coastal alt/indie rock

​​Field Notes​​

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I’m a noisy guy.

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Let me correct that: I’m an extremely noisy guy.

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My voice is loud. My footsteps are loud. My thoughts are loud. My guitar is loud—even when it’s acoustic. When I was thirteen, I was playing guitar on the beach and a guitar-playing friend looked at me and said, “Damn, you could make a deck of cards sound loud.”

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That was not a compliment.

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Somehow, I took it as one. I thought, "Yeah. I’m going to project into the world"

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Then, somewhere in the second or third act of my life—however many acts we get—I found myself living in Japan and becoming immersed in Asian culture, Buddhism, and Hindu thought. I don’t pretend to be particularly good at practicing any of them. I simply tried to experience and understand as much as I could.

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We spent quite a bit of time in Kyoto and Kamakura, while visiting many temples. We meditated at Saiho-ji, also known as Kokedera - the famous "Moss Temple". It's easy to see and feel the power of stillness in places like this. 

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I've never sustained any meditation practice, but I do practice mindfulness frequently, and over time, I discovered that I could slow down. I could listen. I could be present. And there are many places around Monterey where it's easy to feel the same way that I have felt in the temples and forests around Kyoto or Kamakura.

 

Perhaps most importantly, I learned to notice people who were far better at those things than I was.

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That’s where "Minimal" comes from.

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Minimalism is a kind of holy grail. Can you strip away everything unnecessary and live with only what matters?

 

Even the people who promote it most enthusiastically sometimes fall off the wagon, so clearly it isn’t easy. I don’t come anywhere close to being a minimalist, but I’m always trying to pare things down to the essentials.

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The song is about someone who seems to know how.

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Minimal
She’s everything and nothing there

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It’s a testimonial to — and an expression of admiration for — someone who can reduce the noise without losing the meaning.

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I have profound respect for artists, designers, speakers, and human beings who can do that. It’s also something I teach in presentation classes: determine what your signal is, amplify that signal, and reduce the noise. If you can do that, life becomes much easier.

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But doing it sure as hell isn’t easy.

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"Minimal" is an aspirational song. It’s my admiration for people who possess the restraint, clarity, and confidence to leave out everything that doesn’t need to be there.

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Someday, I might become one of them.

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But probably not.

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