The desert can be a harsh place, especially when you are facing down one hundred twenty degrees on the thermometer. The beauty
of this mysterious place of shadow and light, staring out at the vast fields of sand and craggy mountains in God's playground is like
no other. I moved here when Covid hit, settling in after living in Los Angeles where I recorded my, "Space And Other Things" album
released in 2023. You can listen to it on my music page. LA was a fun ride, great musicians, a super creative place to be. Where else
are you going to bump into Katy Perry's keyboardist playing a jazz gig in a wine bar and then on your record shortly thereafter?
Once Covid took hold and shut down all the clubs, it was to the desert I came running.
I write music that speaks to the soul. My love of nature and the people here has opened up new avenues for exploring music. I built
a recording studio in my home in La Quinta, near Palm Springs to flush out new songwriting ideas. My sense of being is fulfilled
when I sit in this room and contemplate the world we live in. In this space there is a calling. Some hear it, others pass it on as ghosts
or, apparitions of the imagination. I see it as the soul wandering through the dimensions of space. I lucid dream each night,
projecting myself into the cosmos, and returning to Earth as a sentient being of light filled with insights that fill my song book diary.
I wake to the sounds of birds chirping early in the morning and watch the small sunspot on the horizon engulf the skies with a heat that drives me to a strong work ethic of getting things done. That is what I have been up to for the past three years since moving to the desert. Filling notebooks with my thoughts, ideas, hopes, and dreams as I look at years gone by and steps into future. In desert time, you find comfort in knowing more than you did when you were a kid. I was a troublemaker, bound with dreams that settled in the make-believe world of California. Life has been a good ride. Lots of music, interesting people, spiritual seekers, crackpots, addicts, poets, dreamers, fighters, and lovers have all shaped the music I write. My latest album, "Dreaming In Vapors" is filled with their stories.
I believe the desert has a way of opening up an internal dialogue with nature. An existential feeling hovers over this landscape, dried fields, hidden washes, burrows deep below the ancient sea bed of time that open up the mind to new paradigms of our existence. Spiritual is a word I use to describe the energy here. Similar to the revitalizing enigmatic energy found in "Jenner By The Sea", a small hamlet on the Northern California coast of California where I experienced a mystical encounter that changed my life.
The lyrics I write here in the desert take on a more insightful tone, especially on the Dreaming In Vapors album I am recording. "In this world, we’re born to a light that’s crying like a lamb”. That’s the opening to Lonely World, a song from the album about our shared pilgrimage to the great beyond where we are mere infants cradled in the arms of the universe. This vast space of energy is filled with our creative endeavors like a giant encyclopedia of existence beckoning our call. In the end, it’s best to leave a mark that scatters up the pole and shouts out what it means to be alive in a world of conflict and beauty. The stories unfold, the lies told, the dream sold by carnival barkers whose wallets are filled with gold.
It’s all vapors in the American dream. Waiting for an answer to imprint the soul into the infinite wall of all things. Jim Morrison got it right with his lyrics, ”Made the scene, Week to week, Day to day, Hour to hour, The gate is straight, Deep and wide, Break on through to the other side, Break on through to the other side”.
Hope to see you there.
Scot Sier