23 May 2009
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Topanga Days and Crazy Cactus Park

Yesterday we went to the beach, came home and got fold out chairs to sit in the sun on, had thai in our beautiful backyard and drank wine to my favorite movie (not telling…too terribly cheesy to admit to hehe)

Today Randy played Topanga Days in beautiful Topanga. Right before he went on, Blood Sweat and Tears played all their classic tunes… we watched a bit of their set from backstage then went on a bit of an adventure. It was great to see a band from so close that I remember listening to all the time in my ’65 Valiant that only had AM Radio and one mom speaker on the dash (and thus, only blasted oldies radio).


In the band was Joe Karnes who played bass on my album The Lost Cause. Joe’s such a great guy to have in a band…you can tell he really understands music and not only is he a great player but he’s a great guy too. Him and Randy make for a wicked rhythm section.



Right after they played we zipped down the mountain and made a stop in Crazy Cactus Park. Ok so that’s not what it is actually called but it should be! 🙂





**For way more pictures like this tune in to my Flickr Account at http://www.flickr.com/photos/thelostcause/**

Little Known Fact Day 8: I’m growing my hair for http://www.lockoflove.org and after having short hair for most of my life, it turns out that my hair is curly!!! I had no idea.

22 May 2009
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Papers

Well, it happened.

Today a little something arrived in my inbox that I have been hoping and praying for my whole life.

A Licensing Deal!!! 😀

I’m so excited about working with this company…they’ve placed songs in movies like Milk, An Inconvenient Truth, Boogie Nights, Underworld and shows like Californication and Dexter.

Another great something arrived today…the rough draft of my support letters to get my O-1 Visa!!!

Not to be all depress-io but for the last couple months for me have not been so awesome. I won’t lie. It’s been a lot of Not Sunshine, Not Palm Trees, and Not Randy…and I didn’t like it one bit. See, because I’m not an Amurcan (pronounce as spelled), I cannot legally reside in the Amurca (southern spin on pronouncing “American”). I cannot work, play or reside here for any extended amount of time. I love Canada and it will always be my home but I fell in love with California years ago and most importantly, my favourite person in the world lives here and I just can’t live so far from him.

So, we collect support letters and a fun time line of everything I’ve ever done that is music related (boy has that been fun) and before long, I should have my visa! The name of it is “Alien of Extraordinary Ability”. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA 😛

Daily Something Day 7: After 15 years of dying my hair, I recently discovered that I really like my natural hair color.

21 May 2009
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A Deal

The guy from Matchbox 20 is in the studio right now. Randy’s tracking drums in the room beside our bed. I can hear everything they’re talking about haha.

Last night we had a celebration dinner. It started with beet tartare (beets on a soft crumbly cashew “goat” cheese), was followed by vegan mac and cheese, vegan chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy and then vegan bananas foster. Oh and an amazing bottle of Pinot Noir. It was a celebration.

It was a celebration because yesterday I had this really awesome meeting that I’m pretty sure is going to amount to my stuff being in more T.V. shows and movies. I’m supposed to get a contract in my inbox today and then…we wait 🙂

If you’re a songwriter this kind of thing is a huge huge deal and I’ll tell you why…getting a song you wrote in a hit T.V. show is a major opportunity, especially in this silly world where labels don’t exist and no one is helping anyone anymore. I been perfectly happy with remaining independent but this sort of licensing deal truly is a dream come true, and something that I have wanted for my whole life.

Keep your eyes and ears peeled folks…you may just hear some of my songs in your fav. show one day 😉

Taken while driving to the meeting that could change my life:

Little Known Billy Fact Day 6: In grade two I read over 900 books in less than a year. I got a shirt that says “I read over 700 books” cause they had no idea what number I would be at by the time they printed the shirts. To this day I feel ripped off 😉

21 May 2009
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Hoping…

Woke up, went to gym. Ran in one spot for 40 minutes.

Came home, ate food. drove to Beverly Hills to have a meeting with a music licensing dude…here’s hoping I can get some tunes in some shows!!! 😀

Tonight: Dinner at the World’s Greatest Restaurant in the Entire Universe Madeleine Bistro (gourmet all vegan fare in Tarzana).

Signed up for that Fox Vancouver Seeds thing… ranking horribly. I suppose that’s an indication that I likely won’t win 😉

Little Known Fact About Me Day 5: I have been vegetarian for 15 years and vegan for about 13.

20 May 2009
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Swan Viper

Tonight we went to the Viper Room! I had never been so I was pretty excited 🙂

Sierra Swan is a superbly talented songstress who plays guitar, piano and has an AMAZING voice. She’s also Billy Swan’s daughter and one of Dave Stewart (The Eurythmics) backup singers (that’s how I met her).

I really liked the Viper Room! And Sierra played great.

Last night I spent way too long drinking wine in a hot tub and I don’t recommend this the night before your first day back at boxing in about a month. That’s right, I’m learning how to box. I love it!!! It’s a great rush, sooo good for you and just about the best way to stay nice and relaxed throughout your day 🙂 After boxing we did a bit of running around before a fabulous dinner with producer/writer team the Wizardz of Oz at the Cheesecake Factory.

Little Known Fact About Me Day Four: This one time, at band camp…haha just kidding. Kind of…

Did you know that I was a camp counselor for a whole 2 months one summer? I did everything from food prep, “dishing” and camp restoration to looking after a 2 year old and 6 year old (moms and kids camp) and several cabins of kids ages 7-13. It was on beautiful Gambier Island and I’ll never forget what a difference being surrounded by water for 2 months made on the ol’ psyche.

19 May 2009
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Sometimes

Sometimes, life is great.

Isn’t it? Isn’t life the most unbelievable concept?

Sometimes it seems like life is a sham. On those days it’s best to remind yourself that just when it seems like it couldn’t get any worse, it always can. And chances are, if you’re reading this from a computer (whether it’s yours or not), your life is waaaayyyy better than about 89% of the population. This statistic is fact and I did not make it up.

Lately, life is doing just fine over here. See, I’m back in California, and there’s just nothing that can bring me down when it is this terribly sunny! Please do not hate me if you are reading this from Canada. I grew up there and it will always be my home but jeeeeeezus enough with the cold already!

Here are a few pics of where I live when I am here:



Here’s the studio we live in the back of:



Today we took the Big Black Beast to Johnny Mead’s and I watched Randy track some drums for a new artist he’s producing. I really like “Take Your Girlfriend to Work Day” 🙂 I nerded out and took a ton of pictures and video. I love watching Randy play drums it’s about the best thing in the world as far as I’m concerned. I loved it before we were together and I’ll love it for the rest of my days for sure.

Little Known Fact About Me Day Three:

I completed 2 years of University at UCFV in Abbotsford, British Columbia with the intention of becoming a high school teacher and changing people’s lives on a daily basis. I stopped going because I got a job at Long and McQuade, was interning at Sudden Death Records (D.O.A.’s label) and playing tons with my political punk band The Blue Collar Bullets. There are still days when I wonder if this was the best decision 😉

17 May 2009
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Paradise Lost

Some time ago, I fell in love with California.

It was literally within 5 minutes of driving away from LAX Airport in a rental car.

It was January, the sun was shining, the palm trees glistening, and I proclaimed with fierce determination:

“I’m moving here.”

In the shuttle from the airport to the rental car place someone had asked me “Are you from Canada?”

“Yes!” I exclaimed. “How did you know!”

Then I realized I was wearing a parka.

My trips to and from L.A. began with a certain Raine Maida, singer for the band Our Lady Peace… somewhere amidst years of making solo demo recordings, he heard something he liked and asked me if I could get myself to L.A. to record. I lied and said yes.

It turned out to be the greatest lie I could have ever told. You see, the best thing about working with Raine Maida, was being introduced to Randy Cooke.

Randy was a sought-after session drummer who Raine liked to use when he was producing… you can find him on Kelly Clarkson, Hilary Duff, Ashley Tisdale, Natasha Beddingfield, Five for Fighting and Chantal Kreviazuk albums (to name a few) as well as onstage with the likes of Ringo Starr, Dave Stewart (The Eurythmics), Leonard Cohen and Raine’s solo project.


Before Randy arrived at the studio for a day of tracking for my upcoming release, Raine made him a “Reserved For R. Cooke” sign to place in his parking spot. Randy had just done a bout of television shows like Larry King Live, Late Night with Craig Gilmore etc with Ringo Starr, and I guess this was Raine’s way of ensuring his ego hadn’t gotten too big. Having known the guy for about 2 years now, I can say with confidence that this could never happen. He is the sweetest, most down to earth man you will EVER meet.

Awhile ago I stopped coming to L.A. just to record. In fact, after I fell madly in love with Randy Cooke and he became my favourite person on the planet, I could care less about recording! I just wanted to spend time with him and finally, as of a couple days ago, I’m back in his arms surrounding by sunshine, the ocean, and glistening palms.

Flight consisted of World’s Smallest Plane and a layover in Utah. This is going to sound terrible but, although I haven’t been gone for long, I had forgotten how overweight Americans are becoming… The percentage of morbidly obese travelers in this one airport was MIND SHATTERING. Maybe the people with the money to travel in today’s economy are consuming more than their fair share in multiple categories…

My guilty pleasure when traveling is to pick up one of those terrible entertainment magazines, you know, the copies that are only worth about $2 and as soon as you carry out the embarrassing sin or purchasing one you instantly regret it? Within seconds I found myself on a page which highlighted to cost of several celebrity’s wardrobe’s. $1200 for a purse. $950 shoes. $2500 dress. The list went on and on.

$1200 for a frickin purse in a gad-damn recession on a planet where half the population is hungry or living far below any decent standard???

Sudden I began to feel very guilty. Why was I holding this magazine? Why do I do this? All over the place we’re a nation of guilty, guilty people justifying our good and bad deeds. And here I was, obese with frivolity.

Lesson learned.

One more plane. So excited. It’s been far too long since I got to spend time with my favourite person on the planet and when you live lives of traveling, distance, web cams and long distance phone calls, you truly savour every tiny moment together.

After a couple hours of disbelief and ecstatic happiness, we ended up at one of my favourite restaurants in L.A.: Pure Luck.
Pure Luck is an all vegan restaurant which somehow makes a curious invention of Mother Nautre’s called “jackfruit” taste like bar-b-q pulled pork. Maybe you’re the kind of vegan who thinks that’s ridiculous, hell, maybe you’re a carnivore who thinks the same…either way, I’ve been vegan for about 13 years and LOVE to discover new and exciting ways to make fruit, vegetable, soy products, nuts…WHATEVER, taste like carnivorous bi-products! Haha. I ordered the fiesta plate and Randy had the beet salad and jackfruit carnita wrap (all vegan).


The other great thing about Pure Luck is the fantastic beer menu. They have all sorts of great micro-brew and mini-brewery/indie type beers that you won’t find in most places. I had a heavenly Hefe and Rnady had a “Blue Dot” made by Hair of the Dog (the one and only beer I like more thank Granville Island Winter Ale. True Story.) Oh, and it’s across the street from Scoops, a great vegan ice cream joint 😉

So here I am, back in paradise, with the man of my dreams… and I couldn’t be happier.

Little Known Fact About Me Day Two: The two major injuries of my whole life resulted from a bass in the head at Call the Office in London (5 stitches) and a teeter-toter at my elementary school in grade 2 (6 stitches). What can we determine about me from this fact?? 😉

16 May 2009
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On A Mission

I’m on a mission.

And so help me, I’m gonna do it.

For sometime, I’ve made plans to “blog”.

“Blogging” is something I used to do, mainly on the ol’ Billy and the Lost Boys site (see: Tour Diaries) more recently, on the Billy the Kid Myspace page.

Finally, the combination of having an actual website and and actual real live space to write and create, here we are… on a mission.

My mandate for this mission will be twofold, for the time being: First, pulling inspiration from one of my favourite people Adam PW Smith, I will hereby post something, anything, at least once per day.

See, I was hanging out with Adam PW Smith the other day and we got talking about a remarkable thing he does. Adam has a photoblog in which he posts one new photo per day. Yep, one per day.

He was telling me that this process has been very helpful in keeping him motivated as well as inspiring him to go out, see new bands and experience things he might otherwise not have experienced (gotta get that new photo up).

I thought this was an incredible idea and immediately saw how so many unpredictable benefits could come from this.

So, I’m stealing his idea.

Every day I’m going to write something, anything, in hopes that I can get over this surprisingly long bout of writer’s block that I’ve been experiencing. Yep, that’s right… I haven’t written anything in far too long. The other thing I’m hoping will happen due to this new game plan is to create a dialogue between myself and you reading this. As you will see at the bottom of this post, there is a Comments section. I sincerely hope you will post your comments and, if you have any, questions as well. Anything. I’m making it a priority to respond to everything and everything that you the reader has to say/contribute. Let’s all start creating and contributing and remind ourselves, while we sit at these computers, that there are other people in the world that we can converse with about anything and everything, and in the process, perhaps become better, more thoughtful people.

The second goal of all this will be to post something new about myself once per day…something that most people don’t know about me. This is for both you and I, to hopefully learn something about me/you and in the process, become better at this “life” thing.

Thanks for reading, and I hope to hear from you 🙂

Billy

Daily Something That (Most) People Don’t Know About Me:

I skipped grade 5 and to this day believe it was part of some sort of experiment to see what would happen to a totally average kid if you told him/her that he/she was exceptional in some way or another.

07 May 2009
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Billy on the Radio

Breaking news: Tamara Stanners from the Peak 100.5 will be playing Billy’s song “Just Trying To Get By” at 12:45 TODAY and there is rumour of a phone conversation as well.

Listen/call/facebook/comment/email in and give us some feedback! http://www.thepeak.fm to stream live.

Make sure to tune in tomorrow at 7pm PST as well as Billy will be co-hosting and performing live.