I’ve been meaning to do a full update for about, oh, two years.  Not that your lives have come to a screeching halt because of it but I’ve been hibernating a bit.  I took a half-hiatus from music for a while.  I was still doing some music work but not full-time.  I spent about a year and half working as a ‘Mac Genius’ at the Apple store, The Grove, here in LA.  I liked the job and it was nice to do something else with my brain besides music.  There was never anything wrong with music itself but the music business can be ugly.  I was disappointed with the business after the second AP album and working at Apple was something different and challenging.  Being at the Genius Bar was like being in a quiz show for eight hours a day -- a mental marathon.  I especially liked fixing computers in the repair room and the other Genii there were a good group of guys.  We worked our asses off -- something else that’s somewhat lacking in the music world:  a work ethic.  It felt like an honest day’s work.  I had some interesting experiences there as well.  A few highlights were helping Faye Dunaway, Jason Bateman, Justin Long (the Mac guy) and Crispin Glover (who was completely sane, funny enough).  And I was always amused when I found AP songs on a customer’s iPod or was told by a manager that they were a fan.  I liked being something different and I liked getting a free iPhone.  It was fun and a nice change of pace that helped clear my mind and prepare me to get back into music.  I was still doing some music work though.  Rie Sinclair and I wrote the Oliver the Penguin album, music for ABC, and the theme song for an upcoming show on The CW Network called Blonde Charity Mafia that premieres this fall.  I have a bunch of AP songs in various stages of completion and I hope to release something by the end of the year (which I’ve been saying forever, I know).

Though some of these may be redundant, here are some other factoids:  I continued work with a consortium of artists  collectively called Digital Noise Academy.  The group includes Justin Meldal-Johnson (Beck, Nine Inch Nails), Ken Andrews (Failure, ON, Year of the Rabbit), Charlotte Martin (solo artist, wife to Ken and mother of my godson), Fernando Sanchez (drummer for Charlotte), Sharky Laguana (Creeper Lagoon), and Jordan Zadorozny (Blinker The Star).  We have seven songs completed and I hope it will see the light of day at some point....  I co-wrote, produced and mixed two songs for Charlotte’s album ‘Orphans’ and have a track on her upcoming release....  Ken, Charlotte and I have a song in the movie The Stepfather under the name Sleep Detectives....  My other band, Glacier Hiking, is currently recording an album with producer Neal Avron.  We are almost finished with the first four songs and it’s coming along swimmingly.  In talks with various labels and publishers, blah, blah, blah....  I did some programming and keyboard playing on the latest Better Than Ezra single, ‘Absolutely Still’....  Graham Colton and I have been writing and recording for over a year and have a batch of songs for a future album that we hope to start working on soon....  Been continuously working with Bryce Soderberg from Lifehouse on his solo album....  I mixed an album for a band called Souls A Fuse (lyric sound familiar?)....  I love the new album from National Skyline, ‘Bliss and Death’....  Probably old news but I had to put down my cat Iggy because of cancer.  A year ago I adopted a five-month-old Orange Tabby named Ollie who is filling those giant shoes nicely....  It’s good to be single while working on an album....  Conventional wisdom doesn’t seem very wise....  Repetition does not always create value....

You can follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/tommywalter.  I try to be entertaining....  Social networking needs a new digital Emily Post.

I will try to post more in the near future since I’m officially back in music.  Thanks for the ongoing encouragement.  It is appreciated more than you know.

- Tommy

P.S.

For more Glacier Hiking and Oliver the Penguin-focused updates:

www.myspace.com/glacierhiking