Newsletter #1

Hi. It's me, Mateo.

I just remembered that I have a mailing list. If you want to read a little bit about what is going on with me and Gibbons and Teardrop and our bands and our friends, then keep reading. I made a note in my calendar to write one of these things every month, so get excited or unsubscribe as you see fit.

Last you heard from me was early December, just before Santa Youth embarked on what would prove to be a very successful national tour. 21 shows in 21 days, from Los Angeles to Atlanta to New York to Chicago, and many points in between. Minus one slap fight in Florida and one bad show in Chicago (which in retrospect wasn't even really that bad), it was 100% fun. Oh, and we actually came home holding more cash than we left with, which is new and refreshing.

After coming home, I turned right around and went to Tucson, Arizona, where I attended a workshop put on by Michael Dixon of LatheCuts.com. He taught me how to make records by hand, using an 80 year old machine called a Presto 6N. As soon as I dropped the needle on that first spinning piece of polycarbonate and saw the little groove making its way around the disc, I was both thrilled and mortified. Thrilled, because I was cutting a record, in real time, with my own hands. Mortified, because I immediately knew that I had to have one of these $4,000 monsters. More on that to come. I'm trying to figure out how to attract investors or something. Business talk. Blah blah blah.

After coming home from Arizona, myself and some other Miedlena regulars, (Gibbons, Robert, Donnie, and other special guests) participated in a few David Bowie tribute concerts. It was an honor and a privilege to study, arrange and perform the work of the Thin White Duke. I'm not one of the sad ones when it comes to the bodily demise of Mr. Bowie. I didn't know the guy, after all, and his vast catalog will always be with us. You had a good run, Ziggy, and you went out on a high note with that Black Star thing – blowing minds until the very end.

So what is coming up for Miedlena? Well, amidst the hustle of preparing for the Bowie shows I engineered a recording session with Donnie and Taylor's math rock project, Kick A Ten Year Old In The Head. It sounds great. Keep your ears pricked up for it. After that I produced a couple of new singles as Mateo Katsu. The first is an original that I've just placed on bandcamp. The other is a shoe-gaze version of that goofy old Beach Boys track, “Be True To Your School”, which will be available as soon as I can track down some good cheerleader uniforms for the artwork. Finally, Manhattan Murder Mystery isn't technically a Miedlena band, but you'll be pleased to know that our latest album got picked up by a little branch of the Manimal family tree called Indiscretion Records. More on that to come.

One last thing, I updated the miedlena website to make it somehow even more basic than it already was, and I added a store so you can order the stuff we have in print and I can send it to you in the mail. Thanks for reading.

Best wishes,
Mateo

P.S. Upcoming shows:

3/11 - Mateo Katsu @ Moon Manor
3/26 - Mateo Katsu @ Church of F.U.N.
4/1 - Manhattan Murder Mystery @ Chuch of F.U.N.

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