Will You Light My Way

Today I learned that the woman responsible for extending my vocal range by an octave or better has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. My father sent me an article from the local paper about a benefit concert- tonight -for Marge Halvorson. I haven’t spoken to her in years, but the impression she made on my life- and my career -may never be fully appreciated.

Marge kicked my ass, vocally speaking. She simply wouldn’t allow me to be lazy or develop bad habits, at least not while I was in her office or rehearsing for a performance. She saw talent in me even at age 17 when she cast me in a Spokane Opera production- my first time on stage as an opera singer.

Marge taught me how to breathe. You think you already know how to do that? Bullshit. You’re doing it wrong. Maximizing one’s singing potential means maximizing that airbag capacity. I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t born with perfect posture and I had to re-learn everything from standing upright to holding my head a certain way. And it is all important.

Marge taught me that the pronunciation of a German word is far less important than what the word means. Or any word, for that matter. Why would I sing one syllable louder than another, or hold it longer? Was it intentional, or was I just going with the flow of the language? What matters most is the message you are trying to convey through song, not the rigors of proper diction.

Marge made it possible for me to hit a high C.

Most important to me, Marge helped shape me at a time when I was an uncertain, socially awkward class clown with a tendency to be a selfish prick. She didn’t care, I’m sure she’s dealt with worse.

The kinds of people that teach others to be creative are a special, immortal class of humanity. I’ve said before that the greatest compliment you can pay me is that my music inspired you to create something of your own. Well, thanks to the creative people I’ve met in my life, I am a full-time performing artist. I can sing with confidence (even if my pitch isn’t always perfect). I am ten times the performer I was when I first met Marge and I know I’m not alone.

Tonight there will be a concert (which I wish I could attend) where a small fraction of the people she’s helped will pay tribute to her with their voices. These are the people, like myself, who are the embodiment of Marge’s immortality. Every note we sing is a thank-you to the woman that made it sound better.

Last weekend another friend passed away due to a rare form of cancer. She wasn’t someone I knew well, but my room mate had been friends with her for well over a decade. When I met Liana, I was wearing nothing but a corset, panties, and a cape. No, seriously, the first time I met her she was playing Riff-Raff and putting the “Boss” tattoo on my arm for a production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The makeup has worn off, but she has left an indelible mark on me. I know she has left a deeper mark on my room mate and most of her friends as well.

Her spirit and creativity have outlived her body.

So, for Marge and Liana, thank you. Your voices will never be silenced as long as I’ve still got one.

There’s a hotel. They have a piano. I play piano. I can’t not play piano. This happens.

Tonight, the full stage concert at FWA 2013!

Live at Further Confusion 2013- Every time Runtt plays that penny whistle next to me, it sends a chill down my spine. I don’t know why, but that part of the song played LIVE is one of my favorite moments on stage these days.

It seems a little weird that, less than a year after releasing a new album, I would spend so much time and energy on a disc I launched back in 2007. And yet there I was on stage last Saturday in San Jose, warming up what I could only describe as a thousand-robot ballet. Every little piece had to work or the entire show would come to a grinding halt, leaving me under the spotlights looking like an idiot.

Fortunately, all of the problems seemed to happen at once… right before we were supposed to open the doors. My system’s audio got borked in a way that I’d never seen before, leading me to invent an entirely new class of obscenities in rapid succession as I tracked down the bug. The house system also got confused somehow and, instead of feeding us a click track and the backing audio in our monitors, fed us raw SMPTE timecode… basically, it’s like listening to a modem or fax machine.

I don’t think I’ve ever attempted a show this technologically complicated in my life- we had mics, backing tracks, software instruments, precisely-synchronized video that we had to license from Miramax, live audio loops that we laid down onstage without dropping the beat, and a painstakingly-arranged light show the likes of which even I didn’t expect. Justin, aka Cheetah, worked his ass off for weeks planning the lights, so I hope he’s somewhere drunk and happy now that it’s over.

30 minutes late, we finally opened the doors. I was so happy to see folks took time out of their convention schedule to come see Runtt and I pull this thing off. The staff at Further Confusion pretty much bent over backwards to give us assistance and the setup time we needed. Sean (the con chairman) and the rest of his crew have once again proven that a convention’s entertainment is only as good as the support they put into it. When they take risks and make the effort, amazing shit happens.

And once that explosion went off at the start of the album, amazing shit followed. My voice didn’t frack, despite shouting over the dealer den crowds again (seriously, I need booth babes). The crowd was enthusiastic and upbeat, despite having to wait in line for half an hour. The lights danced right on cue as Justin had programmed them, despite the robot insurrection that occurred right before the show.

Somewhere in the middle of all this, Runtt and I actually had a damn good time. Seriously, every moment of that show felt wonderful, like I was finally checking a box on the bucket list.

We got plenty of photos, though at this point I’m waiting to see and hear the live recordings before I announce anything else. IF YOU HAVE ANY PHOTOS FROM THE SHOW, PLEASE POST THEM YOURSELF AT http://flickr.com/groups/matthewebelfans And if you missed the show, don’t worry, I have a feeling it won’t be the last time Runtt and I do this. We may not be able to afford the licensing at every show we play together, but we’ll make it happen again sooner or later.

And maybe then the robots will behave.

It’s time once again for crass commercialism to overshadow a truly joyous religious event. Even though the very idea of jumping on the bandwagon makes me want to scream, I feel obligated to do it. Why? Because in space, no one can hear you scream anyway.

That being said, I also feel obligated to mention that a lot of people seem to really love this album. I won’t personally claim to have brought joy to the hearts of the masses with simple songs about holiday cheer and space sharks, so I’ll just let Prodo-1 take all the credit. I can promise, though, that if you buy the album you’ll definitely enjoy it. I’ve had more than a few people tell me it’s become a Christmas tradition in the last few years.

Move over, Vince Guaraldi, ’cause I gotta rock.

If you want to bring a little Christmas Sci-Fi joy into your home this year, please grab an MP3, Lossless, or round-plastic copy of The High Orbit Holiday Special at matthewebel.com/music/hohs

Earlier this week I was interviewed by David Newhoff from The Illusion of More about copyrights, file sharing, intellectual property, and the broader ramifications of being a dick. As David said:

Matthew’s strategy for forging a career in the age of file-sharing, torrents, and remixes is to do all he can to introduce his listeners to the man and the work behind the music. Critical of both the traditional music industry and thoughtless file sharers, Matthew’s song The Last Pirate is what caught my attention and led me to ask him for this interview.

Now you can hear this interview in all its glory, rambling, and terrible jokes over at The Illusion of More

And of course you can hear The Last Pirate right here at Matthew Ebel dot com.

I think we can clearly determine that Everybody Needs A Ninja is the most popular song I’ve ever written. Every week I’m alerted to new YouTube videos that have used the song (usually without bothering to credit me in any way). Not surprisingly, an overwhelming number of them are video game screencaps. I’ve started collecting as many as I can find into a single playlist, but honestly I gave up after nearly an hour of clicking “Add To Playlist”.

I’m sure more will come, but you can see the collection grow at http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLr94yr2BIVpvfkuIhihk3ZBE1_rmn7Fvc

The thing that absolutely slays me is that so many people would use a song and not even bother to tell others where to find it. I mean, buying a 99¢ track is easy enough these days, but just typing my name and web address? Obviously they thought the tune was awesome enough to use in their video, why not show people where it comes from?

Welcome to the internets.

Yeah, I didn’t write this one, but dammit if I’m dressing up in a CEDA suit for the show, I HAVE to play the most notorious Zombie song of the last several years.

Earlier this year I ran a series of polls to ask you what should go on my “Best Of” album. Boy, did you answer that call. Without further ado, here is the track listing for the soon-to-be-created Democratically Elected Best of Matthew Ebel:

• “I Wish I Were” from The Lives of Dexter Peterson
• “Everybody Needs a Robot” from Goodbye Planet Earth
• “Prayer For Danny” from Songs from the Vault, vol. 3
• “An Ordinary Guy” from Songs from the Vault, vol. 2
• “Night Train” from Songs from the Vault, vol. 1
• “Merry Christmas from Cell Block 2″ from The High Orbit Holiday Special
• “Latté Days & Porter Nights” from Beer & Coffee
• “Rain” from Filling The Pages

Not to be completely cut out of the process, though, I decided to add my own side: The Unilaterally Mandated Best of Matthew Ebel. While I may agree with some of the decisions you guys came to, I wanted to cherry pick my own from the remaining pool of songs:

• “The Last Pirate” from The Lives of Dexter Peterson
• “I Will Wait For You” from Goodbye Planet Earth
• “Let It Rain” from Songs from the Vault, vol. 3
• “On and On” from Songs from the Vault, vol. 2
• “Lost on Block Island” from Songs from the Vault, vol. 1
• “Trees” from Beer & Coffee
• “Sally Went Down” from Filling The Pages

Yeah, I didn’t add my own pick from the Christmas album, but since there are only 5 actual SONGS on that album I didn’t want to give away the store, you know? Besides, most of the fun of that project was the adventure anyway, and that’s just difficult to translate into a “Best of” format.

Now comes the tricky part… album artwork. Expect voting sooooooon…