Where in the world have I been?

I've been out of touch.

I'm sorry.

New York City had me spinning around the clock in a frenzy of noise and paint.

I'm in Boston for a week to rehearse for our tour of Australia and Asia.  I just stayed in the whole evening trying to find a way to program every keyboard from both albums and new material onto one device.  It's most definitely a mad laboratory in here... and I'm still not finished.  

The excitement is returning, slowly but surely.  The drought in between tours leaves us thirsty for the excitement, and at it's first drop, we'll be back in a bender of rock and roll.  I really am NOT good at NOT touring.  Drives me a bit mad even.... however, I did find a way to fill in the void:

New.  York.  City.

I have taken on too many projects at once, but it keeps me going.  Writing pop songs, in hopes that someone will be crazy enough to want to record them.  Producing two songs with Atomic Tom and it's going to be sweet.  By the way- go see them play Arlene's Grocery in NYC on May 2.  I'll be there wondering why I will never look as cool as Eric Angelo.  I've been playing a lot, writing a lot.  Kyle, Joe, and Ethan have all come to visit.  Playing in Nate Campany's band, The Serenade, has been a true pleasure.  Nothing like playing good songs with good friends.  Writing a bunch of arty stuff just to keep the magic going in the midst of everything else.

I have also managed to venture out and cause shenanigans.  Highlights:

1.  "Shine A Light" premiere.  Go see this film.  I was incredibly lucky to attend the premiere.  Scorsese and The Stones were made it happen.  The after parties did not suck at all, and I met Ronnie Wood.  Dudes like him make me want to keep on keeping on with this band thing.

2.  Opening day at Yankee Stadium.  This was a tough one, being a Red Sox fan.... BUT I was invited to opening day at the last season of a legendary ballpark... a few rows up from first base... I had to do it.  

3.  I'm going to just skip to the end... at the SNL afterparty I wound up on stage at 4am with dude from American Idol, while Ashton and Demi were hollering out requests... we did a pretty mean "Brown Eyed Girl" and had the crowd rocking on "Hey Jude."  I just am not sure how it happened... and how the sun was up when I left...

4.  I have challenged Nate Campany to a beard off.  I have trained for many sports growing up, and this is up there as far as discipline goes.

What else... painting.  i have been painting in between the rest of the madness, and somehow, I have started to deal some of my art.  If you are interested, email smilemakerart@gmail.com, and we'll hook a brother/sister up!

Hope this finds you well.  If you are in Boston this Saturday, come say hi.

If you are in Australia/Asia... we'll see you soon.  It's going to be good.  Took years to get to do a tour like this... let's get radical.

B