Kevin - My first ramble....

Hello all and happy November. Kevin here and I just thought I would try out this new newsletter feature. Please let us know in the comments if this is something you would be interested in. I am for sure undoubtedly more of a yapper than I am a writer, but I figured that I could just pretend that I am chatting to all of you on camera.  Well, this month has been interesting in my world.  Having an autoimmune disease at this time of year when viruses are flying around has been tough, but I have made it through three bugs since early September and hopefully make it through to fall without any other illnesses.  I have to say again that having all of you write in and share music and videos and stories of your life makes life more enjoyable for us. We are currently a little behind but will get all your messages in time.  Connor and I have started a corner of our office as our little music studio and have been learning the ins and outs of workflow and using Universal Audio and its console with Logic Pro.  After hearing Porter Robinson and Joey Valance and Brae and now Ninajarari I downloaded a free version of Fl Studio to try out and see if that DAW works for us.

Many years ago, I was using Protools with a Digi001 PCI interface with external hardware like the Mo’Phatt and the Roland JV-1080 as well as a product called sampletank and really spent loads of time learning it. I recorded a song with my best friend Brian called “Down” and thought it sounded good at time but listening back now I realize how important mixing and mastering is!!

As a chronic non finisher when it comes to songwriting, I am always so amazed that an artist can create 12, 15, or 23 tracks of a project as my songs usually stop around the 50 second mark as I get into my head far too much. Speaking with lots of you through dm’s I have really come to understand that I need to write for myself first and not worry about if others will like it.

Someone I met who wrote a hit song for Rod Stewart gave me some song writing advice while sipping scotch at a piano in a hotel lobby. He said write everything down and write often and the more you it the better you will hone your craft.  I did not take his advice as I started selling restaurant supplies around when Connor was born music put aside for swimming lessons, kindergarten and working with the school’s Parent Advisory Council on special events. I have to say that it was a fun time as I was always assigned to be the music coordinator and one of the tasks was to burn the cd’s for the Earth Day events and build a stage for the parents who played instruments to jam. As I am writing this I realized I have never asked what Connor’s thoughts were with his father hanging around the school during the day as I worked a night shift starting a 5pm.

Things were very chaotic during those days as my wife worked during the day and I would drop off Connor and clean the house, do some renovations and cook and have dinner ready then just fuck off to work.   At this time, I was doing invoicing at night all by myself in a super quiet huge office / factory. At first, I was a little freaked being in there alone in a sketchy part of town at night but that’s when I met Tadek.  Tadek had just moved from Poland and started as a janitor a week before I took on my night shift position.  I would have my head down and occasionally, Tadek and I would catch eyes, and I would wave at him, and he would wave back.  I was in my early 30’s at the time and I am guessing Tadek was in his early 60’s.

One night as Tadek was walking by I stopped him and formally introduced myself. Tadek was very shy, and he mentioned that he was not very confident with his use of the English language so as weird as I am I started asking him how to say a few things in Polish.  The first things I asked him where “ how do I say nice ass?”  He looked at me and looked around to see if anyone was listening as said “Fajna Dupa” and I said it right back and he cracked a smile and said OK I will teach you dirty words in Polish if you teach me jokes in English.  Every night we would sit down and chat for a half hour about life and share our lunches I would teach him a joke, and he would teach me a dirty phrase. We became close friends and shared not just food but stories of our lives.

Tadek is a brilliant, talented man and I learned so much from him and miss him.   When I lost my job in 2015, we did not keep in touch as I had an old mobile number of his. Fast forward 10 years and Connor and I are getting our morning tea, and I see Tadek and his wife standing in line. I nodded to Connor to let me go ahead and I proceeded to get in front of Tadek and obstruct his views of the donut display case. He is such a cool cucumber he just stood there as I was stopping him from picking out his morning danish. I turned around with the freshly shaven head tucked down and as I tilted it up Tadek was in total shock, and my heart was filled with joy seeing him looking so fantastic after all these years. I watched tears well up in his eyes and when he spoke the first thing he says was “Kevin, what are you doing here and where is your hair?” 

I just laughed and gave him the biggest hug. His wife gave me her mobile number so we could all get together and share food and stories about our lives.  Human connection is something so beautiful and I will never take video chatting, texting and messaging all of you for granted.

Have a great week and much love ❤️

Kevin