You know it is for real when you book non-refundable airline tickets and accommodations. The DROGE & SUMMERS Blend sessions are set to begin on September 15. For those of you just tuning in, I will bring you up to speed… The “DROGE” is me, Pete Droge. The “SUMMERS” is my long time partner in crime, Elaine Summers. We will be releasing a series of EPs that should each contain around 5 or 6 songs. At this point, we are thinking about three volumes, each with a different cast of musicians backing us up. The first band will consist of Matt Chamberlain (drums), Dave Hull (bass), Scott Weddle (guitar etc). Rob Stroup will be on hand to help Vincent LaBelle and me with engineering duties. We may get Rob to play some guitar if he’s up for it.
Stone Gossard (Pearl Jam guitarist) is releasing his song “Your Flames” as a single this month. Harmony vocals from DROGE & SUMMERS are very prominently featured. I also played the wah wah guitar solo and served as Executive Producer. I will post a link when it is available.

I recently composed original music for two TV spots for London’s Sunday Times. One stars the legendary Sir Peter O’Toole. Unfortunately, Sir Peter had it written into his contract that the spot cannot be uploaded to the web, so I posted the other spot that stars Paralympic athlete Helene Raysford to the SEE THE WORK page. If you are dying to see the O’Toole spot, you can find it on THE YOU TUBE.

I have signed on to compose the score for the feature length documentary, Worlds Apart. This film from director Eliaichi Kimaro examines the difficulties of holding on to culture and tradition in the modern world. My partner in crime, Elaine Summers will serve as ‘Executive Music Producer’. Speaking of Elaine, check out her new website HERE.

The DROGE & SUMMERS project is about to pick up steam. We have been chipping away on songwriting and have begun the pre-production demoing stage. The plan is to release a series of limited edition EPs. Digital downloads will be available directly thru our website. And a very small quantity will be made available on compact disc thru select independent record stores. Then, sometime in the future, we will compile all of the EPs onto one full length disc, add some bonus tracks and put it out thru more traditional distribution channels.

Finally, I wanted to give those of you in Seattle a heads up that Stephen Ashbrook is playing a fundrasier for The Special Olympics at The Triple Door on Tuesday, August 12 at 6PM. For more click HERE.

The Stephen Ashbrook record that I produced, engineered and mixed is coming out on June 17. I co-wrote five of it’s eleven songs, including the title track “White Balloons”. And, I played a bunch of instruments. Stephen is mounting a west coast cd release tour beginning June 5th in Los Angeles. Visit The Ashbrook Myspace page for more on Stephen and details on the tour.

I hope to soon upload a clip from the short film that I scored for Touching Tiny Lives Foundation. This short, fundraising film was directed by Justin Mitchell.

Remodeling continues: Tomorrow, they begin work on the floors for the entry way, kitchen and laundry room. Will be noisy and dusty as they rip out the old stuff. I will stay out of the way sorting thru hours of footage that I shot of young, fledgling Great Horned Owls. These charming rascals have taken a liking to the property surrounding our place and we could not be happier about it.

Songwriting is going well. So far, there are a few songs that I would say are locks to make it on the Droge & Summers album: “Two of the Lucky Ones,” ” Wonder,” and “Tie the Knot.”

Gary Yerkins’ album Compass is out and available now. I produced, engineered and mixed the long-awaited solo effort from this journeyman songwriter and long time front man for Chicago bands The Insiders and the Juleps. Pick it up on the iTunes now. Or be old fashioned and buy the compact disc HERE.

Elaine Summers and I have been writing songs for a new album. For those of you just tuning in, we have been threatening to make an album called “Droge & Summers” for some time. Elaine thinks “Summers & Droge” has a ring to it. I have always leaned towards the alphabetical approach. What do you think? Anyway, for this record, we want to have songs that are tailor made for our harmony singing. So, we are really rolling up our sleeves and dedicating ourselves to the writing process. The theory is to write way more songs than we will need in hopes of gathering a collection of killers. It has been a refreshing change of pace to leave the studio in ‘standby’ mode and get out the pencil and paper. And eraser.

There are some other things going on around The Puzzle Tree: new floors going in on the first floor… fresh paint… new ceiling absorbers and diffusors in the drum room etc. I have also been taking some time to smell the roses. And eradicate some black berries.

The song “Letting Go” from Kim Virant‘s recent album, Songs From a Small House, made Elysa Gardner‘s Playlist in the USA Today today. This is one of two songs that I co-wrote and co-produced on the album. Run to your nearest newsstand and turn to page D9 to see for yourself. Or save a tree and click HERE for a bloggified version.

Songs for Soap mentions Droge/Summers music in Tap Project spot.

CLICK HERE to read the full story.

Fans of the Under The Waves album will recognize the track “Into The Sunset” in UNICEF’s Tap Project campaign. This track was actually a super-quick, down and dirty demo sketch of an idea for a song. We liked the demo so much we tacked it onto the end of the record. Mainly because we liked it. But, mainly* because we thought, “this would be great in a commercial.” You can view the spot on our See The Work page.

* Credit where credit is due: “mainly… mainly” gag courtesy of Flight of the Conchords

Shoot Online recognized our song “Going Whichever Way the Wind Blows,” for its appearance in Toyota‘s national Sequoia campaign. The song ranked number eight in their “Winter 2008 Top Spot Tracks.” We’d like to thank the Academy… our families… Rohan Young and Lime Studios for a killer mix (we like it when the music is loud)… Lance Accord and Park Pictures, Saatchie & Saatchie and all of our friends at HUM.

CLICK HERE to see the full chart.

I had never heard of Bob Lefsetz or the “Lefsetz Letter” when my email inbox was flooded with messages saying things like, “a million people have probably forwarded this to you already, but in case they haven’t, here it is… pretty cool.” Turns out (and you probably know this already, but I’ll tell you anyway) Mr. Lefsetz is the most famous music industry blogger on the planet. He’s been at this for a long time… used to send it via snail mail even. You can read the blog HERE.