Howdy! Sorry for the lack of an update during the difficult, uncertain, and simply strange times due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Rest assured we are staying healthy and active musically and hope you are also keeping well.

I just updated The Fourth Hour page with some fresh reviews that arrived over the last few months. Check them out and consider downloading the album from our Bandcamp page. It’s still quite a psychedelic album.

Live Stream(s) on the Docket

Around the Holidays I picked up a Zoom Q2N-4K camera for recording studio performances and potentially doing a live stream. As of yet, I only made one recording of an improv session potentially titled The Fifth Hour. Here’s the YouTube video.

I also began considering a live streaming performance, hopefully with Dink, within the next few months. Then the pandemic happened, with the entire live music scene forced to cancel public shows and tours. A smattering of streaming performances took place in their wake.

Dink works on the front lines of the grocery industry. He’s staying healthy and hopes to come down later in the summer. So I forged ahead with rehearsing a set list performed by myself. For those who may have forgotten, I haven’t played out publicly as Church of Hed since 2004. Quarkspace’s last public gig was in 2001. It gon’ be fun! And weird.

Rehearsals are going well. Doing live versions of tracks with a host of overdubs is challenging, but fun. My studio is setup for recording, not performance, so there’s a lack of ergonomics. We persist nonetheless.

Expect a hearty dollop of Hed material sprinkled with some tasty Quarkspace classics. I am not singing — this time. A couple of tributes to musical giants we lost this year are also planned. McCoy Tyner’s death hit me especially hard, but my ham-fisted drummer-first piano chops can’t come close to paying tribute to that master. So Mr. Tyner isn’t one of the tributes.

So stay tuned. Expect the streaming shindig to take place in mid June. We’ll let you know when it’s scheduled. I plan on doing at least one per month. Since my camera’s mic spits out 24-bit audio, I also plan on doing live recordings with higher-fidelity audio. Streaming audio lies at the crappy MP3 level — 128 to 160 kbps.

Construction of The Father Road Continues

While rehearsing for a live show, I am still hard at work on The Father Road — the next Church of Hed album. The entire road is partially recorded, meaning I have compositions partially recorded for each section from San Francisco to New York City. I think there are 21 tracks in total. Currently the focus lies on drum tracking. The energy of a live performance — and the extra rehearsal time — hopefully informs those takes.

Part of the reason I have extra time to rehearse a live show involves the release date of the album. After releasing The Fourth Hour during the Holidays, I resolved to never repeat that mistake. I am too distracted and my already lackadaisical promotional efforts suffered even more.

At the rate I was working, the new album was going to be finished right around the Holidays this year. So I figured I’d ramp up live rehearsing and practice the hell of the drum tracks for The Father Road and record them after the first gig. With that delay, I plan to release the new album early in 2021.

Stay tuned for updates throughout the recording process this year. We also hope you tune in for a regular live streaming activity over that same period moving forward. Thanks for listening!