The tracking continues to a rather loose plan of taking rough demos, making them vaguely song-shaped, playing an acoustic guide then laying down drums. Some interesting things emerging—by and large sonically purer than previous releases if somewhat more pop-y, ballad-y and predicable.

There are some solid songs starting to take shape as we chip the stone away from the musical statue trapped inside.

My tinnitus is raging and I don’t know what to do. It’s very strange to have relatively good hearing with some normal damage and age-related loss, but a constant high pitched whistle 24/7.

With The Black Cat Trilogy now firmly in the rear view mirror, it feels like time for a fresh start.

I had a few projects on the back burners — Ainsworth Strange, intended to be a collaboration with another artist that fizzled (well, I let it fizzle). Enthusiasm matters. We’ll leave it at that. I also have a promising collaboration with Emily Dolan Davis (intended to be a short Catnyp EP) that consisted of drums and some bass ideas smacked down that was derailed by the move out to Portland and back to Montana. I’d also written about 20 loose little chord progression-ditties on Music Maker that had some legs. Then there were the 30 demos from the late 80s-early 90s I’d dumped into the computer with an eye on revisiting the “germs” (ahem) of my past. Some were surprisingly good. Others … less so.

So the choice was, rack up two or three projects and either work on them in parallel, or smash one at a time. Or was it? Frankly, time is limited and focus is everything.

So: all of the above are in the hopper for Catnyp IIII. It will be a full length album, 10-16 tracks. It’ll be more pop-rock, it will be less layered, it will have a bit more of the old quirky-joy-tongue-in-cheek of those 80s-90s demos. Tones will be simpler but carefully crafted. I’m taking a course just on using EQ to help my mixes.

Oh yeah — I’m playing drums on the tracks Emily isn’t. I started in late September. Good news: My timing is not bad and I play to a click with ease (that’s the bass player in me). Bad news: I am very slow and grind the gears when I change things up. But, that’s just practicing and time. Keep it 2/3 or 4/4 and I can just about do it (with a little quantizing, of course). There’s something pretty cool about playing bass and guitar to your own drumming – talk about knowing how to lock in to the minutiae.

Other changes: Rickenbackers are going into their cases. This’ll be jazz bass, Jaguar, Telecaster and maybe Gretsch territory unless circumstances demand otherwise.

Three songs are well on their way and there is a confidence and comfort to be gleaned when a little snippet of an idea on Music Memo just turns effortlessly into a pure pop song with all the right parts in all the right places.

Principles at play here – work fast. Keep it simple. Make every tone work. Write from the heart, write fast, don’t second guess. Act like studio time is the most precious resource on the planet. Because, really, it is. This is what it is about.

This is our third album, released August 21, 2020 online. We’ll be making it available on CD in a few weeks’ time too. If you download it or buy the CD, we’ll send you the fantastic insert booklet (20 pages, 6″ x 6″ in glorious color) illustrated by the amazing graphic novelist, David Jesus Vignolli.

You’ll be able to buy the booklet for $5 too, separately.

The album features seven singles, all accessible at Catnyp.com and on various platforms.

It’s the third and finally installment of The Black Cat Trilogy, freeing up headspace for a few projects already clogging the pipeline.

We also have a new studio also dropping into my yard on August 20 — it’ll provide a great creative space with mixing desk, 4 track reel-to-reel, mics etc. And it has a bunk bed above the closet – vocal booth section. I’ll post some photos soon.

Finally, we welcome Ian Weckler to the band on guitar. He’s an immensely talented player wielding a slab of a Telecaster when he’s not on his SG or Danelectro. Big things ahead … we might even have found a drummer, too.

“Henderson & The Black Cat” was originally recorded at Elstree Hill Studios (London) with some additional recording at OneCat Studio (Brixton) (drums, cello) under the title “Anhedonia.”

It’s currently slated to escape in all of its glory later in 2019 – still waiting on getting the artwork all completed. There’s only ten tracks so most of the album is already out there on the online platforms.

Still, it means that the third and final installment of The Black Cat Trilogy – our first three albums – completes a more or less decade long musical journey down some well-trod paths.

What’s next? Completing the still work in progress EP with Emily Dolan… getting the live act together … and then doing an all new album of all new music, ideally with all new musicians.

Catnyp marches on, to a ditty of the soul.

First single from “Henderson & The Black Cat” drops October 4th. On all major platforms.

“Henderson & The Black Cat” is our third album and completes a journey I like to think of as “The Black Cat Trilogy” — songs with broadly similar inspiration and genesis recorded over a span of time in my life.

But it’s time to clear the pipes. “Henderson & The Black Cat” will be out in NOVEMBER 2019!

Single release schedule:

1.  Falling – Friday, October 4th

2. Sweet Petunia – Friday, October 11th

3. Mystery Muse – Friday, October 18th 

4. Anhedonia – AND VIDEO! – Friday, October 25th

5. The Wood – Thursday, October 31st for Hallowe’en!

6. A Perfect Man – Friday, November 8th

7. Sex With Susan – Friday, November 15th

The album itself then drops on – Friday,  November 22nd or 29th tbc

Artwork is by David Jesus Vignolli and we hope to release the album as a digipack but also make the lyrics booklet by this amazing graphic novelist available as a standalone product.

#newmusic #eccentricmodernclassic #arnamiller #davidvignolli #newwave #classicrock

This is the first week we feel actually like we have “settled” in Portland after a horrendously stressful clusterfuck of a move that saw us living in a Motel 6 with our cat for five days and having to simultaneous rent and shuttle three moving trucks to contain our possessions in while we waited. Not fun but a good story. Combined with a new day job, there wasn’t a lot of physical, spiritual or emotional energy to invest in music.

At last, though, the workstation is set up in a more or less usable format and I’ve starting working out my instrumental and vocal chops again. Very rusty. And I played back the Emily Dolan collaboration. It’s very much work in progress but the tracks are actually sounding phenomenal. And I’m releasing “Henderson & The Black Cat” shortly.

It will feature a beautifully illustrated printed booklet done by the amazing David Jesus Vignolli. You should definitely check out his graphic novels. The album was recorded at Ellstree Hill Studios in London and forms part of what I consider to be a trilogy – these first three albums. They share a lot in common. Probably would have made a good double album.

I’m putting out feelers for musicians here in Portland to work with and get the live show up and sputtering after promising attempts in Missoula. I’ll definitely get out and do a few acoustic gigs and/or open mic in the coming months.

So that, plus pursuing licensing opportunities and getting tracks all metatagged and formatted for that effort, are what is on the horizon.

Radio silence does not mean inactivity.

A lot of hard work and a lot of soul searching have been going on.

I get coaching from Rick Barker in his Mastermind program, and am taking a music licensing Mastermind coaching program with Michael Elsner on music licensing. That has meant going through my entire published back catalog (not yet including unpublished songs of which there are about 100) and then breaking them into ten catalogues across my former acts that I wrote for — Time Beings (done), Gargoyles (not done), Aqua-Nine (done), Nick Violet (done), Brand Violet (done), Telford Mining Disaster (done), Catnyp (almost done, just need to do the debut album which will yield a pile of new licensable content).

On top of that, we are moving to Portland – partially for a new day job, but also because I believe I’ll find musicians who are into what I am into, and more places to play compared to where I am now.

So watch this space. A lot more to come, this summer.

Didn’t need, but wanted.

Grew tired of looking for a 4001c64 (the Macca version with reversed headstock) so threw in the towel and ordered a used (MINTY) 4003s, then added a Creamery toaster pickup and a horseshoe pickup, as well as swapping out the pots to the traditional type.

Plays great, looks great, sounds great thorough my Ampeg pre-amp and VR 200 mini stack that has a pari of Ampeg 2x10s loaded on it.

For those who might have been following my various Instagram rehearsals, you’ll know that the Takamine 12-string acoustic I have owned for years started getting tempermental – adding a nice sitar-like BUZZ on the top E strings. I had the top nut worked on and 1st-2nd frets dressed, truss rod was fine, but it just kept doing it.

So I poked around and read some reviews and settled on a Taylor based on a 6-string I played and recommendation from my Luthier. I found a 2002 355CE (I tend to prefer instruments that have been played in).

HOLY SHIT.

Although it should have been shipped with the strings loosened, technically, to avoid damage it came out of the box IN TUNE after traveling across the country in freezing cold weather.  I then played one of the hardest parts I know on it and it was like BUTTER.

Two big thumbs up on this one. I think I am in love.