Seume

The month of July is gone… long gone, at this point. Shoot, it might as well be 2010 the way things are movin’. I’m realizing I gotta write shorter updates more often. Trying to mash over a month into one go shorts out my circuits. But the upside is that you can enjoy this less-than-epic prose like a warm glass of milk before hitting the sheets. Set your sails for R.E.M. and wake up a shiny, happy, person.

I spent the first part of the month in Holland with the fam. I’m usually back there for Christmas/New Years, so it was nice to be back with the sun out doing its worst. Almost every day was mid 70’s to high 80’s (that’s mid 20’s to low 30’s for the Celsius world), so if I wasn’t helping out with the renovation of the upstairs at my folks’ place, you could find me on the Wassenaar beach getting baked. The remodeling process was actually a bit sentimental, ’cause the top floor of our row house there was my (and my brothers’) room during the high school years. One of my jobs involved tearing down the ceiling we’d painted to look like a giant American flag when we first moved to the place in ‘97. At the time, it was a way to feel at home; it’s only since then that I think I’ve become a patriot. And swapped the brush for the pen.

For the Fourth of July, by the way, we grilled up some chicken and hot dogs on the back patio. Our house is one of 5 attached houses in a row – a row house, if you will – and we’ve got some great neighbors. Two houses away, our friend Petra and her family were also enjoying dinner outside, heard us (no surprise…), and started an impromptu sing of the Star Spangled Banner. We couldn’t see each other through the hedges, so it was cool to sense the camaraderie with only our ears. Ears that didn’t hear any fireworks that day… the Dutch save those for New Years… and it is CRAZY!

While I was back, I also had the chance to meet up with a few friends from the high school days. I had great conversation and chill time with Dave S. and his wife Marcha in Leiden, aka “Little Amsterdam.”

They recently got a killer pad — after 10 years on a waiting list! — in this beautiful, vibrant, 16th century city. A canal boat parade cruised by a couple blocks over this evening and not even Marcha, who’s Dutch, knew what it was about. The idea of a spontaneous parade gave the night an extra good vibe. Dave and I hope to do some collaborative work together in the future, as he’s a graphic designer and we share similar opinions about a lot of things.

My other HS reunion was with Arthur R., who I call Arturo, and the rest of Holland calls DNA. He’s the producer and 1 of 3 MCs in the hip-hop group L4. Before I hit him up a few weeks before heading over there, I wasn’t aware Arturo was in music, too – it’d been nearly 10 years since we’d seen each other. At that time, neither of us was especially active in music, so it was rad to connect on that level and share our experiences producing and performing music. We linked up a the Zwarte Ruiter (Black Rider) in The Hague and ended up meeting up with the other 2/3s of L4, Stam and Niffy. The night wrapped up with a jam session at a local spot where I joined the fellas on stage alongside the host band. I found a tambo and chimed in with some vocals to suit their free-styles. The place was packed, the atmosphere was right, and it was super dope to do a bit of performing with DNA and the fellas. Click on the pic to rocket over to L4’s myspace.

I crashed on Art’s couch – Dave’s couch got some Seume stankonia, too! — and in the hazy morning, out of the blue, we started putting a track together in the home studio. A few hours later, we were pleased with a demo and called it quits to grab the best Turkish pizza in town, right down the street. Arturo and I got together for one more session a week later during which he and the boys laid down their verses. We’re doing the back and forth online to finish it up and will have it for you to hear soon!

I’ve got another collabo cooking with KC’s best hip-hop ’09 nominee, D/Will. I invited him up to perform our co-produced track during my set at the Pitch Music Awards Showcase on Aug. 6th. The performance got a mention in the Wayward Blog by Pitch music editor, Jason Harper.

OK… go catch some Zzz’s.

-Seume

I’ve been in far away, exoctic places — The Netherlands and Wisconsin. This weekend, I’ll get around to filling you in on the details from the vanishing month of July.

But quickly, this.

- The Shadow Box was dope last night.
- I play at 10PM for the Pitch Music Awards Showcase tonight in KC, MO with special guest D/Will.
- Voting for my nomination for Best Singer-Songwriter this year in KC closes TONIGHT. Click below to help take me to soaring heights of popularity:

The Singer/Songwriter category is #22. If you’re unfamiliar with the other bands, you don’t have to vote for anyone else…

I endorse these bands/artists:

The ACBs (Pop)
Moire (Metal)
D/Will (Hip Hop)
Wrong Crowd (Punk)
Levee Town (Blues)

—

I’m off to work on a track with D/Will. See you tonight at the show, or in a few days right here.

-Seume

Hoi from Holland (where I’m spending a couple weeks with my parents and sisters)!

As you probably know, college and independent radio are some the few remaining “offline” outlets for new music, not dictated by corporate shysters. People who care about music can still decide what they wanna hear. What a concept…

So, I’m stoked to have earned several more Weekly Top 30 album spots on college/indie radio nationwide (and one in Calgary) as well as the #5 slot on KVSC in St. Cloud, MN. And one of the things I’m most happy about is that the album as a whole is getting airplay, as opposed to just a couple tracks.

Thanks for listening, my friend. Hope you’re doing real well.

PEACE
AND
LOVE

-Seume

The Pitch just released their Music Award nominees for 2009 and I was picked for the Best Singer-?Songwriter category. It’s definitely real motivating to have the music appreciated and recognized like this just 6 months after self-releasing my first album…

CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR ALL YOUR LOCAL KANSAS CITY FAVORITES

I’m also 1 of 30 acts from the group of nominees — 126 in 21 categories — that will be playing the Music Awards Showcase in Westport (Kansas City) on Aug. 6th. Wristbands for the best night of the year in local music are just $5. So if you’ll be around… COME OUT! The official schedule hasn’t been released yet, but I’m hoping my set won’t conflict with the other bands I wanna check out. A few of my friends we’re also nominated (congrats fellas!):

Moire for Best Metal — myspace.com/moire
The ACBs for Best Pop — myspace.com/theacbs
Levee Town for Best Blues — myspace.com/leveetown
* Levee Town’s guitar player, Brandon Hudspeth, graced a few tracks on It Is What It Is, most notably the shredding lead on opener, “The Fire”. He also played slide guit on “Leavin” and the violinesque volume swells after the second chorus of “Something You May Wanna Know”. B, thanks and congrats on another recognition for you and the band!

And congrats to all of this year’s nominees. Lots of great bands on the list… it’s good to be a part of it

Over the last few weeks, I’ve gotten some overseas press–in the UK.  On my birthday, April 21st, I got a message from Simon, the director behind Seume album art and web design, about being mentioned in The Drum UK.

To read the article on their site, you have to create a sign-in (why?), so here’s the text for those of you who won’t wanna do that (don’t blame you).

Smiling Wolf has worked with musician David Seume on a number of design tasks.

The Liverpool-based agency developed branding, sleeve art and packaging for the singer as well as launching his new website – davidseume.com – featuring motion graphics and a blog.

Seume’s recently released debut album cover featured a specially manufactured and photographed typographic installation.

So yeah, a design based mention, but good to be mentioned no doubt. Thanks Si, for the heads up, and to John from Smiling Wolf for recently giving my myspace some new threads.

Also, just last week received a nice review for It Is What It Is from UK based online music mag, Room Thirteen. For this one, you don’t have to do anything but click to read Joanna Vallance’s remarks on what she calls “A Varied and Promising Album”.

And, It Is What It Is is getting airplay at nearly 100 college/indie radio stations nationwide (and Canada) and is a weekly top 30 album at WLFR in Pomona, NJ. Hopefully I’ll be soon be cracking more top 30’s and start grabbing some top 10’s (or the top spot, yeah?), but the reception thus far even for a self-released debut has been proper cool. Mos def.

I’m off to Wheaton, IL tomorrow for a week at my brother’s house. Gonna landscape his crib. If I can get it together, I’ll shoot some before and after photos to throw up on Flickr. I know you wanna see ‘em.

So that’s about it for now. I’ll soon be writing an post about stuff from the last month: the L.A. show, some KC shows, the “Will Ya Be My Friend” video, some local recognition, and just generally why it’s been a while since the last update.

cheerios,
seume

I’m jumping on a flight to LA this evening to head out west for the show w/ HI-Stereo @ Air Conditioned tomorrow night. This will be the first time that my brother Pete and I are on the same bill and will share the same stage. Big brother Pete has been a big influence in my life, and with music too. He inspires me. Illmatic!

April 21st is also Pat’s (HI-Stereo guitar player) and my birthday! Aaaand, my younger brother Mark is coming out for the night from Chicago! Without Mark’s support, Peter and I surely would not be where we are — wherever that is — in music. I keep a note from Mark framed on my desk, where I spent plenty o’ time while making the album. It says, “Get. It. Done.” Keeping it on the really real, like he doos it. Bro, I couldn’t have done it without you.

DJG once again cooks up a killer show poster that’s now been slapped all over Venice Beach to promote the show. This scaled down image hardly does the all-spray-paint poster justice. See a BIGGER one here. Thanks, DJG, for taking the time to meticulously cut out the stencils and do the 3 color layering (and for the balloons)! It’s truly a blessing to have the best in town at play with my shows. We’re starting a nice li’l pile! Click here to see ‘em all.

And Norris, HI-Stereo’s bass player and resident artist, also put together a sick poster using the pages from his doodle journal. I first saw No-No’s journal — and “doodle” isn’t really the right word… his drawings are mos definitely skilled — during the band’s recording session at 4th Street in Santa Monica a few weeks ago. The 2 pages from that weekend in the studio are the ones you’ll see in the poster below. I’ve suggested that he start scanning the pages and throw ‘em online as a blog so folks the world over can enjoy his work. It was really cool watching him creatively chronicle the events of the day — like the black bird singing (I played this tune in the control room at one point between takes) or the hearse drawn beneath it (there was some kind of funeral situation outside that Saturday) — and I think it’d put a killer spin on the sometimes humdrum blogiverse.

And, today is 4/20. So I’ll take this opportunity to do 2 things. First, say happy birthday to my good friend David Blair — a phenomenal painter. Click here to see some of DB’s portrait work in pyschedlic realism. The first 4 portraits on the page are those of the Fab Four that my brother, Mark, commissioned and has hanging in his crib.

And here’s one that is currently residing as the desktop on my laptop. Thanks, DB, for creating art that motivates. And, thanks for your spirit and music, Bob.

And last but not least, thanks to all my friends at the Dopefiend Network that have supported my music by playing it on their podcasts. Thanks especially to Larz, Esse.B, Jay-K, Dopefiend, and BB at the Bungalow. Be on the lookout for a Esse.B remix of “Revolution Son”. Dirt nasty.

Okay… I’m gonna miss my plane if I don’t wrap this up. Adios amigo.

-seume

I’m posting everyday, man! 3 days in a row? Are you tracking this? Blogathon.

I just received a live recording of a new track I’ve been working on — maybe titled “It Ain’t So” — from Damage, producer and live sound engineer the night of my 2/12 gig at The Pig in Independence, MO. And here’s where I give a shout out to a great friend, and the only person I knew in a crowd of about 10 total in the bar — Brandon. He’s been to more shows than anyone else I can think of, up there with my best boy and soul brother PJ, and he was the only one not to miss this song live. ‘preciate my friends.

It wasn’t the first time I’d played the song live (I think that was last June at Fred P. Ott’s), and I’ve played it a few times since at another great friend, James’ house — my most oft-played venue — but as far as I know, it was the first time the song was recorded. Damage thought the song was (or should be) called “It Is You,” as you’ll see in the URL he gave it. I thank him for running sound that night, recording this track, and finding me online to send it my way.

But, aaaaah, after all that… here’s the live cut of “It Ain’t Me” … hope you enjoy it.

Since that performance, I’ve written some more lyrics that I really like for the second verse (instead of re-singing the first, as I did 2/12). Here’s one of the new lines:

The story’s told,
The sun grows old,
Burns red with a heart of gold,
And casts a rose upon the ground.

To further commemorate this momentous 3-days-in-a-row-blogathon, I’m attaching some nice visuals related to the work-in-project video for “Will Ya Be My Friend”. First, is one of my favorite collages (by DJG) for vid background consideration. In case you missed checking out the whole set of collages from yesterday’s post… second chances are yours by clicking the pelvic bone — or anywhere else on the image

And I thought you might be interested in seeing some of “Will Ya Be My Friend” film director, Philip Cheaney’s previous work, too. It’s one he did for The Winston Jazz Routine’s song, “A Ghost Beneath The Tower.” I think you’ll dig it.

If you want to be the first to know if the blogathon goes for 4 (nope…), you can subscribe to the feed right here. And soon I’ll be sending out a periodical newsletter — once or twice a month. If you wanna get that, click on “Subscribe” on the main site and enter your name and email address. Pretty easy. And don’t worry… it’ll be just as easy to unsubscribe.

Or will it?

Hahaha.

?

Okay… yes. It will. And so with this post, after the P.S.

P.S. Biscuits and gravy from Corner Cafe in Riverside, MO is the best around. Even when they’re leftovers. Especially when your roommate hooks ‘em up. They were delicious, brother… just delicious.

DJG whipped this show poster up in his “bossome” man cave. This 2009 vintage design has earthy undertones and an oaky finish!

You can also check out some of DJG’s design progress for the “Will Ya Be My Friend” video that’s in the works. See some the collages being considered for integration!

The Liberty Restoration Project has adopted “Revolution Son” as a sort of theme song for the cause. I’m honored.

The LRP “is composed of a politically diverse group of concerned citizens who have decided to throw down the arbitrary barriers (such as political parties) that divide us and work together as American Citizens to improve our country, starting as locally as possible.”

I also accepted an invitation to play at the after party for their End the Fed rally, April 25th at the Brick in Kansas City. Regardless of political leanings and differences in ideology, I think we can all appreciate the call for the Federal Reserve — the unelected body responsible for (among other things) the distribution of trillions of “stimulus” dollars — to be transparent with and accountable to our elected Congress. A peaceful gathering of citizens to demonstrate this conviction is a poignant way to exercise First Amendment rights. Can’t wait to perform for this group…

New look blog. Cheers to my friends at Smiling Wolf.

Also, wanted to give you a little update on the music video project with DJG and PC. The lucky song picked to take on imaginative visuals is “Will Ya Be My Friend”, and we’re currently story-boarding and coming up with lots of animated ideas. The other day, I met Danny at his place around 7:30 am — you can’t be as prolific as he is without being an early riser! — to dive into the magical world of make believe. The video-in-the-making, like our meeting time (for a couple of artists, anyway), is anything but conventional… Just like kids waking up early for Saturday morning cartoons, we’re keeping it play time.

Danny, by the way, gave me a nice nod at The Record Machine, listing davidseume.com among his year end Best Of for Kansas City related internet places of interest in 2008. I’m a little slow on the draw with this one, but thank you kindly, D.

Here’s another late post: “Revolution Son” was played on an episode of PodcastForPeace. Cheers to them for including the track… All we are saying, is give peace a chance.

Just finished reading “The Watchmen” graphic novel. It’s a masterpiece. Looking forward to the movie now, as I’ve heard that the loyal fan base is embracing it. It’s gotta be spot on, if that’s the case, cause the comic is way hardcore.

Right… I got a wicked case of heartburn. Gonna go drink some water and maybe cast off to never never land. The weather outside is frightful in KC, so the time is ripe for some catch up on sleep.

Think I’ll be back tomorrow. See you then.