In the immortal words of Staind (and a lot of other bands over the years as well!) ..... "Its been a while"!! I have been crazy busy recently and have been meaning to write another journal for Modern Guitars since NAMM. So as I find myself drinking my morning coffee and smoking myself silly on this grey, Saturday Los Angeles morning, I think to myself ..."Now, Billy. Now is a good time to reflect on the last few weeks". I dont need to be in the studio until 2.00pm, I've watched the last few episodes of 24 that were on the Tivo ..... So here I am.

Sundance Film Festival. Somewhere along the line, people have misunderstood that the whole week celebrating Independant Movies in Park City, Utah, is actually about films!! Because each year it gets crazier and crazier - free stuff for the artists, music, parties, clubs, hot tubs ..... the films just get lost in the madness. Hollywood relocates 9000 ft above sea level and just GOES OFF for seven days! And this year, I was invited to put a band together and go play an outdoor show at the base of a mountain, in the snow, at night. In temperatures of MINUS SEVEN!!

View image

Sounds like a great idea to me. So thats what we did. Billy Duffy, Matt Sorum, Donovan Leitch, Chris Chaney and myself flew up there, grabbed a bunch of free swag while we were there (check out the stupid size of the swag bag in the picture!!), and played a crazy hour set to about two thousand people who stood OUTDOORS and had a great time. We enlisted Skunk Baxter, Benji from Good Charlotte, Stephen "Third Eye Blind" Jenkins, Kenny Aronoff from The Smashing Pumpkins, made full use of the onstage heat lamps, and had a great time. Matt even played guitar on one song!!

View image

I flew back the same night, so that I could get back to LA in time for NAMM the next day. I was due to do a couple of hours with Gibson, and I was SO tired by the time I drove down to Anaheim. But I love those guys, and I had a really good time. Looked at all the new Gibsons (including a new single cutaway J200 acoustic, which I immediately fell in love with and ordered one!) and hung out, signed some stuff, took some pics etc. I met and talked with Henry (CEO of Gibson) who was very cool with me. We discussed the digital guitar at length and I expressed my absolute devotion to the Les Paul!! Didnt really hang out anywhere else as I had to get back to LA by 6.00pm to do the Camp Freddy Radio show. So I chatted with the Modern Guitars guys (also GREAT guys by the way!) and then ducked out. Painless, easy and fun.

Immediately after NAMM, my new project, Circus Diablo (featuring myself, Billy Duffy and Ricky Warwick) entered the studio to begin recording our record. And we have been there ever since! We are recording at Matt Sorum's new place, Drac Studios, and it really does sound amazing in there. Matt has been an advocate of the songs and the project and will be playing drums on the record. We don't know what, when or how we'll do live shows, as The Cult are out on tour this year, Camp Freddy will be busy all summer, and Ricky will be continuing his solo stuff. Matt will not be on the road with us, as he has enough to contend with in Velvet Revolver and Camp Freddy. But he is producing the record with me, and I am sure that we will get the live package together at some point and do a few gigs. For now, it's all about finishing the record. Its SO much fun recording with those guys, and the songs are turning out just peachy!!

View image

And that's where I am at. A lot of television in my down time, to shut my head off. 24, Lost, Invasion, Surface, Netflix movies ..... I am really just trying to stay in each day, not think of the results, and put one foot in front of the other. I have been building the websites gradually. www.billymorrison.net is now a fully fledged V-Blog site, with videos from everywhere I go, and www.circusdiablo.com is now up and running. Hmmm - I seem to have piled too much on my plate again!!.......Oh well. Hope you continue to read and enjoy the Modern Guitars journals from me, and I will be back.......whenever I next get around to it!!!

Peace

Billy