can't see the forest

SUN ZOO BLOG MOVED

2007-10-23T17:58:00.000-05:00

ALL UPDATES ABOUT NEW ALBUMS, AND EVERYTHING ELSE CAN NOW BE FOUND HERE:
http://www.sun-zoo.com/blog/

Impending Travel Abroad

2007-06-15T02:32:00.000-05:00

In a couple days, I'm leaving the country for China, where I will be until August 28th. Feel free to send me emails or whatever else before then, but don't necessarily expect to hear much back. If you want to keep tabs on my experience there (which is pretty unrelated to my music but whatever) check out the blog I'm keeping at http://www.sun-zoo.com/harbin/

That is all. See you on the other side of the summer!

Reviews and impending international travel

2007-05-27T19:07:00.000-05:00

Once again, so busy with other stuff that I haven't updated this in a while. In the interim period, another review came out, which is enjoyable. Let's blockquote this fucker:

Here’s a literate rapper who really gives the “American way” an intelligent punch in the mouth. Throughout this entire piece, Sun Zoo, gives us his perspective (and even takes his share of the blame on Track 1) on this dysfunctional life we lead. He starts out with a moving piece he addresses to a sibling drug abuser. He acknowledges his place in the society that drives his brother to drugs. Needless to say, I immediately loved this CD.

If there was any doubt that Sun Zoo could keep his brain in a feature role, he gives us Track 2, “Aldus Huxley,” that spins the cautionary tale of the brave new world that we’ve created by continuing to ignore the coming of fascism and totalitarian control in America. The track includes a sample from the “Andy Griffith” show where Opie pleads with Andy to pay attention.

The goods just keep coming as “Victim” paints the very real picture of a girl trying to be Brittney or Paris, but our rapper doesn’t put down the stars. He reminds us that they are better people than our culture defines them to be. This is a smart young man who has succinctly defined a culture that honestly can’t see the forest for the trees. The album is certainly political, but it isn’t angry. It isn’t violent gangsta rap. Think of it more as a hip hop dissertation. If you think of yourself as too “well-healed” for rap, then this is the best place to experiment. In fact, our artist even concedes that the sampling that dominates rap soundtracks is unoriginal.

Ultimately, this is a worldly, sad recording that is very personal, but also very universal. Sun Zoo is one to watch.

Pretty nice. In other news, over 5,000 unique vistors to the site this year. Keep spreading the word and keep them coming! Also, expect a pretty long hiatus from updates both here and on the main site (sun-zoo.com) soon. I hope to get some remixes, etc,, up before then (I have a bunch of new remixes, not to mention the 33+ remixes of "Aldous Huxley" that have come in for that contest so far), but I'm leaving for China on June 19th. I will have (occasional) internet access there, but I'll be using it to keep a personal blog of my misadventures rather than updating music sites. Rest assured though, I'll be doing some writing while I'm there. I'm interested to see how being in a different place and culture (and speaking a different language) is going to affect my songwriting. Should be fun.

Sorry for the delay

2007-04-26T00:18:00.000-05:00

...in updates. I've been busy. Anyways, first some good news: the site has now had over 4,500 unique visitors since Can't See the Forest came out. That's more visitors since mid-February than the site got in all of 2006. Sure, it's no google, but it's a pretty good start. Many thanks to everyone who has helped promote the album. Please keep sending the link around, posting it everywhere you can find online, giving the albums to your friends, putting up posters, and everything else. It's working, so keep it up!

Also, there's a remix contest going on right now on another site using my song "Aldous Huxley". The winning producer will get their remix featured on the front page of my site, and also get a chance to produce some tracks for the next album. They've done great stuff in the past, including an incredible remix of GRIME's "Karma", so I'm looking forward to hearing what they come up with.

Apparently I haven't updated this since the Dream Team show. That went really well. Thanks to everyone who came out, I had a lot of fun and I hope you did too. This picture in the corner there is a pic from the show that one of my friends took. I know its a little dark. There were a bunch of people taking pictures, including some girl who took like 800, but I don't know who they were and I haven't seen them so this is what I've got.

Oh. Somebody with some video skills please make a youtube video for some of these songs...and tack "sun-zoo.com" on the end of it. I would love you forever.

More Shows More Reviews

2007-03-26T21:05:00.000-05:00

So, for those interested, I've got another show coming up, on April 16th I think. This is another Jamnesty event for Brown's chapter of Amnesty international. I'll have all the details up on my site as soon as I know them.

There are also a couple new reviews of the album out. Check out the Hartford Advocate review, and also the post on Free Albums Galore. I'm still hoping to get more reviews, so if you know of any publications that might do it send me an email or just submit the album to them on your own (and give them my email).

There are also some new remixes, but I haven't put them up on the site yet. They should be up in the next couple days, along with some other new stuff. I'm also probably going to add lyrics to the site becuase I've gotten a bunch of emails asking for that. It takes a long time to type them up, but I'll do what I can.

I live!

2007-03-12T19:35:00.000-05:00

It's been so long that before I updated I had to check and see what I actually said the last time. Good stuff. Anyway, those of you keeping score at home may have noticed the rave reviews coming in for the new album. Or, more specifically the one rave review so far from the fellows over at The Void. You know. "Perfect Score". "10/10". "Sun Zoo is the everyman, he represents all of us on some level." Good stuff like that. As you can see, I'm not letting it go to my head.

The site broke 3,000 unique visitors today so I haven't been able to keep that crazy momentum up completely, but that's pretty good. I'm within a thousand visitors of last years numbers already and the album has barely been out a month. In fact, I forget what day I released it, so it may not have been out a month yet...

If you aren't checking, there are a bunch more remixes up at the site, and I actually have some more I've just been too lazy to upload thusfar but that will be going up eventually. Big thanks to everyone that is contributing, especially the ones spelling my name right. I love what you're coming up with.

Also, I'll be opening for Gabriel Yaiva and The Dream Team at Brown's local pub, The Underground, Friday April 6th, so mark your calendars if you live around here. The show starts at 10.

Guess that's about it for now. Keep spreading the word and the links around as best you can!!!

Release, Remixes, Etc.

2007-02-24T18:40:00.000-05:00

So, I guess I'll keep this thing going, at least for the moment. Anyway, the album is now released, obviously, and it went pretty well. I got some press about it in the BDH and then a little follow-up shout out this week. Many thanks to Ben and Sonia for that.

Other than that, things are good as well. I'm still hoping to get more reviews in about it, but the feedback I've gotten from random people about it has been very positive. I was worried people wouldn't like it as much as Hope Flies, but many people actually seem to like it a lot better, which is nice. The site has had about 2,000 unique visitors in the week since the album came out, which is great, but the numbers are definitely dropping, so tell your friends immediately, person who is reading this!

That aside, you should check out the REMIX section of the site...in addition the acapellas, there are a couple remixes up already, by Djay Cas and Bravado Beats, and both of them are incredibly sick. I expect to get more remixes so keep checking back for more, but do not miss these, especially the Bravado Beats version of "Not For Sale"

Album comes out FRIDAY

2007-02-12T23:07:00.001-05:00

Yup.

With any luck...

2007-02-10T22:38:00.000-05:00

...the album will be released within this upcoming week. I still have some final mixing kinks to work out, and web stuff to build, etc, but it's basically all done so I'm now just getting promo stuff together and getting stuff out to reviewers a little bit early. I'm trying to write the thanks right now, which is going poorly.

I am alive.

2007-02-06T01:03:00.000-05:00

Things are being done. Cover art. Mixing. Still need to record vocals with Sarah. Cover art is almost totally done in fact, although it turns out not to be Luis G doing it. I must sleep...

Progress! Terror! Progress!

2007-01-31T21:04:00.000-05:00

Once again, I forget when I last updated this. As is probably becoming obvious to my (zero) readers, my schedule gets a little more hectic once school gets thrown into the mix. I have been doing things, though. Many things. Important things!

First and foremost, Sarah and I finally got together and recorded the tracks we wrote a few months ago. We have to rerecord Sarah's vocs at some point becuase the squeaky piano stool she was sitting on makes occasional weird background noises while she's singing, but the piano (hauntingly minimalist!) and the rap vocals (disturbingly bad!) are done. And I don't expect Sarah's vocals to take much time at all...she has an incredible voice, and more or less nailed everything in one try even when she had to focus on playing the piano at the same time.

With those two songs, the recording of this album has more or less drawn to a close and we're now on to the editing/mixing phase. I've done a fair amount of the editing already, so really, the giant monster standing in my path at the moment is mixing. I'm hoping to have most or all of that done by the end of this weekend and then after that the music portion of the album will be completely done except for a few loose ends from DJ HDL I may still be waiting on.

I also talked to Luis about cover art, so we're going to meet up sometime this weekend to discuss that and hopefully get the ball rolling. Several rough versions of the album are out amongst some close friends who are reviewing them for me, and I've lined up one person willing to review it professionally already once it's totally done (but I still need to get more). I also need to start creating promo materials like posters, and planning some shows to help spread the word, plus writing up however it is I'm going to spam all my facebook and myspace friends. Of course, all this is going on while I'm taking four classes and trying to find funding to study in China this summer. And I'm hoping to have it done and released in the next 2-3 weeks. Terror!

I am...so...tired...

2007-01-26T16:18:00.000-05:00

When did I last update this again? I have no idea. I'm done with all the solo recording, just waiting to record some songs with Sarah and also to hopefully get some songs back from DJ HDL with his work. I got one piece back already--it's going to be an instrumental piece, actually--and it's pretty sick. I enjoy it.

I'm back at school and exhuasted, so I haven't done much/anything in the way of mixing/mastering, but I did manage to put some time into the shell of my new website the other day. I want it to be very simple/straightforward and quick loading so there's not a ton going on there, but you can go here and check it out if you'd like. Let me know what you think. There's obviously no actual information up there yet, but there will be eventually. It will also probably look a little bit flashier once I talk to the guy I'm hoping will do some album art for me (Luis G) and have a better idea of how thats gonna look.

I'm hoping to get some mixing/mastering kinda stuff done tomorrow though...becuase I also need to get stuff out to reviewers, etc.

Getting there? Maybe...

2007-01-22T18:57:00.000-05:00

So I'm getting pretty close to having the music recording part of the album finished, excepting the two songs I plan to do with Sarah Clark. I'm going to record tonight to fix up some little problems here and there, but overall all the songs are recorded and mixed in a very rough fashion. I'm a little concerned about the sound--for some reason there seems to be a quality difference between these songs and Hope Flies--but it's not really an issue, becuase you would only notice it by comparing them back to back, and I'm giving the album away for free anyway.

So yes, I have chosen a distribution plan. Once again, I'll be giving the album out for free on my site. My plan is to add a donation button so that if people would like to contribute, they can. People who do donate will get access to bonus tracks (there will be several), exclusive remixes, and higher-definition versions of the songs on the album. People who don't, well, hey, they've still gotten two completely free albums from me, what more do they want? Anyway, I've discussed this plan with a friend, who assures me that it's financially viable, and in fact is the most ideal plan...there was something about a triangle. I didn't really understand the finer points of what she said, but it's good to have it approved by someone who knows more about that sort of thing than me (which, I should point out, is nearly everyone).

Anyway, I still have a lot to do. Create promotional materials, mixing (shudder), record the songs with Sarah, create the website, and contact people about getting it reviewed....damn.

Progress!

2007-01-18T02:12:00.000-05:00

When did I last update this thing? I don't know. Anyway, I edited 3 songs today and recorded another 2 tonight. The 3 that I edited came out well, although I'm not sure I'm going to include all of them on the album, one of them may become a bonus track of some kind. I've been considering offering additional bonus tracks to people who donate $5 or $10 for the album just out of the kindness of their hearts, so it might go there, might go on the album. We'll see. The other two songs were the intro and outro for the album, and both are good. The intro I am especially pleased with, thanks mostly to a sickening beat by Cire.

Tonight I recorded two songs, including one that I also finished writing tonight. I don't know how they turned out, but it went pretty smoothly, except for one verse, which took forever. Sometimes that seems to happen. I must have done 20 or 30 takes of it, and ended up producing enough amusing fuck-ups that I'm thinking of making a separate track of amusing "bloopers". Anyway, the final take turned out OK, I hope. Everything always sounds sloppy until I edit it, so hopefully that will even it out.

Tommorrow I think I start rerecording songs I did last week. Hopefully I can make some improvements.

The Title Track

2007-01-16T19:36:00.000-05:00

Having been reinvigored by a poignant reminder from a friend that I should be doing this for myself and not for anyone else anyway, I have reentered the studio with a more relaxed attitude, and I'm really happy with the results. Last night I did two songs, "Can't See the Forest" and "Aldous Huxley", and I've pleased with how they came out, especially "Can't See the Forest", which I believe to be one of the best songs I've ever written (both in terms of writing and in terms of production).

I haven't yet heard back from the aforementioned friend about her opinion on these tracks, but I did play them for the person who "Can't See the Forest" is about, and he liked them both and additionally approved of the songs release, albeit with a couple of provisos. I realize I'm being sort of vague, which makes this blog sort of pointless, but some things need to remain personal.

Anyway, I edited them today. The mixing is still pretty suspect, probably (I wish I had monitors) but for the most part they're set. I might be getting a little bit echo-happy. Because of the way some of the beats are arranged, several songs have a sort of "dead time" in between the verses and the hooks, which I've been filling with a single word echoing. We'll see if I have overdone it or not. I also decided to throw some distortion onto the verses and even more onto the chorus of "Aldous Huxley." I'm taking the risk that it makes the song sound a little bit rawer, instead of just making it sound cheap. It's another intense political song, dealing a lot with electronic surveillance, so I'm hoping (and we'll see what others think) that it sounding somewhat like it's coming through a walkie-talkie (albeit a walkie-talkie with pretty good quality) will fit thematically.

Tonight I'll be recording some more songs...I may try to do the intro and outro songs tonight (both are short), and in addition, I'll do a full length song. I have to schedule it somewhat carefully so that the tracks that require the most energy (read:yelling) don't all fall on the same night, thus causing me to destroy my voice and resulting in the kind of cutting corners that happens when I get tired. So far I think I'm avoiding that fairly well, although I won't say I haven't cut any.

I Need Some Kind of Staff...

2007-01-14T19:20:00.000-05:00

So I plan to start recording again tomorrow night. I may rerecord the four songs I've already done--I went back and listened to them next to Hope Flies tracks and the vocals sounded more flat, so I'm going to play around with settings and see if I can't get something a little warmer than what I have. I'm not using the same equipment, but hopefully I can improve it a little.

It occurs to me that I could really use some kind of staff--maybe a producer and an engineer--so I don't have to worry about anything except the rapping itself, and there's someone who can help with song construction, etc. That would be luxury. As it is, I'm pretty terrified about ruining the album from every angle: rapping, producing, engineering, and mixing. I recall being equally terrified about Hope Flies, but I don't know if that really means anything. I hope I can get whats in my head onto record without losing too much...

I should note also about the staff thing that I do have a friend who has been very helpful and specific with feedback about the new music, which she has heard basically all of. So that's a good thing.

A note about distribution too: I'm pretty sure at this point it's going to be another free album distributed online. I'm going to try to have more in the way of album art, etc., but I'm just not going to be able to afford to press it. I wish I could, but unless some money more or less falls out of the sky, it isn't going to happen...

Fun With Computers

2007-01-11T16:30:00.000-05:00

So I recorded again last night (working title: "Till I'm Free"). Unfortunately, it went much less swimmingly than last time I'm afraid...because of a weird latency problem I was only able to do one song, and I think I'm going to have to redo it. The thematic change in some of these songs on the new album from what I'm used to is making it difficult for me to figure out how to approach them, delivery wise. Aggressive, I can do, and really somber I can do, but the middle ground is somewhat more difficult. I am suddenly struck by the similarities between rapping and acting.

Anyway, I don't know that I'll record tonight...I may take the time to write a bit instead, since I was up very early this morning and will be again tomorrow and Saturday to teach. We shall see, but perhaps I'll resume my night owl schedule next week and hope to finish most/all of the recording then.

Still, the song came out better than I expected it to after last night. Sometimes when things don't go smoothly you somehow convince yourself that you spent 3 hours recording some cacophonous mess. This song isn't exactly a masterpiece, but it isn't that either. Ah well. All part of the game....

Recording Begins!

2007-01-10T17:05:00.000-05:00

I finally started to officially record, and I think it's going pretty well. I recorded three songs last night, tentatively titled "Not For Sale", "Karen's Song", and "Sex Love Life". They were some of the easier songs to do in terms of recording becuase they have hooks that are done already or just don't have hooks period. I've edited them this afternoon and am listening now as well as sending them off to at least one trusted confidant for feedback. I'm pretty happy though. It only took 3 hours, which is a pretty ridiculous speed for me, but the songs seem to have come out pretty well at first look.

I also finally figured out why my vocals didn't seem to be compressing in Cubase. Turns out I'm an idiot! To get something to compress, you not only have to set the compressor, you have to turn it on. Who would have thought?

I plan to record at least one song tonight, although I have to get up early tomorrow morning so I don't want to go too crazy. If I keep going at this rate though, I'm going to be out of songs to record in a few days. Time to pick the writing pace up, I guess...

Live From Our Nation's Capitol

2007-01-07T01:56:00.000-05:00

Well, not really. I'm actually currently in Virginia, but I was in D.C., as the photo proves. I'm heading back via train tomorrow and I'm hoping to get some writing done then. I didn't get any done on the train on the way down here, but that's becuase I had gotten an hour or so of sleep, so I was pretty exhuasted.

I did, however, get some recording done! I brought my stuff down so that I could get one of my friends to do a chorus for the new album. She has done it, and I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. I haven't mixed or edited it yet, but it sounds good enough raw that I'm pretty excited to hear how it sounds once it's polished. And, as I mentioned to her, after we finished recording I had her melody stuck in my head, which is always a good sign. So that's something to be excited about, although obviously there's a ton more work to be done on the song.

Anyways, that's more or less it, peace.

Checking out for a few days...

2007-01-02T22:10:00.000-05:00

I won't be updating till Sunday probably. I'm going to DC to visit some friends, and hopefully to record a little bit too. I'm taking a train and I've got some conceptual stuff worked out now so hopefully I can get some serious songwriting done on the train too. Trains always make me wanna write. Check back late Sunday night or Monday for a large update, possibly with pics. Peace

The Last Song...

2007-01-02T03:27:00.000-05:00

Has been written. Or at least the first draft has. It's pretty short, but I think that it fits well. I've had a beat selected for some time, and really the intention is just to wrap up the whole album in something sort of concise and simple, and I think that I accomplished that.

Whether the lyrics fit well over the beat is another story, but I'll figure out some way to make it work. The instrumental is actually just samples from two different Jamie Cullum songs that I blended together, but I'm really happy with the result. It's a got very warm, relaxed, sitting-by-the-fire-on-a-snowy-night kind of feel to it. Hopefully people will come out of the album feeling like they just drank a mug of hot chocolate. Or something.

That sounds ridiculous, but the album takes on a lot of serious issues, and parts of it are going to be pretty abrasive. I feel like this kind of conclusion will help resolve some of the things, and also make my overall intention more clear. I also tried a little bit with the lyrics to communicate some gratitiude towards the listener. It's something I'll probably embellish in the ab libs because it's hard to pull off in verse without sounding corny but it's pretty important in my opinion. I'm still kind of surprised that people are even willing to listen. It's not that I think I'm bad, becuase I don't. I guess I'm just perpetually surprised that people are willing to listen to somebody irrelevant. Maybe not irrelevant, but I'm just a regular person. Anyway, the point is that I appreciate all the support that I get, and I'd like to make that clear in more permanent, artistic form.

Out of curiousity, is anyone actually reading this? My guess is no.

Curse you, integrity!

2006-12-31T03:37:00.000-05:00

So I think I'm going to have to contradict pretty much everything I said in the last post. I started writing the song, got about a verse in, and while I like what I have written it just doesn't feel like me. Of course, I could just do it anyway, but if I'm calling myself on it other people would certainly notice, and I'd have trouble performing a song like that and making it believable anyway. So I'm back to square 1.

I'm also dealing with some writers block issues. It's not that I don't have anything I want to talk about, or even that I don't have beats that fit my topics; rather its that I can't find the right way to approach saying what I want to say. Maybe this is weird, but that's actually pretty frequently the case...I will play with ideas in my head for days and days but as soon as I think of the first line and I know the route I'm going it gets much easier. I'm especially wary of being "preachy", so I'm having a tough time coming up with some approaches.

I've also got too many beats at this point, and it's frustrating becuase I know some of them are going to get left off the album, or not get the proper attention they deserve at any rate. On the other hand, having too many good beats is basically the best predicament an emcee can be in, so I really shouldn't be complaining. I've also got about 3 beats that sound like a "last song on the album" type beat and I want to use all of them, which could be interesting. I'll talk more about album sequencing tomorrow, maybe. Right now I'm going to pick a different beat and see what comes...

Hooks.

2006-12-28T08:58:00.000-05:00

So I did get a little writing done last night--not an entire song, but an entire hook, which is pretty good. For those unfamiliar with the terminology, a hook is the repeated part of any rap song, also potentially called the chorus, refrain, etc. Anyway I tend to have a fair amount of trouble writing them--see Hope Flies--because I find it very difficult to sum up everything I have said or want to say in an entire song in 4 or 8 catchy bars.

At the moment, several of the songs that I have "written" aren't actually completely written becuase I don't have hooks for them yet. Very occasionally (such as on the track from which this blog derives its name) the hook will come as easily as the verses, but for me verses usually seem to come much more quickly and hooks can be something of a struggle. Of course, it's harder to apply a hook to a song after the verses are written. The hook I wrote last night is for a song I don't have verses for (yet), which is probably a better way to approach songwriting. It's difficult to actually write that way though. No one ever thinks: Man, there's some shit I really need to get off my chest...I'd better write some hooks...

Location, Location, Location

2006-12-27T02:27:00.000-05:00

So with one post-holiday trip cancelled, I'm really starting to feel like it's time to begin putting the pieces of this album into place. There are still a lot of songs I plan to write--I'm going to try to write one or more tomorrow night--but I think getting some more stuff recorded and playing with styles a little bit may give me a better sense of the direction in which I'm headed.

My equipment--some of which is pictured above--is fairly portable at this point. I'm using my laptop (Mac PowerBook G4), a Behringer B-2 mic, an M-Audio Inspire Firewire soundcard, an ART Tube preamp, and Sony MDR headphones. All of that more or less will fit in a backpack--the mic stand os less portable but still doable--and for production I use a mini Oxygen MIDI keyboard which doesn't take up much space either. For the first time, I can record more or less anywhere.

Which is not to say that I have a good place to record. I'm not convinced the place I used to record Hope Flies will be available to me again, and you might be surprised how difficult it is to find a suitable place. My problem isn't so much the acoustics of a given location--I always record in weird places and it comes out OK. The problem is that to record a song and not have it sound flat and emotionless, you have to put about 10X more energy into the recording than you would when performing. That means, basically, that I need a place where I can yell the same things over and over again for extended periods of time without anyone trying to kill me or calling the police. I tend to record at night (from around 9pm to whenever I've finished what I planned, which was as late as 4am during the Hope Flies recordings).

I also like to have a place where it's safe to leave my stuff unattended if at all possible. I'll definitely be spending a lot of time wherever I end up, and when I was recording Hope Flies I would sometimes leave the studio and go to the local Shell Mini-Mart (the only thing open after midnight) and get some candy or coke or something to revitalize myself. My stuff is portable by studio standards, but it's still sort of a pain in the ass to move.

So anyway, this is what I'm pondering. Minus the songs with Sarah Clark, I'd like to have most or even all of the recording done before I get back to school, just becuase it will make my life a lot easier. i'm sure I'll find a good spot eventually...

Honesty, and the Return of the Warrior

2006-12-23T23:45:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I wonder if I'm not cursed by whatever muse it is that's inspiring me to write. I'm overstating, of course, but I'm realizing I have once again written an album that will require me to have akward conversations with several close acquaintances that go something like: "So I wrote this song about you...it's pretty obvious that it's you...how do you feel if I spend the next several months trying to get everyone in the world to download it?" On the last album I had two, or maybe three people to "clear" songs with before I felt comfortable releasing it. They were, of course, very gracious and generous and I still feel like I owe them, becuase none of them put up any fuss or said anything less than "yes, of course." Which is not what my reaction would have been if I'd been in their shoes. Anyway, I get to do that whole thing again this time around. I'd just drop the songs, but it always seems to be the best songs that I have that problem with. I suppose that makes sense, in a way.

Today I went with family to visit more family in New Hampshire, which involves a 3-hour car trip both ways. I didn't get a whole lot done musically, although I listened to a lot of music--god bless the Ipod--but I did have an epiphany of sorts. You see, I made this beat some time ago that I really like. It's very different from what I usually do, both in terms of production and emceeing. I would describe it as...unrepentantly agressive. I wanted to use it for the album but I couldn't think of a song idea until tonight.

It's funny how things just pop into your head randomly when you arent even thinking about them. I've been trying to think of a topic for weeks; I was sitting in the car tonight listening to some Vienna Teng and suddenly it occured to me that that track would be a perfect backdrop to exorcize my frustrations about half-assed so-called "emcees" on. I won't go into too much detail (partially because I don't know it myself yet), but this will be the closest I've been to writing a battle track in several years and represents sort of an exciting (if brief) return to the original meaning of my moniker: Sun Zoo = Sun Tzu = author of The Art of War.

I think there was something else but I forgot what it was and I'm exhuasted so I'll leave it at this for now. I might not be updating every day for the next week or so...I'll do it when I can/when I have something to say, but I've got various holiday family stuff going on, as y'all probably do. Happy holidays!

Title of Record

2006-12-22T17:32:00.000-05:00

I should probably explain that the reason this blog is called "Can't See the Forest" is that's the very tentative title of my new album. I kind of like it--in addition to evoking my own personal cluelessness, forest is a cool word and you can read all kinds of different meanings into it, which I think is great for an album title. There are some other titles I've been playing with, mostly Buddhist or Daoist influenced (and if you know me you aren't at all surprised to hear that). There was some wording in a Zen koan by Dogen called "Dragon Howling in a Withered Tree" that I particularly like, but I haven't got the book with me. I'm not sure it fits as well anyway.

Of course, the problem with trying to come up with a title for the album is that it has to fit the concept, which means that you have to have a concept, or at least something that makes the album more than just a random collection of songs thrown onto a CD. For example, Hope Flies was--for the most part--about hardship and finding hope through hardship, and I think the title reflected that pretty well. (And of course, in addition, it was a cool reference to the Rhode Island state flag, which I love). So does Can't See the Forest reflect what's going to be on the new album? I'm not sure.

My life and my worldview have changed significantly since the time when I was writing Hope Flies. That album was actually part of what helped shape the changes. I am still very much--in fact, more--attracted to the concept of hope; by which I mean not 'hope that things will change' but 'hope that one can find the way to love and appreciate them as they are'. That concept is definitely going to be everywhere on the album. Unsurprisingly, it's also been influenced significantly by what I've learned about Daoism and Buddhism. My Buddhist meditation teacher, a lay Zen monk and Daoist scholar, wasn't as far off as he may have thought when he laughingly told me I could be the first Daoist rapper.

The album is not all upbeat, however. There's already a lot of content that is political and social commentary, reflecting my increasing frustration with American government and American consumer culture. I have been accused in the past of being too "preachy" in music, and I don't expect this album is going to do anything to silence those critics. In fact, I'm fairly sure I'll be adding fuel to the fire, but so be it.

I should note, too, that picking the things I want to talk about for this record is difficult, and writing is harder than it was for Hope Flies. I don't really know how many people heard the album. The most scientific I can get is that between 300 and 5,000 people have downloaded it from my site or links I've posted. Since the album was uploaded, sun-zoo.com has recieved 4,315 unique visitors, and the album is available on a bevy of other sites as well, so theorize however you wish. Anyway. I get emails occasionally from people saying they loved the album and that it helped them get through difficult times. I also somehow managed to get a bit of press, which was universally positive.

All of that is great, but it's also a little intimidating. I know that what I need to do with this record, as with any record, is to be honest, say the things I want to say and make the music I want to make, regardless of anyone else. Despite that, I'm occasionally terrified by the prospect of releasing an album to the people who loved Hope Flies so much. What if they don't like it, or it doesn't help them in the same way? It isn't exactly Hope Flies 2, after all, and I don't even really know what the expectations are. This sounds ridiculous, but when you only have a couple fans the prospect of potentially alienating them can be a bit frightening. I can't even imagine what mainstream artists who actually value their craft must go through every time they release a record to hordes of demanding fans. I suspect that for some, the expectations must be nearly crippling.

I don't think that my fans (all two of you, including Mom) will dislike this album though. Maybe they'll like it more than Hope Flies, maybe less. If I could, I'd make something that everyone would love, but that's impossible, so I guess I'll just make the kind of music I want to hear and hope it resonates with someone else. I don't really have any idea if it will, which, I guess, is another reason to call it Can't See the Forest.

The Beginning of the Middle

2006-12-22T00:29:00.000-05:00

So here's where I am at the moment: Basically all of the production for the album is done. Not completely finalized, maybe, but done. I'll probably continue to make beats and if I come across a dope one of someone else's thats free I'll certainly take it, but at this point I don't need to. I've collected and made about 50 beats over the past few months, and from those I have currently selected 15 that I would like to be on the album. Of course nothing is final, but expect at least one beat from Hope Flies veteran producer Cire, as well as a beat apiece from Pacemaker and Oursin. Warbux may have a beat on it too, but the vast majority of the beats will be my own. It may be a bit of a sonic departure from Hope Flies, which might be good news or bad news depending on your feelings about that album. One producer who isn't returning appears to be Phiba Optix, who somehow managed to lose a bunch of his beats and then more or less quit producing (as far as I can tell). Lame.

In terms of writing, I've got 7 or 8 songs written in at least first draft form that have beats over them. In addition, I have two songs that I wrote with Sarah Clark that are completely finished, and either, neither, or both of those may be appearing on the album. There's also an instrumental piece I'm working on with DJ HDL. The songs I have so far I'm very happy with. All of them are good, and there are a couple that I consider to be the best songs I've ever written. I think people will be pleased.

I haven't really started to record anything yet. I have a rough version of a political song tentatively called "Not For Sale" recorded, but I will throw it away and rerecord it again later. I plan to start sometime after Christmas when I (hopefully) have a couple more songs written. I also need to find a good place and time to record as the one I used last year isn't as readily available to me now. I'll be using my laptop for this album though, which is nice in that it greatly expands my opportunities to record with other people. Aside from Sarah Clark, I expect to work with at least one other vocalist and a guitarist. There are also some rappers I'd like to work with but haven't finalized anything with yet so I won't call them out here.

There are, of course, other things to be considered too. For graphic design, I've contacted Providence photographer Luis G. and I'm really excited to work with him. We also may do a video or two for the album (mostly for fun and the internets), which would probably be shot and produced by Providence's own Nate the Skate. And of course, there's the question of how to distribute it. Should it be another free download on the net, or should I press it up and try to sell it? Should it be both (obviously the real album would come with some extra features, and probably a tshirt or something)? More importantly, can I afford to press it, and can I find a manufacturer that's willing press something that blatantly violates copyright laws? (Fuck you, RIAA, I'm sampling and I'm not paying your goddamn fees.)

There's more...concepts, the title, etc, but I'll leave that for tomorrow. I'm about to watch Good Night and Good Luck and then try to write another masterpiece. Peace...

And so it begins...

2006-12-21T22:11:00.000-05:00

So I've got this blog. I'm too lazy to update the "blog" on my site, but I'm self absorbed enough to want to type things about what I'm doing to complete strangers and finally I realized this was the obvious choice. Plus I needed a quick go-to procrastination method--a way to "work on the album" without actually working on the album, if you see what I mean. So here we are.

It's my intention to use this blog as a chronicle of the trials and tribulations of writing, producing and recording a full length album and all the crap that goes along with that. Since I'm poor and not famous, I basically have to do everything, and rest assured, I intend to complain about it in a verbose and probably tiresome fashion.