Blog/News

After a long silence, as I have been immersing myself in fatherhood with the arrival on Christmas Eve of our first baby, Finn, I finally have some music activity ready to spring forth.

I am in the middle of remixing, "From Whence I Came", from my last album as my new single. It will be out in a few weeks time. It has been great fun revisiting this song and hearing each track on its own and finding new ways and a new mood for the song.

Plus, the single will be mastered at Abbey Road Studios in London. You have no idea how big a smile I have on my face as I typed that last sentence. The place is nothing less than a temple for me as I am a massive Beatle fan.

One of the other exciting developments is "From Whence I Came" will only be released in video format as the soundtrack for a movie trailer! More details on this later.

Lastly, I have helped start an artist collective here in Berlin called 'A Headful of Bees'. The basic is idea of the collective is to bring together independent DIY musicians, writers, film-makers and photographers and share and swap our collective experience, knowledge and skills to help nurture, promote and further each others artist careers.

Since its beginning last year, we have set up a record label, booking agency, concert and events organising, film production, publishing, web and new media development, and community activism projects.

We have a number of album releases to come this year as well a concert series and art exhibitions and much more.

I write more about this in the next blog. Until then!

We set out on Friday morning meeting our crowded van full of Mitfahrgelegenheit traveller at Zoo Station heading to Munich. It had started snowing that morning in Berlin but the snow really kicked in as we drove through the hills and mountains on the 6 1/2 hour journey to Munich.

These were the last two shows of the tour outside of our finale which is in Berlin this Saturday December 4th at St. Gaudy Café at 8:30pm.

For these two shows, we didn't have "normal" venues booked. Instead, we put up a notice on the Munich and Stuttgart Couch Surfing Message board that we were coming to town and wanted to play a house concert for Couch Surfers and their friends. Within a day or two we had a volunteer to host the show in Munich, Elle, who had never hosted a house concert before and Bennet in Stuttgart whose family runs an invisible alternative bar.

We arrived in Munich and warmed up at a coffee shop in the Haubtbahnhof which was a welcome reprieve from the cold van. A humorous one as well as the coffee shop seemed to be a favourite hang out for people wearing the face off each other and the Haubtbahnhof being invaded by hundreds of rowdy soccer fans on their way to a match chanting and singing with jingoistic fever.

Our house concert host, Elle, put on an amazing spread of food and drinks at her lovely apartment which was shortly filled a great mix of Couch surfers from at least 9 different countries. One of the coolest things about a house gig is that the people are only inches away from you. You have no PA system or special effects. It is just you, your voice and guitar and nothing else. If it goes well, which it did that night, it is magic. A real intimate connection with the audience that you just can't get in any other setting. We thoroughly enjoyed chatting with everyone there, hearing the stories and getting a glimpse into their lives. We rounded out the night with a session of cover tunes by candle light helped along by the wonderful singers in the Couch Surfing group. Huge thanks to Baran and Robert who put us up for the night and made sure we made our connections the next morning. And of course, a huge thanks to Elle for hosting a fantastic night.

Our 2 1/2 hour journey the next day to Stuttgart was truly scenic thanks to the fresh snow in the hills leading to and embracing Stuttgart. We treated ourselves to some regional food for dinner - Maultaschen. This is some seriously hearty and delicious food. Next, we went to a Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) and sampled the Glühwein.

We were then collected and driven the Unsichtbar (Invisible Bar) by our host Bennet and his brother and sister Lena. The bar is run by Lena and helped by her family and is a real authentic alternative bar. The wood stove providing the only heat inside and an old wine cauldron filled with wood providing the bonfire heat and ambience outside. Resist Bier was the drink of choice to highlight the issue of Stuttgart 21, too long to go into all the details here, but Google it and you will find loads of stuff on the issue.

We ended up playing two sets. The first, an intimate show for a small number of people and the second a boisterous min-set with a room jammed packed full of people. It is hard to describe all the good feelings in the bar that night including sparklers filling the room to celebrate Lena's birthday at midnight. Needless to say, it was a fabulous night! Bennet, who DJ'd for the rest of the night, graciously took up to his apartment to sleep the few hours before we met our ride back to Berlin. He and his family were such lovely people and a real pleasure to meet. Huge thanks to them!!

Our best and friendliest Mitfahrgelegenheit of the whole tour, Sandra, took us on the 6 1/2 hour trip to Berlin again through scenic snowy German hills, mountains and valleys. It was really nice chatting with her and she was very patient as we stopped for lunch and snowball fights.

Next up, our final show and a look into how we - as independent, DIY musicians - funded, organised and executed the tour.

This leg of the tour we were unfortunately without our master scientist/guitar guru, Cameron, who had lab work that needed his full attention. So, Sam and I headed out Thursday on a 10-hour Mitfahrgelegenheit to Vienna, passing through Prague and the Czech Republic on the way.

The day started with Breakfast at a Turkish café in Berlin with some lovely sweet Turkish Tee.

Our driver and fellow traveler where the nicest yet and I am not just saying that because Nadine, the driver, had an archery set in the back of the car.

She did have a dodgy GPS system that led us on some Deliverance looking back roads in the Czech countryside including a mud road that lead to a highway that doesn't exist yet.

Finally back on the main road, we drove through Prague, which even in the mist and rainy fog of the day, looked wonderful and old and had me eagerly wanting to explore it.

Finally, we made it to Vienna and Verein 08, our venue for the show. I have to admit that I had no idea what this place would be like and if we would have many people there as this was our first show outside of Germany. But straight away we new that this was going to be a great night.

Dominik, who has been putting on these Thursday night shows for over 10 years, and his family and friends made us feel instantly welcome and part of their group. The place was packed and full of real music lovers and appreciators, one of the loveliest group of people we have played for yet on the tour.

Alfonso started the night off with a great set of acoustic soul music that highlighted his excellent voice. After two birthday celebrations and some amazing cakes, we kicked off our set.

One of the quirky and cool things that happen there at the Laden, as it is known, is after 10pm, you are not allowed to clap due to noise restrictions in the building. So, to show their applause, the people stretch out their arms and wave their hands. This had me in stitches and grinning ear to ear.

We played totally unplugged with no PA system. We have done a couple of these unplugged shows on the tour and I really love how intimate it makes the music sharing experience. We loved playing and the crowd was so amazing and appreciative. Also, in these small venues, one of the other pluses is you get time after the show to chat with people and hear their stories.

The kind and generous Alina put us up in her super cool apartment for the night. We really enjoyed our stay, the excellent breakfast (Romania vegetarian pate), super sweet kids and deep conversations on feminism, magazines and highways.

After a short walkabout of Vienna and a rainy busk outside a Gothic cathedral, we were off on our return Mitfahrgelegenheit to Berlin.

This was a real whirlwind trip but definitely one of the most rewarding of the tour. We will be coming back to Vienna for sure!

Next up - Munich and Stuttgart

We had our homecoming gig on Sunday at Berlin's wild and notorious music, bier and burger shrine, White Trash. This was our only full-band electric show of the tour as most of the shows have been at smaller acoustic venues.

I love playing the intimate acoustic shows but I REALLY love playing with the full band all loud and rowdy.

Huge thanks to my international band - Sam Wareing (Australia), Cameron Wilson (Australia), Graeme Maguire (Wales) and Ken Burke (Ireland - yea Ireland!)

Here is a video of playing "Better Way" on the night.

I had a great time playing this show and we had some magic, powerful moments playing together that made it extra special.

The crowd was great and as always, a real eclectic group of people from all over the world at White Trash.

Thanks to Martin and Justin for shooting some video of the show and Tom for taking some great pictures.

Next up - Vienna, Austria

We set off last week on the next leg of our 2010 European Tour for the great cities of Leipzig and Dresden. Both with strong musical and literary histories. Still traveling by Mitfahrgelegenheit, Leipzig unfolded under grey skies and crumbling buildings. I have heard great things about Leipzig, which I am sure are all true, but my brief time there left me uncertain about the place. Sometimes cities hit you straight away but I suspect it takes a deeper dig to get into Leipzig.

Our show at Des Geigers Rätsel was one of the best we have ever played. Unfortunately, we played to only a handful of people. That was a bummer but the people were very friendly and they looked after us well and we enjoyed chatting to the people who did come.

Dresden was the complete opposite. I loved Dresden straight away. The Altstadt is magnificent and the Neustadt has such a great buzz. We busked at sunset in front of the Oper and Cathedral for a wide range of generous people including one kid playing air guitar along with us, a gang of Chinese business men, romantic strollers and a little girl who tried to give Sam one of her toys.

Our show that evening was a private show in a lovely cellar restaurant called Oosteinde for the Dresden Couch Surfing group that meets monthly.

The place was so packed, people were overflowing out into the hallway. It was the most intimate show of the tour so far and the crowd was tremendous and appreciative. We had an absolute blast. Many thanks to Maria for setting it up for us and all the many Couch Surfers we had the pleasure to met, laugh and chat with. The craic was mighty!

For those not familiar with Couch Surfing, it is a wonderful concept were people who are traveling are given a place to sleep for the night free of charge in the homes of strangers. It is a great way to meet people from different place and different cultures. We Couch Surfed that night with Michael who graciously hosted us in his lovely apartment.

Next up - White Trash Electric Berlin

We kicked off our 2010 Tour with a stop in Kiel - in the northern German state Schleswig-Holstein. My day started at 9am meeting my transportation for the journey from Berlin to Kiel using Mitfahrgelegenheit - Carpooling - German style. This has to be one of the best things about living in Germany. There are websites you can go to where people list that they are driving to a certain city on a specific day and that they have extra seats available in their car. For a very reasonable fee, you can ride with them. Low cost, communal, environmentally friendly and great for the driver who will not only cover their cost of petrol for the journey but can even make money on the trip.

Traveling to Kiel, I was struck by how the countryside looked like so many places in America. I am thinking of Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana. The big difference to America, beside having no speed limit on the Autobahn, is the near constant scene of wind turbines all along the journey. Another big plus of living here and always an impressive site.

Just as we arrived in Kiel, an Ad for my concert came on the radio with "Katie's Waiting" playing in the background. I was totally surprised by this and it was the first time I had heard my music on German radio. The 30 second Ad had me excitedly telling the driver, "that's me!!!". He got a big kick out of this.

I met up with Sam and Cameron, my backing band, who arrived a few hours later also by Mitfahrgelegenheit.

After storing some of our gear in a friendly bakery, we headed to the town centre to busk for an hour. We got some confused looks but plenty of smiles and later found out that busking is unusual in Kiel.

Our concert for the night was at Prinz Willy. This venue is a wonderful place for live music and the hosts couldn't be nicer our more welcoming. I highly recommend this venue!

Just after 8pm, the crowd had filled up the room and with a nod to the radio Ad, I started the show with "Katie's Waiting". We played two sets and closed with "Lost".

Here is a clip from the show:

The crowd was lovely, extremely generous and had us do two encores which we had not anticipated but pulled off nonetheless with pleasure.

We spent the night in the venue on comfy sofas and were woken in the morning by the owner Willy who graciously cooked a wonderful German breakfast for us and then drove us to the train station.

We shared a ride to Hamburg with a lovely university student from Rostock. We decided to stop in Hamburg on the way back to Berlin to busk on the main shopping street for kicks. We had a fantastic response and the generous tips more than covered our stop and lunch.

We met up with our last Mitfahrgelegenheit for the rainy journey back to Berlin.

Thanks to our tour sponsors, Prinz Willy and all the wonderful people we met at the show and along the way. We couldn't have asked for a better and warmer start to the tour.

Next up: Dresden & Leipzig

Tomorrow is a big day for me. Over a year on from recording and six months since the push began to promote it, we will officially mark the release in stores and online of my new album, 'This is where it starts'.

The wonderfully cool Volksbar on Schönhauser Allee 8 in Berlin will play host to our event with a prompt 8pm start due to noise restrictions in the building. It is free and nonsmoking.

We have worked up a new mix of acoustic and electric arrangements in order to perform a special version of the album in full.

Joining me will be Ms Sam on backing vocals and Casio keyboard, mr oCean on his screaming new electric guitar and insane amp and Graeme Maguire playing a stripped down, stand up drum set.

For those in Berlin, please come and celebrate with us and enjoy the buzz of live music, laughs, smiles and amazing homemade cookies.

'This is where it starts' is now on sale in stores across Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands on the independent artist collective label, A Headful of Bees. You can also buy the CD online in Europe at Amazon.

If you live in America, you can buy the CD from CD Baby. You can also buy the album as a download from iTunes Europe or from iTunes America.

Sorry for the delay in doing a proper Blog here. FB, Twitter and others are taking my time away from blogging.

Well with October nearly here, things are really hitting a high gear. The first single, "Happy" was released to radio last week and has already gotten airplay in Germany and a very positive response. We are offering the song as a FREE download here.

Happy by Eric Eckhart

My album, 'This is where it starts' will be in stores on Friday across Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg and The Netherlands. There are a number of reviews coming from newspapers and magazines and well as some feature articles as well. Since they will be in German and my German is not great, I will have to use my handy Google translator to help me understand what they are saying.

We will be celebrating the release of my album and launching our European Tour on Saturday, 16 October at a very cool bar in Berlin call Volksbar. It also happens to be about 50 meters from my front door which is super handy. Myself, Ms Sam, mr oCean and Graeme Maguire will be doing a special performance of the album in full from 8:30-9:30pm. The party will continue through the night.

Our fifteen date tour will take us up and down Germany, across Austria and Switzerland over the next two months. That should be a real adventure and I am itching to play these songs and meet new people. Click here to see the tour dates.

I will be doing a tour diary along the way and also filming for a video at each city.

So, between now and the launch we will be rehearsing for the tour and sorting out the details of the traveling and shows.

None of this could be happening without our Tour Sponsors. We are so grateful to them for their support! You can still be a Tour Sponsor - just click here for details.

Here are our Tour Sponsors:

• La Familia
• Kara Kirby Hardt
• DANTA: Association for Conservation of the Tropics. www.DANTA.info. DANTA are launching a new campaign to raise funding for a discovery center (educational outreach to children in the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica). The Osa is world renown for its biodiversity and its preservation is priceless.
• Dublin Digital
• mr oCean
• Feliciano/Eckhart Family
• Rosenthal/Blumberg Family

Just a final heads up, I am playing a gig on Friday June 18th at the Moabit Kulturtag Sofa Sessions. This festival takes place in people's houses and should be a great night.

This will be an "unplugged" with no PA, so it should have a great itimate vibe.

I will have some wonderful musicians and singers performing with me - Tom Fanore on Cajón, Mr oCean on guitar and backing vocals, Jessica Roth on bass and backing vocals and Ms Sam on vocals.

The festivities start at 8pm and finish at 10:30pm. Children welcome.

Here are the details below:

Moabit Kulturtag Sofa Session
Friday, June 18, 2010
8:00pm - 10:30pm
Rathenower Str 44   
Berlin, Moabit 10559
Closest S-Bahn station is Westhafen

Sofa Sessions showcases Berlin's best local and international indie pop, folk and rock singer-songwriters, pairing them with great poets and visual artists.

Sofa Sessions debut for the Moabit Kulturtage festival Juni 18-20, 2010. All sessions are 5€. Drinks available. Children welcome.

To reserve your place, please email sofasessions@gmx.de with your preferred date.

Freitag 18. Juni - Eric Eckhart (USA), Simon Eugene (UK), mr oCean (Aus), Gaby Bila-Günther (Aus) and Mesalina Trio (De/Aus/Swe) um 20 Uhr.

Samstag 19. Juni - Wasp Summer (Aus), Kiki Brunner (DE), Bocage (Fra) and more... 14 Uhr.

Sonntag 20. Juni - Miranda Gjerstad (Swe), Christina Maria (Ch), Grand Salvo (Aus) and Daniel Hoth (De) um 14 Uhr.

In a collaborative project, I teamed up with three rock bands made up of students age 10-13 years-old from the Berlin Cosmopolitan School to perform three songs from my new album, 'This is where it starts'.

Together, we played the Family After Work concert for students, parents and the public at the Grüner Salon in the famous Volksbühne in Berlin.

Many thanks to Educators Tom Fanore and Jessica Roth, the bands - Chinchilla Pearls, Square, Rockers Paradise, Berlin Cosmopolitan School, Graeme Pearce for filming the video and Kusi Okamura for the initial idea.

Last night, I had the pleasure of playing songs from my new album with three rock bands made up of students age 10-13 years old from the Berlin Cosmopolitan School.

Students and parents from the school plus the public came out to the Grüner Salon in the famous Volksbühne to support the kids and to celebrate music. There was Beat Box training, Salsa lessons, a cool DJ and then me and the kids rockin' out.

The all-girl band, Chinchilla Pearls, began the gig playing "Happy" with me. Mia, Luna, Antonia and Sophia did a wonderful job and looked like rock stars. We missed Charlotte, who was to sing lead, as she was in Paris with her family.

Next up was the all-boy band, Square, playing "Bring Me Down". The boys really rocked this song up with Milan, Max, Linus, Vincent and Joshua doing a super job, even coaxing me to change the lyric at the end to "Bring me down to Chinatown". Our inside joke.

Finally, we closed the show with Rockers Paradise, made up of 2 girls and 3 boys, playing "Lost". Theresa, Antonia, Freddy, August and Vincent knocked this one out of the park. They were true professions and gave it loads of rock star attitude.

We filmed the gig and hopefully will have a video for you before too long. Thanks to Graeme Pearce for coming along to film.

Thanks to Tom Fanore and Jessica Roth for organising me doing this project and for their excellent job teaching the kids. They have done an outstanding job with the kids.

Thanks to Kusi who had the original idea of me playing my music with kids and contacting Tom about working with BCS.

Most of all, thanks to the kids for playing my songs with me. We practiced for an hour, one day per week, for four weeks. They embraced the project and brought loads of enthusiasm and energy to the songs and worked very hard learning their parts. I was so impressed by their talent, courage and willingness to take on new projects. Hats off to them!

The Berlin Cosmopolitan School is an international school that has a number of afternoon clubs for the kids to join including yoga, cooking, ballet, Chinese, football (soccer) and rock band.

I want to give you an update of what I have been up to since my new album was launched last month in Berlin.

Kusi and I have been busy contacting traditional and new media (mostly music blogs) asking them to review the album and do interviews, trying to get some radio airplay, using my social network sites to get the word out and booking gigs here in Berlin.

This all requires a lot of research, planning, emailing, snail mailing and a big mix of patience and persistence.

We are doing all of this ourselves at this point and not being professional music biz people, we are learning loads of stuff everyday.

We have no record label financing and opening doors for us yet, so we are working with our microscopic budget and doing our best to open our own doors. The challenge of being a DIY independent musician is a huge, huge uphill task.

The flip-side is, there has never been more opportunities to get your music heard or more paths to having the type of music career you want.

I have such enthusiasm and pride in my new album that I want to share it with as many people as possible. We feel very positive and excited about the future and are enjoying seeing this creation beginning to take root and grow.

I have a number of shows coming up, a number of new videos coming out and other goodies on the way to share with you.

As always, you all are at the heart of this project. I am deeply grateful for all your support, encouragement and energy. So, massive thanks and a hearty pat on the back for yourselves.

Eric Eckhart talks with Nick Ilott about how he wrote and recorded his new album, 'This is where it starts' and how living in Berlin has influenced his music.

After seven months since recording commenced, numerous mixing and re-mixing and mastering and re-mastering, my new album is finally done and has been sent off to be pressed into CDs. We celebrated in good fashion.

The mixing and mastering proved to be very vexing because although we had a clear idea of how we wanted the album to sound, there were still so many options and angles to go at the songs. Plus, both Fab Leseure (my co-producer) and I can be perfectionist and had a hard time letting go of the project.

Also, for those of you who don't know what mastering is, it happens after mixing and is the last process that the music goes through before it is pressed into CDs. Basically, a mastering engineer takes the songs and runs them through both analogue and digital equipment trying to give the album an extra sheen, spit and polish and also to make sure the recording will sound good whether you are listening to it on your laptop speakers or through a hi-fi stereo system.

Sounds simple enough, but it is a real art form that requires a great deal of expertise, especially if you want your album to sound as good as any commercial release out there. We ended up having the album mastered 6 times with 5 different mastering companies involved over a 5 week head-melting period. The good news is we learned a huge amount and got the album to sound the way we wanted.

In the end, we chose mastering engineer Simon Davey who works at The Exchange in London. He has mastered albums for the likes of Amy Winehouse, Depeche Mode, Bjork, Scissor Sisters, Bad Company and yes, Spice Girls. Simon was a great help and guidance to us and needless to say, extremely skilled at his job. If was a pleasure having him master my album and working with the team at The Exchange.

So, the CD Master is now on its way to America where Oasis (not the band) will manufacture the CDs in about 3 weeks time.

We are now moving into full promotional swing and will be rolling out some new videos and previews of the songs and asking for your generous help and support in spreading the music as far and as wide as possible over the next few weeks.

Until then...

A man gets on a train and sees the woman of his dreams. Exciting, huh!!? Except, when he thinks about how to approach her, all he sees is how he will probably screw up this relationship even before it even starts. After he has beaten up his confidence in his mind, he finally decides what to do. What does he do?? Well, you'll have to wait to see the video for "Lost" to find out.

We had a great day yesterday filming this video for "Lost" from my new album, 'This is where it starts'. Under the direction of fellow American and Berlin resident  and artist MaryBeth Volker, filming commenced in the Prenzlauer Berg area of Berlin and the S-Bahn train ring route.

We had two fine actors playing the part of the love-struck, but lacking in confidence, man and the young woman who he is instantly attracted to. Many thanks to the full of energy, native East Berliner Hagen Geburzi and the multi-talented, excellent opera singer and fellow American Lauren Lee.

"Lost" is one of my favorite songs from the new album and was one of the funnest to record. That spirit carried over into the video shoot. Huge thanks to MaryBeth who brought loads of enthusiasm and creativity to the project. Also, major thanks to Kusi for her support and help throughout the shoot and Julie Freedman who again took great photos while we filmed.

This is what I believe videos should be. Easy going, fun, fluid, creative, taping into the spirit of the song and feeding off the gathering of artist and friends.

A giant roll of scrolling paper, paint, pastels, markers, feathers, a live single frame continuous shot, amazing food and a final frenzied attack on me. Not bad for a day's work.

Thus was the video shoot for "Happy" that happen yesterday in our apartment in Berlin.

Director Graeme Pearce dreamed up this mad idea and with a quickly assembled group of friends and artists it all came together.

We started off with über delicious food prepared by Kusi. Then with a quick chat and a bit a preparation by Graeme, we were off.

The idea was to play the song and draw, paint or write whatever you feel from the music and the lyrics. Most of the people involved had never heard the song before so it was a fresh experience for them.

Our friends Roula  and Julie scrolled the paper while I wrote lyrics and Graeme, Kusi and Gordon Raphael provided their artistic magic. Our friend and Julie's partner Nijin was kind enough to look after the two children.

We did 4 live takes and it was done. Except that Graeme asked me at the last minute would I lie on the floor and let him, Kusi, Roula and Julie cover me with paint and feathers, while I sang along with the song. It was art, he told me.

So, with only one take possible they had their fun and I did too, I must admit. Except for the feather that went down my throat while I was singing a long note.

It was an extremely fun, supportive, easy and laid back experience. I really enjoyed being surrounded by friends and having everyone join in.

A mighty thanks to everyone involved!!! I couldn't have asked for a better experience to kick off the first of a number of videos for my new album.

Beware, crazy chicken man!

While Fabien meticulously worked on mixing "Big Lie" on Sunday, I walked around the studio and its grounds with my MacBook filming the surroundings with the built-in iSight camera.

The studio is part of the Funkhaus which used to be the main radio station for communist East Germany. It is located in old East Berlin along the river Spree. Built in the 1950's, it has amazing sounding rooms, untouched from that era, but the outside is quite run down and edgy.

Using the video I shot and photos from Dave Hingerty and myself, I put together this video to give you a sense of the flavor of the place where This is where it starts was made.

I fully enjoyed my time recording and mixing here. The place is choke full of history and has a strong personality that comes through its peeling paint and beautifully crafted wood panels.

Lastly, I wanted to preview some of the songs on the new album. First up in the video is "Happy", then "I Saw A  Light", followed by "Lost", "Open Up", "I'm Gone" and finally "From Whence I Came".

I had a great time on Monday with the surprise addition to my new album of the violin. A French one even. With all the mixes nearly done, it is hardly time to be adding to the recordings but as fate would have it, my producer's brother Ben was in Berlin visiting from Brussels and as always, he was traveling with violin in tow. Since one of the ethos for this album has been to let our instincts guide us, we decided to set up the microphone in the sitting room and see what we could come up with.

I had a counter melody in mind for the 3rd verse of "Better Way" that I thought would sound great on violin and give the song yet another colour and mood. Fabien had an idea of recording Ben playing many violin parts on the outro of "Better Way" creating a string section.

Ben is a top notch player and a lovely fellow to boot. It was wonderful hearing him make that violin sing. An make it sing he certainly did. I kept thinking, this is either entertaining the neighbor upstairs or driving him batty.

Ben also played some violin for the last part of "From Whence I Came" which sounded really cool, but not sure if it is needed. We will decide this weekend.

Speaking of which, this weekend is the final full days of mixing. Any tweaks after that will be super minor tweaks. No more full on sessions. It's time to let go and let the children fly.

Ok, this isn't directly about music, but I have to sing the praises of the Berlin Shawarma. In Berlin, the Turkish Döner Kebab is far more popular and don't get me wrong, I love a good ole Döner but, the Shawarma is a step up in my book.  

Shawarma is based on chunks of chicken or turkey meat marinated in a spicy yoghurt sauce. Some fresh lettuce, onions, cucumber, tomato and the can't-do-without scharf (spicy) sauce all resting in a lovely warm pita bread and you have one heck of a hearty meal indeed.

I am also known amongst friends for my frugality and the fact that you can get a delicious Shawarma for 2 euros and 50 cent makes it taste all the more amazing.

My favourite Shawarma in Berlin is Luxa located at the corner of Torstraße and Schönhauser Allee.

So with mouth watering, I wish you all happy eating!

We are at the final, final stages of mixing This is where it starts. 9 songs are finished with 3 left to go. One week left of tweaking and giving the last listens and we will be ready to send the album to be mastered and printed.

I have to admit that I am getting super antsy right now. I have so loved the process of recording and mixing but I am dying to get the CD out and get the next stage of my career up and running.

I am in the process of shooting two videos as well. One for 'Happy' and one for 'Lost'. Two different directors and two very different style videos.

After that comes the launch of this site and the initial round of publicity.

Then, on December 1st, the CD will begin shipping. This is a Special Edition CD mainly for my friends, fans and family who have been so supportive over the years. This is a way for me to say thanks by giving them the first taste of This is where it starts before the formal release in February.