Sunlight where have you been?

Hello all, I have been wanting to write this for awhile but I was going through things inside of me I did not know how to voice in a way that was healthy for me and Paula. We have been working on the 2nd Sunlight album, “Shuffle”. We are very proud of the way the album is coming out and are excited to share it with you in the very near future. We have shared it with some people and the response so far has been “I don’t know which song to pick as my favorite” Which are words that are sweet to my ears. 

As some of you may have noticed we have taken a break from gigging since the spring. There is a reason for that and it has to do with turning lemons into lemonade. The last three places we performed like to call themselves venues. At all three venues we played our hearts out like it was Carnegie Hall. All three venues, at the end of the night, we had fans like you who signed our mailing list, really enjoyed themselves and we enjoyed our time with the fans. Upon calling the venue and asking for a return date all 3 offered this answer. “While we find you to be a well prepared and good sounding group, your music does not fit what we are trying to do.” This starts the beat yourself up portion of being a full time artist as I am trying to support myself and being told by the places that my music is not good enough for their venue. Then I see a video of what they really like at the venue, a drunk guy playing out of tune, singing out of tune, messing up rhythms due to his drunkenness. I came to the understanding of what I think it is and why I wasn’t asked back. The world is telling me that I am better than that and I need to take my act to appropriate venues not ones who share music as a secondary part of the day’s activities. 

Paula and I spent a little time discussing Sunlight and what it means to her, what it means to me and how we can make Sunlight still do it’s thing without being shoved in the corner and trying to be louder than the drunk table of people who are celebrating a birthday. Here is what we came up with. We will still work on and record our music as that is the part of Aaron that has to be shared. When we record an album we will do shows in support of the album to help get the word out. The shows will be house concerts and performance halls with a stage and a seated audience that is there to listen to music. We will perform for Paula’s 30 year class reunion in October which falls out of the plan but sometimes we break the rules. 

Paula’s main passion is painting. She started dealing with heavy anxiety while performing and both of us came to understand that some of that stems from her not painting on a regular basis. She always wanted to try her hand at music and she discovered what a lot of people discover with music. In order to stay on top of your game and be really good at it you have to divert many hours of your life to it and it started cutting into her painting time. 

My main passion is composing music. Some days I write songs, some days it is a string quartet, some days it is a piece for oboe and clarinet and most days it is a piece for classical guitar. I work on things as they come to my mind. It is a Gemini trait and I also have lots of unfinished scores because that is also a Gemini trait. In order for me to share my compositions I have to find performers, so if you are a performer and want to have a unique piece of music written for you contact me so we can talk. I also teach the guitar. I find it very important to pass on my knowledge of the guitar to others so the tradition of guitar music can continue. 

Sunlight performs all of my original songs, I perform all of my classical guitar pieces and I am at the mercy of others to get my other music performed by something other than a computer midi noise. 
I look forward to seeing you out in the world at a Sunlight performance or maybe at an Aaron M. Lewis “Alien guitar music” show. And maybe it will be over dinner someday. Whatever it is our paths have crossed we are meant to know one another and I am blessed that through the music of Sunlight I have gotten to know you. 

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