An Even Year

Every year for the past several, a few minutes past midnight on New Year’s Eve, I call my parents to wish them a Happy New Year. Some years I wake them up. Others, like this past one, when I ask if they’re awake they respond with “Hell yeah!”

Sometimes we talk about resolutions or goals for the coming year and sometimes we just talk about whether it’s an even or an odd year. My Mom says that even years are better. I tend to agree.

While there was nothing really wrong with 2011, there wasn’t a whole lot that seemed particularly great. I lost my job in March. Not that I was particularly upset, I had been trying to get out of that hell hole for months. But still, it wasn’t great in the long run.

I released two new CD’s in August, as well as two Christmas singles in November. The CD Release Show in August, while it didn’t go as planned, turned out to be a night to remember. In fact, many people who were there still talk to me about it. But despite the great turnout, the heavy radio play, the awesome and abundant press and touring, none of it sold all that well and it didn’t seem to help me gain any ground in the local music scene.

We rescued, fostered and found homes for a handful of dogs in 2011. It’s great to find homes for them and it’s even more awesome to get news that they’re doing great and they’re new owners love them a lot. But we can only do so much and the very public groups advocating positive messages for animal welfare, seem to be more focused on shouting the loudest or having the last word or disagreeing because of their closed-mindedness.

And we lost ear X-tacy. I, at least, got to work there for a few months before it closed. I gotta say, it was the greatest job I have ever and will ever have.

Yes, 2011 wasn’t a bad year, it just wasn’t a great year. Perhaps because it was an odd year. And it was an odd year, indeed.

Two days into 2012, I’ve rearranged two of the busiest rooms in our house: the living room and the office. We’ve been saying for a while we were going to do it, but things come up and life moves forward, ready or not. But I finally did it. I mean, it’s not 100% done, but it’s mostly done.

I finally got all my music gear set up and hooked up and organized. I’m planning on a very productive musical year. I think.

I made the decision in October to stop playing shows. After a weekend of shows where the collected audience totaled zero, my heart sank, my resolve failed and I knew what had to be done. Or not done anymore.

I stopped booking shows, I swore off music. Of course, I then had the most productive few months musically than I’ve had in a long time. So, I’m going to try some new things this year and hopefully I’ll have a very musically productive year.

It’s an even year. Mom always said even years were better. Well, I hope she’s right. I think we could all use a better year.

Good luck this year.

Les Paul Ukulele

Yes, there is such a thing. Having played guitar most of my life and especially since my first electric guitar was a Les Paul copy, my mind was blown when I first saw the tiny, four string Les Paul uke.

I kind of had to have it. I mean, it’s a Les Paul uke!

Anyway, I get it home and sit down to play it and get to know it. It’s heavier than most regular ukes. The neck is bolted on, but it’s pretty sturdy. It also has a pickup in it. I was pretty pumped about that. Since I play out a lot with my ukulele, I like having a pickup so I can just plug and play.

Whatever the strings were on it, they were not very good. Ok, they were crap acoustically. When plugged in, it sounds pretty good! But I did change the strings so that it would sound good acoustically too.

The tuning pegs seem to slip and catch some times when I’m tuning. It stays in tune  so it’s not a huge deal. I may swap them out eventually for something better, but for now they work alright.

The pickup is the big surprise though. It comes with a piezo film undersaddle pickup built-in. It sounds really good plugged in. The volume is great and I haven’t noticed any humming or hissing. And again, the convenience of having a pickup in my uke is awesome.

It plays really well. The action isn’t set too high so it’s still playable farther up the neck. It’s really fun to play! I mean, it’s a ukulele, of course it’s fun to play. But it’s a really cool, fun little uke. And it’s a Les Paul! How cool is that?!

If you’re looking to add a cool, novelty, but great sounding ukulele to your collection, I highly recommend the Epiphone Les Paul ukulele. You can pick one up on Amazon for $99 and it comes with a gig bag. Pick it up here.

Hard Rock Cafe Chicago Show

On Thursday, September 1st I drove up to Chicago, IL to play at the Hard Rock Cafe for SonicBids and Hard Rock Cafe Presents Singer/Songwriter Thursdays. It was a quick trip, but I had a blast! I met a bunch of great people and made some awesome contacts. Unfortunately, I was not able to record the show, but I made a video diary about the trip. What follows is Part I. Enjoy!!

Working hard = Big payoffs

I’ve been working really hard lately, as a lot of you know. It’s a lot of work releasing a record! There’s the songwriting, the recording, mixing, mastering, marketing, promoting, booking, merchandising…and the list goes on.

I try to do as much of it as I can. I’ve always been a DIY kind of guy and if I don’t know how to do something, I try to learn how. So, when it came to these records, I did everything. From the recording, mixing and mastering, right down to the marketing and even merchandising (I’m pretty pumped about being able to screen print t-shirts!). I covered all costs by myself and was able to come up with some pretty neat packaging ideas in the process.

Anyway, all this hard work has caught up with me now that the EPs are out and I’ve played a bunch of shows to promote them. The CD Release show at the Monkey Wrench, which you can read about here, was a magical night. Not only were people still there to support me in spite of power outages, but everyone had the best time!

I played Nashville and was able to catch up with some old friends as well as make some new ones.

And tonight, I played at ear X-tacy, my favorite record store. It was great to see so many familiar faces. I also got to meet some great new people too!

I met a little boy named Egan who liked my song “The Best Day Ever” and who told me about his dog Annabelle. He danced around and clapped through most of my set. It was awesome to see him having so much fun!

There was another little boy and his sister there for the show. I’ll tell you, the smiles on all of their faces make all that hard work worth it.

It’s easy to get caught up in the hard work, keeping up with analytics, crunching numbers, writing ad headlines, writing, recording… and it’s easy to lose sight of what really matters. When someone comes to me and thanks me for my music and tells me what it means to them, or smiles through a song because they can relate, that’s the real payoff.

So thank you for making what I love doing so rewarding.

CD Release Show, Saturday Aug. 13th

Well, the new EPs are out and available, the Release Show has come and gone, and I’m still recovering. It’s been a very busy couple of months getting ready for all of this, but in the end, the new EPs, the release show, all were a huge success.

On Saturday, as I was getting ready for the show, a powerful thunderstorm passed through the area. The lights in our house flickered more than once and immediately I began to worry about the power in the area, as the show had been scheduled at The Monkey Wrench which was only a few blocks from our house.

On the way to the show, we saw tree limbs down every where and some lights at intersections were out. When we got to the Monkey Wrench I was told there was no power. I felt crushed. Months of preparation, weeks of excitement and in an instant, everything seemed as dark as the bar in the Monkey Wrench.

Joe (who books the show at Monkey Wrench) and I wracked our brains for a Plan B. We made phone calls and even started to walk down Barret in search of a new venue. We talked about some options but nothing seemed to stick.

Denny (the owner at Monkey Wrench) called Joe over to talk about some things. At this point, I was at a complete loss about what to do and all I could do was stand and stare at my reflection in the dark windows.

Denny and Joe called me over, pulling me out of my trance. Denny said, “So, the air conditioner, the ice coolers and the pizza oven are still on. We’ve got a generator on the way to power the PA system. We’ve got a bunch of candles we can light and it could a really cool, intimate setting.”

“I’m in,” I said.

What followed was a flurry of activity: lighting candles, transferring beer to ice coolers, making phone calls, sending emails, posting online. The show was still on.

People arrived, drinks were poured and pizza eaten. As the sun set and the night came on, the candles inside the Monkey Wrench gave a soft, ambient glow. Conversation and laughter bounced around the room like the light from the flickering candles.

The generator arrived and was fired up. Cords were run to the PA, cords were run from the PA to speakers. Mics were hooked up, chairs sat up and candles lit on stage.

Standing from beside the stage, once everything was set up and ready to go, I could see that every seat in the Monkey Wrench was filled. Not only that, but even standing room was sparse.

I was overwhelmed. Despite circumstances, here were all these people laughing, drinking, eating and enjoying one of the most memorable shows any of us has experienced.

Changing Lanes and Butch Rice both played outstanding sets.

I don’t think I could’ve planned a more amazing night. And I don’t think I could have pulled it off if it weren’t for Denny, Joe and the rest of the Monkey Wrench staff, Molly Greer and Brooke Hall from Changing Lanes, Butch Rice, Patrick Joyce who manned the sound system and everyone who came out to see the show. It was a truly amazing night. I guess I’ve got a lot to live up to for the next one.

You can purchase my new EPs at www.nickpeaymusic.com, at ear-x-tacy or any online distributor, such as iTunes, CD Baby, etc.

The Great Green Room (new song, free download)

So, I sometimes have no idea where inspiration for a song is going to come from. It could be an idea that’s been rolling around in my head, it could be a phrase I saw on a billboard, something someone said, or a million other things. But some of my favorite songs have come about from random things that just pop up.

I was writing songs on my ukulele for my upcoming EP’s and I had written this very beautiful, somewhat haunting piece that I needed words to. Often if I don’t have something specific in mind, I’ll just sort of hum along and left words kind of fall out. As I was humming, I kept coming back to the phrase “goodnight moon.” I didn’t really know what to do with that, so I kept trying new things. But I always kept going back to “goodnight moon.”

I remembered a children’s book called “Goodnight Moon.” I only had a sort of vague notion about the story, I just remembered the main character was a child and they said goodnight to everything before they went to sleep. I did some research and found that I was, basically, right. It’s about a young rabbit who says goodnight to things in his room before he goes to bed.

I didn’t want to recreate the story in song form, so I tried to come up with an idea that incorporated the premise of the book but not copy it verbatim. I decided to work with the idea that the “great green room” from the story, would actually represent the earth in the song.  In the song, I tried to explore the beauty of the earth and it’s inhabitants at dusk and then nightfall. What came out was a beautiful, poignant lullaby, of sorts.

You can download it for free by going to the Nick Peay Music facebook page and “liking” the page or go to http://www.nickpeaymusic.com and sign up for the mailing list. Either way, you get a FREE download.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments on the song once you download it and listen to it!

Bottled and waiting

I bottled the Mexican pineapple beer yesterday. I got seven bottles out of it, but for an experiment that’s probably more than enough. Anyway, it will have to sit in the bottles for a week for carbonation and then a week in the fridge before it’s ready to drink. I did try the little bit that was left over after bottling and it was pretty good. It’s interesting. It almost tasted like a dry white wine. Two weeks and I’ll tell you the final results.

Also, I finished recording my EP’s over the weekend. All that’s left to do is mix and master. And market and promote and manufacture and…ok, so there’s still a bunch to do. Want to help? You can help by getting people to “like” my facebook page. Make sure you tag me in the post so I can see it and I’ll send you some mp3′s.

I’m also going to need some folks to help with the cover art of the EPs. If you’re interested, make sure you sign up for my email list on my website or “like” my facebook page so you can get the details.

An finally, this: