It was bound to happen. You can only sit in one place spinning your wheels for so long. The die was cast and the call was made. The lure of endless summers and no more cloudy days was too enticing to bypass. As of January 2007, I have departed to the desert. Currently I reside in Scottsdale Arizona or as I like to call it, the heart of heat.

 

First let’s dispel the grandest myth about living in the desert. Any one who has ever fed you a line regarding the temperature in Arizona tagged with the statement “But it’s a dry heat” is forgetting one important fact. Even if you drive 100MPH in a blast furnace, it’s still a blast furnace. Yeah it’s FSCKing hot!

 

Being that I am away from the Cats, I had to fill the musical hole. Conveniently I am working again with a musician I have worked with for pretty much my whole life. The Good Doctor and I are in the process of fine tuning some original music for presentation to the public. It has moved me away from playing bass and into another new realm. I am perched behind the trap kit now.

 

I find it humorous that I never realized how much work drumming entails. It’s freaking exhausting. So I believe that is time to give props where they belong, “Damn Jay!”

 

Aside from working with Erik on the Ramnath project, I am also playing guitar along side Erik in a band that is taking Phoenix by storm. It is called Champagne Tap. This is an interesting cover band that is and has been playing around the Phoenix, Tempe and Scottsdale metropolitan area for the past few years.

 

For information regarding these endeavors, please check out their websites:

RAMNATH

CHAMPAGNE TAP

 
                                                                                

 

I was introduced to some of the most unique musicians I have ever met in my life in Scottsdale. They are a group of percussionists who have taken to presenting a musical collage via the use of instruments centered in the core of Americana. That is a really nice way to say, “They done went Briar”. The core of their musical styling revolves around the gay 90’s. For those of you who do not know this reference, it does not mean San Francisco in 1995. They are a Jug Band. The instrumentation that acts as their core is accordion, banjo, resophonic guitar, wash tub bass, and mandolin. This however is not the only trick in their bag. They will break down into some soothing eastern sounds breaking out such Asio-African delights as Tablas, Sitars, Kalimba, Marimba, Djambha, and a veritable plethora of other instruments. If this walk through the world isn’t enough, they also incorporate the use of loops and sonic threads via a computer to add to their already broad texture. Please check out their site as well. You will find that YOURCHESTRA is one of the most interesting bands in Arizona.

 

I probably will not updating this page again for a while, so please make sure you check out my page on MYSPACE for any updates.

http://www.myspace.com/aramnath