Donate Now! Restoration Project Kickstarter Campaign

I'm in a songwriting collective. We write, record, and sing new and old hymns. We're called Restoration Project. Less than 48 hours ago, we launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise money to record and produce our next EP series. You should donate. Here's the link to our project:

http://kck.st/13SvBmM

Share to Twitter

Share to Facebook

View from Horseshoe

This past Sunday night, I took the stage at Horseshoe BBQ on Lincoln Ave. in Chicago. It was a fun night - not a stupendous night, but a good night. It was my first show as a father of two. I had a mild headache. I was running on about 10 hours of sleep over three days. Beautiful. (in a weird sort of way.)

I want to say a quick thanks to Rena Newman for inviting Chris Zonada and me to perform, and I want to thank Mike at Horseshoe BBQ for paying us - for supporting live, original music in Chicago. His commitment is rare this city I call home. Thank you. Speaking on behalf of all other Chicago songwriters, we hope that we can pay you back - some day.

CAU Performance Rescheduled

Hey, folks.

I spoke to Michael Teach of Chicago Acoustic Underground last night, and we were *finally* able to reschedule my live performance taping for the CAU podcast. I'm not sure yet when the show will air, but the recording will be on Monday, July 11th, at 2 PM, at the CAU studio on Armitage Ave.

Awesome.

Details forthcoming.

More Press for Fundamental!

Just a couple of weeks ago, the Wheaton Leader Newspaper printed an awesome article about my latest record. Check it out HERE. Booyah.

New York City Here We Come

If you think I've been MIA for the last three weeks, you'd be right. So where have I been and what have I been doing? Simple. I've been spending most of my time recording at the Dragon Room (the name I gave to where I do most of my producing). The result? Eight new songs for a new record with a little side-project that I have called Restoration Project. I haven't tallied up all of the hours I've spent on it in the last three weeks because, frankly, it doesn't really matter. I knew from the start that I'd spend as much time on it as it would take. The album comes out April 10th, and you all should come to the release party. Get the details HERE. So there you have it. It's time for a vacation. I leave for NYC with my wife and son tomorrow morning.

A Human Struggle for Recognition

This morning, I had a little bit of time to think about why people blog. It was on my mind because I actually took some time today to read the blogs of a couple of good friends of mine. We don't read our friends' blogs (usually) because we already know what's going on in their lives, how they feel about things, and how they're continuing down this strange path of existence we call life.

The bottom line? We all struggle with a lot of different things, but there are common ones, too. Though there are obviously many reasons, I think blogging is motivated primarily by a desire to be recognized as a person, separate from everyone else. It's a desire to find meaning behind why we're alive; because if we're all pretty much the same, we all live, we all die, we're simply a part of the lineage of the human race, then what's really the point?

Humans don't just want to exist. They want to matter.

I don't think that I blog because I'm searching for answers so much myself, but that I kind of hope that I can help other people cope with that struggle - that desire - and can move them in the direction of discovery for themselves...

My new album, Fundamental, really is the closest I've come so far to expressing this and other struggles common to the human experience in my music. If you haven't yet, you should check it out, here:

http://jaymathes.com/music/fundamental

To some of you, I know I still owe you copies of the album. I'll try to make that happen this week. Sorry for the delay!

Picture: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:V-J_Day_Times_Square_NYWTS.jpg

First Video from Record Release Show Now on YouTube!

Just this evening, I posted the first video from my record release concert last month. Yeah, this video stuff takes a long time to edit. The first song of the first set was "Broken Well". Take a look (and listen) on my YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/jaymathesmusic. And here's a direct link to the video page: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFAJMaCtny0.

Also, my buddy, Nick, who shot all of the video in the studio for the documentary about the making of Fundamental posted some of the raw video on his channel. Here's a link to the raw video (and audio) of the studio recording of "Broken Well": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLafZL7e5SM

Cheers! (and enjoy)

-Jay

Mosquito Fleet / Milano Concert Review

This past Friday night, some friends of mine, Mosquito Fleet, performed at the local coffee shop, La Spiaza. While I don't exactly like the "venue" or their coffee. Or the owner. Or how they treat the artists who perform there. I do like the atmosphere when there's great, live music being played. Opening for Mosquito Fleet was a band called Milano - some very talented chaps from Chicago, whose lead singer, Joe Guerra, is artist-in-residence at The Line Church in Lincoln Park. Pretty cool gig, if you ask me...

So about the concert...

In a word: impressive.

I only caught a few tunes from Milano, but what I heard was polished, refreshing, a combination of alternative, folk-rock, and a hint of traditional country.

Mosquito Fleet? I love these guys. They bring it every time they perform, and this concert, the record release show for their new EP, was no exception. Without the luxury of having stage monitors, the band did more than just keep it together. Standing at the front, right up against the band - within inches of Josh, the bassist, and feet of everyone else, I had a chance to look back in to the audience and take pictures of the scene in my mind:

Laughter. Heads moving. The floor bowed down with each kick drum hit from feet jumping ever-so-slightly to the beat. Bass emanating from the house speakers gave me blurred vision. And several faces with glazed-over eyes, lips pursed and turned up with joy as ears take it all in: lyrics. music. life.

Even with flawed lead vocals on a number of songs - no doubt caused, in part, by the lack of monitors - Mosquito Fleet still got their point across: they love performing the music they write for the people who love it and they don't ever want to stop.