Conversations : bands, Brooklyn, concrete dreams.

How are you?
I asked, ordering at the counter; sole coffee customer on a Friday evening an hour before closing.
Doing anything fun this weekend?

Good man,
he said.
Just finished my weekend, so this is my Monday.

Nice.
I said.
What did you do?

Oh, me and some friends hung out in Portland. Shot a music video, you know.

Right on, that’s great,
I said truthfully.
My brother is a Portland-based musician and owns a recording studio. What kind of music do you do?

Oh, a bunch,
he said.
It’s kind of…hip hop, with some R&B stuff. Kind of all over, you know. Yeah, we’re moving to New York next September.

That’s fun,
I said.
That’s where I’ve been all week. What’s the plan?

Well, our producer has like his own studio in his house,
the barista explained.
And he’s got this really good mic. He doesn’t even need like soundproofing stuff and all that stuff cause it’s such a nice mic. It’s like a $1200 mic.

I hope he doesn’t drop that mic,
I said somberly.

We’re actually going to L.A. first,
he continued.
Then we’ll all go to New York from there. He actually was really close to having a big deal, a big record deal down there but then stuff happened and it didn’t happen, but we’re gonna meet in L.A. and then we’ll all go to New York. Brooklyn. Brooklyn is where like all the music stuff is happening in New York these days.

Hello Brooklyn,
I said.
There’s been some good tunes out of there, for sure. You guys got a place?

We’ll all get a place together,
he explained.
So, you know, divide it up.

That could be a lot of fun,
I said.
And if you ever want to record in Portland, my brother’s got a great little studio. I can give you his info if you want.

Our producer’s got a really good mic,
he reminded me.

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