Have you heard of the 4th wall? It's the concept in entertainment of the performer keeping distant from the
audience to help make magic happen. I'm not a believer. I want you to know me,
because I like feeling the connection. I hope you can still feel the magic.
Connect: dan.robinson [at] pobox100.com
Special thanks to the people who design, maintain, and participate in the February Album Writing Month (FAWM) website at FAWM.ORG.
My handle at FAWM is @ayaïs - my Basque grandfather's name
Snoop around!
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Back and forth in musical time:
2023-Future
Let's go!
I've been writing songs for a long time, but musical stories and short form songs started popping out of my writing bag in February 2023.
A fellow musician died in January 2023. Thinking of him I joined 'February Album Writing Month',
an online extravaganza which also runs in late summer, and that collaborative push has
kicked my creative butt.
My FAWM work is all here, with comments from fellow musicians. Soon the Karma Casino album and other work. I'd rather post it here than
on the standard musical outlets.
2008-2023
teaching, Karma Casino CD
-Fall of 2023: I taught two series on performance and musical haiku composition
-All along: songwriting and performance alone and with others
-2015: Karma Casino CD with a great group of fellow musicians
-2008-2015: Guitar club for 3/4/5th graders at the local elementary school
2000-2008
TakomaZone TakomaZone was a 14-person collaborative in Takoma Park. We had a weekly cafe gig for 7+ years.
1973-2000
Magic Theatre in SF, then DC
After college I worked my way up from a backstage sound technician to a nighttime composing/sound design gig at an experimental theatre - The Magic Theatre -
in San Francisco. My next step would have been to go to L.A. and work in the movies. Instead, I moved to the east coast, stumbled around and started raising a family,
playing a little music here and there.
1968-1972
electronic music and John Cage
In college I studied electronic music, played in a couple of bands with friends, and
studied for a quarter with John Cage, a revolutionary who pushed music past any boundary anyone could think of.
His message: it's all music.
1964-1968
Charlie Brown and the Peanuts
While in high school in California I was taken under the wing of a
union musician (real name Charlie Brown) and made some serious gas and date money playing rhythm guitar all around the
Monterey Peninsula.
1962-1964
folk, surf, rock, country, Wolfman Jack
At 12, on Nantucket Island one night I went alone to a club
where a Kingston Trio era folk band was playing and was entranced.
Back in Tucson, Tom - my neighbor across the street - and I started to play the guitar.
A Silvertone electric, a little amp, and a Framus acoustic came into my world.
Surf, country, rock and roll, then the British Invasion, all initially brought
courtesy of a tiny transistor AM radio crushed against my ear. Thanks Wolfman Jack
and the station from Oklahoma!