working fast and loose, but I want to make sure I always push myself to do a second and third draft. I want to stop stopping at the first draft and trying to pass it off as final.

I’ve had the conversation before about quality vs quantity. Raw and honest art vs polished art. I think there's room for both. And I would like to release both always. But, I can always push a little harder. If I'm shooting from the hip on something, I can always take another pass. Part of it is giving myself limitations, and that's good.

But also, I want to remember that every day I’m getting better at this stuff.

Two new covers

I tried to do a cover of the Beatles classic Tax Man for tax day, but just like my real taxes, I missed the deadline. I finished the cover anyway, and I’m actually happy with how it turned out.

And then a few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to see Kenny Loggins perform live here in Vegas. It was great to see him perform all the songs I grew up singing. But for me the highlight was This is It. I decided to cover it the very next day.

100 Silly Superheroes

Recently, I launched my first ever Kickstarter project. It’s part of Kickstarter’s Make 100 challenge, where creators are challenged to make something limited to 100 items. In this case, I chose to illustrate 100 silly superheroes.

The idea is, at the highest level, you can name a silly superhero, and I’ll make a custom illustration in watercolor of that hero. You can also choose to voice your character saying their name or catchphrase in the super silly animated short film that I’ll make of all 100 heroes.

Oh, and they each get their own tiny silly theme song!

If you’re interested, you can check out the project here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/daspetey/100-silly-superheroes-a-make-100-project

The first hero, the Potato Fudger

Musings on Mars

My new album, Musings on Mars, is out now!

It’s the second album I’ve worked with Bill Zappia on. Diamondhead was the first. This time, Bill and I tackle some old 80s and 90s classics and re-envision them in a funky modern jazz piano vibe.

Get it anywhere music is sold:

Bandcamp: https://bit.ly/2pcij8i

iTunes: https://bit.ly/2xkfpTv

Amazon: https://bit.ly/2xjKHtA

Spotify: https://bit.ly/2QDYdQD

Free Sample Pack

After I recorded my Johnny Cash cover, I decided to make a small sample pack of the sounds I created. Mostly percussive stuff, guitar hits, etc. But I also made two virtual instruments from some weird effects that I made during the recording process.

It's a mixed bag of vocals, guitar hits, and noises.

The pack includes 49 samples, including loops and one-shots.

It also includes 3 custom Kontakt instruments (bass, drumkit, and vocal pad)

And the best part is, it's free! Check it out here: https://gumroad.com/l/JETXR

Poured Painting

Recently I discovered a new painting technique that I immediately fell in love with. It's called poured painting. The idea is to mix acrylic paint with some kind of flow medium, Floetrol or Liquitex flow medium, to thin the paint out. Then using a variety of techniques you simply pour the paint onto the canvas, and tilt it around to get even coverage.

But the real fun happens when you add an oil to the mix. A few drops of silicone mixed into each color keeps them from fully blending with the other colors. It helps them start to form interesting cell patterns and swirls.

I'm definitely in the early stages of my knowledge with this technique and I learn a lot with each new painting I do. But the process is fun and medidative, and I really love the results.

You can see a little more of this in my newest Vlog.

Say Something

Recently I decided to cover the Justin Timberlake song, Say Something. The original is an incredible piece of songwriting, and I wanted to see if I could capture some of the same energy. Like my recent Johnny Cash cover, I learned a ton about production from working on this.

In the past I've always worked with music producers. For all three No More Kings albums, that producer was Neil DeGraide, who was also my writing partner for all that stuff. For Diamondhead that producer was my friend Bill Zappia. When I decided to tackle The Man Comes Around, it was the first time that I tried to produce myself. Similarly, when I approached doing this Justin Timberlake cover, I decided to produce it myself.

Just like the Johnny Cash cover ended up sparking an entire new album of songs from me, I have a strange feeling I might do more with this song as well. But only time can tell.

The Man Comes Around

A while ago, after seeing the movie Logan for the fourth time, I was moved to cover the Johnny Cash Song, The Man Comes Around. The song is featured in the ending credits of the movie, and it fit perfectly. There was this mournful post-apocalyptic vibe that I loved.

So I decided to record my own cover version of the song, and make a music video for it. The video was more of an excuse to fly my new drone in the desert. The production of the cover itself was a lot of fun, and I learned a great deal about production, something I usually left to Neil or Bill.

Not long after this, I decided to make a sample pack of some of the sounds I accumulated during the recording of my cover version. The sample pack is extremely simple. Mostly sounds of me hitting my acoustic guitar in various ways. But what came next was the fun part.

I decided to make my own song using only the samples I had made for my pack. The process was so fun, that I ended up writing and recording an entire album in the cinematic, post-apocalyptic vibe. I'm finishing up that album now, but it's tentatively called In Measured Hundredweight and Penny Pound.

Draw Zombies with me!

Not too long ago I made a Skillshare class on drawing silly little zombies. The class is pretty short, and pretty silly. But best of all, it's free!

Years ago, before I got signed to a record label and went on tour, I was teaching animation at a small tech college in L.A.  It was super fun, and part of me misses that. So I think a big reason I wanted to make a Skillshare class was so I could quench that thirst again.

The trick was figuring out how to break down the process. How was I going to walk students through my oddball method for making tiny little undead hordes. I brainstormed a few possibilities and ultimately settled on what became the version of the class that's on Skillshare now.
 

In the class, you'll learn to make your very own hungry zombie horde.

I knew even as I was filming the zombie class, that I'd soon want to make more classes. Some more drawing ones of course, but even some music ones. I've developed some fun ways of coming up with song ideas over the years, and I think it would be fun to share some of those methods.

But for now, let's just draw some zombies!
-pete

2016: A Daspetey Year in Review

This year will go down in the history books as one of the stinkiest. We lost so many incredible influential artists; people that had shaped so many of our childhoods. There was a lot of bad crap that 2016 dumped on us. But there was also a lot of good.

INPUT
Stuff that I consumed:

Top 5 Movies of 2016

1. Arrival
2. Moana
3. Rogue one
4. Captain America: Civil War
5. The Jungle Book

It was generally a great year for movies. There are a bunch that didn't make my tiny list. And the ones that did make it are varied in style and execution. And I loved them all.

Top 5 Television Shows that I discovered this year

1. Westworld
2. Game of Thrones
3. Glitch
4. Stranger Things
5. The Leftovers

Television continually surprises me. Amazon and Netflix are helping to raise the bar of quality. I didn't even have room to list Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage. I had known that I would love Game of Thrones for a while, but I kept putting it off. Finally, I got HBO in order to watch Westworld, and found myself fitting six seasons of Game of Thrones in between.

Top 5 Albums that I discovered this year

1. Elements by Kina Grannis
2. The Clearing by Bowerbirds
3. A Moon Shaped Pool by Radiohead
4. Blackstar by David Bowie
5. Blue by Morgan James (Joni Mitchell cover album)

Again, not all of these albums came out this year, but these are the ones that I happened to discover this year. Truly beautiful music. I love that new artists and music continually come out, but there's always an amazing rabbit hole of past music to be unearthed.

Games

1. Skyrim
2. Fallout Shelter
3. Batman Arkham VR
4. Eagle Flight VR
5. Codenames

While not technically a 2016 game, Skyrim got remastered this year. As one of my favorite games of all time, it was an easy decision to pre-order and ultimately devote another 200+ hours to it. I love last year's Fallout 4 as well and I recently found an iOS version called Fallout Shelter. It's become my go-to game while waiting in line at the post office.

I'm super excited for what VR games continue to come out for the PS4. The ones I've played this year feel like tech demos. But Batman and Eagle Flight stood out as unique and enjoyable full experiences. While Codenames isn't a videogame, I listed it here because it's one of my new favorite boardgames.

Gadgets and toys

1. Hover camera
2. Celestron microscope
3. GoPro hero 5
4. iPhone 7 plus
5. PSVR

This has been a great year for gadgets. The dual camera made the iPhone 7 plus a tremendous tool for creating content. I've had a lot of fun exploring the hidden microscopic world around my apartment with my new Celestron microscope. The GoPro Hero 5 is the best GoPro by far. It's voice activated, 4k, and waterproof without a case. It has single button operation which makes catching moments effortless.

Two things that almost made the list for this year were the GoPro Karma drone, and the DJI Mavik drone. The Karma got recalled, and the Mavik isn't available to order until late January. So I suspect that those two will make next year's list.

OUTPUT
Stuff that I made

Music

I think of all the stuff I made this year, I'm proudest of my debut solo album, Diamondhead. It was a project I started last year on a trip to Hawaii. While on the island, I wrote and demoed five songs from my hotel room. Later when I got back home to Vegas, I enlisted my friend Bill Zappia to produce the tracks properly. Along the way, we wrote a sixth track together. It took many months longer than either of us expected, but by September, my first solo album was released.

During the early months of the year I also finished writing and demoing my next two albums, Forest and Budapest, both of which I'm hoping to record and release in 2017. I've got a lot of music planned for the next few years, and I'm really quite excited about all of it. But Diamondhead is special to me for being the first project in this new phase of my life.

Art

I made a ton of artwork related to the album, Diamondhead. In fact most of the art I made this year is tied to Diamondhead in some way. But I did manage to make a bunch of new zombie pieces. I also explored some new styles that I hope to continue exploring in the new year.

Video

I started off the year making a few vlogs that I hoped would become an ongoing series. But in my classic sprint-then-abandon style, I slowed way down. I have a bunch that I filmed, that I still have to edit. And I've been filming bits of new ones. I made a lyric video for the first track on Diamondhead, Back To You. I also made a ton of experimental pieces in Blender and After Effects, a lot of which I've yet to post. I learned a lot by messing around with both of those programs.

I finally relaunched my own website, daspetey.com, to be a better hub for all the things I make. There's a bunch of art and music up there now, and I hope to continually add to it. I'm also excited about blogging and vlogging more frequently.

2017: The shape of things to come

I have a tendency to get down on myself whenever I drop the ball on something. I get sad at my inability to be consistent. But I've realized recently that nothing good comes from that kind of negativity. I'd still drop the ball, but now I'd be hindered by the negative energy. That's no way to make progress. So I've decided to not do that anymore.

2017 will be a year of creating new habits. Small ones. Sustainable ones. Habits that encourage positivity and celebration. There's a lot I want to do next year, and I don't want to get in my own way.

Making the Back to You Lyric Video

I’ve made a few dozen lyric videos over the years. Some for No More Kings, some for Neil's other project Dirt Poor Robins. Some were freelance projects for other bands. But this is my first one for my solo project. This was the first one that no one would have to sign off on. This was just for me.

I usually approach lyric videos thinking of the overall mood. And even further I try to decide on a color scheme early on. Then I consider the energy. Is the piece moody and cinematic? Is it fast and kinetic?

For Back to You, I wanted to reference the night skyline of Honolulu. Each night I would sit on the balcony and stare out over the ocean. The other hotels along the beach created an interesting pattern of lit windows. Through my camera they made a beautiful de-focused bokeh effect. I’ve always been a sucker for that look. There were interesting color variations in the lights. Ambers and greens. Pale yellows. Distant reds of brake lights.

So the main look of the video was based on some night footage I took. I spent a lot of time recreating that look in After Effects. I wanted to be able to move around through that world in ways that I couldn't from my balcony.

I tried a few things that didn't quite work out how I intended. I printed out some frames of a night timelapse I filmed. Then I wet the paper and scanned them back in. It created an interesting jitter, but it wasn't quite what I was going for.

City timelapse printed, wet and re-scanned.

Then I tried stacking repeated layers of the footage and offsetting their position in z-space, to give a sense of depth and parallax motion. That worked pretty well. But still not exactly what I had envisioned.

That's half the battle for me when I work on creative things. There's always a balance between being an architect and a gardener. The architect sees the project in his head, and spends his time arranging the pieces to match that image. The gardener plants seeds of ideas all over and then tends them, pruning the bad ones and cultivating the good ones. I’ve always been more of a gardener with art and music. And sometimes that's at odds when I have a specific image or idea I’m trying to capture.

So this project, like so many projects, was a back and forth between having an idea that I wanted to realize, and giving myself time and permission to play and experiment. And I think I’m getting better at balancing that stuff.

Once I had a couple different shots to choose from, I started creating new shots faking motion from still images. For these I took images I had shot on my Canon Rebel t3i and applied some turbulence in After Effects. Then I added a camera lens blur on top. An interesting thing happened with the combination of those effects. The camera lens blur created bokeh based on the light spots in the still, but when the image warped and moved, so did the appearance and placement of the bokeh. This was exactly what I was hoping for.

Next time I’ll talk a little bit about my favorite shots from the video and how I made them.

500 CDs on my floor

Yesterday I received my order of CDs from the printer. All 500 of them. And they look gorgeous! I'm so happy with them! I've always had a small obsession with seeing my artwork in print, especially in multiple quantities. I'm not sure why. And this was no exception. The colors turned out beautifully bright and vibrant. And they all came in fun little plastic sheaths. Super fun. It actually makes me excited to record another album right away!
 

Diamondhead Covers

I'm having trouble deciding which cover image to use.

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

Option 4

Option 5

Poképarty

Man, it looks like everyone is playing Pokemon Go. I can't remember the last time a game had this sort of universal appeal. It's kind of nuts really.

I haven't played it yet, but I did manage to fake a screenshot.
 

Notes on Gratitude

Some recent tweet-thoughts on gratitude.