Mystik Luminate fans, we’ve just had a band summit here in San Francisco! Read on for more details and the full scoop.
SUMMER IN SF / July 2025
Dave came out for a planned trip abroad which got postponed by a couple of months. He came out a week or so earlier in order to make music and hang out. In a way, the trip getting pushed forward enabled us to actually focus on music as I (Peter) was busy packing even until we found out (2 days before our trip) that we were postponing the travels. Dave stayed on as planned, but instead of us traveling abroad, we had a bit more of a staycation here in San Francisco.
The first part of the trip was his arrival and the first weekend out. We found a good Secret Psychedelica party with Gizma playing at DNA Lounge — one of our old stomping grounds and a familiar haunt. Although nowadays they’ve split the upstairs and downstairs into two separate paid venues. This ain’t the old days folks. $28.00 for 1 entry. Still the music was good and kept us bopping until they closed at 2am. Perhaps it’s good they didn’t go later?
HILLTOP BLISS
Anyway, the next chapter of the trip was with our Mom who came out early also to join us on our trip. It was a full family trip that we had planned, all leaving from San Francisco, so this was the nexus and meeting point for all involved. We found an AirBnb near my place that we could all stay in and be comfortable. My apartment is a jr. one bedroom and the place we found was a 2 br with 4 bunk beds (for Dave & myself) and a master for our Mom.
During this week, we enjoyed catching up with Anne & Rick briefly in San Jose when picking up our Mom, then stayed for a beautiful week together in a cute hilltop apartment, around the Castro, not far from my place in lower Twin Peaks. We enjoyed breakfasts, then usually split off for me to come home and pack more while Dave did something also. Evenings were cozy, cooking and eating dinner together around the table, talking and relaxing to movies on the wall in the living room thanks to my Vankyo projector I brought over.
When we finally knew we weren’t going anywhere, my mom had to close her trip here and decided to go home on Saturday the 21st. But the whole week we’d been sort of split up during the day and not really getting out. So, I proposed for us to get out one day and do a tour of San Francisco.
THE GRAND TOUR
We started trying to find a house Mom had identified from the kitchen window of our AirBnb. It was in the direction of Kite Hill, so we set off that way trying to find it based on loose visual memory of the hillside. Of course, we did not find it. But we continued on from there, up Market to the Twin Peaks hill entrypoint up the way a bit. We went up Twin Peaks, got out and checked out the view from the top. It was very windy! The pink triangle from SF Pride was installed on the hill, since it was mid-late June (Pride month? in SF).
From there, we continued to Ocean Beach by way of Golden Gate Park. We had to take Lincoln over to MLK to get into the park, then crossover drive to get to JFK Drive. We passed Spreckels lake, the buffalo pen and continued around to the beach. It was crazy windy out there. Only Dave and I got out for a few photos and then I tried taking some more B-Roll before getting sandblasted back inside.
From there, we continued up around past the Cliff House and Land’s End. We made our way through the Presidio, winding around to Crissy Field where we got out and walked to the Visitor Center near the Golden Gate Bridge. Dave and I went out the pier to get a better look at the city and bridge. It was so windy I took my hat off for most of it, I was afraid it would blow off with the wind into the Bay.
From there, we continued around to North Beach. Our Mom is very Catholic and so it was sort of an idea to show her as many of the big cathedrals and churches that I could think of. St. Ignatius on Folsom we saw from Twin Peaks. Same with St. Mary’s Cathedral which we also drove by. Then we went past Washington Square in North Beach to see that one, Saints Peter and Paul. From there we went up to Grace Cathedral in Nob Hill. Dave wanted to walk the labyrinth and we both got out. There were too many steps for our Mom who stayed in the car. But we got some nice shots of the church and gardens from the top of the steps.
After that, it was getting late and we wanted to head towards home. There was one more church – St. Mary’s that we wanted to pass by on the way down Gough St. back towards the Castro. It was after 5pm by then so the church was closed also. Unfortunately we didn’t get in any of them. But having been inside there before, it was spectacular. Maybe doesn’t look it from the outside with the big blocks of concrete forming the roof, but the volume inside is incredible and the edges are stained glass which lets in a gorgeous light. There was/is a virtual “tour” 360° photo online that you should check out if you haven’t seen it.
The trip was the highlight and closing event of my Mom’s stay. We had a nice pizza dinner after that with salad to close an otherwise busy day. Dave and I both fell asleep early watching movies.
SF STUDIO
After dropping our Mom off, we both moved back to my apartment near Tank Hill. On a different rhythm then, since we weren’t traveling and were settling into a staycation, we started working on music and hanging out. I got the music rig setup by the window with my Mackie HR624s from my desk rig. My MR5’s burned out less than a month before Dave’s arrival. Also, we discovered my Behringer XR18 was also not working!! WTF? I had just been using it less than a week before, when Dave had first arrived even. So, we adapted the setup and got a shared rig centered around the Akai Force and Allen & Heath Xone 92 that I have. After trying to debug a ground loop hum in the system, we got going.
Day by day we set up, got some samples recorded, some loops refined…making progress slowly. It became a bit of a grind actually. Every day when I’d clear off the gear (sun protection and decksavers), there was a feeling that started to come about. Work. Standing for hours. Sore feet. Aching neck and back from craning our necks over to see the gear on the table. But ultimately, that’s what it took for us to craft something new. To sink into workshop mode and generate material that felt now.
KITE HILL+
One of the final days we had left here we discussed what else we could still do and wanted to get done while Dave was out here. I had never been to Kite Hill before, despite living here — right in front of it, looking at it every day — for 17 years. Even at our AirBnb we could see it. So, being close by, it was something we could walk to. As part of our daily “getting out” regimen, we decided to hike over there. Dave also wanted to get a Deluge jam somewhere outside. This was the time.
We geared up and started off. When we left, it seemed sunny enough. But by the time we got over there — only really a few blocks from my apartment — the day and weather got more intense. The wind started whipping more intensely and it got chillier. The clouds started covering the sun with a thin sheet. Also, I brought my camera gear to document the trip. I had never been there, so I wanted to see what my hill and apartment looked like from there, as well as the perspective of the city.
Frankly the impression was vastly different than what I had expected. From where I live, the view looks over Kite Hill. There are trees surrounding it, but not occluding it. From there, however the trees covered much of the city view so there were only a few choice viewing spots. It was really just a hill with a path up to it. A bench at the mid point of the hill with a massive tree branch/stump lying there. Mostly dogwalkers coming around. By the time we got to the mid point with the bench we decided that was where we’d jam.
Lets just say it was hectic. I had way too much stuff on me. My bags tightly packed and tripods and gear falling out. Although there was no real pressure, I felt like the weather changing and people walking around started to add to a crazymaking factor that got me wound up and frustrated. There were too many people walking around in the background. I didn’t want them in the video. Didn’t want my bag in the video. But then I hid it behind the massive stump and was worried passersby might steal it. Oy. Eventually we got setup and I got into a groove. It turned out to be really fun actually! Except that in the daylight we couldn’t see any of our LEDs and our speakers were super quiet with the outdoors and wind whipping in our ears. But we got it recorded from a few different angles, made some new beats and it ended up being fun to jam, albeit cold and very windy.
Still that was another highlight of the week. We did make it on a hike of the Mt. Sutro Interior Greenbelt also, which was beautiful. We’d done that many times in the past, however I haven’t been through there since around 2018 when I hurt my foot and ankle. So it was great to get back through there, it’s such a beautiful park area with trails right in the middle of the city.
AFTERMATH
Having both Dave here and my Mom was fantastic. It was definitely a bit disruptive, but in the best way. It was a test of my systems, as well as an opportunity to host and re-engage with family and San Francisco, the beautiful city where I live, and have been living for the past 25 years. It was an adjustment to get back into solo living. Much more lonely and reflective.
The way Dave and I left things, we had a Force project but not an actual recording. We got a bit done in the arranger, but with my main XR18 mixer setup being out of commission, we focused mostly on getting the Force project organized (somewhat, we started in Section groups of 8 for the major themes and different parts…). Then with it exported, the thought was we’d take it and engineer it in a DAW to work it out.
But I haven’t been doing that kind of workflow lately and with it all set up to play live I felt it would be better done — at least for an initial concept mix — to do so live with the Force and record it that way. As I’ve done with other project, i started with the idea of just stepping through the sections we had to audition them and be able to hear them in context. Upon doing that, it turned into a 30 minute mix! Definitely not perfect, and with lots of raw parts, some rough non-mixes…short spells of silence between some parts, maybe a bit too much repetition here and there… But now after a couple weeks of honing, re-mixing, tweaking levels and adding a few more follow up parts, we finally have a concept/demo mix.
Stay tuned for more!
MYSTIK LUMINATE – LIVE IN SF – CONCEPT MIX 30:01 (Recorded July 20, 2025) © 2025 All rights reserved.
