Covid-19 and the Social Distancing Humans

Well this is weird. Since my last blog post we have found ourselves in the midst of a pandemic. Many of us are self-quarantining to help slow the pace of the virus so our hospitals can handle the incoming patients appropriately. What have I been doing with my time? Practicing, mixing, writing, going on hikes with my wife, exercising, cooking, reading books, and keeping a low profile. While this pandemic is horrible and extremely alarming, I gotta say it is nice to slow down a bit and reflect on the important things in life. Here are things I am excited about…

The 45 sounds so damn good on vinyl and you should absolutely scoop one. I am very happy with how this turned out! If you can’t afford one, holler at me directly and we’ll see what we can work out, otherwise listen to it on any streaming platform.

We are working on the Kenya Hall EP while everyone is quarantined. Since we are all essentially on lock-down, and have the wonderful tool ‘The Internet’, we can send each other things to work on and get the recordings sounding good. We are starting with a three song EP.

Jacob McCurdy of the Dapper Gents has finished the tracking for his EP and we are moving into the mixing/editing stage of that. I believe we are looking at four songs, barring he doesn’t throw an acoustic number on there. While none of us are playing live right now, we can hunker down and get all this new music out to be heard!

Finally, I’m working on my own stuff. When my ideas are solid, I send them around to friends to get their take and track ideas over the top to create something collaboratively. It’s weird not being in the same room as other people and the process takes a little longer, but its ok. It’s still super fun working with folks on new stuff!

I can’t stress the importance of keeping calm and healthy. Drink lots of fluids. Call your friends. Read books. Don’t spend all your money. Reading the news too much is detrimental to your mental health too, so watch out for that. Please email me any time if you have questions, comments, or just want to say hi. Let’s combat this pandemic together and celebrate full-on when this thing dies down! See you all very soon!!!

Happy Holidays!

Hey there! I hope you had an excellent holiday. I did. I spent a lot of time with family, caught up on a little rest, and generally enjoyed the merriment of the season. Here’s what’s up music-wise.

The digital versions of ‘City Of My Mind’ have been released on youtube. You can find them in my videos section here on the website, find me on youtube, or type in the name of the song with ‘North Blood’ (the project name) and it will come up. The songs will be released on all streaming platforms in the next few days, so I’m just waiting for the ok before I publicize that.

The 45s should be done at the end of January/early February. There was a SNAFU in the art department, so the pressings got held back a little bit. No worries though, they sound FANTASTIC! I am really excited to have them in your hands and ears.

The Kenya Hall album is underway. We have about 30 demos circulating with more to come. We will be going through all of the demos to lock down the best 10-12 and record the basics down. Super stoked!

The Sam Whitman Trio album is underway! Sam and drummer Ryan Benoit have been coming up to the studio for writing sessions regularly and we have a nice amount of material building up for his album, which we are hoping to release in the fall. Stay tuned for updates there.

More of my own stuff! I have also been writing/recording more of my own material. Once I got ‘City Of My Mind’ out and running, I got stoked to release more of my own music. I’m not sure if I’ll continue down the singles/ep route or do a full length. Maybe both. Regardless, more Stu music is coming at ya soon.

Thanks so much for reading this and keeping up. You’ll see more shows being posted, so please come to one and say hello. It’s always nice to meet new people or familiar faces at shows. Lots of love to y’all!

Fall Back Into It

I’ll keep this short and sweet. I am happy to report the 45 for ‘City Of My Mind’ and the dub version are off to the presses! It’s been a hugely educational process releasing this; I haven’t released my own vinyl anything before and I learned a ton. The next one will take much less time.

I took the summer to reflect on my life in music, which was a beautiful and revealing time. I listened to tons of new music, revisited all of my favorites, wrote a little bit, played some, and everything I did, I did with positivity. I also worked four jobs to fund my 45 release and the traveling I have planned later this fall and winter time. If anyone reading this is ever feeling in a slump, I highly recommend taking some time to reflect on what’s working/not working. There’s no shame in taking a step back to reapproach whatever is obstructing your forward momentum.

There are many fun shows and recording projects on the horizon that I am excited to share with you, so keep posted and we’ll see ya out there sometime! As always, don’t hesitate to hit me up with questions or to extend a friendly hello. Keep it chill!