Tag Archives: Santa Ynez Valley

Work and creativity can flow out of even the most random, disordered and transient of situations. Bobby and I are living proof of this statement.

Being self-employed, we keep ourselves nice and busy with our publishing company, CatBeach Music. I generally work from home, with an occasional work day spent in a coffee shop with a view, a co-working space in the city, or alongside Bobby at the studio. My workspace at home, along with all of our furniture and appliances, have been emptied into the garage for the last 5 weeks.  And the studio has also been in a bit of disarray while making upgrades to it.

Needless to say, working, as well as basic living, has been challenging the past couple of months. (First world problems…trust me, I know.) Anyway, we packed up our car with our two labradoodles, some gear, and whatever clothes we could fit – like a scene right out of The Beverly Hillbillies – and we drove up to the Santa Ynez valley. We happily left our empty, dusty construction zone of a house in LA, and moved in to a clean, quiet and fully furnished retreat in wine country. I spent the first few days setting up shop and creating a comfortable studio-workspace and we somehow found a new and different rhythm.

While we were there, Bobby got a call to write an earthy, melancholy ballad for a very specific scene in a TV show.  He decided to call up a friend of ours, who lives in the valley, to co-write for this assignment.
We met Kathleen Sieck, an Americana singer-songwriter, a few years earlier at a festival that she was playing. Since then we’ve seen her play a number of shows, along with her band – The Paradise Road – at Standing Sun Live and other venues up north. If we have to do that thing, where we compare her to another artist, we’d say she is a cross between Allison Krauss and Rosanne Cash with a little modern Nikki Lane thrown in.

Over the course of 3 days, Bobby and Kathleen wrote a couple of tunes for the TV assignment and tracked live performances of 2 of Kathleen’s original songs. We recorded her songs in preparation for her appearance at the upcoming Outlaw Roadshow in New York City (October 20-22 at The Bowery Electric).  We’re super excited that we were able to work together – and can’t wait to see what is next for Kathleen.

Looking back, considering that we felt like we were in a state of total chaos, it’s amazing that we had the space and mental capacity to actually create and produce.  I’m not sure how it even happened, except by sheer determination and motivation. Sometimes that is when the best stuff happens I guess.

Oh…and stand by…I’ll post the tunes when they’ve been released into the world!