Opportunity Awaits

The month of travel I experienced throughout New Zealand was one of the most adventurous, inspiring, life-expanding and overall fun moments of my life. Reconnecting with Thomas both emotionally and creatively was immensly healing for our relationship, helping us to grow and become clearer about our direction and purpose in life. I absolutley fell in love with New Zealand. The land, the people, the history, culture, and the maori ways. An entire OP could be dedicated to this journey but to consolidate my focus on the topic I will say this. As my trip drew near to the end of March, SunDog was gaining momentum back in the US and I was now being granted opportunities to play in Colorado, perform at the next Djedi Generation, and presence the record to upcoming festivals in California. Though I had fallen in love with Aotearoa so deeply, I knew in my heart it was time to return, which happened to be much sooner than I anticipated. My journeys with Thomas had reinvigorated even further my passion for music and pursuing it as an effective form of service in the world. The land in NZ opened my heart even deeper to the mystery and beauty of the universe and through a gentle whisper in my soul, I knew that I would return to this sacred place. I spread my record through just about every travel location I encountered while in New Zealand, making wonderful connections and becoming inspired by what I could share there one day in the future. I spent my last days at a retreat center in the Cormandel making Cacao, writing music until late into the evening, and loving up the community sauna. Feeling creatively charged and spiritually refreshed, I embarked on my return journey once again to Turtle Island, excited for the opportunities which awaited.

Returning to California with musical inspiration and creative vigor, I played my guitar constantly and began mapping my schulde based on the new sonic opportunities at hand.

Lucidity

First was a festival in Santa Barbara county called Lucidity, which was a three day transformational festival that turned out to be a wonderfully rewarding experience. filled with new musical family connections, song sharing to a great number of participants around the fire, and gifting SunDog.  After witnessing the powerful simplicity presented by many of the musical acts, I came away from this festival with a clearer understanding of how to bring SunDog to the stage.This is also where I began to establish new relationships with fellow sonic co-creators and creative allies that would later this year become immense helpers on my musical path. 

Boulder

Almost immediately after Lucidity, Oliver and I packed our music gear and headed for Boulder, CO, where we would meet with our friend Kevin Mcgeag, our soon to be drummer. We had two shows planned on our visit. One was an invitation to play at a university I attended called, Naropa and the other at a local house party. We practiced a ton before the shows both as all acoustic and all electric (see acoustic vs electric section for details). The show at Naropa went well. it was incredibly casual as it was held in the upper floor of the administration building during a meal period for an earth day celebration. We played with me and Olliver on acoustic guitars and drummer Kevin on the Cajon and Djembe. All three of us sang harmonies. It was great fun and we were well received. At the house party we played as a loud electric group with me on a fender Jazz Master, Oliver on the Peavy Zodiac bass, and Kevin on the full drum kit. This was also a fun night but differed in many ways from the Naropa show because we played no songs from SunDog but instead played an entirely improvisational set, focusing primarily on groove, melody, and raw, roudy-kidlike energy and emotion. Also amplified emotional dynamics within the community setting, possibly aided by the amplified music? Another musical contemplation I explore in the amplified vs acoustic section of this OP.

Back to Laguna - Au Lac Open Mic - Radio Show - Djed Gen 2

Arriving back in Laguna, Kevin landed a few days later to meet us and play drums for our next three gigs (More on coordinating band members can be found in the Structural Dynamics section of this OP). These three gigs were

1. The Au Lac Open mic - A great open mic which happens twice a month at an amazing vegan & raw foods restaurant in Orange County called 'Au Lac'. This show went really well as we felt well practiced since our recent gigs in Boulder. I have performed multipule times since this show and it has become a space of community cultivation and connection where my musical gifts have been recieved and nurtered through fruitful connections and musical collaborators.

2. A morning session on KX 93.5 - Here we played two live songs for a local Laguna Beach radio station. It was a solidly built and maintained studio which I felt honored to perform in. Playing the morning show, we were asked questions about recording SunDog, our band's philosophy, and what our future intentions were. It was a wonderful promotional opportunity as we had now reached to the local community and now had something 'concrete' to post on our growing facebook page as well as website. (The session was recorded by the station and filmed by our friend Noni.) I also learned more about articulating my thoughts with coherent agility when delivering a message live on air. This is not so much because I accomplished this well through the interview but because I could hear my growth edeges on this subject when listening back to the recorded version.

3. The third appearance was a casual nighttime performance at the fireside during the last night of the second Djedi Generation event in Joshua Tree. We played the same band line-up we had the previous nights and received joyous praise from our new friends at the event. A quote from Ryan - "Its one thing to like a band through their CD but amazing when they sound just as good live and you guys sound great!".

Awaken

After the recent rush of energy towards performing, we took a break to relax, plan for the future, and organize the Ecstatic Union Music website (info found in Structural Dynamics section). Over this time I attended a beautiful transformational community event called 'Awaken', organized by the Tribal Convergence Network. Again another subject I could dedicate a whole OP to. The nectar I will extract to share is this. This event allowed me to build on connections I had made ealier in the year (primarily from Lucidity), while gifting more SunDog CDs, and becoming immensley inspired by the integrity, connections, exciting projects, and level of community participation in the event. Note: The event was limited to 400 people, thus creating a wonderful container for increased focus and integrity among the participants.

A Synchronistic Edeavor

The hiatus from performing officially as ecstatic union commenced between the months of May through mid-July when after a rush of synchronicity, we were offered to play our first summer festival of 2013. After driving to a nearby festival called 'Lightening in a Bottle' and returning due to sold out tickets, I opened my computer to receive a message from a young soul sister named Ana, whom I had connected with at Awaken. She wrote that she had just arrived from Nicaragua and had no one to pick her up from LAX. Long story short, I picked her up and she ended up living with me at my home in Laguna for around 3 weeks. Our interpersonal dynamic was purely platonic and mutually beneficial. One day I received an email with an invitation to play at local southern California pritive skills festival called 'Elements'. The wild synchronicities around this were that A) Early that morning Ana and I were researching the festival before being contacted to play at it. B) It turns out we were reccomended to the festival organizer by a friend of Ana's that was also playing the festival. This friend was Shylah Rae Sunshine (who's musical medicine I strongly admire) and was originally gifted a SunDog CD from Ana after awaken. And C) I wanted to represent the band as a full enseble to reproduce SunDog and needed more members for the band asap as the festival was jut two weeks away. Ana's friend Jacob whom had been living in Kauai was returning to the mainland. He came to stay with us at the Ark while filling in second percussion and harmony vocals in the band. I sent out messages to the key members I felt could help make my vision of thouroughly reproducing SunDog a reality. What happened next was pure magic.