Life with Damian!

Day brings us so much joy and adventure! We love you!

Life with Damian!

5 months old!!

Hello everyone!! It's been awhile since I have posted a blog, life has been a little crazy with a five month old boy and I have been lazy. I still can't believe that Damian is five months old, it feels like he was just a newborn not to long ago. It's so fun to see how much he is changing and growing! He has a funny personality and he pulls the best faces ever! I love when he just stares at me and smiles, it melts my heart every time he does that. He's so calm and interactive, my mother in law always mentions to me that someday I will get a real baby. He really is a good boy, he doesn't give me a hard time unless he is tired or hungry. Things are going to continue to get better/harder/fun as he starts to crawl, standup, and sit up on his own. I'm excited to continue to see him grow and learn! I am so grateful that he's a part of our lives and that he's a big healthy boy! We love you Damian!!!

-R

Damian Valente Baker!!

This past month has been such a blur, becoming a mother has been the most rewarding and most wonderful blessings in my life. It has been 8 weeks since Damian became a part of our family, I feel like it was just yesterday that he was born. Chase and I were so anxious for Damian to come and we were happy and excited when he became a part of our family on Monday April 22nd. It all started with some contractions on Saturday evening and on Sunday morning I started getting contractions that were about 8 to 10 minutes apart. My contractions were consistent so that evening we finally decided to go to the hospital and see if I'd had dilated even more.

So I got checked in and the nurse told me that they would keep me in the hospital for an hour and if I continue to get contractions and i'm dilated then I would be able to stay. After an hour had gone by the nurse checked on me and I had dilated to three and a half centimeters and so they called my doctor and told me that I could stay. I knew at that point that our son would soon be with us and we were excited to finally meet him.

About an hour after I got admitted to the hospital I started to get really bad contractions and then my water broke about an hour later. Then I was able to get the epidural which I absolutely love. I was going to see how long I would last without one...but once my contractions got really bad I couldn't take it. Everything was going well, I was dilating quickly and I had the epidural so I was happy. Monday morning at around 7am my doctor came in and told me that it was time to push. 

So I started pushing, thinking that Damian would come quickly...but it took longer than I had anticipated. It took 4 hours of pushing until our son finally came into this world, I didn't think it would take that long but he was facing up and not down like he should have been.

After nine long months our son Damian was finally with us and when I saw him for the first time I was overwhelmed with joy!! I am so grateful that everything went well during my labor and that Damian is one healthy boy. I love being a mom and I love being able to see my son grow and I'm excited to continue to learn and grow and be the best mother I can be for my wonderful boy.

Happy because I got the epidural!

Damian Valente Baker was finally here!

I was filled with joy once I got to hold my son!!!!

My two boys

-R

With A Little Help From My Friends

 It's almost the end of April, but with finals at school, a crazy work schedule, and trying to make ends meet with a baby on the way NEXT WEEK, I just want to go back to March for a bit with you. Can we do that just for bit?

I had the opportunity to host March's Monthly Blues Jam at the Boothe Brothers Performing Arts Center in Spanish Fork. I had done so about a year and a half ago to celebrate the midwest tour I went on with BYU Synthesis (BYU's premier jazz band), and so I could jam with those synthesis guys all together one more time since I would not end up being able to be with Synthesis in the fall. It was great, tons of blues, some jazz, lots of funk, some original songs, and a bunch of people got to hear it, which was fantabulous. People all getting together to share a musical experience. I have been graced with the opportunity to help other artists do that for their fans and others alike, but I felt the need to begin reaching out with my own music once the new year rolled in, so I called up Curt Gordon and asked for the March slot. I decided to call up Robbie Connolly of Fictionist, a blues aficionado himself, to join me for some tunes. The phone call the DAY OF went like this "Can I bring Stuart along too?" The rip roarin' front man with an iconic voice and a unique rock-style bass playing skill? Yeah he can come too. They joined me on stage for some impromptu rock jams and helped make the night another one to remember. My band for the night consisted of band mates and fellow BYU musicians from various groups, but we've played so many shows collectively that it didn't take long for us to call each other amigos. I don't think I played my super-best, but I got by with a little help from my friends. The best part of the night?

Curt always sends around a "bucket o love" asking for donations to keep the performing arts center running, since he doesn't charge for people to come to these events. I simply announced before one of my songs that I was working on an EP. Curt took the whole thing a hundred steps further than I could imagine, and DONATED the funds from the night's bucket o love to the production of my EP!!!! It was over $100!!!! It was an amazing act of charity and I am so grateful for his donation, I was sure to give him muchos thank yous. He'll get some free copies of it once it's done and printed!

The Ryan Innes Show at Velour was a lot of fun. A huge turnout plus Ryan's buttery voice made his last show before his appearance on NBC's The Voice a great night. He even found a bunch of twinkies, REAL TWINKIES, and threw them into the crowd. I can't wait to see where this show ends up putting Ryan, the exposure is going to give his career the boost that it deserves.

All photos snapped by the talented and beautiful Roxana Baker.

-C

Baby Shower and Shooting Range!

This past Saturday was such a fun and eventful day!! To start the day off we had my baby shower that my mother in law had for me. It was super cute, the theme of the baby shower was Peter Rabbit and I absolutely loved it. I am so grateful for my family and friends that came to support me and our little boy that will be joining our family very soon!! I am especially grateful for my mother in law and Hannah for helping out and making my baby shower special.

In love with this banner! Can't wait to put this in the Nursery

 

After the baby shower my father in law took Chase and I, my sister in law Hannah and her husband Patrick out to the shooting range. At first it was going to be a boys thing but me and Hannah decided to go with them. It was the first time I had ever been to a shooting range, we all had so much fun and it was such a beautiful day. 

Chase

Me posing with the shotgun...I didn't get to actually shoot it

Patrick

My father in law teaching us how to use the shotgun

After we were done at the shooting range we headed back to my in laws place to relax and enjoy the beautiful weather.

Recording at June Audio!

This past Tuesday evening, the 26th, I wrapped up production for a song that has been a couple of years in the works and 6 months in the making production-wise. Last August I took a couple of buddies and some freakishly talented studio musicians to the studio to lay the groundwork for what is going to be the single for my upcoming EP! 

"Size Up" is its name and Motown/Soul is its game. Wait, Motown/Soul? What's that? Where did that come from? Why is little white boy Chase even trying to take a swing at something like that. Well, it all started when I had a dream of Marvin Gaye coming to me dressed in a white suit and sang me the melody to that song and upon finishing, put his hand on my shoulder and said "Go. Create this song, I am just a representation of your true identity."

I'm SERIOUS!!! It was AWESOME!!

Yeah that didn't happen. But really, Marvin Gaye came to me in a dream. 

No, he didn't. I should stop.

But if he did, and if he heard the song in it's finished form now, I would hope that he would smile and laugh, and then walk away. Which would really confuse me. But for super serious, I was raised on Oldies and Motown! My parents fed me that stuff as a kid and I love it.

So anyways, this song actually started out as a song about not being good enough for this girl I had dated for like a week over two years ago. I never finished writing it. But then Rox came along and made me happy so I was like "hmmm, let's change some of these depressing break-up lyrics into happy love lyrics that talk about her being the bomb and I'm trying OK?"

Wait, when did this post become a post about the song? What about the studio time? ADD much?

SO Tuesday night, I went in to finish recording the song. Back in August we recorded bass, drums, guitar, keys, saxophone, and organ. After that I met up with the ridiculously talented Catherine Papworth (check out her blog by clicking here) for back-up vocals and I went to my buddy Collin Sellers' house to record a guitar solo a couple of months later. Tuesday night I added the lead vocal track, Brandon Cummings (drums) added some tambourine tracks, and Austie Robinson, a fantastic trumpet player, added some delicious trumpet.

SO, six months later, it's finally time to git this tune DONE. 

I'm pretty sure I intended to ONLY talk about the studio for this post, but yet again, I get distracted. Here we go:

June Audio is probably the coolest place on the planet. The masterful Scott Wiley runs this beautiful recording space, filled with TONS of amazing recording gear; microphones, signal processors, guitars, amps, keyboards, all with an amazing space to mix whatever gets recorded. Oh, and here's a few great bands/artists who have recorded here before: Neon Trees, Fictionist, Mindy Gledhill, and many more. Needless to say, I had to empty my head out afterwards because everything melted.

What? You are curious about the song? Well it's done, but it's not ready to be released yet. Why? I'll share more about that very soon. You'll have to stay tuned my friends. I can't wait to show you! 

I will say this: This won't be the last time I'll be in this studio this year. Not even CLOSE!

Here are some pics snapped by my amazing, awesome, fantastic, gorgeous, talented, glowing, pregnant wife, Roxana. 

Excited.

Waiting. Nervous.

It was plaid shirt day.

Listening to the final mix. Mind = Blown

Amps amps amps amps amps amps amps amps amps amps amps amps.

You guys are the best you know?

 I didn't actually need three microphones. We were just testing which ones made me sound Stevie Wonder.

What a freaking awesome time! Again, I can't WAIT to show you guys what I have in my magic music hat. Stay tuned y'all. 

Chase