hope your week is off to a nice start so far!
although, we finally finished making “storyboards” (so thrilled to have it finally out via the early release/pre order! and can’t wait for the “official” release in sept!) we thought it would be fun to write a little bit about the gear we used to make this album, now that some of you have had the chance to live with our new album for a bit.
(for those of you unaware, our new record is available now as an immediate download when you pre-order the cd at: www.sleepingatlast.com)
you may have noticed the addition of the ukulele in many of the new songs on storyboards. i’m in love with the instrument, plain and simple. before i actually owned one, my intentions were to use it as a small production tool on the album, sort of as a way to incorporate hawaii (my favorite place) into our songs in a very subtle, background-like way… so my fiancee bought me a tenor-sized ukulele for my birthday at a flea market in hawaii. as soon as i began to play around with it, it became incredibly inspiring to me and i just couldn’t put it down. i wrote a song on it right away (which is on the record – titled “unmade”) and then throughout the following months it sort of became the only instrument i wanted to play music on! so i ended up writing about 5 songs on “storyboards” on the ukulele and i’m so looking forward to writing more and more on it for future albums.
the brand that i’ve been obsessed with playing is called KALA ukulele company. they make amazing instruments.. and are just a wonderful company. they were kind enough to endorse me not too long before we began recording this record, and they’ve just been so great to me! they have made my experiences playing this instrument even more of a treat than it naturally already is.. truly wonderful through and through – from how beautiful their instruments sound and play, to just being incredibly personable and warm folks to interact with – i’m absolutely grateful and can’t say enough about them!
so, for anyone out there in the ukulele market, i highly and wholeheartedly recommend KALA! and for any musician or even non-musician in general that hasn’t played one before, they truly are incredibly inspiring to play. here’s KALA’s website: www.kalaukulele.com
and make sure you check them out on facebook too! www.facebook.com/pages/Kala-Ukulele/34868244956
thanks for reading about my ukulele passion.. again, i can’t say enough about KALA! check ’em out for sure.
talk soon,
love, ryan
here’s a few pictures of the models i have and love..
this one’s my first, so it’s certainly a special one to me. it’s made out of mango wood and it’s tenor sized.. it’s model is: KA-MT. i wrote all of storyboard’s ukulele songs on this one..
and this one is quite special. the incredibly kind and generous, mike upton from KALA sent me this one.. and it’s made out of solid koa and, to my knowledge, is not in production just yet.. so, it’s quite a rare beaut!. and it sounds particularly warm and bassy, which is something i love.. not to mention it’s just really gorgeous. i love it!
this is one that i play live, it’s got electronics built in and has a nice cutaway, but otherwise it’s the exact same model as above the above mango, also tenor sized. the model for this one is: KA-MTE-C
Sounds awesome, and while i cant afford those two particular models, I’m looking at some of their entry level stuff. Thanks Ryan, love the new record by the way. Hopefully you can make it out to Orlando, Florida sometime.
I just watched you turn this lovely intrument, at Discovery church in Orlando Florida!
Can’t wait till you start playing! 🙂
I was curious if you ever considered changing
the layout of your blog? Its very well written; I love what youve got
to say. But maybe you could a little more
in the way of content so people could connect with it better.
Youve got an awful lot of text for only having 1 or two pictures.
Maybe you could space it out better?