North Of Sunset West of Vine

Last night was the third and final performance of North of Sunset West of Vine, which is a musical theater performance written by the incredibly talented vocalist Raya Yarbrough and music directed by Bear McCreary.  I really had an amazing time working with the band, cast, and crew, plus it gave me a great reason to use my upright again!  It's been many years since I've been involved in a musical like this, I played in a lot of "pits" in college but not so many since then. 
I've been fortunate to work with Bear on several projects recently, including the Queen tribute we did in late 2011, and it's always such a pleasure both professionally and creatively.  Not only is he an amazing composer (there's a reason he's worked on so many HUGE shows like Battlestar Galactica and The Walking Dead), but he also realizes the benefit of doing film/TV composing the old-school way, by actually writing parts for musicians rather than using sampled sounds and doing it all himself.  More often than not these days, the "bass" you're hearing on your favorite TV show is actually a sampled sound played by a keyboard or simply programmed into a computer, and the average listener can't tell the difference (a perfect example is the credits music for The Wire, which has an acoustic bass sample.)  Bear understands that while the sample-heavy approach might be economical and quick, nothing beats the sound of actual musicians playing their instruments, so he hires as much as a full orchestra on a regular basis.  It's looking like I'll be working with him a lot more starting soon, so boy am I glad he works the way he does!
In other news, my electronica alter ego Captain Apathy has released a new song, called "Billy Pilgrim."  You can hear it and download it for the price of "whatever you feel like" HERE