The desert can be a harsh place, especially when you are facing down one hundred twenty degrees on the thermometer. The beauty
of this mysterious place of shadow and light, staring out at the vast fields of sand and craggy mountains in God's playground is like
no other. I moved here when Covid hit, settling in after living in Los Angeles where I recorded my, "Space And Other Things" album
released in 2023. You can listen to it on my music page. LA was a fun ride, great musicians, a super creative place to be. Where else
are you going to bump into Katy Perry's keyboardist playing a jazz gig in a wine bar and then on your record shortly thereafter?
Once Covid took hold and shut down all the clubs, it was to the desert I came running.
I built a recording studio in La Quinta, near Palm Springs to hide out in. My sense of being is fulfilled when I sit in this room and
contemplate the meaning of life. You have a lot of time here, time that seems to stretch as far as you can see. In this place, there is
a calling. Some hear it, others pass it on as ghosts or, apparitions of the imagination. I see it as the soul wandering through the
dimensions of space. I lucid dream each night, projecting myself into the cosmos, and returning to Earth as a sentient being of light
filled with insights that fill my song book diary.
I wake to the sounds of birds chirping early in the morning and watch a small sunspot on the horizon engulf the skies with a heat that drives me to a strong work ethic of getting things done. That is what I have been up to for the past three years. Filling notebooks with my thoughts, ideas, hopes, and dreams as I look at years gone by. In desert time, you find comfort in knowing more than you did when you were a kid. I was a troublemaker, bound with dreams that settled in the make-believe world of California. Life has been a good ride. Lots of music, interesting people, spiritual seekers, crackpots, addicts, poets, dreamers, fighters, and lovers have all shaped the music I write. Dreaming In Vapors is filled with their stories.
I believe the desert has a way of opening up an internal dialogue with nature and the context of our interaction with it. An existential feeling hovers over this landscape, dried fields, hidden washes, burrows deep below the heated sand open up the mind to new paradigms of our existence. Spiritual is a word I use to describe the energy here. Similar to the revitalizing energy found in "Jenner By The Sea", a small hamlet on the Northern California coast of California where I experienced a mystical encounter that changed my life.
The lyrics I write here in the desert take on a more insightful tone, especially on the new "Dreaming In Vapors" album I am recording. "In this world, we’re born to a light that’s crying like a lamb”. That’s the opening to Lonely World, a song from the album about our shared pilgrimage to the great beyond where we are mere infants cradled in the arms of the universe. This vast space of energy is filled with our creative endeavors like a giant encyclopedia of existence beckoning our call. In the end, it’s best to leave a mark that scatters up the pole and shouts out what it means to be alive in a world of conflict and beauty. The stories unfold, the lies told, the dream sold by carnival barkers whose wallets are filled with gold.
It’s all vapors in the American dream. Waiting for an answer to imprint the soul into the infinite wall of all things. As Jim Morrison sang, "Break on through to the other side."
Hope to see you there.
Scot Sier