August 31 • hello people

i'm sitting at at my favorite coffee place in north county. it's been ages since my last journal entry i know. And so much has been going on. That's part of what took me so long.....where do i start? Hmm i guess i'll start now and go backwards. Since our record came out we've actually had some time off. i've been hanging out and playing at Largo, drinking coffee, catching up with friends, oh i finished mixing my solo record, which i'm really excited about. I've been working on that thing on and off for 2 years. But i'm really happy with how it ended up. A lot of things changed a long the way. Some songs got recorded and dropped and new ones came along. A song or two got rerecorded. Lots of fun though. I wish i was always in the state of recording a solo record in my off time. I recorded this one half in SD and half in LA. Mostly in LA i guess. I did a lot of it at Henson. I love that studio. How can you not have a fun time recording when you have muppets and creatures from labrinth hanging around.

I'm so excited our record is out. And for the tour. Yay for new material. the touring this fall is going to be so cool. Lots of great openers. One that i'm particularly excited about is our good friend Derek Hughes. He's an amazing magician and really funny. He's a Largo regular.... his show is called "what if magic exists?" but he's opened for sara and me a few times on our nights as well and it's always so cool.

The surf has been great the last couple days. So good to get out there and feel small again. It's been a small summer. The other evening my friend andy and i had a fun night surf. It's fun to just sit out there as it gets dark and watch everyone go in. Then surf by the light of the moon till hunger pulls you out of the water. The day before yesterday was the best though. Middle of a weekday, glassy and sunny with a perfect 6' south swell.

Lets see what else is there to talk about.....well we're getting kicked out of our band house in west hollywood, which sucks. It got bought and the new landlord wants to live there. It worked out ok 'cause we're about to go on tour for a few months so it'll be nice to not have to pay rent on a place we're not at. We'll find a new one this winter after the touring. The good thing about this one is that it's only 3 blocks from Urth Cafe, which is the best coffee in LA.....that we know of at least. That has been nice but there are other fish in the sea i suppose.

We did a promo show in Dallas with Switchfoot. That was fun. I love those guys. Their new record sounds great. I think it comes out sept 13th. you should get it! It's funny we all live like 5 minutes from each other but the first show we get to do together is 1500 miles away from home. Jon is a great songwriter and singer, he sang harmony on my solo record on a song called run away girl. It's funny how long it can take to actually get together and make music even though you're friends and live so close. Blame it on the logistical rubik's cube. Tonight we surf, if all the colors stay lined up. But back to their new record...great melodies and well thought out parts. And lots of thought provoking lyrics. Honest and raw.

On that subject...I'm so sick of sugar-coated songs from the christian perspective. One of the most comforting and inspiring lines to me is from the last chorus of Come THou Fount where it says "prone to wander, Lord i feel it, prone to leave the God i love". Not many unwatered down songs make it through the filter of the Christian music industry mafia these days.

OK well, on that note.... I hope you all are happy and well. more to come soon. -sean