Brock Skywalker

Rockin' Brock on Glock · 28 April 08

I played Glockenspiel at the Wendy McNeill show last night. It was a hoot! I have never played Glock before and gotta say – it is pretty fun! I had pretty easy and well written parts to play (only 5 or 6 notes in all) so that probably made it more fun and less stressful.

Wendy sure does put on a good show. She had the audience eating out of the palm of her accordion-ed hand. I love seeing performers like that. I find it very encouraging as both a musician and a music lover.

I have a show this Friday with a cover band Paul Bellows, James Murdoch, Terry Palmer and I threw together. It will be fun… it won’t be pretty but it will be fun. Then I have show at The Carrot Community Arts Coffeehouse (Edmonton AB). I hope to have a (small) handful of new material for that night, so make sure you bring your listening ears. Oh yeah, but no Glockenspiel. That was a one time thing. Only for Wendy do I play Glock.

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What happened to the old York? · 21 November 07

New York City comprises five boroughs, each of which is coterminous with a county: The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island. With over 8.2 million residents within an area of 830 km², New York City is the second most densely populated city in the United States… and that is where I will be for the next 11 days.

If I make it out alive, I will see you on December 1^st at Heather Hutchison‘s cd release party.

Huzzah!

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Anyone up for a Ceili? · 6 September 07

Good old Neil McDonald called Paul the other day and asked him if he could cover his show on Thursday night at Ceili’s. Paulsaid that he could not because he is going to see Crowded House tonight (which is coincidently where Neil is also going to be). I happened to be sitting at my desk behind Paul when Neil called…

Long story short – I am playing at Ceili’s tonight! Come on down and listen to me struggle through 3 sets of material I can barely remember! It is going to be fun.

And if you are driving there, maybe you could give me a ride. My car is in the shop and I have a guitar and amp to carry.

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Thank you Saskamites · 20 August 07

Saturday morning Paul and I drove to Saskatoon Saskatchewan (after a hearty breakfast at the one and only Zuppa Cafe) to play a rock show at one of our mutually favourite Canadian venues – Lydia’s Pub. I am happy to report that the party-people of Saskatoon did not let us down. Two fine young fellas even bought us a beer and a shot before they knew we were in the band! How nice is that?

My favourite part of the show was when some girls near the front were kind of freaking-out about how pretty my accordion was. Then after the very next song the boys they were with seemed to be equally as excited about my Nike sport socks… so much so that Paul dedicated a song to my socks. Yeah… it was THAT kind of show.

I guess we were partly to blame for the craziness – many times during the show I was playing my accordion while Paul played his (flying-v-ish) Gibson Explorer. The slightly ironic combination did not go unnoticed. Yeah, it was also THAT kind of show… and by “THAT“ I mean “nerdy”.

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Sounds like extraction · 12 August 07

So, we finished up the bed-tracks for Heather Hutchison’s new full length (as yet untitled) cd today over at Sound Extractor studio. It has been an emotional and technical roller coaster so far. We have recorded Bass, Drums and Guitars over at Sound Extractor, Viola over at The Norwood Studio and Piano over at Beatice’s house (Heather’s neighbour with a gorgeous grand). We have used Cubase, Pro-Tools and Audacity and lots (too many to list here) of microphones.

Everything sounds great and we hopefully will be done piano and moving on to vocals by the end of the week. Fingers are crossed and the AFA is breathing down our necks! Not literally… though that might be pleasant…???

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I must Exclaim! · 4 April 07

If you happen to be looking for me in the next few days you are going to have to look east (but not too far).

If you really want to know where I am you could try www.exclaimhockey.ca (I am playing for the Edmonton Green Pepper Gong Show).

If you are not really interested… see you on Monday!

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Goodbye Sidetrack · 16 February 07

Word on the street is that the Sidetrack Cafe closed down yesterday. This time likely for good.

If you visit www.sidetrackcafe.com it is not entirely evident or obvious that they are closed, aside from the entire entertainment calendar having been wiped clean.

I have to admit to being more sentimentally sad about the old location closing down than I am at this incarnation going out of business (I had a serious soft spot for the old locale after going/playing there for 20-ish years) but it is still a drag. I am mostly concerned for all my friends who worked there. I know they will all land on their feat (they are all clever, able folks) but it is no fun looking for work – especially on such short notice.

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Thanks SAMRO! · 16 February 07

This morning I received my quarterly songwriter royalty statement, for Apr 01 to Jun 30, from the good (if not slightly confused) people at SOCAN. It is always a pleasant surprise to have money magically appear in your bank account and being that it is a quarterly payment, I always forget it is coming.

The thing that makes this quarterly statement noteworthy is that it shows that I was paid $40.54 from SAMRO. SAMRO is the Southern African Music Rights Organization. How cool is that?

I also made $1.44 from EAU (Estonia). $0.45 from IMRO (Ireland), $0.13 KODA (Denmark), $1.63 from PRS (England) and $0.15 from SCD (Chile).

As an Edmonton songwriter I am pretty darn happy when people just show up to my gigs and don’t leave before I have sung my last note. But actually getting paid for my music being played in other countries makes me feel good all the way to… well, all the way to EB Games where I will likely pick up another game for my Wii and waste another weekend in front of the tv instead of writing more songs. Sigh…

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Rebekah, Kris and Me · 19 December 06

December 20th @ The Sidetrack Cafe – Edmonton, AB.

Brock Skywalker and His (not so) Irregular Heartbeats,
playing with Halifax’s own Rebekah Higgs and Calgary’s own Kris Demeanor.

Show starts at 9:00
Tickets $7 at the door

See you there!

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Shoelaces are difficult · 1 December 06

I have been having some serious shoelace issues today. Not only have they come undone 3 times on me while I was running, walking and sitting at my desk, but twice now, while I’ve been trying to untie them, they’ve knotted themselves up so badly that I nearly had to use my teeth to get them to let go. And, as many of you know, anyone’s teeth and my feet do not mix.

Perhaps it is the alignment of the moon, or maybe it is solar flares, but most likely it is because I stayed out late last night watching the inimitable That 1 Guy. My opening set went very well and the audience seemed to appreciate my wit and musicality… or perhaps they just liked my pants… but then Mike took the stage and they went mad. As did I! Not only did he play a crazy instrument and fill the role of one man band better than anyone I have ever seen but he also did some breakdancing! Breakdancing people! It was awesome. And to top it all off he was a super nice guy too.

See his shows, buy his album, have him over for dinner. That 1 Guy is great!

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