nilsmusic – Nils

When I met Jeff Golub

nilsmusic — Fri, 02 Jan 2015 06:39:47 +0000

I was new on the Smooth Jazz Scene. Neither the fans, nor my peers (with a few exceptions) had heard of me, but I had the number one song in the country “Pacific Coast Highway”, it was 2005. The festival season had started and all the festival shows were booked, but I was offered a side stage gig at the San Diego Smooth Jazz Festival. These were my first gigs on the festival circuit, I still was working on finding the right band, getting my charts together. Before I was just producing tracks in the studio, no need for all that.
The show went reasonably well and when I got of stage my friends told me that Jeff Golub had been in the audience, checking out my set. I felt somewhat flattered. I was not really familiar with his music, but I had heard his name before. So I went and checked out his set later that day on one of the other stages. And I really loved his playing. He was a guitar player after my own heart. And I understood why he might have been interested in my set. Both of us have a blues and rock background, which we bring into the Smooth Jazz. I could feel every note he was playing and knew where he was coming from.
Six months later my wife and me were on the ferry to Catalina Island. It was the first time I was to play the Catalina Jazz Festival. On the boat was a area where all the established artist hang out. I still felt a little bit on the outside. I had a mild case of “feeling like the new kid who wasn’t allowed to sit at the cool kids table in the high school cafeteria”. But when Jeff saw me he came over and introduced himself. He made me feel welcome and part of the gang and I will never forget that. We talked about guitars, about our influences and the music biz. It felt good having a friend in this new world I was entering.

Since we lived on opposite sides of the continent, we did not have the chance to hang out as often as I liked. But did ask him to play a duet with me on my City Groove CD. I was excited when he agreed. The song is called “Soul 2 Soul”, because I felt a certain soul connection to Jeff.

The news of his passing shocked me this morning. My heart goes out to his family he left behind and all the fans who are going to miss him. Like myself.

Here is a little taste of the song we recorded together in 2012. https://www.nilsguitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/10-Soul-2-Soul.mp3
My guitar is further to the right playing the first phrase, Jeff is panned further left playing the second phrase.

The Year End Rush 2012 and 2013

nilsmusic — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 23:53:22 +0000

I looked through my old blogs today and found “The Year End Rush 2011“. I posted it up again so you guys could read it.
It made me very sad to see the picture of my friend Ricky Lawson, who passed away a year ago. And I was in the same situation: The Year End Rush. We had a session booked for Monday to have him record drums for 5 songs. And then on Saturday I get the call, that he was in the hospital. First we thought it was not that bad. I called the other musicians and planned to postpone the session until after the New Year. Then in midweek, I was told Ricky had passed away. You can’t imagine the shock I felt. We just talked a few days before. He was in great spirits, just had gotten an award in Germany. He seemed in good health, and wasn’t complaining about any ailments. But then this happened, a brain enurism!
I’m still speechless and sad because I lost not only the best drummer I’ve know, but also a friend and a wonderful, warm hearted human being. I have a few tracks left that we recorded together, and will be on my next couple of albums. But after that I won;t be able to have him on my productions again. I really miss him.

Last year’s Rush was further extreme, because Kathryn ( Bostic) came in with two movies at the same time. She scored, I played, guitar, mixed and helped produce the score tracks. The movies were “Dear White People” which created quite a buzz, and a documentary about August Wilson.

This year I am again involved with a movie with Kathryn, which has to be done before the 23rd. So I am happy to see her doing so well.

I am also working on productions for 4 clients. Fortunately the deadline is not as brutal and it’s just ongoing work.

But mainly I am pushing myself to get my own project up to the next level, before Christmas. I want my record label to hear it and vibe on it over the holidays. I am working on an acoustic album and I still have two more songs to write, besides recording all my main guitars. I have been contacting different companies and friends, to get my hands on different instruments for a tonal variety. My friend and engineer Wolfgang “Amadeus” Aichholz agreed to help me with some of the engineering. Wolfi has killer mics and preamps, so I am excited to hear what my guitars sound like through some old vintage tube mics.

So why do I always feel a rush this time of the year?

Is it a curse of them self-employed? Do people working a 9-5 job feel the same? Or is it just me?
It seems to be a constant occurrence every year. The frenzy starts the first week of Dec and doesn’t end until Christmas. I think it has to do with the finality of the year coming to an end, and also with the business mostly shutting down over Christmas. So there is a break in my work flow. I want to step aside, concentrate on my family and not care about the music business for a few days. Then when I look back of what I have accomplished this year, it just feels better having all these things done and checked off.

Over the years I learned how to deal with THE YEAR END RUSH a lot better. It doesn’t stress me out anymore. I just plan my days and divide them for different projects.
Mondays I deal with my business affairs, Tuesdays and Wednesdays I record guitars for my CD, Thursdays I work on productions, Fridays and Saturdays I work with Kathryn, Sundays I try to catch up with anything that did not get done during the week. That means no break until Christmas, but I know that all the projects are covered. And this takes the anxiety and panic away.
At least it does for me. I realize everybody is different.
I’d be interested to hear if you, the reader, experience something similar or is it totally different? Feel free to leave comments and let me know.
In the meantime Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and all that Good Stuff

NILS

Watch out for the press

nilsmusic — Sun, 28 Sep 2014 20:38:53 +0000

Original post from Oct 2011
A funny episode happened to me last week. My daughter ‘s birthday was on Sunday and she really wanted the new iPhone. The phone came out on Friday. So I told her that she will have to wait a few weeks late, because when you order it takes two weeks to ship and they are going to be sold out that day of.
Of course I had already made plans to get up a 6am after working on the movie sound track until 3 am and get in line before the mall opens at 8 am. So I stood there with 100 of my closest friends, who must have shown up at 5:30 or earlier to beat me to it. I tried to keep my composure while I waited for the Apple store to open at 9 AM. I do this for my little girl, because I wanted to surprise her. And sure enough, after 4 hours waiting I victoriously emerged with a new iPhone which could not be activated, because the AT&T servers were overrun with activation requests. But that was alright I had one extra day to take care of this.
The next morning I get two calls from friends saying “So I see you got a new iPhone”. What? Is this public knowledge? How did they find out? Turns out I was on the cover of the Daily News in front of the Apple Store in line for a new iPhone.
I was just fortunate that neither my teenege girl nor her friends saw the news paper and blew my surprise.
:0)