in the studio – day one [MIXING]]]

i am sitting in the studio in dallas, tx with jon meyer. we are officially back to working on the record! we are mixing our first song, ‘balloons in the sky.’ this song is dedicated to my good friend matt luevano who passed away in 2003. every year his family and friends get together and we write prayers on balloons and set them to the skies after a lunch cooked by matt’s mom. i felt like i needed to write a song that kind of described that day for me. its a day of love and remembrance, but it is also a day of surreal reflection. last year when we met, i remember standing in the hot sun and writing my message on the balloon. i remember the feeling of releasing that balloon into the air. call me sentimental but it was tough letting it go. i could never get that balloon back and for some reason i just wanted the right words to fly away. the song is not meant to be sad. it is as if a complete stranger were standing in the distance watching. the song acts as an observation of a gathering under unfortunate circumstances.

i will be here for the week getting this record finished! have a friend, melissa, coming in to record a few more cello parts on wednesday! anyway, i am taking footage of our studio time and will hopefully have some of it up next week when i am back in nashville!

do you like to purchase records?  well, you will want to purchase the new mindy smith record.  it releases august 11th and i fortunately had the chance to listen to it before its release.  this is seriously, probably my favorite record right now.  i am going to buy it when it comes out i love it so much.  that is all!

joe.

cuban and hanson

i am sitting at crema right now with my friend danny nicoletto (landof1000hills.com). i had a delicious double cuban with a turkey sandwich. anyway, while we were sitting here taylor hanson came in and sat down by us with his mix engineer. danny and i had a brief conversation with him about his tanya tucker shirt. apparently they have a new record they are mixing… oh yeah!

i am flying to dallas on sunday to start mixing my record with jon. i will be there for the week getting that finished and will have it ready for mastering in a jiffy! i have set a due-month for this thing to come out and am going to do my best to stick to that. i have not released an actually day but it will be sometime in august. also, because iTunes takes a while to process a new record in their system, it will probably be september to october until it is available there. i will keep you posted on that! the record will be available through online purchase on my website (joemoralez.com).

CHAT – ok, i know this is really pathetic and kind of ridiculous, but i thought it would be fun to start a frequent online chat room from my website and talk with random people i know or may not know. come on, you know you want to talk about life with me!  i will post chat dates on my site as to when the link to the chat will be available. this could be completely lame or… awesome! who knows, i guess we will find out.  next chat is JULY 9TH – 10:00 AM CENTRAL.

take care of yourself and love someone today.

joe.

happy 4th of july!

i am back home from a long three day week out with bh. we played nampa, idaho (they shot fireworks as we played… it was cool), salt lake city, utah and olathe, colorado. i have taken a bunch of footage from the past few runs on the road and will hopefully have a summer tour vlog updated soon on youtube.

i have posted tour dates for the upcoming fall tour that brandon and i will be on with leeland. it is called the follow you tour. also playing is francesca battistelli. we will be playing around fourty shows and will hopefully be in an area near you! check out brandonheath.net for more info.

its raining right now and i am quickly getting tired. anyway, i have to head to jon’s house to bbq some food and celebrate this years 4th of july!

joe.

*sorry for such a lame and lazy post. i will do better next time!

goodbye mr. jackson.

cliff jumping and battling nature

yesterday i went cliff jumping at a lake with my friends jordan and josh. i drove out to their house and we rode our bikes over to the lake. while we were getting ready to leave i could hear thunder in the distance. it didn’t sound welcoming or like it was going to just pass by but jordan insisted, “nah, its going to pass right by us.” we continued our fifteen minute bike ride to the cliffs. the passageway to the area we were going to be jumping was nestled away behind a neighborhood so we had to sneak around some houses to get there. once we were in the woods we held our bikes and made our quarter mile hike through the wooded pathways to the rocks and imminent death zone. i am not a friend of heights and heights is not a friend of me. i was nervous while we were approaching these high drop off points because there are a few things i don’t want to happen to me in life. here are those fears:
1. heart attack (while i am alone)
2. getting shanked (stabbed with a knife)
3. plane crash (that would suck really bad)
4. hmm… oh yeah, falling off a cliff!

anyway, the storm that i heard earlier was creeping up on us. across the lake we could see the line of showers soaking the distance and heading our way, fast. as the first drops of rain started to fall we were all feeling pretty refreshed. as more drops started to fall it became clear to me that it was going to be a downpour. it never occurred to me it would get as bad as it did. we found a small ledge behind the edge of the cliff to hunker down behind. the winds picked up like crazy! the trees all around us were blowing back and forth and branches started to rip off the trees and disappear. the rain was so thick we could hardly see. debris was hitting us like paintballs and some hail started to fall. a few other guys that were out there came running to hide out with us. we were still very exposed to natures wrath and my biggest concern was having a tree fall on us… or for a tornado to rip all of us from the cliff and take us to heaven. while we were there josh spat into the air and the wind took it straight up into the air. all i can remember was him saying, “hey, spit in the air… watch!” so here we are, scared for our lives and spitting into the wind. after about twenty minutes for unforgiving wind and rain we heard a loud crack and saw lightning strike too close for comfort. one of the guys there stood up like a prairie dog and he started running off into the woods. we have no idea what his plan was but we all followed suit. we grabbed what we could and ran down the trails, which were now rivers flowing toward the lake. we ran faster than i have ever ran before passing people getting off their pontoon boats. we even saw one group literally saving their beer. they created an assembly line passing beer from the boat to land in a very organized manner. are you kidding me? what is wrong with people? i would say they have a point, but really? jordan, josh and i finally made it to the neighborhood and found a basement of someone’s guest house and snuck in to dry off and wait out the rest of the storm. i have not been this scared in a long time my friends. it was pretty hilarious to think back on. during the thunderstorm, it wasn’t funny. afterwards we made our way back to the cliffs to check on our bikes and to continue jumping. the waters finally went from choppy to glassy. the sky went from black to blue and sunny. and slowly but surely the lake became active again with people riding jet skis, sailing and swimming. we stayed out there for a few more hours. what a night of survival. the power god gave nature is nothing short of amazing. i am glad everything worked out in our favor and i am able to write about it.

joe.

-i wrote this quickly so pardon my grammar!

georgia and maine

atlanta fest – we left friday to play ‘atlanta fest’ at stone mountain in austell, ga. i would have to say this is probably the hottest day and concert i have ever played. the entire day it was really sunny and the humidity levels had to be around 300%. probably not, but it was really hot. chick-fil-a was definitely a presence at the festival. i probably had 20 chicken sandwiches throughout the day (actually, i only had 2.5). if i did not have one in my hand someone would kindly ask, “excuse me sir, your hand is extremely empty. i need you to take one of these,” handing me a chicken sandwich from their black igloo. i, on several occasions, accepted with a “thank you,” their response is always being, “my pleasure.” huh? the show went really well overall. it was great to hang out with phil joel and his band. they were really nice. it was also great to see my friends from revive again! i have missed them ever since we got off the revelation tour. everyone at this show was extremely hospitable and kind.

old orchard beach, maine – early saturday morning we were at the atlanta airport catching a flight to maine. once we arrived we were in a fifteen passenger van to the venue. this place was great! we played the salvation army old orchard beach pavilion. say that five times as fast as you can:

salvation army old orchard beach pavilion.
salvation army old orchard beach pavilion.
salvation army old orchard beach pavilion.
salvation army old orchard beach pavilion.
salvation army old orchard beach pavilion.

…good job. the weather was cool and sunny. before the show we had a massive maine lobster dinner (i ate a turkey burger… i don’t eat things from the sea!) and rehearsed our set. we played for an hour and a half and during the middle brandon took over to do an acoustic set for close to thirty minutes. so the whole thing was about two hours. at some points during the show i would look outside and see fog setting all around the venue. it looked erie but really cool. after the show we went to the pier to grab some pizza and ice cream. the beach was probably the coolest part of the entire trip because it looked like the set of an old eighties movie… kind of like the scene from ‘big’ when tom hanks goes to the carnival as a kid. there were little ice cream shops and pizza joints everywhere. there were carnival rides, arcades and bars. everything was lit up like vegas. it was kind of a surreal environment. not a place i would necessarily ever want to live, but it was definitely cool to visit!

i am sick and trying to rest. medicine is kicking in making me tired so i must lay my head down on a pillow… just to see what happens.

joe.

chat with me @ joemoralez.com

starting this month i will be posting a chat room on my website (joemoralez.com). i will set up dates and times the chat room box will appear on the website and you can click “start chatting” and converse with me and others who are there. please keep the conversation clean and interesting! sign up and create your own free user name and account at geesee.com. my user name is ‘joemoralez’. this could be lame… or awesome!

*you do not have to sign up at geesee to chat. if you choose not to sign up, you are automatically issued a user name upon clicking the “start chatting” button.(example: ‘Guest34′).

next live chat:
june 18th at 10:00 AM central time

‘up’ to charlotte, nc

i am sitting at my favorite coffee spot… again. yes, i love coffee more than you could ever understand. of course, if you are coffee lover too, then you might have some idea.  i also went to see ‘UP’ the other night.  it was really good!  i recommend everyone to see it.  good story and great animation… as always.  freaking pixar is soo good.  i am hanging out with my buddy danny (thousand hills coffee) and we are talking about music and each of our travels. i got in to nashville yesterday from charlotte, nc. we played a festival at carowinds. it was a good show because my good buddy jake kreifels (space man spiff) was there playing bass. he had an unfortunate hotel accident the night before the show that sent him to the hospital and resulted in five stitches in his cheek below his right eye. crazy huh? who ever said traveling with brandon heath was a ‘walk in the park’. also playing on the bill was tobymac, third day, hawk nelson, remedy drive and fireflight. it was pretty cool to see everyone from the previous tours we were on and hang out for a bit.

i have a new song that i will post to my myspace and facebook page as soon as i finish the lyrics and sing a vocal on it. it’s called ’smoke in the river’. i am also recording some demos at my buddy jon’s house. i am hoping to get alot of writing done in the coming months. i think being on tour for 5 months and even still has taken a toll on my ability to write music. most of the time it is difficult to find a quiet place to write. anyway, lots of new music and my new record coming out in august!

take care of yourself and remember, there is someone you will run into today who needs something from you. i have no idea what that could be but i think you are and i are well capable of giving it. could be time. could be respect. could be a few dollars. we are called to help each other out in this life. do it. one day down the road, we will need it.

joe.

strange and funny feelings… whatever that means.

i am back here in nashville sitting at my favorite coffee spot, crema. last night i went to jordan’s house and we recorded some music. i had to take my car in earlier that day to the vw dealership because my car was acting a fool. i am not really sure what happened but apparently it has to do with the spark plugs… in car world, that is an important piece of the mechanical puzzle that must be in good health. in the meantime, i am driving a kia sorento around. i feel like i should have a screaming child in the back seat throwing toys and cheeto’s around like a little beastly tornado. i flew in to nashville from galveston, tx on june 6th.

so, about my cruise? it was amazing! it was really cool to get to hang out with every sibling and my parents for seven days. there were slight bits of drama mixed in to the nice field of mixed greens of family bonding. our muster station conveniently turned from an actual muster station to a bar right outside of the karaoke room. my mom was a known star on the boat because of that sing-along luxury. ikomang (bartender) was a really nice guy from india. he told me stories about his family and how often he gets to see them. our dinner waiter, richard, was also an extremely great person. he was always happy and treated us as if it were his first time to tend a table. it made me realize that some of the simple things in life that we ignore on a daily basis is as beautiful as a blooming flower or a cloud that takes shape into something only you can see. as people we ignore each other and go about our busy day like its more important than the next guys schedule. to be honest, we are all important but not in the way you might think. we have content brains living a pattern of life that turns out to be… just a learned pattern of living. there is more to this world than waking up, drinking coffee, walking the dog, going to whatever church or religion you tie yourself, eating lunch, talking about this girl or that guy, going to buy a new ipod, etc. i am learning this each day. as people we need to be extremely careful we don’t miss the bigger meaning of life. i can’t say that it is what i have lived the past 26 years of my life believing. i think it is more. to be real with you, i have always wondered about god and how powerful he is and what he does with me each day. i’ve doubted and still doubt all of the time. the concept of god is too big for you or your pastor or preacher to comprehend. if you know people who say they understand god i think they are lying. all we do is crawl a few more inches closer to our understanding of god and i think god leaps a thousand feet away from us in this process of digging deeper in our faith. to ever reach a place of understanding and satisfaction to who we are in god would be foolish. we are foul thinkers consistently letting ourselves and others down. what does that mean? it means we have a good record of living out loud the ‘how to’ book of falling short. this is nothing to feel ashamed of or lose hope over because that would also be foolish. if we as humans know one thing, it is how to pick ourselves up and try again. remember that.

you know the feeling when you finally “got” something in school? the strange and funny feeling when you figure out that special someone has the same feelings toward you that you do them? it is a brain ‘click’ or spark, so to speak. the little energy efficient light bulb has been turned on. the green curtain has been opened. all i am saying is that to stop searching what this life is about and how important your place in this universe is, you would be in the wrong. to be in a place of complacency would be the saddest day, week, month or years of your life. keep learning further than things people shove in front of your face. things you read or hear on television. things the so-called unbiased news networks feed you. if we are human beings, that means we are smarter than what we are fed for lunch each day by the world media or tainted politics. let’s prove it and keep learning. my eyes are open and i am still searching for answers.

joe.

on a cruise!

i am leaving for a 7 day cruise with my family tomorrow. i will take lots of photos and update you about the record as well as how the trip went! peace!

joe.