Anywho, for those of you curious that don't know me at all that seem to keep on hitting up on my blog, I'm a semi-professional violist where I live and for this reason my viola can keep me busy for weeks on end. For example, last night. I played a show with Jeremy Larson that also featured Stacy Dupree of Eisley and Darren King of Mutemath. (I got to wear this awesome dress from Red Velvet, which is owned by Jeremy Larson's fiancee. But actually that's not important at all. Oh, and I also got to have cupcakes from Red Velvet. They are delicious.)
I cannot explain to you enough how lucky and privileged I was to play in the orchestra for these musicians. Darren King was not only a remarkable drummer, but also a very sweet guy with a great sense of humor. Stacy's voice was remarkable; I told her it "sounded like origami" which I think made sense to me but not quite to everyone else. She made the effort to meet each of the musicians in the orchestra. I have to confess I wasn't as starstruck as I should have been because I've solely listened to stuff on the classical music circuit, save for a few bands that I happened to come across (and a few psychedelic/progressive rock bands from the 70's and 80's.) I'm just not a big modern music listener. But now after doing a simple insertion of Mutemath and Eisley into the grand Google, I cannot believe how lucky I was to interact with these two last night.
But enough praising them. Let's move on to the magnificent Jeremy Larson. I'm really thankful for meeting him. The orchestrations that we played last night for his album "They Reappear" were heart-wrenchingly remarkable. For one song, "Empire," he brushed corners with the second movement of Tchaikovsky's 4th, which I completely adore. (Both Tchaikovsky's and Jeremy Larson's pieces were in B-flat minor, which I think increased the connection between them, but maybe that's a nerdy musician thing.) Other pieces like "Murmur/Exhale" and "Provoke" made me want to claw the edges of my chair because it was such a ride to hear them. I'm in total admiration of creepy, vicious instrumentals and these two were prime examples.
Also, Jeremy had my brother and I playing solos for two of the other songs, one called "Circadian Cues" (which really does sound like the rhythms of sleeping) and "Remission." The first one featured Kieran (my brother) more and I think the second one featured me more, or at least I was playing so much that I didn't pay attention to anything else. Regardless, on my solo, it doesn't matter how easy something is or how many times I play it...I will always get nervous the moment I perform it for an audience. But as in the past, people said I didn't sound nervous, so I guess I did alright.
These two pieces were songs that, as quite a few others put it, "would go great in a movie soundtrack."
Once again, despite being a well-accomplished musician, Jeremy was really kind and modest and really fun to be around. All the more respect dealt to him.
I think I should get done with this blogpost, because I haven't done anything all day. Also, I'm hungry, but that doesn't matter.
You can learn more about Jeremy Larson/listen to stuff of his at the following links:
Herpin' derpin' derp,
Celka (aka Cellcow)
