Living "La Vida Lisbon"

Imparting Some Portuguese and Moroccan Flavor to LYRE's Debut

With the main VIP in my life spending most of the past 4 months in Europe it has become increasingly difficult to maintain the kind of relationship we both seek to have. And since The Babe's planted in Lisbon until who-knows-when I decided to re-enlist the cat sitter, throw 150 pounds worth of clothes, recording gear, and instruments into bags and flight cases, and move tracking and mixing duties to the Tivoli Oriente Hotel in Lisbon.

Travel was pretty uneventful except for the airlines loosing the one bag with all my clothes, toiletries, a MIDI keyboard, and some fairly expensive microphones in it. That pretty much set my schedule back by a day as I scampered around the mall buying enough stuff to get by and trying to remain positive. The case did make it to the hotel this morning with just a broken zipper and all the contents in tact. I can't wait to see what kind of positive thing ends up being attached to this rather negative experience. I did become suddenly aware of and grateful for the fact that this is the first time in a lifetime of travel that I've ever had a bag misplaced. Seems I'm doing way better than the industry average.

With jet lag subsiding I'm turning once again to work on the album. I'll be posting to the LYRE Notes Blog almost daily and giving out links to some new Flickr albums while in Europe. I'll be making the most of this time by getting out to experience as much live Portuguese music as I can. I also plan to do some surfing and make a musician's pilgrimage to Morocco to see what north African tones and rhythms I can soak up.

Cheers for now,

Dave

Mixing Music European Hotel Style

It Ain't So Bad, Besides There's No Room Service Back Home

I just wanted to give you an idea of my situation for mixing in London and Lisbon. About the hardest thing is getting used to wearing earbuds for hours on end and knowing I'll have to leave all EQing until I'm back home with accurate monitors. Still, I can compose and even use my travel keyboard to record midi tracks of things like synth, piano, organ, and drums.

 All in all I think it's working well and it does seem inspiring to take breaks and go on a mini adventure in the

 hotel's neighborhood. The only thing I really miss is my guitars. I really like to record guitars when the mood hits and they do tend to be my musical security blankets.

More later.

Cheers,
Dave

Oh, I almost forgot...

I saw a werewolf with a chinese menu in his hand

Walking through the streets of Soho in the rain

He was looking for the place called Lee Ho Fook's

Gonna' get a big plate of beef chow mein.

Aioooo, werewolves of London...

New Album Update

Dave Hoskins Becomes LYRE With a Debut Album in the Pipeline

I feel the need to interrupt my London posts and write a small piece to explain a little more about the name LYRE and what's been going on with the new album.

Firstly LYRE is the band name I'm going to be playing under from now on whether I play a solo show or with other musicians - eventually leading to a full band. I chose the name because I think of the lyre as a kind of small harp like by David who wrote the psalms of scripture played. The connection is not that I'm named David, but rather that, according to the story, young David played for Israel's king Saul when he was tormented by demons and the music drove the spirits away.

My vision is to create music that not only entertains, but also helps people live positive and fulfilling lives. I write songs that encourage, illuminate, strengthen, and otherwise help people in the struggle to get the best out of life. This is the light in me flows out through the music. My elevator pitch goes something like this:

"Many people glimpse a vision or purpose that leads straight to their fulfillment in life, but as they travel the road toward it things get hard and they doubt or they get sidetracked and soon they're no longer heading toward the life of their dreams. LYRE creates music that inspires, encourages, and helps us remember what passion feels like. LYRE gives a soundtrack for the journey."

So that's why I'm making the transition from playing under my own name into LYRE. It'll probably be just me for a little while longer and then others will be added to the band. I will also be moving into a new website by the fall when we get www.lyre.tv up and running.

And that brings me to the new album. I've been recording new songs written specifically for LYRE for the past 6-8 weeks now. I'm about half done with the recording but things are also going faster than at the beginning so I plan to have LYRE's debut album mixed and mastered; album art and show posters designed, t-shirt designs finished and the whole lot of it off for replication and printing by mid-August. 

This means I'll have the finished products in hand by the third week in September. I'm really working to make this deadline for several reasons but if I feel it needs pushed back to keep the production quality high I will do that. I'd rather have high quality products to sell a few weeks late than get inferior stuff out on time.

So that's where I am right now. I'm trying to get out this week and make connections for a fall tour in London and then next week while in Lisbon I may get to some mixing and recording keyboards unless it looks like I should also be networking with venue bookers there too. Once back in the US I'll hit recording hard again and get this project back up to speed.

More to come.

Cheers,

Dave