well i finally found a place to live. it’s awesome. it’s in my old hood, even closer to the good stuff (the pool, the park, the stuff, the yoga class, the other stuff). the house is 95 years old, with an attic that we are turning in to a library. and they said i could have a piano :*} so if anyone has a piano they want to get rid of me, lemme know.
i can’t wait to have my own space to create. i have a million half finished song ideas in my phone and on various pieces of paper in numerous suit cases, back packs and note books. most of all i can’t wait to get near a piano. like a real piano. and play it in a real house, with wood floors, the kind of wood floors that sing like the house is the piano and the whole box and every key is just…hooked up.
i can’t even begin to describe how stupid the circumstances of my ‘eviction’ were. not until every last article of my belongings was packed up (by someone not me) in to a van on it’s way to a temporary storage place, did i finally get a text saying ‘i think there’s been a misunderstanding’. ya, no shit. no one told me why i was kicked out, or if i had done something to deserve this. they just ignored me and then said the room i was gonna sleep in was still, after 2 months, full of stuff. then they let me couch surf for a week, lying every day saying they were ‘so busy’ and ‘so sorry’. monday rolls around and in comes the text saying only ‘we need to talk’.
a note to all you future land-people…when someone is wondering if they are homeless, texting ‘we need to talk’ is probably not the best way to tell them. Especially after a week of lies and couch surfing? Just saying.
Director Douglas Thomson made this video for the song Diamonds in that old house. He has worked with the likes of Bif Naked and Squeeze.
here’s to better times, and closing one chapter and opening the next. crazy what can happen/change/exist/not in less than a year huh…

i’m avoiding writing 47 more thank you letters. this is day two. i think i did about 50 yesterday. here are some. they are not all drawings. in fact some are incredibly cheesy and there are tears on at least two of them.

enough from me. here are some comments i got today about the new download.
i am really grossly sick today and these really cheered me up. and gave me hope.
oh and i made a video. posted below.

“I recently had the pleasure of spending some time with Billy. We went to a couple of music festival, spending a fair amount of time on the road. We had a lot of heart to heart conversations about some of the sadder and not so easy things in life. After one particular conversation where Billy was able to have me open up about the difficulties of life from my perspective about living with a spouse with a debilitating chronic illness (Multiple Sclerosis), she plug her ipod into my car stereo and played a song for me off her upcoming CD.

I was in tears as I listened to “Where we are is just where we are/Falling farther from so far/Underneath midnight sheets/Tell me tell me you need me/Tell me tell me you need me.”

This girl Billy is the real deal, down to earth. kind hearted and compassionate.

– mitch

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“I can’t believe we’re already 7 songs into this album. I’m listening to them all together now thinking, this sounds like an album! The songs are amazing and you did it all on your own with a little help from some friends. I’m honored that I was able to be a part of this. I can’t wait to hear the other songs and to have the physical copy of the album in my hands. So excited! Pedro better have been serious about Virginia in September :)”
– breebug
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You’re an amazing talent…and I deal with “rockstars” all the time…but you still have your heart in it and won’t let anyone take that away from you. You’re rare in the business these days and never stop being who you are. I love you for that, I love that you’re so genuine and honest about everything
– ronan
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a long time ago in a land far away (america) I met some pretty great people who also happened to be pretty great at music.

in a drunken stupor we decided to call ourselves Billy the Kid & The Southside Boys (seeing as they were all, clearly, from the the wrong side of the tracks and I am clearly an outlaw whose likeness garners around 2.3 million).

it was the best of times, it was the bestest-er of times. in efforts to not waste money, i used up everyone’s airmiles and flew to studios who were willing to help out The Cause. from Vancouver to Virginia to Toronto and back, we somehow managed to make this album sounds pretty alright (in my opinion) and not crazy expensive.

I spent money on things that need money spent on them (drum sounds, good people, good rooms, good microphones) and tried to be mindful of things like time (allowing myself only a couple takes per song on vocals, guitar and piano if necessary) and recording/mixing remotely when possible. it became apparent to me you don’t have to spend a million dollars to make an album.

here’s some behind the scenes shots of me and the Southside Boys goofing around…proving you also don’t have to be so serious just because you’re making music, and Fun, is *still* #1.

billy.
Catastrophe – The Making Of