Happy 2022 fellow Jesters! And what a glorious year this can be… if each of us wants it to be. I’ve found in my life that attitude is not necessarily everything, but having a good one sure helps a lot. So starting the year with a positive mental attitude with clear optimistic goals is a good way to begin. It’s the following through consistently that can be difficult. 

My optimistic goal for this year is to release a bunch of music for you all. I know, I know… I’ve been promising that for a while. But I’m pretty sure this time it’s going to happen. And soon. The music for the first album is ready. The hold up lately is getting some of the marketing stuff together. Yes, that stuff. Logos, and album cover designs and marketing plans, etc… what I call the boring stuff (though the artwork is pretty exciting). But since I’m new to this world of independent music marketing (no record company as of yet), my learning curve is long and slow. 

I’m very excited about the music Larry and I and the rest of our bandmates have created. Should be a fun ride for you. Hopefully the album will give you an idea of who we are musically, and where we are headed. I don’t want to say too much as I don’t want to spoil anything. But the few people (Guinee Pigs?) I’ve tested it on have given some pretty positive reactions (unless they were just being polite). 

 As we move forward, I promise to be more in touch with everyone. After all, this is not just my journey, or even the band’s journey - it’s all of our journey (and no, we don’t sound like Journey). I’m looking forward to the feedback from you (please be kind and constructive) and developing a Karmic Jester community. Let’s have fun, open our minds and hearts and see where this journey takes us. You never know, together we might just change the world! 

My heartfelt love to you all. Have a GREAT 2022!!!

T 

01/03/2022

Well, not too funny. The world basically shutting down because of a pandemic combined with Larry's physical ailments slowing us down is not something to laugh about... but we try to anyway. These distractions have caused me to neglect this website and blog for way too long. The good news is we're close to finishing the album and in the process of getting all of the graphics, logos, marketing plans etc. designed, created and implemented. Let me tell you - it's tough making a musically ambitious album from nothing and trying to finance and market it yourself. We are doing our best, but I guarantee it will have been worth it... to somebody... hopefully. My present goal is to release "retro-spective" sometime in early spring 2022. We plan to release a few singles and teasers till then so keep an eye and ear out for them. And please bear with me - I've never done this before. This is a crazy new world for me - creating, releasing and marketing a rock album. I'm making a lot of mistakes along the way and am trying to learn from each one. I want this experience to be wonderful for everyone who invests their time and money into it. The one thing I am sure of is the music. I love it... and I think many of you will too. Jester fans... this is my dream come true. Thank you for helping me realize it.

Let the games begin!

T  - 8/26/21

It's about frickin' time!

Yeah, we've been threatening for a while, but finally got our first song up for the world to listen to. "Momma was a Beatle" was one of the first songs Larry and I wrote together and is the first to be born. Many more songs are in the pipeline, but we don't want to release anything until we feel it is ready. Kinda picky that way.

For those of you just discovering us, Hi. Welcome. If this site and my occasional ramblings seem a little haphazard, well, it's probably because we are... I am. I gotta admit, this is all new to me. I'm doing my best to figure it all out - keeping this site up and running all the while trying to continue to write and record new music and finance everything by working a more than full time job. For the past 25 years or so I have been a supervising sound editor for movies and TV shows. Worked on some good ones too. Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Legion to name a few. This music thing has come late for me, but I'm doing my best to catch up. I've learned I have a LOT to learn. So please be patient with us.. with me. We have a bunch of songs in different stages of completion and want to release them to the world, but, not to repeat myself - repeat myself - not before each song is ready. Hopefully they will be worth the wait. 

So... who the HELL are we? Funny you should ask...

Larry and I started writing songs together a little over 5 years ago. I'm the writer, he's the musician. I'm more of the instigator while he's more of the facilitator. I write words, melodies and sing, he composes/arranges, plays and records the music. Very symbiotic. We generally work well together... generally... we are after all - BROTHERS! We've been getting some great help lately by some incredible musicians. Dave Bach has been replacing our temp drum tracks and adding his percussive touch. Dan Antunovich has acted as our co-producer, playing bass and some keyboards and helping us finish these songs. And the great Scott Page (Pink Floyd) has wailed on his saxophone on a handful of songs. So, a lot to look forward too (and a lot of work still to do to "get 'er all did!"). These guys have been a tremendous help to Larry and I, and we will need more help in the weeks/months/years (hopefully) to come. 

It's all very exciting to me as I'm the newbe in all of this. You see, I wasn't a musician, a singer or a song writer until about 5-6 years ago. It was something I had dreamed about when I was young but as I got older figured it was just a fantasy. But then I reached an age where I let go of my fears and insecurities and decided to go after the many things I had always wanted to do in my life but had been too afraid to try. So I began having  art shows, and learned to scuba dive and surf. And then in 2013 I decided to go after something I wanted to do more than all the others...

It started almost as a lark. I just thought it would be fun to write some Blues songs - but not sad, depressing Blues - more of the funny and maybe a little risqué variety. Hell, at the time I didn't know what I was even going to do with them. I've been an artist and a writer since my teens, but I was never a real musician. That was Larry. I took a year of piano in high school, but I didn't keep up with it. Never really held a guitar until after I started writing these songs. And there was no way I was going to sing. I haven't been able to sing since my voice cracked (shattered) when I was 14 years old! For years I had convinced myself I would never be a song writer because (as I used to say) "I'm not a musician and I can't sing worth shit!"  But as Larry and I began to work together, everything changed. It's amazing what the mind can do when you put enormous energy and drive into it - when you want to do something so much you WILL it to happen. 

And now, after 5 years of work, it is happening. 

"Momma was a Beatle" is our first song and sort of represents what we're all about - borrowing styles of past musical eras that we love and rearranging them into something (hopefully) fresh and new. It will be a very broad landscape - a musical journey. Where will we go? 

Stay tuned...

09/19/18

Okay, so here we go. My first blog! I'm sure a lot of you (anybody out there?) would like some background on how Larry and I started this whole shebang and are curious what our intentions are with Karmic Jesters. And those are very good things to be curious about, and possibly I'll get around to telling you all about it. But not today. Just too much going on in the NOW that I don't want to spend the necessary time looking backwards.

Speaking of looking backwards - Tomorrow (Sept. 20, 2018) Larry and I are flying to Austin, Texas to attend Fantastic Fest (a film festival celebrating Horror and Fantasy films). On Sunday, my movie "Blood Lake" will be getting it's "World Premier" screening - 30 YEARS after it was originally released on video. Seems my little "No-Budget" movie has developed a cult following and is now getting a DVD release. I will attend the screening, do a Q&A with Writer/Produce/Star Doug Barry (who I haven't seen or spoken to in almost 30 years) and then the two of us will record a running commentary for the DVD. All of this is a huge surprise for me. I'm very grateful that the movie is getting some attention, but I still don't truly understand why. You see, I always thought it was a piece of crap. It didn't live up to the quality I had hoped it could. But somehow, some way I guess it contained a little magic that has touched some people (I hope not inappropriately) and has become beloved by a very small segment of movie buffs. I hope to learn what the appeal is and why they love the movie so much. No matter what, I'm so glad I made the movie. I learned so much from the doing, and might not be where I am today if I hadn't directed Blood Lake.  

If I have time I'll give updates, but most likely that will be on our Facebook site. 

Well, that was fun. I might have to write another one of these soon. Until then... Peace Everyone!

T