Gideon Freudmann
CelloBop
Happy New Year! I've been writing new music for my ensemble King Tide Trio. Our debut album came out recently, and for now it's available for streaming on Bandcamp and for purchase (a real life compact disc). We have more shows in the coming months here between the majestic sandy bluffs of this well-rounded, Puget Sounded, geological anomaly, which some locals call the rock.
- I released two albums, both acoustic and yet wildly different from each other:
King Tide Trio – a freshly minted chamber music debut
Raging Peasants – a reworked high energy album recorded in 1990 with my pal John Kruth
- I played concerts with King Tide Trio, Bigfoot Unicorn, Cello Piano, Trio Quartetto, and reunited with Caravan Gogh, plus a variety of solo and silent film shows.
- I published 20 new string trio sheet music compositions.
- Spotify tells me that I have about 8-10000 listeners per month and that earns me a pretty fancy cup of coffee or two. I don't know the stats with the other streaming services but I'm pretty sure that collectively it's around eleventy-million-kajillion. Maybe even more. This is a wondrous time to be making music. So many ways to cast about in the ether!
About a week later, he emailed me saying his friend loved the CD and particularly liked the song, Japanese Car. He wanted to write a scene into the first episode of Season 3 to include this song. I was elated, jubilant, jazzed, exultant. I was so happy I was turning into a thesaurus. They even reprised the song for another short scene later in the episode.
During the next few years, I had another dozen placements on that show. I went to a wrap party in Hollywood at the end of Season 7, where the executive producer told me I'd had more placements on Weeds than any other musician. Cracking good luck, that!
After recorded the chord foundation, I overdubbed a few instruments including a Zube Tube. What's a Zube Tube you may wonder? I bet you do.
Why "Plasma"? I just finished reading a book about vampires. Can you believe it? I can't. But be that is it may or may not be, I went with the blood theme.
Now here's something - the internet tells me that:
Plasma is the fourth state of matter (after solid, liquid, gas), an ionized gas with free electrons and ions, making it electrically conductive, found in stars, lightning, and auroras, while also referring to the liquid part of blood rich in proteins, crucial for clotting and immunity. It's the most abundant form of matter in the universe (99.9%) but rare on Earth, though vital in medicine for transfusions and in technology (like plasma TVs/lights).
Whoa! Maybe I'll call my next tune: The Fourth State of Matter. I wonder what key that will be in?
River Skeeters is an instrumental tune from my 1997 "Adobe Dog House" album. It caught the ear of Christine Lavin, a NYC singer/songwriter, and she included it on a collection of songs by various songwriters. The CD was called The Stealth Project. Mine was the only instrumental track and it caught the ear of Liane Hansen who invited me to be a guest on her NPR show, Weekend Edition (my 15 minutes of fame, thankyouverymuch Andy Warhol). That eventually resulted in lots of additional musical "bumpers" on NPR elevating me to a higher tier of obscurity.
At the tail end of my interview with Liane, I made an offhand comment about the cello's historic typecasting as "the sad instrument" and how I was on a mission to show how joyful the cello could be. We had a nice little laugh about that, yes we did! Then the interview ended. As my music was trailing off it was interrupted with a voice over sharing a breaking story about a plane crash in which all 200 passengers were presumed dead. So much for my lofty mission.
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During the tune called "Adobe Dog House", I quote the melodies of some iconic TV themes and rock songs including "Smoke on the Water". There ensued a small tiff with the owner of the indy label about to release the album. He said it was a cliché that should be removed and I told him I would redo the track if he could show me one other cello album with that tune on it. The musical quote remained on the track. A small victory. Rock on, Garth.
Concerts are listed on the gigs page. Have a fabulous day.
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