My December (in Los Angeles)

December 9, 2009 by Bill Palmer

If you asked me to explain why I spent the month of November living out of hotels while driving westward across the country, I’d sum it up in three words: felt like it. But eventually you run out of roads and find yourself in Los Angeles staring at the ocean with options that include turning around and heading back east, or driving Michael-Scott-style into the water, and so the idea of settling down for a bit in LA before deciding what to do next ends up being the default option. As it turns out I’ve parked myself in Silverlake for the month of December, a neighborhood east of Hollywood known by music fans for housing the liquor store that Silversun Pickups named themselves after, but perhaps better known by geometry fans as the spot on the map where the parallel roads of Sunset Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard manage to magically intersect each other, and rather that resulting in infinity, it simply results in infinitely interesting traffic flow patterns. And a Jiffy Lube, oddly enough. Put another way: my apartment building is at the intersection of three streets.

But enough about my fascination with knowing which lane you have to be in to make a moderate right turn vs. a severe right turn; the upshot is that after having had my feet on the ground here in LA for a week and a half, I’m now realizing that I’ve been away for too long. It says something about just how far we are into the digital age that I can excel at my job while living on either coast, or while living anywhere, really, so long as the internet and the phone work properly. But that doesn’t mean I can’t take advantage of what’s out here while I’m out here, right?

Not that I was really expecting anything. If I were sticking to formula, I wouldn’t be within a thousand miles of Los Angeles right now. Why? Because it’s a fun place to live all year round – except in December and January, when the entertainment industry is dovetailing into, and then slowly lumbering out of, the holiday season. Also, those are the only two months where it actually rains here. And it’s cold out. Surprisingly so. People wearing wool caps. I think I saw ice on someone’s windshield this morning. Or maybe they just hadn’t cleaned it. So why am I out here in December, again? Oh right. I drove west for three thousand miles. and when I ran out of pavement, I was in LA and it was December. Such a plan.

Here’s the thing, though: it’s been fun. Also, very busy. Traditionally, for me at least, December has been the month where you don’t even try to book any musician interviews; like a squirrel heading into winter, you’d better hope you stocked up on enough content prior to Thanksgiving that it’ll get you through the holidays. Instead you just spend the month trying to coordinate your schedule for the first week of January for Macworld Expo, with a hundred or two vendors whose reps are all out for the holidays (and thank you, Macworld, for finally moving to mid-February). But this year the music landscape is a different story. Maybe it’s just happenstance, or maybe the industry really is changing, or maybe we’ve finally reached the point as a publication where people don’t want to say no to us no matter what time of year it is. In any case, it’s been a surreal mix of doing phone interviews with musicians in the mornings (sometimes quite early in the mornings, thanks to the time zones), and then local events in the evenings. Knowing you have to be up early the next morning keeps you honest, at least.

Does me being back out here end up paying off for you guys as readers? I have yet to put my finger on an answer. On the one hand, I know I was able to conduct a better interview with Steve Vai last week because I was sitting there with him at his house than if we’d just jumped on the phone (generally speaking, gaining a rapport with anyone over the phone is a challenge if you haven’t previously met in real life), and that pays off directly for you guys, as you’ll see when you read the interview. On the other side of things, it was nice to finally meet Katharine McPhee in person last night after having talked with her over the phone last month, and while I’m sure you’re all very happy for me, me getting to meet her doesn’t have an editorial impact. And then there are the quirks like the fact that the last time I talked with Colbie Caillat it was over the phone because she was here in LA while I was in Florida – and then this morning we talk again, and it’s over the phone again, because here I am in LA while she’s on tour somewhere in the Carolinas.

The latter is, incidentally, the kind of example I like to cite when making the case that I can do this job about equally well from anywhere. Not that sitting on a couch while watching Katharine McPhee perform a cover of George Michael’s “Faith” ten feet in front of you doesn’t provide ample fodder for those of you who derive entertainment value out of following me on Twitter.

Because the first rule of teasing your readers is that you have to give them some sense of when the payoff is coming, Katharine will be on the cover of our January 5th issue (come to think of it, I can’t believe we’re doing a January 5th issue – times they are a changing), you’ll be able to read the interviews with Colbie and Steve Vai even sooner, and if you missed my previous interview with Colbie you can find it here.

Sometimes we like to keep certain interviews under wraps until their day of publication for specific reasons which we hope will work in your favor in those instances, but for the most part I’m happy to let you know what’s coming up for this month, next month and beyond. Just don’t ask me where I’ll be living in January – I haven’t decided that yet.