Here's something you might be interested in.
"I'm releasing a new single this week called Yoga Girl," says Scott Wilson. "I'll probably be shooting a video for it, as soon as I can find a yoga studio that doesn't pay attention to lyrics."
The tune includes an all-star lineup of backing players, including Jonathan Hayes (who played with Wilson in a band called VFX), David Kendall, Keith Boyce (High Mountain Tempel), Mike Spurgat (Deadline Friday), and Tim Orrahood (Dazed and Confused).
"The song was recorded in my home studio. I just came up with the title, and the song developed pretty quickly. It's quite a bit different than my usual stuff, whatever that is. I had a number of musicians record their parts in their own home studios, and they FTP'd their parts to me via the internet. It was an interesting process, because I'm used to being there when it happens and directing it a little more. But I liked the way it turned out, even though some of it was unexpected and challenging."
"It's a tongue in cheek look at the recent popularity, considering its ancient origins, of yoga as another form of exercise, as opposed to its original intentions, as a technique on the road to enlightenment. I am not an expert at yoga by any means, so I will not go into detail about a subject I know about only by experience and attending yoga classes, and I’m sure the comments section might contain the opinions of many who could go into greater detail on the subject with greater accuracy."
"But one look around a yoga studio will tell you that enlightenment is not necessarily the goal of the modern concept of yoga, especially when it makes your butt look so fabulous."
"This irony is the reason I wrote the song, because the truth is I am interested in the subject of enlightenment, and yoga’s role in that process, and there is nothing so hilarious or ironic than trying to concentrate on stilling the mind and focusing the attention on the body than to be surrounded by a bevy of beautiful and incredibly fit women."
YOGA GIRL
Yoga Girl
I hope you sit right next to me
I’ve seen you on the weekends
I’ve seen you in a magazine
I hear you’re in a movie
About men who came from Mars
You are probably from Venus
And our fate was written in the stars
Yoga Girl
You’ll never know
What you mean to me
Do you feel my attention
Do you see the intent
Behind my eyes
Would you make an exception
When your only desire
Is being wise
Yoga Girl, Yoga Girl
I’m picking up the pieces
I walked away from all the games
And someone who got close to me
I like the way you move
I like the way you sweat
I’d like to see your groove thing
Cause I’m not over her quite yet
Yoga Girl
You’ll never know
Why you’re mean to me
Yoga Girl
I’ll never know
Just how you feel
Yoga Girl
Are you feeling abandoned
Are you really alone
When you close your eyes
It’s hard to make a connection
Behind a pretty disguise
Yoga Girl, Yoga Girl
You’ll never know
What you need from me
Yoga Girl
I’ll never know
Just what you feel
Wilson bought his first bass at age 18 for $99 at a pawn shop. “It was a piece of crap," he says, "but it was a good thing to learn to play with and to realize that it was worth investing in better equipment.”
He cites his main musical influences as the Beatles (“seventh chords”), Nirvana (“grooves”), and Yes (“harmonies”), but nowadays the founding member of the Gandhi Method and former bassist for Cathryn Beeks would just as soon plug into a video-editing board as an amp. He’s worked on music videos, concert films, and documentaries.
This filmmaking savvy served Wilson well when it came time to shoot a video for the song “Coffeehouse 101” from his 2005 CD Kaleidoscope’s End. “We ended up with around 50 performers in [my] video, many of them local, each one lip-synching a different line from the song,” says Wilson.
Footage was shot at Lestat’s, Twiggs, the Hot Monkey Love Café, and other local spots. Cameo appearances include Gregory Page, Dave Howard, Bart Mendoza (the Shambles), Mark DeCerbo (Rockola), and a who’s who of local talent that even the most plugged-in of scenesters would be hard pressed to fully identify. “I couldn’t time it right to get the Locust in there,” says Wilson, “but I [taped] most everybody else I sought out.”
“Some people, for instance, Robin Henkel and Carlos Olmeda, were very comfortable with the camera. Some weren’t, and I include myself in that bunch. Everyone brings their own personalities to the table, and people relate to the camera in such different ways that it becomes sort of a sociological experiment in overcoming embarrassment.”
Wilson’s earliest recordings, with AOR glam band VFX, are being sought for reissue by Retrospect Records in Las Vegas. “I walked away from this style of music in 1994 and never looked back,” says Wilson. “That’s Album Oriented Rock, not Aging Old Rockers,” says Wilson. “Nobody was more surprised than me that people still listened to that type of music…I had no idea anybody remembered a CD I released 20 years ago.”
Wilson says VFX was one of many bands knocked out by grunge. “When our second CD was released in 1993, Nirvana was going strong. That wiped out what one record executive once told me was all those W bands, [like] Warrant, Winger, and Whitesnake.” That album, The Next Step, hit number one on the Imports Chart in England’s Kerrang Magazine, as Wilson toured Europe with the band in late 1993 and early 1994.
“I’ve been busy rummaging through my storage room looking for old masters and forgotten videos,” says Wilson, who moved to San Diego in 1997 and pursued acoustic balladeering. “It’s been a strange experience.” Some of the vintage spandex and cosmetic-heavy VFX videos have been uploaded to Wilson’s YouTube channel, Metapunker. “They’re possibly [worth] a good laugh. I don’t regret doing the music that I did, or dressing up in strange costumes. Some of the pain and embarrassment has faded away, and now only laughter remains.”
“I haven’t decided if I’m going to let them release the CDs yet,” says Wilson. “When I started digging through the storage room and talking to some of the former band members, it brought up a lot of buried issues and feelings that I assumed I had let go of. Which, of course, I hadn’t. So I’m deciding whether I really want to reissue those CDs again, or let them stay part of the past.”
His TV show A Moment in Time broadcast its debut episode on Cox Channel 23 on November 27, 2010. The show included his “Coffeehouse 101” video.
Until this past May, Scott Wilson and the Contradictions were playing at Claire de Lune every two weeks for five months. "We're doing mostly electric gigs right now," says Wilson, who played the Fair in Del Mar on opening night.
"I'm releasing a new single this week called Yoga Girl," says Scott Wilson. "I'll probably be shooting a video for it, as soon as I can find a yoga studio that doesn't pay attention to lyrics."
The tune includes an all-star lineup of backing players, including Jonathan Hayes (who played with Wilson in a band called VFX), David Kendall, Keith Boyce (High Mountain Tempel), Mike Spurgat (Deadline Friday), and Tim Orrahood (Dazed and Confused).
"The song was recorded in my home studio. I just came up with the title, and the song developed pretty quickly. It's quite a bit different than my usual stuff, whatever that is. I had a number of musicians record their parts in their own home studios, and they FTP'd their parts to me via the internet. It was an interesting process, because I'm used to being there when it happens and directing it a little more. But I liked the way it turned out, even though some of it was unexpected and challenging."
"It's a tongue in cheek look at the recent popularity, considering its ancient origins, of yoga as another form of exercise, as opposed to its original intentions, as a technique on the road to enlightenment. I am not an expert at yoga by any means, so I will not go into detail about a subject I know about only by experience and attending yoga classes, and I’m sure the comments section might contain the opinions of many who could go into greater detail on the subject with greater accuracy."
"But one look around a yoga studio will tell you that enlightenment is not necessarily the goal of the modern concept of yoga, especially when it makes your butt look so fabulous."
"This irony is the reason I wrote the song, because the truth is I am interested in the subject of enlightenment, and yoga’s role in that process, and there is nothing so hilarious or ironic than trying to concentrate on stilling the mind and focusing the attention on the body than to be surrounded by a bevy of beautiful and incredibly fit women."
YOGA GIRL
Yoga Girl
I hope you sit right next to me
I’ve seen you on the weekends
I’ve seen you in a magazine
I hear you’re in a movie
About men who came from Mars
You are probably from Venus
And our fate was written in the stars
Yoga Girl
You’ll never know
What you mean to me
Do you feel my attention
Do you see the intent
Behind my eyes
Would you make an exception
When your only desire
Is being wise
Yoga Girl, Yoga Girl
I’m picking up the pieces
I walked away from all the games
And someone who got close to me
I like the way you move
I like the way you sweat
I’d like to see your groove thing
Cause I’m not over her quite yet
Yoga Girl
You’ll never know
Why you’re mean to me
Yoga Girl
I’ll never know
Just how you feel
Yoga Girl
Are you feeling abandoned
Are you really alone
When you close your eyes
It’s hard to make a connection
Behind a pretty disguise
Yoga Girl, Yoga Girl
You’ll never know
What you need from me
Yoga Girl
I’ll never know
Just what you feel
Wilson bought his first bass at age 18 for $99 at a pawn shop. “It was a piece of crap," he says, "but it was a good thing to learn to play with and to realize that it was worth investing in better equipment.”
He cites his main musical influences as the Beatles (“seventh chords”), Nirvana (“grooves”), and Yes (“harmonies”), but nowadays the founding member of the Gandhi Method and former bassist for Cathryn Beeks would just as soon plug into a video-editing board as an amp. He’s worked on music videos, concert films, and documentaries.
This filmmaking savvy served Wilson well when it came time to shoot a video for the song “Coffeehouse 101” from his 2005 CD Kaleidoscope’s End. “We ended up with around 50 performers in [my] video, many of them local, each one lip-synching a different line from the song,” says Wilson.
Footage was shot at Lestat’s, Twiggs, the Hot Monkey Love Café, and other local spots. Cameo appearances include Gregory Page, Dave Howard, Bart Mendoza (the Shambles), Mark DeCerbo (Rockola), and a who’s who of local talent that even the most plugged-in of scenesters would be hard pressed to fully identify. “I couldn’t time it right to get the Locust in there,” says Wilson, “but I [taped] most everybody else I sought out.”
“Some people, for instance, Robin Henkel and Carlos Olmeda, were very comfortable with the camera. Some weren’t, and I include myself in that bunch. Everyone brings their own personalities to the table, and people relate to the camera in such different ways that it becomes sort of a sociological experiment in overcoming embarrassment.”
Wilson’s earliest recordings, with AOR glam band VFX, are being sought for reissue by Retrospect Records in Las Vegas. “I walked away from this style of music in 1994 and never looked back,” says Wilson. “That’s Album Oriented Rock, not Aging Old Rockers,” says Wilson. “Nobody was more surprised than me that people still listened to that type of music…I had no idea anybody remembered a CD I released 20 years ago.”
Wilson says VFX was one of many bands knocked out by grunge. “When our second CD was released in 1993, Nirvana was going strong. That wiped out what one record executive once told me was all those W bands, [like] Warrant, Winger, and Whitesnake.” That album, The Next Step, hit number one on the Imports Chart in England’s Kerrang Magazine, as Wilson toured Europe with the band in late 1993 and early 1994.
“I’ve been busy rummaging through my storage room looking for old masters and forgotten videos,” says Wilson, who moved to San Diego in 1997 and pursued acoustic balladeering. “It’s been a strange experience.” Some of the vintage spandex and cosmetic-heavy VFX videos have been uploaded to Wilson’s YouTube channel, Metapunker. “They’re possibly [worth] a good laugh. I don’t regret doing the music that I did, or dressing up in strange costumes. Some of the pain and embarrassment has faded away, and now only laughter remains.”
“I haven’t decided if I’m going to let them release the CDs yet,” says Wilson. “When I started digging through the storage room and talking to some of the former band members, it brought up a lot of buried issues and feelings that I assumed I had let go of. Which, of course, I hadn’t. So I’m deciding whether I really want to reissue those CDs again, or let them stay part of the past.”
His TV show A Moment in Time broadcast its debut episode on Cox Channel 23 on November 27, 2010. The show included his “Coffeehouse 101” video.
Until this past May, Scott Wilson and the Contradictions were playing at Claire de Lune every two weeks for five months. "We're doing mostly electric gigs right now," says Wilson, who played the Fair in Del Mar on opening night.