So, this happened… 2023

January 1, 2024 | John X | News

thank you, Universe, for sending so many exceptional humans through our doors this year!

Emile Martinez & JX

2023 made a strong start with songwriter/chanteuse Jada Rose who started with a huge collection of songs that is growing faster than we can finish them. She is joined by producer/artist Carlos Niño (André 3000). Jada continued to work with us over the entire year & brought with her some incredible talent. Carlos also returned throughout the year with some of his own projects (to be covered later). Jada is getting ready for her first release in 2024

keyboard maestro Brian Hargrove

… out of the mouths of babes…

We started the year by wrapping up the the first album of (at the time) 11 year old Siren Ortega. Her goal was to complete the first album before she turned 12 & we succeeded. She had some great help from her incredibly supportive family – an extra shoutout to supermom/rapper Concetta & to her guitar teacher Jimmy Murn. Siren returned in November to start working on her second album.

This kid is truly a prolific songwriter & I can only imagine what is in store for her future.

The story of Toronto radio station CFNY

In mid-January we were bookrd as a location for a fascinating documentary about the history of Toronto radio station CFNY. The segment was conceived & completed by filmmaker/director Matt Schichter, assistant director/entire crew Julia Wallace & interviewer/journalist Alan Cross,

This looks like it’s going to be a great film, just based on the interaction & information given during this interview alone.

Condé Nast/Vanity Fair

The “spoken word” series continued with an episode for the Vanity Fair/Condé Nast podcast “into the Hive” This episode included Hollywood correspondent Natalie Jarvey and will likely be a great listen.

Abby Wills’ meditation series

Abby Wills and colleague Niki Saccareccia shared their light in the form of an upcoming meditation/wellness series.

Alex Siegel and friends

One incredibly productive day with singer/songwriter Alex Siegel and friends. They initially booked the studio to record their entire set live as they wrapped up the last night of their tour. Once they got set up, they ended up recording about 50 songs. Alex was joined by a fabulous rhythm section: Drums – Dylan Grombacher, Bass – Dane Sanborg, Anything Goes: Brenner with filmmaker Chad & Earthstar family member Robert Schwan.

Soleful For Freedoms podcast

Were joined by Micheline Berry, Miguel Rivera & Michele Woo for creation of a couple of episodes of the Soleful For Freedoms podcast.

ESPN sends a legend

This session was booked with an air of mystery & intrigue around it. There was only mention of when “the talent” would be arriving by the identity was kept secret – until I opened the door to see legend Carl Weathers standing there with smile big enough to light up Manhattan. Consummate professional with an amazing spirit.

And then the neighbors showed up

Venice neighbor/client Warren Cuccurullo (Duran Duran, Missing Persons) returned for a marathon recording project. 3 separate catalogs of specific genre – about 50 songs total. Joined by some incredible talent including sax legend Azar Lawrence, keyboard wizard Tommy Mars, power drummer Joe Travers, percussionist Munyungo Jackson & keyboard master Alex Alessandroni, Jr. There’s a whole lot of talent right there. This kept us very busy for the entire months of April & May.

At some point in the year, Warren was invited to be a guest guitarist on 2 of Duran Duran’s new singles: “Dance Macabre” & “Love Voudou” – all of his guitar tracks were recorded here.

Stan Becker

We were joined by another Venice neighbor – Stan Becker. He came in to record lead vocals, harmoonica solo & mix his newest single. We had never met met before and yet somehow I felt I had known him for a thousand years.

Carlos Niño & friends

Spent a fantastic & creative evening listening to the magic created by this amazing crew – Carlos Niño, Chris Keys, Jimetta Rose, Aaron & Lawrence Shaw (Black Nile), artist Quelle Chris & JX.

Rebecca Trujillo Vest

Earthstar SuperMama Rebecca Trujillo Vest is as nonstop as ever, if not moreso. Her non-profit organization Pandion Music Foundation has moved forward exponentially over the last year and says on target with its mission of helping those in need. There have been numerous social events here for the purpose of bringing Pandion into the community.

If that wasn’t keeping Rebecca busy enough, she also released an individual single (“Imagine You”), a full length album – “Take My Hand” – with individual releases & music videos for each song.

Magen Buse & Skylar Rose Wilson

Magen is OG Earthstar family from back in the days of Flower Punks. She disappeared for a while to do some training as an extreme ninja faerie & returned with superpowers. She was joined by her partner in song Skylar Rose, OG Earthstar family member and Flower Punk Dane Sanborg on bass, Dylan Grombacher on drums, Randal Fisher on sax & guest Dylan Meek.

André 3000

In early summer, we were blessed to be visited by André 3000 who may or may not having been working on his newest album “New Blue Sun”. Joining him was Earthstar veteran Carlos Niño, Nate Mercereau and engineer Ken Oriole. I was fortunate to be able to engineer one of the sessions and it was quite magical.

I genuinely enjoyed meeting Andre’s engineer Ken Oriole. We spent a great deal of time speaking fluent nerd. It’s not often that I meet someone so young with the skillset of an old school engineer.

Jamie Sorrentini

In midsummer, we were visited by celebrity Jamie Sorrentini and her healing music. Project was engineered by Alejandro Speranza

Mark Wilder

Great visit from producer/songwriter Mark Wilder joined by star topliner Chris Hutton. I don’t think I have ever seen someone create magnificent vocal harmony stacks so quickly before in my life. This team returned again in October for a second helping.

It’s only a game…

An old client – Ben Sainsbury reached out & asked if I would be interested in writing some songs to promote a super creepy, new video game that he is developing named Minimally Invasive.

Almost spontaneously, from this evolved a great all star band featuring drummer David Abbruzzese (Pearljam), bassist Scott Reeder (KYUSS), They would be joined by Dana Lee Anderson on guitar.

After the songs were finished, we hired 2 different lead vocalists as per in game characters.

For the first song “20 Seconds”, we brought in the ever elegant Royston Langdon (Spacehog) with Nova Satori on backing vocals & for “Squishy Bites”, we recruited my friend & ex-bandmate Harry “the Dog” Bridgen,

P!nk, Sting & Marshmello

This was another top secret session that ended up being full of back to back surprises. Initially, there was no mention of who was coming in other than 2 members of a film crew and a start time. I was told that “the talent” would arrive at 1 pm. At exactly 1 pm, P!nk arrived at the back door, Sting showed up at the front door & Marshmello (sans mask) came in right before him.

They shot some footage for music videos, an interview with all 3 & did some great stills in the backyard. Also, this was the day the P!nk invited me to her show the next day like this: “Roger, please put John X on the list for tomorrow & if he doesn’t show up, we’re never coming back here.”

A great way to spend the day.

Michael Vest

As is to be expected, our fearless leader has continued at his breakneck pace. In addition to saving the Universe (from itself), it’s a safe bet that since the last time I wrote one of these blogs (exactly 1 year ago), he has probably written about 200 songs. That is a conservative estimate.

Colleen Stewart & Lisa Dunn

There is so much talent, personality & inspiration coming from just these two women alone. Spent a beautiful afternoon doing some powerful vocals.

We got to see some of the people who put this place together

We had a visit from our maestress of wiring Audrey Weichman – Audrey & her company Electricia Studio Services are the company that originally did the wiring here at Earthstar. I probably could have handled the wiring myself but what would have taken me about 4 hours probably took her around 10 minutes. Total pro.

If it hadn’t been for Audrey, we would not have met “Pirate” Jack Viera who is responsible for all of the serious acoustic design implemented the birth of Earthstar. He returned recently to update all of the amazing lighting that he had installed so many years ago. It looks even more intense now in version 2.0. He came alone & spent a tremendous amount of time crawling around the roof on his own. Another total pro but completely incorrigible.

Portizar

Earthstar’s very own 100% improvisational band has been very busy this year. The core members are Michael vest, Greg Beylerian & John X but have had some amazing guests through the years – Aaron “P Nut” Wills (311), cellist Michael Fitzpatrick, bassist Hal Cragin (Iggy Pop). We released 8 albums this year and there are many more coming in 2024.

Around the house

JX has been deeply immersed in the DIY world – at this point, the wiring parts are starting to take over his entire living area – but the benefit is that Earthstar is accumulating a bunch of really cool toys. There are a few that he didn’t build but they are still part of creating a unique & fun user experience here.

Oktava ML52-77B modified by Stephen Sank

Straight Outta Earthstar

Here’s a very diverse playlist of (almost) everything that has come out of here.

The website embed only has a limit of 100 songs, but the playlist is over 24 hours long.

To hear the whole list, please visit Spotify

It takes a village…

The last couple of years have been extremely difficult for so many people. Here at Earthstar, we can’t help but to feel a ton of gratitude that this place is so consistently & constantly blessed with such a diverse group of positive, talented creatives.