MY PRIVATE OCEAN

I thought it would be nice to provide my thoughts on the composition of each piece. I hope this will help me share the images in my mind in the creation of this album. This is a mix of ambient, surf, and electronic orchestra music. 

Mother Natures Waltz: As the piece begins, I intend for the listener to imagine the sun peering over the horizon. The sand is still cold and the sun’s rays begin to fall upon the surface of the ocean invoking a very subtle waltz in the ocean for all of its residents to enjoy.  

My Private Ocean: The cadence at opening of this song was written with the image of waves breaking on shore, set after set. 

Blue Sea: This song came about as a way to bridge the gap of My Private Ocean and hint of the more powerful parts to come later in the album.

The album conception really started with the track An Oceans View. As the wind chimes start, it is my vision of what it would be like to walk into the ocean and see the underwater world open up. I tried to imagine the abyss of the ocean and the life that lives in it. 

An Oceans View Part 2: This begins as what it be like to be a big wave surfer, I see a pelican flying low to the ocean as a circle of surfers come into view, they gather in peace before making the journey of stepping off a massive wall of water. As the composition comes to it conclusion I tried to return to a state of peace and leave you to your thoughts.

I dedicate this album to my father Robert “Bob” Escobar who on Sundays would sit me down to listen to hours of classical music, jazz music, and blues music. I would get commentary on each tune, he would stop and replay sections so I understood the importance of a particular part.  It’s from these sessions of listening that have become such an important influence to me. To my older brother Bobby, who was such an amazing musician and a deep soul, I just wanted to be like you. I hope you would have found this album cool, I miss you. To my mom, Lillian Escobar, for endless encouragement no matter what I did. To my wife Leslie and children Nicky, Jimmy and Jacki. At any moment I would drag them into the studio, they would listen and always provide a frank opinion of what sounded good and what did not.

Album Credits:

Eric Ruel, drums and percussion all tracks. I made a trip to Winters Tavern in Pacifica to see Drifting Sand perform. It was there I asked Eric if he would play on this album. Only took about 3 years till the drum session but we got there. 

Surfer Spud: Thank you for your encouragement to keep working on this album and not move on to something else of which is my nature. The hardest part of an album is always finishing it.

Andy Hutnick, piano on Blue Sea, “the heaviest dude whoever.” Thank you for the beautiful parts that you played on this tune. Thank you little buddy.

Mark Fassett, mastering My Private Ocean. Thank you for time in getting this album ready for release. I really value your advice and knowledge as always. As Shemp would say "Oh, what a beautiful messterpiece."

Jacki Escobar, photographer for the album front and back cover. Thank you for the beautiful images of what I see as the first step into this album.

Rick Escobar