Well Hello there Friends, Fans, Family, and Strangers
The Album is Finally F'@CK*N Out! You can download it here, on a pay as you please basis. (If you scroll halfway down the page you will find the link) I'm really happy to give the album away for free. But if you want to pay me, I will gladly take some money as I would like to do this as a career.
So if you don't know, here's a little back-story: Years ago while riding a train across the country and reading "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" by Joseph Campbell I decided I wanted to make a hip hop concept album about the hero's journey.
But first I had a problem, I didn't know how to make music. So once home, I started to discipline myself, to wake up early and learn how to make music (Shout out to Sickamore who really helped me develop my flow).
So I started to make music and started telling my friends I would make an album. Then Occupy happened, and I took a year and a half to focus pretty much solely on activism. As Occupy Eugene slowed, I began to work on the album again.
Than my partner got pregnant and we began to buy a house. So once again the album was put on hold. After my son was born, I began to work on the album again. Finally finishing.
But then came mastering, what was supposed to be a month and a half process became a draining 7 month process.
But through all of these life events, I gained valuable insights, new friends, new flows, and I think the music reflects this. As I had to live my hero's journey in order to tell the stories and songs that would be my hero's journey.
This is my 'learning how to make music' album in a way. As you can hear me learning about music as I was creating it. It is a flawed album, but I'm deeply proud of it nonetheless. And I'm already working on a new batch of songs that I believe will reflect all the practice and skill refining that has happened since this album was finished 7 months ago.
I hope you listen, let me know what you think. I'll tell ya honestly, I'm a little nervous for the reviews and worried a little about people's responses. BUT, I do believe in the beauty of my dreams. I do believe in in staring at the face of my fear, and to take that mask off and reveal love.
Thank you for reading this blog. Please share with your friends.
Here is another place you can purchase my album:
http://plaedo.bandcamp.com/album/learning-adventures-in-love-and-revolution
Peace, Love, Joy, Wisdom....
-Plaedo
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
A review of "Jared Paul Live"
With a punk rock attitude, hip hop cadence, and the mentality of an activist, Jared Paul begins his first ever full length live spoken word album with "Class Warpath." Shouting "So it's 2012 and I'm still in the water, sharks swarm, but I'm never swimming for shore, let them come, let them come." A telling line about the territory covered on this album which could easily double as 'a Jared Paul's Greatest Hits" album. This is an album from a man, an artist and activist who has spent the past ten years criss-crossing the country on the independent grind, performing at poetry slams, festivals, protests, and bars. A man who along the way has built quite a reputation as a live performer. (I've seen him perform for crowds, from hundreds to a handful, no matter the amount of people in the audience he brings the same passion.)
Along the way, Jared Paul has gathered a few things. He has a mind full of statistics. Some might say statistics, shouldn't be in poetry! Still the stats are quite inciting, on "ABC's for Radical's" we learn that, "There are over 900 billionaires in existence. Total their wealth and you got more money than the combined asset of every other working class person on earth." The poem puts a chilling case for why we need to change our ways or we will destroy our ability to live on this planet. This is a statistics spitting street poet, who is able, and willing, to say the poems that uncover those uncomfortable truths the decent society would rather sweep under the rug. This is not coffee table poetry.
Which isn't to say that this isn't a fun album. Jared Paul is not the spoken word Morrissey. The next poem is a 'Bike Riding Revenge Poem' that humorously and vividly recounts an incident with a taxi driver on a sunny afternoon. Actually this is more a story than a poem. And some of Jared Paul's best pieces are stories. I highly recommend "2008 RNC Arrest Story."
"Once I took a train..." And so it goes for this traveling artist slash activist. Numerous tracks are centered on his experiences on the road, there's road trips stressed by snowy roads, dirty hotels and bar performances, and from a train window there's a field of crosses that spurs a deep meditation. This deep meditation in "Salt Lake Crucifixion Blues" covers quite a lot of ground, it's an absorbing journey of a poem with a clever ending.
Other standouts pieces include, "Lots Wife" with it's rhythmic and graphic poetry and "Pro Choice For Life" which begins with him existentially questioning "are things as bad as I seem to make them?", and ends with a portrait of a childhood violated in foster care. His answer is there.
And in the tradition of the Pete Seeger and all the great voices of the people, Jared Paul continues on. His live album, inspired by the great injustices of the day and travels on the road, is his greatest hits album, a telling end to a chapter in his story. I encourage you to listen to his album which can be found here: http://jaredpaulsfr.bandcamp.com/
Next up for Jared Paul, a book! Go here to learn more: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/jared-paul-book-campaign
Along the way, Jared Paul has gathered a few things. He has a mind full of statistics. Some might say statistics, shouldn't be in poetry! Still the stats are quite inciting, on "ABC's for Radical's" we learn that, "There are over 900 billionaires in existence. Total their wealth and you got more money than the combined asset of every other working class person on earth." The poem puts a chilling case for why we need to change our ways or we will destroy our ability to live on this planet. This is a statistics spitting street poet, who is able, and willing, to say the poems that uncover those uncomfortable truths the decent society would rather sweep under the rug. This is not coffee table poetry.
Which isn't to say that this isn't a fun album. Jared Paul is not the spoken word Morrissey. The next poem is a 'Bike Riding Revenge Poem' that humorously and vividly recounts an incident with a taxi driver on a sunny afternoon. Actually this is more a story than a poem. And some of Jared Paul's best pieces are stories. I highly recommend "2008 RNC Arrest Story."
"Once I took a train..." And so it goes for this traveling artist slash activist. Numerous tracks are centered on his experiences on the road, there's road trips stressed by snowy roads, dirty hotels and bar performances, and from a train window there's a field of crosses that spurs a deep meditation. This deep meditation in "Salt Lake Crucifixion Blues" covers quite a lot of ground, it's an absorbing journey of a poem with a clever ending.
Other standouts pieces include, "Lots Wife" with it's rhythmic and graphic poetry and "Pro Choice For Life" which begins with him existentially questioning "are things as bad as I seem to make them?", and ends with a portrait of a childhood violated in foster care. His answer is there.
And in the tradition of the Pete Seeger and all the great voices of the people, Jared Paul continues on. His live album, inspired by the great injustices of the day and travels on the road, is his greatest hits album, a telling end to a chapter in his story. I encourage you to listen to his album which can be found here: http://jaredpaulsfr.bandcamp.com/
Next up for Jared Paul, a book! Go here to learn more: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/jared-paul-book-campaign
Monday, April 8, 2013
Rites of Passage along the Journey (New Song)
Hello Good People,
For the Hero's Journey to start there needs to be a catalyst. Mythologists and Depth Psychologists such as Robert Bly and Michael Meade often stress how there needs to be an event that transforms the innocent into the orphan. It is a painful but necessary process for a person to reach individuation and to understand what their bliss is. In fact, many tribal cultures engage in a painful rites of passage ceremony to initiate teens into adulthood. Where a boy or girl must go through a process to realize their adult identity....
The seeds of this song were planted in Bellingham, Washington. I taught a spoken word poetry class at Options Alternative High School. My heart was touched by all the youth who shared their childhood scars in their poetry. From there I took a train to Los Angeles. In L.A. I spent a weekend performing poetry on street corners, selling my poetry chapbook. At night, I couldn't afford a hotel room, so I would stay up all night walking the streets and talking to street youth, I kept hearing similar stories of Childhood trauma. I heard many stories of childhood wounds that needed to be healed. After LA, I got on a train for Chicago. Along the way, I kept thinking of the youth who I had met and at some point a burst of words came, words that told my story and told their story. Words that were meant to help youth reach the other side of the initiation process (It is quite sad and a sign of how unhealthy our culture and society is, that we don't often practice serious rites of passage processes.)
Concerning the Orphan, Carol Pearson wrote, "His or her accomplishment is to move out of innocence and denial to learn that suffering, pain, scarcity, and death are an inevitable part of life...After the fall comes the long and sometimes slow climb back to learning to trust and to hope...The Orphans task eventually is to learn self-reliance...We return to Eden and Innocence understanding that it is safe to trust ourselves, others, and the universe."
I know personally it took me many years to heal these wounds, and on some level, the process of healing is ever-going. However, I know that many songs and poems inspired me along this part of my path, hopefully by telling my story I can help others on this part of their path, So hear it is!
Listen to Rites of Passage.
Also if you like the song, please donate to my Indie Go Go campaign, I have yet to raise enough money to realize the project.
Peace, Love, Joy, Wisdom...
-Plaedo
For the Hero's Journey to start there needs to be a catalyst. Mythologists and Depth Psychologists such as Robert Bly and Michael Meade often stress how there needs to be an event that transforms the innocent into the orphan. It is a painful but necessary process for a person to reach individuation and to understand what their bliss is. In fact, many tribal cultures engage in a painful rites of passage ceremony to initiate teens into adulthood. Where a boy or girl must go through a process to realize their adult identity....
The seeds of this song were planted in Bellingham, Washington. I taught a spoken word poetry class at Options Alternative High School. My heart was touched by all the youth who shared their childhood scars in their poetry. From there I took a train to Los Angeles. In L.A. I spent a weekend performing poetry on street corners, selling my poetry chapbook. At night, I couldn't afford a hotel room, so I would stay up all night walking the streets and talking to street youth, I kept hearing similar stories of Childhood trauma. I heard many stories of childhood wounds that needed to be healed. After LA, I got on a train for Chicago. Along the way, I kept thinking of the youth who I had met and at some point a burst of words came, words that told my story and told their story. Words that were meant to help youth reach the other side of the initiation process (It is quite sad and a sign of how unhealthy our culture and society is, that we don't often practice serious rites of passage processes.)
Concerning the Orphan, Carol Pearson wrote, "His or her accomplishment is to move out of innocence and denial to learn that suffering, pain, scarcity, and death are an inevitable part of life...After the fall comes the long and sometimes slow climb back to learning to trust and to hope...The Orphans task eventually is to learn self-reliance...We return to Eden and Innocence understanding that it is safe to trust ourselves, others, and the universe."
I know personally it took me many years to heal these wounds, and on some level, the process of healing is ever-going. However, I know that many songs and poems inspired me along this part of my path, hopefully by telling my story I can help others on this part of their path, So hear it is!
Listen to Rites of Passage.
Also if you like the song, please donate to my Indie Go Go campaign, I have yet to raise enough money to realize the project.
Peace, Love, Joy, Wisdom...
-Plaedo
Friday, April 5, 2013
Answering The Call to Adventure (New Song!)
Every Story must have a beginning. For the Journey to Start the hero must answer the call to adventure. Thus my album, "Learning Adventures in Love and Revolution" begins with the song, "Morning Mantra." Allow me to explain...
I graduated from College with a general studies and philosophy degree at the end of 2008, around the time Obama took office and the Recession set in. There were no jobs. And I didn't have a clue, what I wanted to do. I lived in Moscow, Idaho and had already tasted the 'big world out there' as I had spent some time living in Bangkok, Thailand a few years earlier. I knew that as much as I loved Moscow, I needed to get out of that town. I needed to explore...
So I took my meager savings, about 2000 dollars saved while working as a barista at a Food Co-op and I bought a cross country train ticket. I booked a little spoken word poetry tour, packed my bags and hit the road. The next few months were spent performing poetry at little coffee shops and on street corners, meditating in Philadelphia, Partying at Mardi Gras in New Orleans, hanging with Street Kids in Los Angeles, visiting family and sorting through generational baggage in Bellingham and Seattle Washington, washing my face in both the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean, and exploring DMT and altered states of consciousness in between. Along the way, I was given a book, "The Hero With A Thousand Faces" by Joseph Campbell.
This book made me realize, that I was on my Hero's Journey. Somewhere, Somehow, I got the idea that I wanted to tell my Hero's Journey in the form of a hip hop album. But first, I had to live that journey and I had to learn how to make music...
After I traveled the country for 3 months and visited 38 states, I came back to Moscow. I tried to live in Moscow. But I couldn't. I felt crazy. Something deep within was unsatisfied, I had the feeling that I needed to leave Moscow, it was spiritually a life or death situation.
So I moved to Seattle, Washington. Upon arriving in Seattle, I was quite isolated. In retrospect this was good for me, and upon further studies I realized that all Hero's Journey's include a period of isolation or separation from the known.
When living in Seattle, I would wake up every morning, do 10 minutes of yoga, say 22 positive affirmations in the mirror, than practice music for a few hours before I would go explore Seattle looking for jobs and opportunity.
The following song represents that era to me. In fact, this song was written in Seattle (making it one of the oldest songs on the album.) It is a song that represents answering the call to adventure, the quest for enlightenment, and an unknown white trash alien turned activist and family man MC walking through the city, inspired to make a change. And while it is not my favorite song, nor the obvious hit single, it is where the album needs to start: So here it is, track 1, Morning Mantra. I invite you to come with me on this journey...
This song is also the first song I have paid to be mixed and mastered with donations to my indie go go campaign from people like you.
Click here to donate.
Peace, Love, Joy, Wisdom...
-Plaedo
I graduated from College with a general studies and philosophy degree at the end of 2008, around the time Obama took office and the Recession set in. There were no jobs. And I didn't have a clue, what I wanted to do. I lived in Moscow, Idaho and had already tasted the 'big world out there' as I had spent some time living in Bangkok, Thailand a few years earlier. I knew that as much as I loved Moscow, I needed to get out of that town. I needed to explore...
So I took my meager savings, about 2000 dollars saved while working as a barista at a Food Co-op and I bought a cross country train ticket. I booked a little spoken word poetry tour, packed my bags and hit the road. The next few months were spent performing poetry at little coffee shops and on street corners, meditating in Philadelphia, Partying at Mardi Gras in New Orleans, hanging with Street Kids in Los Angeles, visiting family and sorting through generational baggage in Bellingham and Seattle Washington, washing my face in both the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean, and exploring DMT and altered states of consciousness in between. Along the way, I was given a book, "The Hero With A Thousand Faces" by Joseph Campbell.
This book made me realize, that I was on my Hero's Journey. Somewhere, Somehow, I got the idea that I wanted to tell my Hero's Journey in the form of a hip hop album. But first, I had to live that journey and I had to learn how to make music...
After I traveled the country for 3 months and visited 38 states, I came back to Moscow. I tried to live in Moscow. But I couldn't. I felt crazy. Something deep within was unsatisfied, I had the feeling that I needed to leave Moscow, it was spiritually a life or death situation.
So I moved to Seattle, Washington. Upon arriving in Seattle, I was quite isolated. In retrospect this was good for me, and upon further studies I realized that all Hero's Journey's include a period of isolation or separation from the known.
When living in Seattle, I would wake up every morning, do 10 minutes of yoga, say 22 positive affirmations in the mirror, than practice music for a few hours before I would go explore Seattle looking for jobs and opportunity.
The following song represents that era to me. In fact, this song was written in Seattle (making it one of the oldest songs on the album.) It is a song that represents answering the call to adventure, the quest for enlightenment, and an unknown white trash alien turned activist and family man MC walking through the city, inspired to make a change. And while it is not my favorite song, nor the obvious hit single, it is where the album needs to start: So here it is, track 1, Morning Mantra. I invite you to come with me on this journey...
This song is also the first song I have paid to be mixed and mastered with donations to my indie go go campaign from people like you.
Click here to donate.
Peace, Love, Joy, Wisdom...
-Plaedo
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