May 29th, 2023 Like a person, The Next Step isn’t and never was all good or all bad. And it was never a boy band. But it made me who I am today. Before I get to how, however, let’s talk about the stuff that never got made (or got made and then buried somewhereContinue reading “The History of The Next Step, Part VI: Unreleased Work, Legacy, and The Future”
Tag Archives: Burnsville
The History of The Next Step, Part V: Honesty & Happiness
May 24th, 2023 At the start of Love & Fear, I apologize for falling asleep; at the beginning of Honesty & Happiness, I (unapologetically) crack open a cold beer (literally) and proceed to black and then pass the f— out. Honesty & Happiness is the angriest, sharpest, and saddest Next Step record, and it tookContinue reading “The History of The Next Step, Part V: Honesty & Happiness”
The History of The Next Step, Part IV: Love & Fear
May 23rd, 2023 “I’m sorry that I fell asleep…” So starts Love & Fear, the most ambitious and audacious Next Step album. It’s also the longest and the one that sounds the biggest, because I was trying everything, everywhere, all at once. The sixteen-track LP came out on September 26th, 2006, and was my secondContinue reading “The History of The Next Step, Part IV: Love & Fear”
The History of The Next Step, Part III: Something Old, Something New…
May 22nd, 2023 By 2005, I was fully writing, performing, and recording music, but had still only released two EPs. My next step (pun absolutely intended) was a full-length record. There was a number of false starts (and I’ll be covering the things that didn’t happen in the last part). But the spark here wasContinue reading “The History of The Next Step, Part III: Something Old, Something New…”
The History of The Next Step, Part II: Tangled Cords, No Fear Of Failure, and Recording at Pachyderm Studio
May 11th, 2023 Now that we had a name and had performed an original song, it was time to record an EP (a short album which is typically 2-5 songs in length). By this time, personal computers were becoming more common in homes; we got our first PC when I was in high school. IContinue reading “The History of The Next Step, Part II: Tangled Cords, No Fear Of Failure, and Recording at Pachyderm Studio”
How do I love failure? Let me count the ways
April 17th, 2023 I’ve mentioned several times that the story of my book, Us, is the story of failure; but today, I want to count the ways. Because I’m an eternal optimist, however, failure is always only half of a story. The other half is a lesson, an annoying ray of sunshine as a bookendContinue reading “How do I love failure? Let me count the ways”
The Final Countdown!
March 24th, 2023 Happy Friday! Today’s video is about THE END of my Kickstarter (LESS THAN A WEEK LEFT) and all the pop culture stuff I’m into right now, which includes: – Fall Out Boy‘s killer new album– How we live in the best timeline, because on Wednesdays we wear pink, and we also getContinue reading “The Final Countdown!”
Raising Them
March 8th, 2023 Ugh. I’m going to take a break from a week in which I finally got back my stolen car, nearly two months after the incident, only for it to try to kill me and have to be returned for further repair, to keep talking about my debut novella, Them. In what placeContinue reading “Raising Them”
SKP 2022: Them
March 1st, 2023 What would it look like if Quentin Tarantino wrote a sci-fi book about an alien invasion? My first novella, Them, might be the closest we get, and this is how I’ve sold it to everybody else over the ten years since its release. The book is an explosion of pop culture, complicatedContinue reading “SKP 2022: Them”
SKP 2023: Online Writing & Unproduced Work
February 1st, 2023 Welcome to February. It’s just as damn cold as yesterday. It is also a brand new monthly topic on my Sleeping Kitty Productions 2023 calendar: Internet Writing & Unproduced Work. And I’m going to start with a big question: Why the hell do I do this? By that, I mean: what isContinue reading “SKP 2023: Online Writing & Unproduced Work”
The Den 