pat predd

Matt and I had the amazing opportunity to perform as  the featured act at the Josh Groban Concert VIP Pre-Party at Pine Knob!!!

Matt and I performed an intimate candlelight concert in June at the beautiful Mariner Theater in Marine City. Played to a nearly full house, including sold out stage seating. An unbelievable experience as a performer...a stage lit by hundreds of candles and an audience seated on the stage with us merely feet away.

Lots of music, banter, and laughs with our many new-found friends. Shared the stage with a 100 year-old restored Steinway grand piano which begged us (and we gladly obliged) for a little Elton John treatment. It was an evening that we won’t soon forget.

Thank you Laura and Paul for your generosity and providing us with this amazing opportunity.

The silver lining of 2020 must be that it gave the gift of stay-at-home creativity. I was able to write, record and fully produce two new tunes. 2021 will see videos made for both. Can’t wait to share them you guys! Stay tuned!

I got the chance to perform in the quaint village of Lake Orion for the first time in my musical career on Saturday. I was a little unsure about taking a “local” gig over an hour away from my home base. Man I’m SO glad I took that chance.
 

The Fork n Pint is a cool little spot right downtown with terrific grub, drink and staff. In my four hours there I met so many fun, genuine and appreciative peeps. What a blast. Lots of back and forth banter with new friends between songs, too many laughs to count...maybe the most fun I’ve ever had at a solo gig.

*Photo courtesy of Tara V.

Special thanks to Amanda and the entire FnP staff. Made me feel like family from the minute I stepped in the place. Special thanks to Jeff and Tara for finding me on FB and seeking me out at FnP. You guys really represented the warmth and generosity I felt from the LO crowd the entire night. Thank you both. VERY much looking forward to my next Lake Orion gig!!!

Our pat predd x john varvatos vid is over 30,000 views and climbing! Thanks to all of my old and new friends for the support and shares!

So this summer I was blessed with the opportunity to play at the gorgeous John Varvatos store in downtown Detroit. If you aren't familiar, Varvatos is an undisputed a fashion icon. His line is men-only and is infused with rock and roll DNA. Lots of famous rock industry vets wear and endorse his stuff. Check out their website if you're curious. Many of his other stores (including the famous Bowery in NYC) regularly do live music, but Detroit has up until now only done it sporadically with big names and by request (Alice Cooper played for the black tie grand opening). With a corporate approval for live music this summer, I am the first performer to grace their stage in a local capacity.

With performance dates from April through August, this has really given me the opportunity to expand my audience base, as the storefront has a premium address on iconic Woodward Avenue. To further this, I reached out to my old friends at Riot Film Productions to see if they'd be willing to partner on a live video shoot of a performance. The response amounted to "of course!" as they have shot in-store on previously for promo interviews, etc. Doing a music vid would be exciting for both of us.

Needless to say, the shoot was a blast. Special thanks to Kelly, Sean and Julie at JV for letting us take over the store for a few hours (they were open for business during the shoot!). The three of them spent a ton of time getting the store looking EXTRA fantastic.

Matt Barth and Brandon Mata from Riot are total pros. Secured some AMAZING footage of the store and performance of my song "Your Drive" which I debuted at the shoot. SO excited to share it with the world next month.

So great to have a few very special friends join us to watch and be part of the audience. Special thanks to Cathy, Donna, Brad, Jill, Atticus, Kim, Miranda and Troy for showing love and support. Can't wait to show you guys the final product!!!

My latest video of original tune "Used to Be" ended up being a collaboration with my great friend and musical brother Bill "Conguero" Cover. As a response to my premiere of the vid for "Push" a few months prior, Bill tendered the offer that "if you ever consider adding percussion tracks to your art", I knew who to call. To his surprise (I think), less than three weeks later I reached out to him with the idea to record my recently-written "Used to Be". I messaged him a scratch vocal and guitar track the next week and it was game-on.

Truth is, Bill hadn't played the song with me even once before he showed up to record his tracks and video the day of. His performance that ended up on the master/video was maybe our fourth take? Needless to say, Bill has great feel and meticulous timing. Love working with Bill. SO fun, genuine, easy. Oh, and his regular gig with with the fantastic rock/jazz/fusion band Hifi2WiFi has him busy most weekends (check them out!), so I TOTALLY lucked out getting him on short notice.

Bill's set-up for the shoot included SEVEN mics to pick up all the fun stuff he was putting down. In addition to what you see in the vid, Bill was also rocking both a tambourine and a cabasa down on the floor with both feet. It was a killer to watch the doctor lay his thing down.

As far as the rest of the video goes, I had a little fun adding the "fire", too. Relax, everybody. Please. No expensive microphones were harmed in the making. It's merely video trickery. Seriously.

Hope you enjoy. We had a blast putting it together. Thanks as always for the support, my friends.

pp

So the video for my song "Push" has been a two month labor of love/craziness/frustration/bank account drain and I'm sure lots of other stuff I'm forgetting. I was fiddling on my keys and started playing the Push chords on the lush piano sound that ended up in the vid (I wrote the song on acoustic guitar and the studio recording pretty much reflects it). I was struck that, not only would it be a cool version to do live, what if I made a video? Why not, right? "How hard could it be?" he says. Keep reading.

First off, I quickly realized that my inexpensive stage lights cause bad flicker when filmed at 30 fps. It was compounded when the camera was moving on my new motorized slider (cha-ching) that I bought just for the project. Looked like one of those old silent movies from the 1920's. Not the look we're going for here. Enter a new set of stage lights. Cha-ching.

How much cooler would it be to sing the background vocals on video alongside myself? How hard could that be? Yeah...new software to make that a reality. Cha-ching.

Wait. I don't know how to actually use the new software. Enter countless hours of trial and error (and wasted footage) to figure out how to use the software. I guess time is money. Cha-ching.

The end product came out pretty cool. That is what keeps the fire burning. And...as a nod to the original recording, the mic in the video I'm using on lead vocal is the same Blue mic on the cover of the "Push" album. Trivia. Awesome.

Hope you had a chance take a look for yourself. All jokes aside I had a really great time smashing it together.

Peace and thanks from my heart for sticking with me, friends.

pp

I got an email from the event promoter today that Rock The Roots ain't happening in Detroit this year. Show has been canceled. Total bummer. They picked a tough day to compete for the Detroit concert-goers dollar with Journey, Zach Brown Band, One Republic and Bare Naked Ladies all playing in town at the same time. I felt bad for about ten minutes and then picked myself up and started looking for the next opportunity. Gotta keep it positive! Another opportunity will pop just like this one...keep pounding away and singing my butt off. Thanks for everyone's support on FB and Instagram by the way. Never expected and always appreciated, guys. THANK YOU!

Just found out that I'll be playing the Angry Orchard Hard Cider Rock the Roots Festival in July here in Detroit. Sublime with Rome is the headliner. Totally psyched. All original performance on Belle Isle Park. Will be posting more details as I get them. CAN"T WAIT, GUYS!!!