It’s 5:12 am and I am writing this in a Starbucks in Chatsworth. My wife had work early this morning so I dropped her off but instead of heading back home to get some sleep, I decided to stay in the valley because I have a dentist appt. at 8:00am. After dropping off my wife I decided to drive around Chatsworth and Northridge because Starbucks hadn’t open yet. It felt weird for a little bit, like I went through a wormhole into the past because no one was on the road and I was back in my old neighborhood. All these memories of my childhood and teenage years started coming back to me. I thought back of what I used to do around town from roller skating home from middle school to eating at the local Italian Deli “San Carlo Deli.” Thinking about all of these memories, I decided to drive by my elementary school. Actually it’s the school I went from Preschool to Middle School. It felt like I spent an eternity there. As I drove by, I was taken back by all the changes they made to the school. Playgrounds missing, new buildings added and a different school name. I felt like part of my childhood has now been erased and they’ve added something new. I wish I had more pictures of what my school looked like. But I think that’s just part of growing up. You have to update and rebuild for the better. I will always have my wonderful memories of going to school there. They’re quite vivid too. As I drove aimlessly around Chatsworth I realized how much I’ve changed or in a way updated and grown and I believe it’s all been for the better. There are some things I wish to improve about myself but all in all I am happy and humbled to be where I am. I feel so lucky to have such a wonderful wife and family who support me and encourages me to follow my dreams. I now feel refreshed and look forward to the future. There are so many ideas I have and I hope to see them through to their full completion. A lot of my ideas actually relate to my childhood, growing up and ideas I had when I was younger. Now it’s time to take action.

Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile And Stuart Duncan

New Song. Free Download. Have a great weekend.

Shot, Edited, Cooked and Music by Dan Mehta

Along with music, cooking is one of my biggest passions. It’s fun and you are instantly rewarded after you finished cooking which I love. I decided to start making videos of my favorite recipes from my family, childhood and recent experiments my wife and I came up with. For the first episode I decided to make one of my favorite breakfast meals which is breakfast fried rice or leftover fried rice. I learned this recipe from my mom who makes it all the time since I could remember. Whenever we had leftover meat or wanted to make breakfast quick we just made fried rice with whatever leftover meat we had. What I love about this recipe is that it’s easy and quick to make, there’s not that many ingredients  and it tastes really good. I make it at least once a week. For this recipe I used a chicken andouille sausage from trader joes that’s pre cooked but I’ve also used pork sausage, bacon, turkey bacon, leftover steak, leftover chicken breast, leftover turkey, leftover pork chops, etc. So this recipe is very versatile and it helps turn your leftovers into something different. 

Ingredients

1 Large Egg

1/4 Cup Egg Whites (or another egg)

1 Chicken Sausage Link (Approx 3.2 oz.) or other meat

2 Cups of Pre Cooked Rice

1 Tablespoon of Butter

Pinch of Salt

Cooking Spray

Recipe 

With a medium pan at the stove, turn your burner on to medium heat. Spray your cooking spray in the pan. Dice up sausage and add it to the pan. Cook for about 3 min. and set aside. Turn burner to low heat. In a separate bowl, add your egg and egg whites and scramble. Add eggs to the pan as well as a pinch of salt. Cook eggs low and slow until fully cooked and then set aside. Turn burner to high heat and add the butter. Make sure the butter doesn’t burn. Before you add your pre cooked rice, make sure it’s at room temperature or warm. Microwave it if you have to. Add in the rice and smash it around so it’s well coated with butter. After one side of the rice fries up for a minute, flip the rice and let if fry on the other side for another minute. Turn off your burner then add the sausage and egg to the rice and mix around. Then you are ready to serve.

Happy Birthday James Brown. You will always be the hardest working man in show business. I probably wouldn’t be the musician I am today if it wasn’t for your music. This is one of my favorite songs. RIP 

Finally got my mandolin yesterday. Put some new strings on and have already mostly learned the Godfather Theme and the Step Brothers Theme. Learning new instruments is so fun and challenging.

DreamWorks Experience at Dreamworld

this is so surreal to me and not just because this video is on  Youtube but also that it’s also being played on Television all over Australia. Dreamworld is a really cool Theme Park in Australia and DreamWorks is joining up with them. I still can’t believe all of my favorite characters, Shrek, Puss in Boots and Kung Fu Panda and more are in this commercial with my music. Also the song they chose to use was “RACIING” which is actually the first song I ever wrote for a video project for my great friend Stebs of Paper Fortress back in 2010. It feels like this song has come full circle for me. Being the first song written for a video project and now in a DreamWorks television commercial is still so surreal to me. I have to keep pinching myself. The song was written for a mini documentary of a Cycling Race by RAPHA. I remember like it was yesterday. I emailed Stebs thanking him for using my personal songs for the Johnny Cupcakes videos. Those were songs I wrote before I even thought about being a film and media composer and I never thought I would do anything with those songs besides let them sit on my computer. They somehow found their place in these videos and I was overwhelmed that people took interest in my music. Stebs emailed me back saying he was working on this racing video and needed music so I got right to writing and recording. It was the first time that I watched video footage and had to think about what kind of song would be fitting to the video. What resulted was the songs “RACING” and “THE FINISH”.  For the first time in my life I thought I can work as a film and media composer for a living. That got me so excited and I thought if writing a song like Racing can be so much fun then why can’t I do that? Believe me that it’s still just as fun today because I get to wake up and then make music everyday and I am so grateful that people support it by using it in their videos.

I have to thank my close friend at DreamWorks and all the people there and Dreamworld for supporting me. Also I like to thank everyone who continue to support my passion. It still hasn’t hit me that my music is playing along with the DreamWorks characters but I am so honored and humbled to be a part of this.

NEW SONG! Messing around with some Dubstep styles. Download for FREE and have fun.

Just discovered Rey Fresco. I love their sound. It’s really relaxing and interesting. Especially the harp. 

Playing my Sonata Reed Organ for the first time