The Dream Recorder

Image: New Diamonds Hadder "Beyond the Breakers" Jersey for sale.

Good afternoon, it’s Friday and a heat wave is rolling into So Cal. The valley should be about 103 but I plan on being above the Santa Monica mountains recording video takes for “Long Is The Road”. It’s much cooler above the clouds.

I awoke from a dream today that was quite interesting. It was me, I was recording dreams in my dream.. and then watching them back. Good dreams and bad dreams.. it was wild. Then I was showing people the dreams. When I awoke, they were little MP4’s on my computer. I imagine in the future this will be something we do. It stated my brain moving into an idea for a song. Imagine seeing people on that MP4 show up in real life… imagine them knowing you although you’ve never met. Anyway, just a little mental note I’m making as I grabbed my bedside pen and paper this morning.

Todays the day, I believe my record will show up today on some digital platforms. I haven’t checked yet, but we’ll see as the day unfolds. I understand the red sea isn’t exactly going to part for me but it’s a nice thought to see something you’ve created become digital noise out in the universe. It’s freeing to some degree. I wonder what it will do out there.

In the mean time:

Shop: I’ve opened the shop feature on the Hadder website. There are a few shirt designs there now to get started, with more on the way. Now that the whole back end of the shop is designed and functioning, it should be pretty easy for me to add designs and products to the site. That’s the plan anyway. I’m quite the coffee connoisseur so I’ll have a few cool looking “Lord” and “Lady” coffee mugs up soon. Maybe some patches and stickers as well. We’ll see how things go over time. It’s a start here in 2023.

Music Video: I’m well into a few video shoots for the “Long is the Road” music video… with a few more to go. I’m very busy on that. I don’t want to give anything away but there should be some cool scenery and video techniques in it. I’ll be reassuming my old self in this video so that’s a bit refreshing to me. Hadder might make an appearance or two, we’ll see how the timeline plays out. I do like my spook. Really excited about these videos. “Ballad of the Dead Rabbit” will be the 2nd of the 2 I’ll be shooting.

Years end: So the records done, the digital release is done, artwork is done, shop is up… I’ll say it’s a pretty good year so far. There’s even some Field Note youtube videos and a new @diamondshadder408 insta page. I figured it would be nice to at least have that as I’m not much of a social media person. More of a campfire and introvert. I’ve just turned the corner on 23 but autumn is knocking. I suppose I have 2 music videos to complete and a vinyl to press and then I’ll start making a new record in 24, while hopefully doing some shows on the earth somewhere.

That’s all for now. Give Ezra your best. She’s out of her first chemotherapy session. She’s doing well and the hills are happy she’s such a fighter. Me too. Good luck out there friends.

-the dead rabbit

Bella and the 14th Day of July

Image: Artwork cover for "Beyond the Breakers" digital release, July 14th 2023.

Good morning rabbits, What’s new. Well, my apologies for not doing the weekly updates this summer. I have been busy working on things, so let me catch you up on some Hadder happenings.

Bella: It’s July and summer is in full swing in LA. To start, I’ve been tending to my girl Bella who has been diagnosed with the Big C word. Bella is my Japanese Tosa Inu. Me and her go back a long way, more than a decade. She’s actually the inspiration for Ezra from the Hadder tale. It’s hard to imagine a life without her and it’s been hard on me as of late. She’s still here today and I’m spending a lot of quality time with her now. It’s that season of my life I suppose.

Digital Release: I’ve been hard at work finalizing the record for release and trying to do everything I can when I can. The record officially drops on the 14th of July. So, about a week or so away. When I say drop, that just means it will be available world wide through the normal digital distribution services. Somewhere between my last update and now I finalized all the artwork for the record. A cover for each track as well as the artwork for the record as a whole. If you’ve been following along at all, you know that it was a little process, finding the cover that I wanted. I figured it would come down to the last few weeks. I decided on this piece of art that represents a form of Hader during some time of his life, that thing that embodied me after the fires… he's standing on my hill on corral canyon, with his imaginary friends… the ones that inspired the “Ballad of the dead Rabbit”. The wolf that came... the black bird... the rabbits.... When I was growing up I wanted to be a fantasy artist. I was inspired by mysterious record covers. I would stare at them while listening to records. And so this is the cover I think I can stare at and wonder about as I listen to this “Beyond the Breakers” record myself.

Music Video: So what else? I’ve been recording and working on the music video for “Long is the Road”. I’ve got about 2 weeks in on it now, it will probably take a month or two to get near some finality on it. It’s looking pretty cool for now. I’m using some new technologies on it, see how that plays out. I’ve converted my LA dwelling into a stage with lights and such... and I picked up a few new tracking camera tricks this spring… let’s see if I can pull it all together before autumn.

Merch: With all the artwork for the record done. I’ve begun some artwork adaptations for merch. I’ve also hired a few other designed to do some adaptations of the artwork as well. I’m guessing sometime before I leave for my winter pilgrimages, there should be a shirt or two for sale to commemorate this “Beyond the Breakers” record.

Rehearsals: The idea lingers in my mind although it simply hasn’t become the priority yet. Soon, with the record dropping, merch happening and a video or two coming in the near future.. I suppose rehearsals will happen. I actually looked at a place 3 weeks ago, a tower behind the wall of my former 408 tower, and was ready to sign a lease to start rehearsals, but someone else took it last minute… fate perhaps... so I think it’s just a matter of time now. I’m on LA waiting lists for the kind of room I’m looking for… I hear rumors of 408 opening soon… so, we’ll see. I miss it and I’m certainly looking forward to making some loud noises again with my trusty dented sure 58.

“Beyond the Breakers” Vinyl: I plan on pressing vinyl for this project. It’s something that won’t be available for a while as the lead time for pressing vinyl take months. I’m working on the artwork layout and trying to sort out all the processes, mastering for vinyl, plate cutting, pressing, vinyl color, printing.. ect. A lot of thing go into pressing a record and so I’m slowing connecting all those dots this summer. If I was to guess, I would say it will be available late this year to early next year. Excited to have this endeavor sealed up on vinyl, music and artwork and words. It should look really cool if I have anything to do with it.

Well that’s all for now. I decided to halt work on my video today so that I could do a little update.

Please wish the best things you can for my girl Bella. I’ll tell her you said hello.

God bless.

-the dead rabbit

Video Info: Video narration for "Kilwaughter: The Dream Coin the Rail and the Queen"

White Mountain

Image: As of today, this will be the cover artwork for my little "Beyond the Breakers" record. Although, when it gets officially released on July 1st, all the songs will have their own covers. I just really liked this one and so for now, it's the main cover associated with the record as a whole.

Good morning May.

A few little things going on these days as I get ready to release my “Beyond the Breakers”. Sorry I’ve been away from the weekly blog updates. I’ve been enjoying some fresh air away from the vocal booth. Hatching plans for the release of my little labor of love.

Music: Release date is set for July 1st. That’s it. Soon it will be available in all the typical music platforms. Just in time for my autumn wanderings. What a journey to take. Long truly is the road when your creating things with your own hands. A record in 2023 with standard A 440 tuning, I must be crazy. Aside from the Hadder record I will also be releasing the Ramsay Evermore songs you may have heard on the website. Lord Ramsay and I gathered in the wee hours of a may night to track his guitar solos for the three songs we will be releasing. It was a wild night of guitar screams. I’ll post the new versions as soon as I get the new mixes. They are set for weekly releases after the Hadder record drops as well. It took a while to set up the release, but as soon as the last song gets uploaded I’ll be switching to Music Video mode. I hope I can get one video done before I leave for white mountain. Fingers crossed.

The Diamonds Hadder Novel: Added some animated Video narrations for the first few several field notes. They’ve slowly been getting uploaded to the Diamonds Hadder youtube channel. I’ll be adding more over the coming months until all 16 are completed. As far as the story goes, I don’t really plan on writing the next 16 field notes until at least winter. I think just closing out those first 16 this year will be good enough for me.

Staying the course: In January I envisioned myself later in the year on white mountain listening to my record on Spotify or apple music, in between mountain dashes and river crossings. I also envisioned my field note animations keeping me warm and toasty by a nice eastern sierra campfire. I’m close to completing that little dream. Beyond that, I’m not sure, but next year should be really exciting… there’s a new marathon on my horizon, some new shoes for the race, a new tower and new characters I’m sure in my future. The start of a race is so much more fun than the actual running, to some degree. It’s when you make the rules and design your route through the woods. What will you carry? It’s when you decide where your running to. I’ve been on a path that was set for me so long ago that I wondered if I would ever reach the finish line of my little breakers project. But I did. Perhaps the next chapter of this endeavor will include some new places and new characters along for the ride. I hope therefore I am. Well that’s all for now.. enjoy these final days of may 2023. Good luck to you.

-j