Some of you may know, I’ve played the sax since I was ten years old. In high school it was pretty serious. At some point, between jazz and wind ensembles and marching band, I spent around twenty hours a week playing and rehearsing in these nationally renowned ensembles. I also led a saxophone quartet that played festivals, community events and the occasional old folks home. When it came to college, I auditioned for a few different music programs and conservatories and ended up playing in my University’s concert and jazz ensembles for over two years.

Unfortunately, that’s all behind me. Well sort of. In the midst of all the distorted guitars, and booming drums, I do get to work with horn and string players occasionally and absolutely adore every second of it. Most recently, that has included strings on Twin Sister’s upcoming full length, and strings and horns on Norwegian artist, Elvira Nikolaisen’s newest record.

Over the span of a few months sometime last year, I pulled out my massively rusty chops and laid down some sax tracks on three tunes. The first was for The Man Suits’ “Spirit O’ Spirit.” This was collaborative group made up of members of Dr. Dog, mewithoutYou, BC Camplight and a few other bands, for a Shaking Through session that I recorded:

Spirit, Oh Spirit – The Man Suits

I played on a Springs song, but that record is still in the works. The third song was “Little Cure” from a Pittsburgh band called 1,2,3. It was produced by my good friend, Kyle at Fancy Time Studio. I stood in complete darkness in the middle of the night playing in a huge warehouse garage:

Little Cure – 1,2,3

It’s not particularly easy to keep playing the sax in a situation outside of an ensemble situation or fit it in a pop environment, but I can at least say that due to some recent inspiration, my sax won’t be staying in its case for much longer.