Blue V I is a musical about one guy and how the different parts of his life affect his thinking one way or another. First, his idol talks to him in a dream.  Second, he goes to school and listens to the teacher.   Third, he goes out to eat and listens to the cynical wait staff at a café. Fourth, he dreams he is in the body on a raft traveling downstream to the stomach as his deepest darkest desires temp him.  Fifth, he is angry about a phone call from his mother.  Sixth, he sits at home and dwells in his own confused misery.    Seventh, trip to the bar.  Eighth, he randomly decides to go to church the next morning and listens to the pastor.  Ninth, the last word from someone unexpected.  

On a lot of this album I tried a writing style that I hadn’t tried before.  I really like the way some classical music and even musicians like Louis Armstrong weave in and out with the melodies.  These professionals like Louis Armstrong really work well with phrases. They come in and out of the music trying not to step on anyone’s toes and still pull off a nice thick texture.  The album seemed to write itself in this way. I wrote this album with a compositional attitude in mind. Classical music is so hard to play perfectly because there is so much to the music. Trying to write in this style is rewarding artistically but difficult to record perfectly due to all the little nuances in each song.    

I came up with material by plucking my viola, playing my viola, singing, and playing the piano. This multiple instrument writing approach allows you to come up with different kinds of music.  For instance now I have bass lines from my viola, chords from my piano, and melodies singing. This writing style worked well with my compositional approach.  Typically I wrote the music to a song first, then the lyrics.    The lyrics were meant to be taken more as advice than things I do perfectly on a daily basis. Some of the lyrics I got from listening to my parents, teachers, and mentors. Although I did not experience exactly the scenes in the album, I used feelings and emotions and topics I deal with in my life.  

I would come up with a lot of a song or a completed song and then I would take it to Rick, CD percussionist.  We bounced many ideas off each other and he really helped me refine the songs here and there.  He added a nice outside perspective to the situation when I couldn’t see it. I would write out some music, pluck demo tracks for the dudes on my viola, and we would record the rhythm section to a song in one night. Because everyone’s schedules were busy and the music was more difficult to record than I anticipated, it took us two years to complete the album. The dudes laid down this music in a short amount of time and they should be proud of the job they did. Their playing was everything I imagined in my head.    Brody, audio engineer, helped a lot with post-production.  Brody was very patient. He pays attention to detail and he is a great ear to have in the recording studio and a great musician.  

Thank you to the Dudes.  Thank you for allowing me to showcase your talents. You helped me make my dream a reality, I owe you guys big time.  Thank you to Brody for your patience.   You worked many hours and did a great job.  You should really feel proud of the work you did on this project.  Thank you to Rick for your belief in my project.  Thank you to Dave Brock and Audio Vision.  Thank you to Elicia for the graphic art and cover design.  Thank you to my friends and family.  And a big thank you to my parents.  Your contributions and support made it happen.