The Cry Of A Bird

Hello My Friend,

It's been a long time since the last one of these.  Major changes have taken place.  More live shows, less recording.  Studio torn down, studio reconstructed.

The 2 main changes are really that due to life and my favorite engineer and amazing musician, Tony Livadas has moved to LA.  He was cool enough to get me started with helping me set up my studio a year ago and managed to contribute his engineering and playing skills to some of what is in store for the next album.  It will be my 3rd, called The Cry Of A Bird.

The other major change is the passage of time and all that it does to help me redefine what I want to get across in terms of the songs, instrumentation and production of the record.  The ball got kicked off properly with my interpretation of the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky, which took quite some time to get the way I liked it and will likely get a bit more work before the release.  Then it was making a studio version of the song "Perfect" which is now a staple in my live shows.

I've played around 8 full shows this year so far which is sadly a record.  Along the way, I've made a lot of friends, like Anthony Ilczuk, who decided to give a go at trying to full on produce something of mine in the studio.  Given we only had 2 hours, the short, sad ballad "Goodbye, Goodbye, Goodbye" was cut.  Anthony and I both liked it and the only reason we had to cut the session short was that I had a gig that night in Naples, where we were recording and Ant was running sound for that.  He did a great job on that and is really a master of music and like Tony, it is an honor to work with someone like him.  Along the way, through hearing my cousin's new material that I liked a lot (Thanks cuz Marky D, you rock!), I was introduced to Mike Pignataro, who is an outstanding musician and engineering, mixing and production wizard as well.  In terms of bands, I've made great friends with band members of Kurv and Lowlight Empire, both bands in Naples, Florida that I've had the good fortune to hook up with and open for.  I was also lucky to meet the guys from 3MG and have them open one of my shows recently.

One good thing is I've managed to find the 5 or so acts in South Florida that cherish new, original music as much as I do. Speaking of original music, that's just what I'm making now, using every bit of angst, love and imagination that I have.  At this point, there has already been more personnel involved than on the 1st 2 albums, which I think is great.  I started calling my inner circle the "Sound Panel".  We don't have custom T Shirts but I'll whip some up. I only need to make 10 or so.  In addition to sparking up around 15+ new songs for TCOAB, I've been back into the project I've been working on with keyboardist extraordinaire Ollie Eastwood, from over in England.  Lots of Moog, Piano, Hammond, Pipe Organs, Mellotron...the works. The music that he has been working on is something I am really excited about being a part of, despite the production being pushed back a bit. It isn't often a musician gets a chance to be a part of such a unique project that they 100% want to do.

Anyway, I'm lucky to have listeners still, all who like the music to some degree or another.  Even if they didn't I'd still be trying to make my tracks as good as possible.  This set will not cater to the taste of listeners and if it does, it's a happy accident.  In today's musical climate, there is no reason to be anything other than yourself "on stage or on record" as Rob Base once said.  The only person who has skin in the game at the level I'm at is myself.  There are no plans or hope for big profits from doing what I do...Or the illusion that if I got the right opportunity, through one way or another, I'd reach a mass audience.  I'm just not willing to kiss that much ass as that really isn't an artist's job. Well, there will be no rush in getting the next Leibowitz album done or the Eastwood project.  Despite the lack of any pressing need to get this done by the cry of fans, there is a fire in my soul that keeps my fingers on strings, my hands on the sticks and my mind toward making the best music I can. No compromises.

Your Friend,

Josh (Leibowitz)