The Celebration

I am currently listening to The Celebration (Put Your Hands Up) by Brandon Menace & The Killer B's.

This has truly been an epic weekend. Good food, good music, good booze, and most of all, good friends.

The mixtape "The Pilot" dropped Friday, August 6, 2010 online and seems to be doing very well. I've heard nothing but positive feedback and it feels good to know that people actually like the music that The Killer B's and I have been working so hard on. So far the mixtape has over 500 plays and 60 downloads in 48 hours and is being listened to all over the world. Also, special thanks to Kenny's Bar in Yokosuka for playing "The Celebration" and "Smokin" to a full house on Friday night.

The mixtape release party was on Saturday where lots of friends came out to support our music. Breezy was on the grill, the mixtape was blasting, and everyone drank, ate, and had a good time. The bbq was capped off by a fireworks show on the waterfront, but that was only the beginning of the night. The after-party took place back at our room and was highlighted by some epic freestyles by the man himself, Yung Gam.

This weekend was almost like a mini vacation and it was much needed. Just a bunch of good friends having a good time. And sometimes thats all you really need; just plain good company. So this blog is dedicated to all my good friends here in Japan and the States. Celebrate life and the fact that we're still young and have our whole lives in front of us.

"Pop a bottle! Toast up!" - Breezy

The Wind

I am currently listening to The Wind by Cat Stevens.

This is one of my favorite songs of all time from one of my favorite movies of all time. It's a very short song with a very big message. The song was featured in "Almost Famous" Directed by Cameron Crowe in a scene where Kate Hudson aka "Penny Lane" is dancing barefoot in an empty ballroom with a rose in her hand (watch it here). The peaceful guitar mixed with such soothing vocals really just bring a sense of serenity. And the lyrics are so meaningful...

"I listen to the wind, to the wind of my soul. Where I'll end up well I think only God really knows." - Cat Stevens

Listening to this song, and watching it with this scene makes me feel so content. Like I can just close my eyes and breathe easy and nothing in the world can bother me. And we all need that every now and then. Just a couple minutes to ourselves throughout the week or even throughout the day to regroup and refocus. Sometimes we let the stress of our everyday lives get the better of us and it is so important that we don't let that happen. Sometimes it feels like the world is on our shoulders and it's so heavy that we can't move. But you can't let external things ruin your internal happiness. You just have to take the good with the bad and keep on moving forward.

Watching Kate Hudson in this scene makes me envy her in a way because you can tell she is so relaxed and free and I definitely want that sense of freedom sometimes. And I guess that's why music is such a big part of my life. It's the only time when I feel absolutely free and content. I'm not a very emotional person and I don't open up very easily, but with music I feel like I can tell an entire story in a song; even if its instrumental. The way I speak and communicate is though music. The only way to really get inside my head is to listen to my music. Whether I make it in this industry or not, I will always continue to make music. And therefore, I will always be content.

"I let my music take me where my heart wants to go." - Cat Stevens

Everything Will Be Alright

All of the titles for this blog will be song titles and I encourage you to listen to the songs I post as you read this.

I am currently listening to Everything Will Be Alright by The Killers.

I have been a fan of The Killers for a long time, but just recently heard this song for the first time. It really made me think about a lot of things; relationships, life, even faith. And I found myself asking the question: What do I believe in? I've always liked the idea that everything happens for a reason, but I'm not sure if I truly believe that. What is faith anyways? When you break it down, it almost seems kind of ridiculous; believing in things or ideas or concepts that you can't always prove. But then again that might just be the best part about the whole thing. Because no one can take away what you believe in. And it can be whatever you want it to be. Sure, people can tell you that what you believe in is stupid or wrong but faith isn't something that other people can physically take away from you, and that is the true beauty of it.

I think faith is what keeps us all going even if it happens indirectly. Even if you're not a religious person, we all have things that we believe in. In a world full of doubters and haters and skeptics, sometimes you just have to believe that everything will be alright. And that is what is so great about this song. Its not trying to preach to you or make you believe in something. Its just saying that everything will be alright... it will. And I definitely believe that. No matter how much I complain about things sometimes and no matter how bad things may seem... everything will be alright.

Its like when you were little and you had a bad dream or you fell down and hurt yourself and your mom or dad would try to comfort you by telling you that everything would be alright. You didn't question them, you just believed them. And of course, they were right. And that's the mentality that gets lost in translation as we get older. Because you can question things all day and have every reason to doubt something, but its that trust in something greater that allows us to continue to move on. And in the end that's all faith really is; a blind "trust" in things that aren't tangible or that you can't immediately prove.

So I leave you with these questions... What do you believe in? What keeps you going even when all signs point to failure or "impossible"? What keeps you going when people doubt or question your reasons for doing something? I guess no matter what the answers are to these questions we just have to believe that in the end, no matter what, everything will be alright.