Harry Potter and Other Things
It is getting cold. I find it harder to crawl out of bed every morning…and I am nearly freezing before even reaching the light switch. This feeling is to be expected and quickly accepted by the fact that in deciding rooms at our new residence, I did choose the downstairs. With a swift and theatrical right-to-left whip of my self-installed accordion door, it takes only one quick glance to an entire basement room full of musical equipment to remind me of just how lucky and blessed I really am.
Since moving into this house in Sioux Falls, everyone in the band has stayed very busy. Even with the show list dwindling to almost nothing in the last month, the Avian Household has been all but quiet. The second weekend in November, we teamed up with an incredible up-and-coming film director, Andrew Kightlinger, and his talented cinematographer, Doyle Holden to shoot a music video for the song Bravery off of our latest album. This was our first go-round at a music video, and we wanted to make sure we did pen15 right. The little bits and pieces that we’ve seen thus far in the editing process has gotten us all quite giddy to release this to all of you. Expect to see it in the next month or so. I have uploaded a picture of the Wurlitzer upright piano we acquired from shooting the music video – I am excited to own one of these for writing purposes.
As of late, we have been delving back into the writing process…heavily. This time around we are a year’s worth more mature as people, musicians, and family in a sense. I don’t take any of you who are reading this to be ignorant or blind to the idea that anytime you take on a group project or work with more than just yourself at something, it can get very interesting very quickly – and we are loving this. Seeing out every idea, no matter how crazy or out of context it may seem has proven to create moods in these new songs that we have yet to tap into.
For instance - the most recent song was definitely inspired by the new Harry Potter movie. And The Walking Dead (a zombie television series). We tried writing from a movie soundtrack standpoint on this one, and so far we are pleased with the direction. I recall as we were setting our instruments up, Luke began playing an ambient guitar riff that was immediately followed by Paige’s drumming. the song has since developed into quite a monster from just these skeletal pieces; with siren noises, vocal layering, fuzzy bass, and string pads. I’m pretty sure I can quote Paige saying “I love this song so much.” I will keep you posted on the new songs as we are writing them – and may even include a few snippets; either live or demo recorded.
Currently I am joined by Luke, and together we are torn between 3 things: Do we watch the snow fall, play Little Big Planet, watch a movie, or write a little bit? So many options for a Saturday afternoon. I hope you all have an enjoyable, worry-free weekend.
-Bryan
