Traveler Writer Musician


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In going through my old files, I uncovered a few unreleased Festizio demos for songs we never really used for various reasons. Usually we’ll drop a song if we feel it’s either not up to par or if it doesn’t fit well with our overall sound. However, I think the three songs below have enough merit to, at the very least, revisit on this very happy Friday.

The two photos were taken during one of our earlier shows at Ireland’s 32, a really great Irish (duh) pub in San Francisco. Even after having played at bigger and fancier venues, that night still brought in the most cash for us, as they gave us a portion of the bar tab and, let’s face it, our friends are drinkers.

Keep in mind that these songs are old and are no longer good representations of our current sound. You can check our actual studio work at the links above.

1.) Festizio – “I’ll Never Do It Again”
We recorded this song in our rehearsal studio. At the time, it was one of our better songs but it later fell into our “maybe” pile. Personally, I felt it was a bit too whiny.

2.) Festizio – “Out Of My Life”
Another song we recorded in our rehearsal studio. I wrote this during my big blues rock phase. The shift in style was too much of a jump from the rest of our set so we only ever performed it a handful of times.

3.) Festizio – “Time” (acoustic demo)
I wrote this song when I was still in college. I’m not exactly sure when it was recorded. Someone once told me it reminded them of John Lennon and I took that as a compliment. Please forgive the poor audio quality.

If you’d like to learn more about the thought process behind song composition, I highly recommend this recent Music Think Tank article by Brian Hazard entitled, “The Death of the Bridge.”

I just found the last copy of an unreleased acoustic demo I recorded in 2007. I made a few copies and shared it with some friends, folks at the local coffeehouse and my mom. It’s all acoustic and includes three tracks. The first song was only performed once. The last song you may recognize if you’ve ever seen us play or own our studio album. The second song I can guarantee you’ve never heard before.

1.) Today
2.) Til Lights Send Me Home
3.) Beautiful

Let me know what you think in the comments.


http://www.performermag.com
http://www.myspace.com/westcoastperformer

Two mentions and listed on the front cover! Not too shabby for our debut in a nationally distributed magazine. Even better, our album appears next to our good friend, Mikie Lee Prasad, a great local musician who we both know and love. The amp review below even features Dangermaker, a band we’ve performed twice with already. The mentioned show was our most recent at San Francisco’s Grant & Green Saloon in North Beach. And yes, that’s a picture of me next to the amp :)

Download a digital copy of the magazine.

Disclaimer: Although I write for Performer Magazine, I had no influence over our album review and our inclusion in the gear review was by request of the National Editor to test the practical usability of the amps.

A friend suggested I record a Christmas album this year. I’m lazy so I’m doing an EP instead.

Here’s the first track – “Carol of the Bells

It’s a song I had always wanted to learn on piano but never owned the music. The next best thing is to arrange it for yourself, I suppose. I even added a new part in the middle to mix things up.

Hope you like it!


www.festizio.net
www.myspace.com/festizioband

“I hear jazz, people talking. The sound of cars”

I took this photo one night while staying late in the office. After uploading it to Radar, a commenting friend suggested the caption sounded like “the beginning of some amazing lyrics.” So, using the photo and a beautiful night as inspiration, I wrote a simple song and recorded it this morning with GarageBand (please pardon the internal mic buzz).

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN, HOLMES

I hear jazz, people walking and the sound of cars
Through the windows while I’m talking with a coworker
It’s almost Friday and she’s packing for the country tonight

And I don’t know what I’m doing here twenty to nine
I guess I’m trying to find a way to bide my time
Cause life moves fast and I just need a chance to breathe

Oh my God, it becomes two o’clock
And I’ve had too much to drink
We’ll sit outside the bar and we’ll talk for hours, I won’t need anything
Except to hear you speak and a chance to hear you sing

The stars they shine so brightly lit
The street lights can’t contest with this
And if it’s real I hope it never stops

I happen to find me beside myself
here rushing and thinking about someone else
And I can’t help but feel our time is up

Oh my God, it’s past four o’clock
And I’ve had too much time to think
We’ll sit in my car and we’ll talk for hours, I won’t need anything
Except to hear you speak and a chance to hear you sing…