Wishing you an amazing 2014

Once again, this is my third attempt at getting back to the blog. 2013 has finished it’s run and it’s on to 2014. What’s coming down the pipe for 2014? Who knows which way the wind blows? Tomorrow is after all, just another day albeit January 1st or the 31st. Not that new beginnings aren’t special, I do my best to keep aware that every moment is a new beginning. I have my moments of frustration, times when my annoyance with situations seems to out weigh my ability to stay balanced. When I find myself feeling that way, I try to remind myself that everything changes. One of the basic truths taught by the Buddha is that of impermanence. Permanence is the grand illusion. Hence, the good times never last and the bad times never last. Reminding oneself to stay aware is a little like trying to see the forest when you’re surrounded by trees. Perspective is required from time to time.  All in all I am very blessed to be able to do what I love to do in sharing music and ideas with so many people. Consequently, I look forward to whatever 2014 brings. One needs to stay focused on savouring every moment this life has to offer.

2013 was quite a year starting with great shows like the Red Willow Coffee House, a myriad of private shows, farmer’s markets, dinner shows and pub gigs. The Release of The BoodAbooM album "The Answer - Songs of Theo Massop" complete with video releases for the songs "Run" and "Not for me" and more. "Run" was big fun with the zombie apocalypse theme brought to the table by my daughter Angela and video director Marius Tecumseh von Lohmann. "Not For Me" featured "Pepper the feathered philosopher" giving us the Ok to be different set to a rocking harmonica track. Live performances, other bands and interviews cans be found on my YouTube channel if you are interested. 

Red Willow Coffee House - Photo by Paul Jay

Solo, duo, trio and quartet in the band “Hygrade”. The Hygrade band had a busy fall season as we shifted gears and picked up the pace. In the Hygrade band I play mostly harmonica to favourite party rock songs. Classics to current tunes including songs from the Black Keys and White Stripes which don’t have harmonica in the arrangement. 

Hygrade in action - Photo by Paul Jay

Big fun and a musical challenge for me. My fall season was made extra busy with a weekly dinner show in Nanaimo. I brought in guests for the first 12 weeks and closed the series off by performing the last few shows myself followed by an open mic till closing time. I compiled a video of some of the highlights of my fall dinner show series which covers 19 artist in 6 ½ Minutes. Click here to check it out.

So far 2014 is shaping up to be an interesting year. The Hygrade band has plans to complete a recording project and shoot a video. Tentative shows for Hygrade are in the wind although details need to be confirmed. Gigs will be posted on the BoodAbooM web site along with my other solo and upcoming BoodAbooM shows. January 20th will be my first show of 2014 at the Queens Hotel in Nanaimo. Acoustic Monday’s are proving to be popular amongst Nanaimo-ites. I will be sharing the stage with Jeffrey Randle, Glen Foster and Jupiter Jill. Each of us will make a 45 minute musical offering. Tickets are $5 and will be available at the door as well as in advance at Fascinating Rhythms and at the Queen's Hotel. All proceeds are going directly to the artist involved and each artist will have CD’s for sale as well. I hope you can come out and support this event.

Here’s hoping for a great year in 2014. Remember that radical changes never stick, so while the world needs some fixing, let’s nudge toward a better future one step at a time. I’m still a big believer in the idea that if we all strive to be loving, kind, forgiving, truthful and respectful, the world will become a better place. Wouldn’t it be great if we (humankind) could become the first species to evolve by collaboration rather than domination and elimination. Come out to one of my shows this year and let’s share the joy of music.

Namaste, Brother T 

M.I.A.? Nope, just gone video crazy!!

Crazy days of summer are winding down as we can feel the autumn coming on. Maple trees are beginning to turn colour and the air is far more humid than it has been for the past three months. Speaking of which it’s been nearly three months since I sat down to blog.  I have actually started a blog several times throughout the summer, but got swept away in the tides of life.

Normally I tend to spout off about what I find disturbing in the world with links to things that the mainstream media doesn’t want you to know about. For this blog I will dispense with the rantings and stick to the music. I do try to bring into the light only that which is founded in truth. That is why I always try to back up things with links to the source. It’s not that Steve’s antics or his cousin puppet Obama haven’t stirred my ire, but so much has gone on in my musical world and that’s ‘mostly’ what this blog is focused on.

So here’s my best attempt at a recap of the last three months. A lot of attention was paid to getting things ironed out with my new distributor. Thanks to the people at Indie Pool, the BoodAbooM album “The Answer” is available through a secure purchasing portal and of course where would we be without iTunes. There are still some things that are being worked out over at Indie Pool and it would have likely been easier to stick with CD Baby as I did for the “Choices” album. Both companies have their advantages and disadvantages, the problem is disadvantages are not usually discovered until after the deal is done.

There has been a whole lot of video getting done since my last blog entry. The video for the song “Run” was done back in June. Shot in the backwoods of Vancouver Island we choose a remote location since there was to be shot guns fired off, flash bombs and a lot of zombie characters running around. For most of the videos I’ve done there is usually only a handful of people. In this case we had a lot of bodies running around and doing things. Jeffrey Randle joined me in the shooting of the “Run” video for the musical portion and director Marius Von Lohmann did the headless chicken routine directing the actors, setting up scenes and zipping around with the camera. Also, this is the first time I've let anyone else take control of the script for my videos. Check it out and tell me what you think. We felt a little tongue in cheek approach offset the more serious subject matter of the song.

Shooting Zombie video for "Run"

I went a little video crazy after that and produced another video on my own.  I had been pondering on how to present the song “Not For Me” in it’s video form when a little experimenting lead me to featuring “Pepper the feathered philosopher”, along with some video taken in the studio during the recording of the BoodAbooM album. Again a bit of a humourous tact and a lot of fun. I must admit that lip sync is much harder with someone who has no lips!

The video madness didn’t stop there as I rediscovered some clips from previous concerts and shows I’ve performed at and began a series on my YouTube channel called “Raw and Organic”. I’ve posted a video clip on myself and Marisha Devoin playing the song “Living Peacefully” from my BoodAbooM album “The Answer”. Just the upright bass, guitar and voices in this stripped down version. No editing, no digital wizardry, just straight from the heart raw and organic performances. Check back on my YouTube channel as there are more of these “live” videos coming soon. To hear the studio version of “Living Peacefully”, check the sample tracks on my iTunes site.

During the summer of 1988 I was fortunate enough to have one of my songs reach the #1 position for Canadians on the RPM Weekly Adult Contemporary charts. “The Voyager” was the title song from my album which had already seen action with the songs “Lot On My Mind” and “Mephisto Waltz” from that collection. At the same time as “The Voyager” was playing in every major market in Canada, my distributor of the time lost every piece of inventory they had at the warehouse. So while the title track was receiving great reviews and radio support, I had nothing on the shelves to sell. A year later my vinyl and cassettes were discovered during an inventory. They had the wrong numbers on the outside of the boxes and hence were continually overlooked. A year after the album had run it’s course, the inventory represented far less value.

Still I am grateful for the radio exposure and the chart numbers. Digging through the archives I decided to compile a  video for this song as well. So check out this very “late 80’s” sounding rendition of “The Voyager”, my A/C hit from 1988.

Beyond the world of video, I have been performing throughout the summer at various gigs and open mic nites. I like the open mics because not only is it an “audience building” experience, but the social aspect of hanging with your musical peers and meeting music enthusiasts is fantastic. The people you meet and the sharing of ideas is amazing. Jeffrey Randle joined me for a few shows including a private hall “pub night” and the “Nanoose Art in the Garden” festival which was also a fundraiser for the local food bank. Just prior to the “Arts Festival” show, Jeffrey also joined me in support for an interview / performance video segment we did with Shaw Cable TV.  Kait Burgan conducted the interview which can be seen here at this link.  

Jeffrey Randle

I’ve done a couple of shows at the Corner Bistro which is a new establishment in a renovated familiar location. Phil from the Corner Lounge has taken on 75 Front Street in Nanaimo and turned it into a top rate Bistro with incredible cuisine, roomy surroundings, great service and a focus on live entertainment. Being a bistro also means that minors are welcome, as long as they don’t indulge in alcohol libations available from the full service bar. It has been mostly music shows so far, although I know that Phil is planning to host a comedy night as well. Who couldn't use a good laugh every now and then!

As for me, plans are to be hosting a series of “Singer / Songwriter Showcase” nights starting on September 11th at the Corner Bistro. Starting a little after 6, I will open an evening of music after which I will bring on an invited guest for an hour concert of songs and stories from their respective albums. All of the invited guests are recording artists with CD releases starting with Glen Foster on the 11th, Jeffrey Randle on the 18th, Brian Hazelbower on the 25th and Ira Pelletier on October 2nd. After their concert I will close the night out. It should prove to be a great dining and musical experience for the patrons and audience in attendance. September 20th I will be taking the stage with a party rock cover band that I joined called Hygrade. We are working on getting our ‘web presence’ in order, but these things do take time. The Hygrade band is a four piece ensemble, but we are all busy campers managing other careers and endeavours.

Me and the boys in the band

The show takes place at the Sportsman Hotel in Ladysmith. The twist with this band is that I sing only a few songs while drummer Dean Doyle ( part of the BoodAbooM family ) takes the lion’s share of the lead vocals. We play all the party time rock favourites with a twist, tons of harmonica on songs that don’t usually have harp on them. Here’s a “raw and organic” video of an early jam we had on the Tragically Hip tune “New Orleans is Sinking” to give you an idea. Come on out and see what else we have in store for you. I am belting out a few songs a night which is fun for me as I don’t always include songs from “The Black Keys” in my solo / duo shows.

Ok, I’m over shooting my word count so let me leave you with these links to ponder. Sad to hear that J.J. Cale passed, Greta (my sweetie) and I saw him perform many years ago in Victoria. A treasured memory.

A statistic most aren’t aware of, in 2009 over 50% of Canadians were living on or below the “low income cut off”. That’s the more semantically soft version of “the poverty line”.

Not sure if Canadians realize that the Snowden / NSA fiasco is not just a USA modus operandi. In Canada we have our own snoopers at the CESA.

A 2 minute brilliant discourse from author Robert Anton Wilson on belief systems, even your own. Check what he says about everyone’s B.S.

And finally, I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard a better social commentary than this on “Why everything sucks”. Craig Ferguson is a very funny man, but in this 3 minute clip he delivers a very brilliant observation on today’s world in his own hilarious way.

Let me end as always with a reminder to be mindful of others. Do your best and strive to approach every situation from the standpoint of loving kindness and forgiveness. Conquer hate with love, evil with good, falsehood with truth. Let’s bring the humane back into the human being.

Until next time, Brother T

The bee apocalypse, zombies, new video, songwriters circle, The Answer, perception & deception

Wow, time flies and stuff happens. Not sure where I left off in the continuing saga of Theo Massop and the BoodAbooM project, but here I am back at the blog. That as well as the long list of injustices, political mismanagement, strange events, stupidity and other things that my vision has scanned over morning coffee at my laptop has inspired me to put fingers on keyboard again.

I’ll leave the annoyances of the world at large till the later part of my blog and concentrate of the music for now.

Somehow in my wild and crazy brain, I thought it would take about three weeks from the beginning of May to have everything in place and have the discs / downloads readily available. Well, I’m nearly there. Four weeks have past since that brave and foolish announcement with loose ends still needing to be tidied up. My friend Brian Hazelbower had a good laugh about that last night as I was waving one of my newly manufactured discs “The Answer” by BoodAbooM in the air at the Nanaimo Songwriters Circle. This gathering comes around once a month and is held in a very informal manner at the Oak St. Manor in Nanaimo. A friendly gathering of musicians of all skill levels to sing our new songs, tell stories and share music. The only criteria is that you perform your own compositions. Although my schedule rarely allows time to attend, I still get there when I can. Great people, great fun. A similar event is also held in the Comox Valley where Helen Austin is the host.

CD’s of  "The Answer" have been manufactured with some in the Toronto warehouse and some discs on the west coast. I will let everyone know once all the links to purchase sites, streaming and downloads have been properly established. CD’s of “The Answer” by BoodAbooM will also be available at HMV stores across Canada. If you’re interested in a BoodAbooM tee shirt (see previous blog), they are $20.00 Canadian plus shipping. Send me an email at boodaboomband@gmail.com and we’ll make the arrangements to get you one or more.

In amongst the pandemonium of life, sorting out distribution details, planning promotional campaigns and mowing the grass (not exciting, but it needs to get done), we’ve managed to squeeze in a video shoot. The first video for a tune from “The Answer” by BoodAbooM was “Another Sunny Day”. This coming video is for the song “Run” and was directed by video-tographer, Marius TV Lohmann. It was an exchange or bartering of intellectual skills. I wrote a song for a series being created by Marius and his colleagues call “Project Paintball” . He wanted a theme song with particular parameters and I was able to write, record and deliver it for him. In exchange Marius offered to shoot a video for one of the songs from my upcoming album. To my fellow musicians in this area I will mention, Marius is available for hire if you like what you see in my new video. We chose the song “Run”, a relationship song reflecting the “fight or flight” response born into all of us.  This tune also features the voice of Tina Jones singing a duet harmony with me. Marius, along with my daughter Angela, came up with a storyline that elicited the response “really???”  from me.

I was safe, no brains. Jeffery couldn't resist the cookies .

Once I understood my role in the story, I was greatly relieved that I wouldn’t have to undergo major makeup. It makes me snicker a little everytime I discuss the video or think about it, because in my personal life I never watch movies about zombies, werewolves, vampires or anything like that. It’s fine and I understand that it is “just entertainment”, but not usually something I indulge in. That being said, no one except perhaps Canadian politician John Baird, really believes we are going to have a “zombie apocalypse”.  Yes folks, the next video for the BoodAbooM album is themed around a “zombie apocalypse”. It is all tongue in cheek as they say and it was huge fun putting it together. All of the actors and actresses were fantastic. The makeup was amazing as we had some master zombie creators and makeup artists working with us. Marius managed to find the right people to fill the roles of the militia protecting the remaining humans. Thanks to all for their outstanding portrayal of their assigned characters. 

Travis "Wingnut" English, one of the actors

Jeffery Randle joined me in the scenes where I am singing the human encampment, banging on the djembe while we’re hanging around the militia guys waiting for supplies. Flash bombs, zombies, military types, rifles and 4x4’s, all cool stuff that makes for a fun video. That’s as much as I will reveal for now and the next blog will include links to our mini movie.

I’m pushing the 700 word mark so let me try to round this up as quickly as possible. First, a big thanks to all those who help get “The Answer” by BoodAbooM it’s first chart action hitting #1 for the week of May 14th, sustaining at  #3 week of June 4th at CHLY in Nanaimo. Next I would like to say that I have a lot of readers from Russia, the USA and all around the world as well as Canada, also a big thanks to you. So with due respect, please understand that the next set of issues and links are merely me shining a spotlight of some of the things that have crossed my path. People are people, we are all basically the same. Politicians also seem to vary little from country to country. To me they look like a bunch of bungling bozos with their hands in the pockets of the working class, while big business pulls the puppet strings and dictates the politicians actions. Just my humble opinion of course.

Here’s some of the things that make me feel that way. Russia is mad at the USA because of Omaha’s continued protection of biogenetic / chemical giants, companies like Sygenta, Monsanto, Bayer, Dow and Dupont. Russia is gravely concerned over the coming “bee apocalypse”. This one’s real, unlike my coming zombie video.

A report I read recently talked about a 82 year old Catholic nun who along with a 57 and 63 year old pacifist broke into a nuclear weapons manufacturing facility in Tennessee in order to protest war and violence. It was a passive protest where they actually waited to be arrested for their deed. The charges should have amounted to a misdemeanor fetching up to a year in prison and a $100,000 dollar fine. In five months the charges were ramped up to terrorism and all three are facing up to 35 years in prison. At 82 it pretty much guarantees the nun will die imprisoned. This while another report from Canada's CBC claims that the FBI fabricates and perpetuates more terrorist acts than any other organization.

Meanwhile in Canada, corporate puppet Stephen Harper gets away with election fraud while feeding his big business buddies 114 billion dollars of taxpayers money in 2009. After all, it was a rough year. It works out to about $3400 for every Canadian citizen. That’s ok though, because Stevie is pushing hard for the success of the Alberta (his home province) tar sands oil. This despite the academics warning us about the catastrophic climate change that this practise could create.

In Rome, the Pope is blaming human misery and suffering on the world capitalist focus. Interesting considering my brother Joe Massop a Baptist minister, recently visited the Vatican where he was appalled by the incredible poverty which exists outside the city walls paradoxically set against the opulence and decadence on display inside. Joe was asked to leave when questioning one of the priests why more resources were not directed to immediate help for the poor and hungry, rather than keeping the money in gold and jeweled trinkets for tourist to come see.

Something a little more cheery was a video I came across in which a University of British Columbia forestry researcher talks about her discovery of communication between trees in the forest. Apparently the trees help each other by communicating through roots systems with the help of certain types of fungus. It lends credence to the idea that everything is connected and we have so much yet to learn when it comes to the mysteries of life.

Despite the many injustices and problems in the world today, as individuals we can start to effect change by approaching everything from the standpoint of loving kindness even when dealing with adversity. Not easy to do, but possible with practise. Be good to each other as much as possible. That’s how we begin to make the world a better place.

Brother T