The past two and a half years have been years of great change: a few of my friends got married, others had their first child, and others sadly have divorced. Zooming out to a larger view, the past two and a half years have brought to light incredible advances in medicine, science, and technology, but also some of the toughest financial and political crises our generation has ever known. Personally for me, one of the most significant events of the past two years was the death of my mentor James last December. Losing him has impacted my life in an unimaginably profound way.

James was the conductor of my middle school’s string orchestra, but he quickly become much more to me than just that. James became the person I knew I could always count on for help. Time after time, I would continually make a complete mess of my life, and James would always be there to help me put the pieces back together. This became our regular routine, and he practiced it regularly with me from my days as a hopelessly nerdy 8th grader, to my days as a rebellious college student, and to my current days as a (still) rebellious adult. He had a great skill for teaching, and he always found a way to turn my problems into valuable life lessons. He was a selfless teacher with a tremendous amount of patience. Knowing that I was incredibly stubborn, he never forced his ideas upon me, and he always let me think that I discovered the solutions to my problems on my own.

Two and a half years ago, James became ill with cancer. However, he wouldn’t fully admit the news to me for another year, and in the meantime he allowed me to selfishly continue running to him with my various life problems.

However, the lessons he would teach me started to appear odd and confusing. He later explained to me that he was teaching me lessons for the future — lessons that would hold no meaning for me until the very day they were fully experienced. Still not truly knowing how very ill he was, I cast away his strange words with a gust of frustration. He calmly smiled and patiently replied that I would one day understand.

Watching James’ health rapidly fail him over the last few months of his life was terribly painful. He lost a frightening amount of weight, and his strength quickly faded along with it. Yet he still fought to continue teaching me the life lessons I so desperately depended on him for. Sadly, the day for our very last lesson ultimately arrived, and James died two days afterward on December 14th, 2010.

Unsurprisingly, it took me a long while before I felt I was ready to write new material again. And when I finally did start writing, I quickly discovered my musical style had radically changed. There was understandably a great amount of darkness in my writing that hadn’t been there before, but there was also a new brightness that I had never before encountered.

At first, I didn’t know what to make of the new changes. The new material sounded so very different from my old material that I began to feel extremely anxious about sharing it. And so, I didn’t. I buried it and did my best to ignore that it even existed.

But once in a while, I felt strangely compelled to revisit the work and revise it. After many months of revisions, I eventually was able to complete two pieces. These two pieces are now the A and B sides of my upcoming single “One for James”, due for release in December. And yes, they are very different from anything I’ve previously released.

Until very recently, I was still feeling anxious about sharing the new material with anyone. That was until I realized exactly for whom I was actually writing these two pieces for.

They’re for James.

in case you missed the live broadcast, here’s the archived episode of my recent appearance on the knocksteady podcast.

in this interview, we talk about my musical upbringing, artists i’ve worked with in theunderground hip hop industry, my current musicalinfluences, and staying out of my goddamn business.

big thanks to the knocksteady crew for having me on the show. i had a great time!

In trying and failing to write new solo material over the past year, I’ve become acutely aware of the fact that my musical vocabulary is severely limited. Music is a language, and I no longer feel that I know enough words to offer a worthwhile conversation — or rather, I don’t know enough words to effectively convey what I aim to express.

The Decision.
After several weeks of applying some serious thought to this issue, I’ve gone ahead with the decision to book flights for my first ever creative retreat: devote 3 days and 2 nights in a different city to listen to new music — whether it be actually new or just new to me — in order to build my musical vocabulary.

The Plan.
I’m planning on utilizing two different environmental settings for music listening:

• Hotel Room: view-inspired, distraction-free listening.
  Having a clean and quiet workspace should help make it easier to focus on music, but it would be nice to also have the option to look at something nice while listening. So I’ve booked a room on the highest floor my budget can afford. That way, I can listen to my music with the city view as an inspirational backdrop, but without the distractions of street noise.

• Walking Outdoors: distraction-inclusive, contextual listening.
  Music never sounds the same twice, even when you’re revisiting the exact same recording. This is all due to changes in context both physical and emotional. In a physical context, music simply sounds different whenever its physical surroundings change. In an emotional context, the listener is forever changing — his cumulative life experience brings new meaning to each listening.

  By walking around outdoors, I’ll not only be able to easily change the context of my physical surroundings, but I’ll also hopefully gain some new, fun, and interesting life experiences for future listenings as well. In this case, healthy distractions are welcome.

What kind of music will I be listening to?
It doesn’t really matter, as long as it’s not current “Top 40” material. Mainstream Top 40 music is too easily accessible, and the purpose of this retreat is to leave any common musical comfort zones behind.

You can help.
If you’d like to help me prepare for the retreat, let me know of any specific music you think should be added to my playlist. Please include the artist name, genre, and album or song title. Current artists are preferred, but music from the past is also welcome. Just remember: no current mainstream Top 40 artists, please.

The Current Playlist.
Here are a few artists I have on my playlist so far, in no particular order. I’ve obviously already listened to some of these, but I’d like to revisit them in the context of a different city. And I still have a couple weeks left before the actual retreat, so this list could easily change.

• Animal Collective/Panda Bear
• Baths/Geotic
• LCD Soundsystem
• Wild Nothing
• Crystal Castles
• Flying Lotus
• Aphex Twin
• Cocteau Twins
• Deadmau5
• Washed Out
• XX
• (Your Recommendation Here!)

Conclusion.
I’m definitely nervous about going on this retreat. After all, there’s no guarantee that spending own my company funds to go on this type of trip will make any measurable difference in my abilities as a musician. But, this is a type of adventure I’ve never been on before, and I am super excited to be a part of my own musical experiment.

I can’t wait.

This summer, director Jon M. Chu will launch the first ever online dance adventure: “The LXD: The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers”. The LXD is a series of short films that feature the extremely talented dancers of — you guessed it — The LXD Crew.

The series will start on Wednesday, July 7th, 2010, on Hulu, and I’m very excited to announce that I’ve been asked to write and record the musical score for one of the episodes.

As you might already know from their many TV appearances and various videos on the web, the LXD Crew is extremely talented, and I’m very excited to work on a project with them.

I was able to catch a preview screening a couple of weeks ago, and everything looks amazing. The dancing in each episode is simply incredible, and I can’t wait for you to see the whole series!

So make sure to bookmark this link: http://hulu.com/the-lxd

The first episode will premiere on Wednesday, July 7th, 2010, followed by a new episode every week after that for a total of ten weeks.

It’s going to be an awesome summer in the world of music and dance, so please stay tuned! And thank you so much for lending me your continued support. As an independent musician, I truly, truly appreciate it.

i love writing and performing many different styles of music.

the recordings i’ve released in the past may not match the music i release today; and the music i release today may not be in the same style as the music i release in the future. this applies to the many videos i create, as well. not everyone understands or likes this fact, but i can’t help but be true to myself and make things that i truly enjoy.

i understand that not everyone will join me for the whole duration of my creative journey. with every new piece of work that i release, i know some fans will drift away, and other fans will join in. some will be angry and disapproving of my creative choices, while others will be excited and supportive.

the obvious fact that i must accept is that not everyone is going to like everything i create. it’s not always easy to accept this fact, but i know that it is undeniably true.

my creative style may always be changing, but i can make one solid promise that will never change: no matter what happens, i will always strive to put my best possible work forward. no shortcuts, no cutting corners. everything i release will be an authentic representation of my creative self.

and that is where i eventually find peace in accepting the fact that not everyone will like what i create. certain people may say that they don’t like the style of work i present at any given time, but no one will ever be able to say that my work isn’t of high quality. i know i’m good at what i do, and whether or not people like my work won’t ever affect that.

my creative journey must (and will) continue whether people join me or not. but of course, i’d rather you join me. it’s more fun that way.

Come party with us this Sunday night as EPIC FU continues its Living Room Series with a Live performance by Paul Dateh & Ken Belcher. They’ll be performing songs from their brand new EP, The Good Life, as well as giving away signed copies to a lucky few! I’ll be hosting and taking questions from the live virtual audience – so make sure to drop by. Anything can (and will) happen!

Date: Sunday, November 8th, 2009
Time: 7pm PST
Place: YOUR living room! Meet us virtually at live.epicfu.com

RSVP on Facebook!

Originally, Paul Dateh was only supposed to be a violinist. Beginning his violin studies at the age of four, it seemed that Dateh’s future in the classical industry was set in stone. But, on his first day at The University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, Dateh suddenly dropped his major in Violin Performance and enrolled in the Jazz Studies program instead. The move shocked his colleagues as it was hard to understand why anyone would walk away from fourteen years of classical training to begin learning an entirely new musical discipline. But, Dateh knew that he wanted to be more than just a classical musician; his goal was to become a musician, in every possible way.

Since first appearing on the music scene two years ago, singer and violinist Paul Dateh has gone on to garner millions of views on the web as well as national exposure on television and in print. Now, Dateh has teamed up with guitarist Ken Belcher to create “The Good Life” – a concept record that offers a fresh and original take on acoustic urban folk music.

“The Good Life” is a seven-song EP that follows the life of a man living out his adulthood. Classic, well-known stories of finding happiness in each moment and the search for love are presented in new ways with Dateh’s pure voice and lush string harmonies filling in the lines while Belcher punctuates each sentence with the soulful strumming of guitar.

Being fully trained in both Classical and Jazz styles, Paul Dateh & Ken Belcher’s influences are extremely diverse. Some of their influences include Bela Fleck, Stephane Grappelli, Alan & Marilyn Bergman, Stevie Wonder, and The Clientele.

In preparation for the release of “The Good Life”, Dateh and Belcher have been touring throughout the United States performing to sold-out crowds while also continuing to build a solid following online. The duo will also be making their first five-week tour in Japan starting in November.

My self-titled debut album will be launching January, 27th, 2009! After months of hard work, I’m very excited that the album is now a reality; and I can’t wait to share the finished product with you!

If you’d like a preview of what’s to come, you can currently get the first single off the album entitled “Be More” at the Amazon MP3 store (iTunes coming soon). Of course, the full album will be available through all major digital retailers, and you’ll be able to purchase physical copies from CD Baby or directly from me at a live show.

Also, please mark your calendars for the album release party on January 31st, 2009! The actual show will take place in Los Angeles, but we’ll also make sure to stream the show live online in case you can’t make it in person. I’ll make sure to post the complete details very, very soon.

Thank you very much for your continued support. I truly appreciate it!
Paul

Album Launching 01.27.09!

I was tagged by the awesome Angela Sauceda!

Rules: post the 6th photo from the 6th page of your Flickr account and tag 6 others to do the same.

Here are my 6 people:

@therealillus
@mrvudoo
ace
@carmelita
sammi
jess

Click to play

Ken (guitar) and I (vocals, violin) recently recorded our cover arrangement of “Blackbird”. You can stream it now above or download for free by right-clicking here. I hope you enjoy it!