The 12 minute White Elephant in the Studio

I knew we were in trouble when we were making a list of the songs in development and I bring up the longest piece we were (supposed to be) working on, and my guitarist's response was "oh I forgot about that one".

At that point, I got the feeling that the Gravity Tree '3rd album project' (for lack of a decent name) was starting to resemble Brian Wilson's "Smile", which as I recall, took him some 30-odd years to complete. The path to completing the album started to resemble a gauntlet. So I thought "perhaps I should quit".

Just one problem: I am not a quitter. So I ask myself (or was that David Byrne), "self, how did I get here?"...and I'll skip all of the pondering that followed...

I still believe this music has some merit and I need to get it out. I think "need" is the correct term here. So although our schedules are pretty much jam-packed with other gigs and projects and solo albums and commercial soundtrack music and all manner of life events, I'm trying to see this thing to its end, and then decide what needs to happen. Once music is completed and released, it becomes something else. It is no longer the "project".

That 12 minute piece may not be making it onto this release. Said guitarist has since stated he thinks it is further away than that to an ending. But we have a couple of finished things, a lot of almost-finished pieces, and some hardly started work that might go faster at this point.

We're not a government, so I guess I should call this the State-of-the-Project or something. We're moving past the 12-minute White Elephant in the Studio. We've acknowledged the time spent on it might not have been practical, and time will tell if and when it is released if any of the investment pays dividends or not, creatively speaking. But there are other (perhaps better) pieces that we think you might enjoy. And we're all over that.

I will reserve release dates for another blog. For now, I reiterate that new music is coming. If you need an indicator (and who would blame you), when it begins to appear, this page will change. Haters, get ready to hate. You are nothing compared to a musical elephant.