Since late last year, I have been doing a little co-writing with Canadian sensation, Justin Nozuka, and Scottish soon-to-be-sensation, Jamie Kimmett. Please check them out if you haven’t already – they are both beyond talented! I have also been feverishly working on my own new material, hence the lack of live performances. Look for new tracks this summer…finally! More shows to be announced shortly as well.
Thanks for your continuing support!
Peace.
I’m a little late letting you know, but…thanks to you (and music fans across North America and beyond), we finally landed the Number 1 spot on Ourstage.com! Over the past few months, we have been honoured and thrilled to see several Peter Bloom Band tunes finish in the top 10 in various categories, including “Singer-Songwriter” and “Indie Pop”. The rankings are based on an “unbiased” voting system, where fans (and and musicians themselves) cannot simply log on and repeatedly hit “vote” for their favorite act. The user is randomly presented with songs in various categories, and they are asked to rank them. So there is no vote tampering or skewing allowed. After several close finishes, “Let It Go” topped the “Indie Pop” list for March. Awesome!
Thanks for your continuing support!
Peace.
We need you NOW…Mar 31st – PBB’s “Let It Go” is currently #1 on Ourstage.Com’s March pop song competition! Please check out Ourstage.Com today, and if a Peter Bloom Band song comes up in your judging round, be sure to rate it highly!!! Please help us finish at #1 this time!!! Thanks! Peace.
“This is RADIO SOMEWHERE…” I was already excited and very appreciative of the solid radio support I’ve received from CBC Radio nationwide over the past year, as well as from CBC Montreal, CHOM-FM, and CKUT-FM in promoting my recent Montreal dates…but I was not anticipating the news I received this past week. Now, I have indeed had some terrific response to my lead-off single, Let It Go, from plenty of far-away places, such as Japan, the UK, even Romania! But little could I have predicted that a radio station right here in Toronto, Canada (103.9 PROUD-FM ), would go above and beyond the call by….wait for it……by creating a DANCE REMIX of my song and putting it into rotation starting this weekend! You heard right – a dance remix of Let It Go by the very cool and highly respected DJ Cajjmere Wray! I can honestly say I never would have foreseen this in a million years…but I am really touched and thankful that “Cajj” and the good people at 103.9 PROUD-FM are breathing new life into the song. So starting this weekend, be sure to tune in, either on the radio or via the Internet, and see if you can catch the Cajjmere Wray remix of Peter Bloom Band’s Let It Go. Heck…while you’re at it, go ahead, CLICK HERE AND REQUEST IT, why don’t you!
Thanks for your continuing support! Peace.
Hey again! First off, thanks to everyone who has expressed concern about the loss of my voice. Although the problem is still lingering (3 weeks later), I’m confident that things will be back to normal soon…
NOW…I just wanted to send out some wishes for a very happy and fulfilling marriage to my good buddy and brilliant songwriter, Justin Hines! He married his lovely bride, Savanna, back on May 31st in BC. I then had the honor of being invited to take part in their Toronto celebration this past Friday evening. Although my voice was still not up to par, I was thrilled to be asked to sing a couple of tunes as part of the event.
But I’m not writing to talk about my singing…or anyone else’s for that matter – even though there were some terrific performances. What I want to share with you is the wonderful storybook tale of how Justin and Savanna came together. I hope they won’t mind me telling this story. I am recounting it second hand, so please forgive any slight detail variances…but the basic story goes like this:
Justin released his brilliant debut CD (“Sides”) over a year ago now. Last September, all the way out in BC, Savanna discovered his music and was apparently so moved by it that she emailed Justin. Well, from that initial contact, they really hit it off, and started talking on the phone every night! Eventually Savanna packed up her van and drove across the country to meet Justin in person!
After spending a couple of weeks in Ontario, Savanna got a job and decided to stay…only to then receive devastating news that her mother had been diagnosed with brain cancer. Savanna, an only child, rushed back to BC to be with her mother and family.
After a few weeks of being apart, Justin then went out to meet Savanna’s family in BC, where he proposed…and the rest is history!
They accelerated the wedding preparations to be sure that Savanna’s mother could attend…which she did. The slide show from the wedding had me choked up, and I had not yet even met Savanna. Having now met her, I can honestly say that she is a beautiful person in every sense of the word!
Weddings are most often beautiful, joyous events, but this night in Toronto – although bittersweet – was magical. One could truly feel the deep love these two people have for each other…and the love that so many people in attendance feel for them. I guess the reason I’m sharing this story is to say that (notwithstanding the tragic loss of Savanna’s mother) my faith in storybook romances with fairytale endings has been restored, thanks to these two very special individuals.
So as Justin and Savanna embark on their journey of a million moments together, may their love stay ever strong, and may each moment be a storybook moment with a fairytale ending. We should all be so blessed!
Peace.
So I had been bothered by a little soreness in my throat for about a week…nothing serious. I still mangaged to sing some new demo ideas for my upcoming sophomore CD, as well as perform my duties for my regular animation and TV voice-overs. Commercial voice-over work is how I support my music habit…until my music habit hopefully grows up, moves out, gets an apartment, and takes care of itself. If you’re in Canada or you’re a YouTube® user, you might have heard my “dulcit tones” as that ubiquitous singing Mini-Wheat®. Yeah, that’s me…hey don’t laugh – it pays the bills! Anyway, last night my voice started faltering a bit. Nothing a little extra sleep wouldn’t fix, right? WRONG!
Much to my horror, I woke up this morning and had lost my voice…not completely but almost. Now, for a guy whose whole music career had to virtually be shelved for several years due to a chronic voice disorder (Muscle Tension Dysphonia, or MTD), one would thing I am used to this sort of thing. Well, yes I WAS used to this sort of thing back when I was struggling with MTD. But these days, thanks to a BRILLIANT voice therapist (who also works on people like Sting and Mick Jagger), I have progressed to to a point where I feel I’m singing (and speaking) with more confidence and endurance than ever.
And in the blink of an eye (or 40 winks of two eyes), I have been stripped of the voice I have worked so hard to rebuild. Now there is no need to worry – it has been diagnosed as acute (viral) laryngitis. I should be back in the voice booth in 4 or 5 days. But this situation got me thinking…thinking about how nothing is for certain. No matter how hard we may try; no matter how driven we are; no matter how much we want something; at any moment fate can step in and take it all away.
Again, this is a passing thing. I will be singing and doing voice-overs again in no time. But what if I had lost my voice permanently? What then? I rely on my voice for my livelihood. Without it, I am pretty much qualified to flip burgers or deliver newspapers (not that there’s anything wrong with that). But seriously, I don’t have too many other employment options that don’t involve the use of my voice. Did I abuse my voice? No, quite the opposite. I am dilligent in the care of my voice. Did I take it for granted? Not at all. I thank God every day for being able to do what I do. And yet still, it can all be gone in a snap.
I guess that lesson applies to anything in life that we hold dear…be it family, friend, occupation, passtime, possession. We are always told not to take things or people for granted. And that’s sound advice. But the question is, what do we do if, despite heeding this advice, we still have what we love taken from us?
Not everything in this life can be covered by an insurance policy. In fact nothing of true personal (emotional) value can be. So what options do we have? Unfortunately, just one from what I can see…acceptance. As cliché as they are, and as carefree as they sound, expressions such as “c’est la vie” and “que será será” still ring true. We can never get too comfortable with or attached to the current state of affairs, because life may very well have other plans for us. The great John Lennon hit the nail on the head when he sang, “life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”
With that in mind, I would probably be wise to practice flipping a few burgers and tossing some newspapers…just in case.
Peace.
Even though my paternal grandfather was Italian he never cooked. Hell, he could barely boil a pot of water! Working the oven was not within his grasp. The extent of his TV remote skill was turning the TV on and off, and adjusting the volume. Even dialing a phone number was a stretch for him. It’s not that he was an unintelligent man. It’s just that he had no real use for technology. It’s funny even referring to a TV remote, an oven, and a land-line telephone as “technology”, but for my grandfather – who was born before TV’s and refrigerators – these were hi-tech conveniences!
As a rather cocky kid I remember considering him to be somewhat of a “Luddite”, and I wondered how on earth he managed to navigate through this life without a solid grasp of current technology. Well, believe it or not, he did indeed manage to make it through life…to the ripe old age of 92! His wife (my Nonna) made it to 91! They actually both remained in their own house until the last year or so! In fact my grandfather was still tending to his massive garden (“giardino”) until he literally fell down in it and couldn’t get up. He was 90 years old at the time.
What am I getting at? In the past quarter century or so, we’ve seen life go from the simplicity of playing outside after school, hand-writing and actually mailing letters to friends and family, regular family dinners, and using a payphone when away from home or the office, to Avatar® and Wii®, email and instant messaging, ordering out and microwave meals on-the-go, and iPhones® and Blackberries®!
Indeed there have been some miraculous advances in medical procedures. Agricultural technology has allowed an average farm to go from feeding 90 people to feeding some 900! Vast quantities of information are readily available at the push of a button. Communication throughout much of the global community has advanced so far that physical borders are almost irrelevant. And for musicians, recording artists have witnessed the virtual end of analog (tape) recording and its replacement by ever-changing digital technology. High quality audio recordings are now possible in one’s own basement for a minute fraction of the cost of professional recordings, say, 20 years ago. So what? It’s all terrific, right? Or is it?
What has been the net result of all these “improvements” to our lives? Take a look around and what do you see? At the risk of seeming like my “Luddite” grandfather, I’ll tell you what I see beyond the thin veil of technological advancement…
I see kids who are so obsessed with the Internet, television, and video games (both at-home and hand-held versions) that real imagination and communication skills are suffering. Basic spelling and grammar are optional at best these days. And do kids even play hide-and-seek or make-believe anymore? I mean kids can’t even go to the store now without the DVD player being on in the van. Whatever happened to just “talking” to each other? Or reading a book? Or playing games like “Punch Buggy”, or “I Spy”. Just consider the onslaught of so-called childhood ADD, ADHD. This simply was not the case a couple of decades ago. I’m not talking about autism…that is a whole other entity. But really, where has this come from? We didn’t even have such a thing 20 years ago. Now it’s a relatively common “diagnosis” for kids with attention issues. Is jacking kids up on Ritalin® really a medical “advancement”?
And if it isn’t the overload of audio/visual stimuli, consider the food chain! Sure we can feed more people per farm now, but what are we eating? Processed food? Genetically engineered food? Whatever is quick and easy, right? Is it mere coincidence that we have alarming childhood obesity and diabetes rates? Is it any wonder that between the lack of basic physical activity and proper nutrition, for the first time in history, today’s youth are expected to live shorter lives than their parents?
Speaking of parents, how has technology “helped” them? Seems to me that these days parents so busy and stressed out that we now have as many divorces as marriages in North America. And who suffers most as a result? The children. Where is the stability in being shipped off to a different home every other week, as is often the arrangement in today’s divorce situations?
Now I really don’t mean to come down on parents in divorces, because to be honest, given what people are up against these days, it’s a wonder that anyone stays together anymore! Why is that? There are many reasons. But if I had to boil it down to one concept, I would argue that in the ever-accelerating, desperate and ultimately unfulfilling race to be the “best we can be”…in EVERYTHING…we have lost the essence of it all – our sense of self. We don’t know or feel who we are, how we fit in to the greater scheme of things, and what matters to us anymore. Instead we are TOLD how to feel, what to think, what to fear, what to buy, how to look, etc.
With all the so-called “advancements” in media, we have managed to convince ourselves that we NEED everything that is thrown at us, be it the latest gadget, appliance, clothing, or pill (the insane prevalence of prescription drugs in today’s society is subject for a whole other blog)! And what drives this perceived “need”? FEAR. As a technologically “advanced” society, we have mastered the art of using fear to motivate. For example, we scare the crap out of parents, by sensationalizing even the remotest mishap to befall a child, such as the MASSIVE coverage on CNN of the “dry-drowning” victim last week. One unfortunate child dies of some random illness or accident, and suddenly there are “experts” all over the media, telling us how to “keep our kids safe” from the “hidden danger” that lurks in the shadows. Seriously, between the sensational stories of one-in-a-million type deaths or injuries, to the latest “health threat”, to the fear-mongering, overblown news coverage of violence, parents are terrified to let their kids out of their sight even for a second without sunscreen, a cell phone, a helmet, and a GPS tracking device!!! Good thing we’ve had such advancements in SPF, cellular, sport protection and satellite technology! PHEW!!!
Things, things, things…and MORE things. Bigger is better. More is better. Faster is better. Easier is better. Enough already! We are so afraid of not being like everyone else, that we constantly feel the “need” distract ourselves with every new technology that is thrown our way. We are indeed ADDICTED to technology. It is a drug at its core. For all the good a drug can provide someone, the untempered, excessive, unnecessary use (abuse) of it will eventually have a seriously negative impact on our bodies and our beings. So it is with technology. I would argue that of all the things one can become addicted to, none is as insidious, as deceptive and ultimately as damaging as “Almighty Technology” simply for technology’s sake.
God forbid we ever spend some quiet time alone with our thoughts. Think of what could happen then…We might not maintain the high score on that Grand Theft Auto®…We might miss that “essential” bit of news regarding the child who died in a freak farming accident 5,000 miles away…We might miss Paris Hilton’s latest escapade…We might not catch the latest DVD the moment it hits the shelves…We might not catch the special report on the Killer Bees…We might miss that one-day-only sale on that piece of shit we don’t really need but everyone else has…Please, say it ain’t so!!!
…OR WORSE YET – We might actually have a moment of clarity. A moment where we find the solution to a problem that has been plaguing us. A moment where we realize just how pointless that argument we are having with our lover really is. A moment where we come up with a great idea for a new business venture…one that we are passionate about. A moment where we create a song or poem. A moment where we connect with ourselves- the real us, not the us we are told to be. A moment where we discover that technology for technology’s sake is an empty promise, a deceitful mistress, a distracting, debilitating, destructive drug.
Having said all of the above, please don’t misunderstand me – I am in fact all for technology and technological advancements. However, there is a world of difference between being “all for” technology and being “for all” technology! This market-driven, false sense of “needing” all the latest technology so as not to “fall behind” is a load of rubbish! Technology should serve the purpose of benefiting those who truly NEED it. I am a musician. I can tell you that all the advances in audio technology are great, but in many ways, I feel overwhelmed by too many options. It often takes more time to get the final product instead of less, because I spend so much time choosing between one plug-in and another, or dealing with the inevitable “system crash”. Besides no amount of Pro-Tools® or Auto-Tune® will make a bad song any better. Quantity does not necessarily (if ever) beget quality. I still don’t even have an iPod® …What?!?!?!? Why?!?!?! Because I don’t truly need it (yet at least). I don’t have cable TV either…DOUBLE-WHAT?!?!?…How can I live without it? Because I don’t need it. Basic air feed channels provide me with far more programming than I could ever care to watch. I mean, really – how much time do I want to waste watching TV? I would much rather write a song, hang with my friends or family, read a book, take a walk, call a friend long-distance…or simply BE.
It is somewhat ironic that I have just spent the better part of two hours at my computer typing this blog entry. Everything in good measure though – time to get outside and enjoy nature for a bit. My grandfather often used to sit on a crooked lawn chair and just look out over his garden. No Blackberry®, cell phone, or Wii®…just him and his garden. And again, he lived to 92. I have that chair now. And at the risk of carrying on the “Luddite” tradition, I think I’ll go sit on it for a while…and hopefully get to understand myself and the world around me a little better…and maybe even add a few years – hopefully peaceful, fulfilling ones – to my life.
WARNING: THIS IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF STOMACH!!!
I’m not sure why I’m sharing this story…but I guess it affected me more than I had expected. Yesterday, I became a killer…a cold-blooded killer. Now in this life I have, as most people, been in some way connected to the termination of life on this planet. If you are a meat eater, I need say no more. If you have ever worn leather, squished a bug, or euthanized a pet, I need say no more. But yesterday was different. Yesterday, I beat a rat to death with a shovel. That’s right…a rat.
You may now be breathing a sigh of relief, or even laughing at the perceived silliness of this statement. However, try as I might to rationalize my action with facts about how much disease these creatures can carry, or what a destructive nuisance rats can become, if allowed to breed and eventually enter my home…or even the fact that this particular rat was obviously suffering a previous injury, spilling the blood of this helpless creature with a couple of swift blows of a shovel blade has left me shaken.
I have always considered myself a peaceful individual, and a lover of all creation. But faced with the alternatives in that moment yesterday, I chose to strike the life from another living being with vicious and precise force.
What, if any, is the lesson in this? Perhaps in a somewhat “positive” light, this proves that when push comes to shove, I will do whatever I deem necessary to protect my home and family. Now this may seem like a bit of a stretch. But having (albeit reluctantly) killed a relatively helpless living thing, I truly believe that in some way it might have been easier to attack a human being threatening violence against my family or me. At least he or she could have fought back.
Or maybe, on the darker side, I have discovered a frightening truth about myself. Maybe the truth is that yesterday it did not actually become a killer, but rather I unleashed the killer that has always been in me…the killer that, given the right circumstances, would likely rear its ugly head in any of us.
I hope I never really know.
