There was a point where I just about gave up on my idea for a swing/rock band... I'd been out of the live music scene for so long that finding like-minded musicians was harder than I thought it would be, and harder still was finding ones that wouldn't flake on you at the last minute.

I've had over a year of late nights writing songs, arranging the horn charts, sending and answering emails, driving hours for rehearsals, etc. During that year I've been lucky enough to meet some outstanding musicians from all over the bay area (and one of my best childhood friends, Chris Hudlow, who I reunited with via Facebook) who have been willing to give my idea a whirl, and the result is Skin That Kitty! Yesterday we walked out of the studio with two hot ditties to shop around... Get The Shack Swingin' and Get To The Gettin'.

Recording is a strangely magical time... five minutes out of meeting each other for the first time, the horns were laying down tracks and sounding like they'd been familiar with each other for months, not minutes. We actually got the rhythm tracks down in an hour (not counting the song we weren't able to finish up). Chris got the vocals down perfectly in minutes, followed by five of us crowded around a microphone in the control room, shouting out the background vox with glee.

Onwards and upwards... and I'm not writing any more songs that start with the word "get".