A few months ago my mother passed away.
My parents had a surprisingly large influence on my musical tastes – they weren’t like most of my friends parents. My childhood home had a fantastic record stash including Simon & Garfunkel, Blondie, Roxy Music, ABBA, and many other bands that I still love. They took me to my first live concert, Bryan Ferry’s Bete Noire tour in 1988. I hated Ferry at that time, I was into hard rock. I went because they had an extra pair of tickets and my cousin and I had nothing better to do that night. Ten minutes before the show started, I was still mumbling “Bryan sucks – kill the synths!” Thirty seconds after the first song started, I was a convert. I danced through the entire concert, in awe of what I was seeing and hearing. As we left Exhibition Stadium, I elbowed my way to the front of the merch-booth line, buying a T-shirt. I still have it.
So obviously my parents encouraged me musically. When I was 14 and learning to play the guitar, my mother had a piano. She wasn’t especially good, but loved plinking away at it. We used to play David Bowie’s “Space Oddity together.” Only that song, nothing else seemed to work – we just weren’t that good.
As Mother’s Day is coming this weekend, I was thinking about how my surviving family will deal with the weekend. I thought I’d be fine. Then I heard ‘Space Oddity’ on the internet radio and my heard dropped.
I miss you Mum! Happy Mother’s Day!
Friday, May 11, 2012
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
My Clown
Last night I was in the studio, programming MIDI drum tracks for the new album.
This was an enjoyable process – I have basic patterns completed, along with “scratch tracks” for bass, guitar, and keyboards. These are used to guide through the song so you know whether you’re in a verse or chorus, but will be replaced with the real instruments for the final version. A bit like wooden support beams in a building, in place until the concrete sets.
So I had the drums up louder than everything else (I was focusing on them, after all), and had set up a microphone to sing along. I’ve found that this helps to give me a “live” mindset, the ideal I’m going for with this album. So back to the drums, I’d sing along stopping when something needed adjusting – “no, that kick doesn’t work there, it should push the beat a little,” “ouch, that sounds weird,” that sort of thing. And over the course of a few hours, I had the drum tracks programmed for 3 of the 10 songs. And to be honest, I replayed them a few times afterwards just having fun jamming along with myself.
Late in the evening, I was working on ‘My Clown’. It’s a soft, brooding acoustic song. Humming along waiting for the first verse to arrive, I “ahhhh’d” a really cool line. Since my voice isn’t my strongest instrument, I grabbed a nearby guitar and plucked the riff on it. Suddenly a jolt went up my spine – AN IDEA! I saved a backup version of the soft song, and started a new one. A 4-bar aggressive disco/house beat was looped. I copied the organ line from the slow version, sped it up, and added it to the drum loop. I then hit ‘Record’ and laid down the idea with a dirty overdriven guitar. Within 15 minutes I had the new version of ‘My Clown’ laid out. Aggressive and dirty, sexy in a way that didn’t exist before.
My Clown’s an evil clown.
After the adrenaline rush wore off, I went back and listened to the original version. There’s a creepy tension that didn’t translate into the sexy funk version. And I’ll probably stick with the original.
But who knows - this song now has 2 completely different identities that I can get to know.
This was an enjoyable process – I have basic patterns completed, along with “scratch tracks” for bass, guitar, and keyboards. These are used to guide through the song so you know whether you’re in a verse or chorus, but will be replaced with the real instruments for the final version. A bit like wooden support beams in a building, in place until the concrete sets.
So I had the drums up louder than everything else (I was focusing on them, after all), and had set up a microphone to sing along. I’ve found that this helps to give me a “live” mindset, the ideal I’m going for with this album. So back to the drums, I’d sing along stopping when something needed adjusting – “no, that kick doesn’t work there, it should push the beat a little,” “ouch, that sounds weird,” that sort of thing. And over the course of a few hours, I had the drum tracks programmed for 3 of the 10 songs. And to be honest, I replayed them a few times afterwards just having fun jamming along with myself.
Late in the evening, I was working on ‘My Clown’. It’s a soft, brooding acoustic song. Humming along waiting for the first verse to arrive, I “ahhhh’d” a really cool line. Since my voice isn’t my strongest instrument, I grabbed a nearby guitar and plucked the riff on it. Suddenly a jolt went up my spine – AN IDEA! I saved a backup version of the soft song, and started a new one. A 4-bar aggressive disco/house beat was looped. I copied the organ line from the slow version, sped it up, and added it to the drum loop. I then hit ‘Record’ and laid down the idea with a dirty overdriven guitar. Within 15 minutes I had the new version of ‘My Clown’ laid out. Aggressive and dirty, sexy in a way that didn’t exist before.
My Clown’s an evil clown.
After the adrenaline rush wore off, I went back and listened to the original version. There’s a creepy tension that didn’t translate into the sexy funk version. And I’ll probably stick with the original.
But who knows - this song now has 2 completely different identities that I can get to know.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Holdup
I’ve had the new studio set up for a couple of weeks now. The boomy reverb is still a big problem.
The bed tracks for the new album have been started. I’m programming the MIDI drums, and laying down a temporarly bassline that will guide the song. There’s really not much else that I can do until I put up some sound-diffusing foam on the walls. That will probably be a month or two. An agonizing month or two – I want to get back to work on this batch of songs, I’m REALLY excited about them. So excited that, this morning while listening to the Your Loving Song demo on my MP3 player, my eyes started watering. It was all I could do not to stop on Queen St, pose a rockstar pose, and start singing and air-guitaring! I’m seriously loving this project, and can’t wait to build it and show it off!
There is an upside to this delay. I’m my own boss, there is no record company pushing for a release date and I don’t need the sales profits yet (I can still buy my own beer this summer). So there’s nothing but my own lack of patience to push the release. My plan is to rehearse the songs over and over and over. Play the guitars and keyboards against the bed tracks, sing karaoke-style with them.
This “pre-production” should help improve the songs in more subtle ways. Maybe a kick drum will seem out of place and I can fix it, maybe I'll discover that something should change after the first verse… I’ve already decided to chop a measure from the middle of Little Rose Tattoo and add screaming background vocals behind the guitar solo (yes there are a couple of those on this record) in a song currently being called You’re A Star but might get changed to When You Are Gone or something completely different. With time, I can keep workshopping these new songs.
So yes, there’s a delay. And yes, it’s pissing me off. But there’s a positive side to it, and I’m going to exploit that to the best of my ability.
The bed tracks for the new album have been started. I’m programming the MIDI drums, and laying down a temporarly bassline that will guide the song. There’s really not much else that I can do until I put up some sound-diffusing foam on the walls. That will probably be a month or two. An agonizing month or two – I want to get back to work on this batch of songs, I’m REALLY excited about them. So excited that, this morning while listening to the Your Loving Song demo on my MP3 player, my eyes started watering. It was all I could do not to stop on Queen St, pose a rockstar pose, and start singing and air-guitaring! I’m seriously loving this project, and can’t wait to build it and show it off!
There is an upside to this delay. I’m my own boss, there is no record company pushing for a release date and I don’t need the sales profits yet (I can still buy my own beer this summer). So there’s nothing but my own lack of patience to push the release. My plan is to rehearse the songs over and over and over. Play the guitars and keyboards against the bed tracks, sing karaoke-style with them.
This “pre-production” should help improve the songs in more subtle ways. Maybe a kick drum will seem out of place and I can fix it, maybe I'll discover that something should change after the first verse… I’ve already decided to chop a measure from the middle of Little Rose Tattoo and add screaming background vocals behind the guitar solo (yes there are a couple of those on this record) in a song currently being called You’re A Star but might get changed to When You Are Gone or something completely different. With time, I can keep workshopping these new songs.
So yes, there’s a delay. And yes, it’s pissing me off. But there’s a positive side to it, and I’m going to exploit that to the best of my ability.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Studio Update, and Another LIE
This was a great long weekend.
I managed to set up my studio. Unfortunately it needs some work. The blue cinderblocks look great, but the sound bounces right off them. I knew it would be a problem, but didn’t know how much until yesterday. I was laying down an acoustic guitar track, so I had a microphone set up in front of the Gibson’s soundhole. It’s a small guitar, and has a thin, whispy sound. That’s exactly what I wanted for the song. I sat down, adjusted all the levels, and recorded the slide-guitar track.
When I listened to the playback, there was a deep, boomy reverberation. The sound was bouncing off the walls, and overpowering the microphone. It made the signal unusable. It was really frustrating – that was a tough guitar solo to play cleanly, and it took a lot of practice to get it right.
A few hours later, I realized that I could get an equally-cool sound from one of my Telecasters. And I could run it directly into the PC, so the echo wouldn’t affect the sound. Ten minutes later it was done. Then I listened to the song a dozen times, thrilled with the way it’s building.
This isn’t a new song either. I was sitting on the sofa watching TV one night, plucking away on the above-noted Gibson acoustic (we keep it in the living room, for emergency access). I absent-mindedly plucked one of the guitar licks from “Love Isn’t Enough,” but at a really slow tempo. Suddenly I realized that this song would work well in a new genre. I rushed down to the studio, programmed a basic drum pattern, and very quickly laid down bass, guitar, and vocal “scratch takes” before I could forget what I had in mind.
I’ve built on it now, but it’s a sparse and lonely take on LIE. I can’t wait to polish and release it online (once the studio echo is resolved).
I managed to set up my studio. Unfortunately it needs some work. The blue cinderblocks look great, but the sound bounces right off them. I knew it would be a problem, but didn’t know how much until yesterday. I was laying down an acoustic guitar track, so I had a microphone set up in front of the Gibson’s soundhole. It’s a small guitar, and has a thin, whispy sound. That’s exactly what I wanted for the song. I sat down, adjusted all the levels, and recorded the slide-guitar track.
When I listened to the playback, there was a deep, boomy reverberation. The sound was bouncing off the walls, and overpowering the microphone. It made the signal unusable. It was really frustrating – that was a tough guitar solo to play cleanly, and it took a lot of practice to get it right.
A few hours later, I realized that I could get an equally-cool sound from one of my Telecasters. And I could run it directly into the PC, so the echo wouldn’t affect the sound. Ten minutes later it was done. Then I listened to the song a dozen times, thrilled with the way it’s building.
This isn’t a new song either. I was sitting on the sofa watching TV one night, plucking away on the above-noted Gibson acoustic (we keep it in the living room, for emergency access). I absent-mindedly plucked one of the guitar licks from “Love Isn’t Enough,” but at a really slow tempo. Suddenly I realized that this song would work well in a new genre. I rushed down to the studio, programmed a basic drum pattern, and very quickly laid down bass, guitar, and vocal “scratch takes” before I could forget what I had in mind.
I’ve built on it now, but it’s a sparse and lonely take on LIE. I can’t wait to polish and release it online (once the studio echo is resolved).
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Found: Fender 12-string!
Over the last few weeks, I have been moving my home (and recording studio).
Everything is still dismantled, and of course this is when i'm having my flood of ideas - right when i can't make a quick musical sketch of them. I have lots of scribbled notes like "change 3rd line of Kill Me to The finish was always my favourite part," "Am brkdown in Crazy - cut out everything but rhythm guitar" and things like that. Hopefully i'll remember what i'm talking about when everything is set up again...
One surprise was clearing out the big closet next to my recording desk in the old home. I grabbed what I thought was an empty soft-shell guitar case. It was heavier than expected, and I found my Fender acoustic 12-string guitar! It had been hidden away in the closet for years, and I'd totally forgotten that I owned it. And I'm sure it'll come in handy on one or two new songs.
Hopefully I can get the new studio set up in the next week or two and get to work!
Everything is still dismantled, and of course this is when i'm having my flood of ideas - right when i can't make a quick musical sketch of them. I have lots of scribbled notes like "change 3rd line of Kill Me to The finish was always my favourite part," "Am brkdown in Crazy - cut out everything but rhythm guitar" and things like that. Hopefully i'll remember what i'm talking about when everything is set up again...
One surprise was clearing out the big closet next to my recording desk in the old home. I grabbed what I thought was an empty soft-shell guitar case. It was heavier than expected, and I found my Fender acoustic 12-string guitar! It had been hidden away in the closet for years, and I'd totally forgotten that I owned it. And I'm sure it'll come in handy on one or two new songs.
Hopefully I can get the new studio set up in the next week or two and get to work!
Friday, March 23, 2012
St. Paddy's Review
The St. Paddy’s Day shows with the Boys From County Hell went really well. Two shows, five sets, two or three encores (I can’t remember), seventeen worn-down guitar picks, five musicians, no broken strings, one hell of a day! Oh – and too many pints of beer and shots of whiskey to count.
After the last song at the Cloak & Dagger, the last song of the night, I was ready to keep playing. I think the others were too. Unfortunately our voices were all disappearing and exhaustion was setting in.
This was the first time I’ve been onstage in years, and I’d forgotten how much I love it. We’ll have to book a few more shows this year. One thing that I didn’t forget – I always look angry or annoyed onstage, even when I’m having the time of my life!
Cheers, and I hope everyone else had as good a time as me!
After the last song at the Cloak & Dagger, the last song of the night, I was ready to keep playing. I think the others were too. Unfortunately our voices were all disappearing and exhaustion was setting in.
This was the first time I’ve been onstage in years, and I’d forgotten how much I love it. We’ll have to book a few more shows this year. One thing that I didn’t forget – I always look angry or annoyed onstage, even when I’m having the time of my life!
Cheers, and I hope everyone else had as good a time as me!
... and that's a shamrock fake tattoo on my forehead, as I didn't have anything green to wear.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Stagefright
I used to get a really bad case of stagefright. I don’t really know why. I’ve always known what I was performing. Knew I looked and sounded good, and had a show well worth the admission cost. But they were still there.
The jitters eventually subsided, but it took a long time. And once they went away, I missed them. I missed the butterflies in my stomach, the nerves for the day before a performance, when I would constantly run the set through my head, ensuring I knew my parts and wondering what I didn’t know I didn’t know. Without them, performing got quite hum-drum. "Okay, it’s time to get back onstage… guitar – lights – put it in autopilot and go."
I haven’t played publicly since 2003. Not including my wedding, where I whipped out Unchained Melody (guitar and vocals) for my bride. And THOSE jitters had nothing to do with the music!
Tomorrow I have a couple of shows with The Boys From County Hell, and the nerves are back. My main concern is that I’m playing Irish folk music, and until 6 months ago I’d never really listened to it. I’ll be playing these 3-set performances of unfamiliar songs without cheat-sheets to hint at the chord changes. I’m sure I’ll be fine, i've done a lot of rehearsing, but there’s always the things that I don’t know I don’t know… Especially for the first performance with a new group.
I’ve got the stagefright jitters, and I like it!
The jitters eventually subsided, but it took a long time. And once they went away, I missed them. I missed the butterflies in my stomach, the nerves for the day before a performance, when I would constantly run the set through my head, ensuring I knew my parts and wondering what I didn’t know I didn’t know. Without them, performing got quite hum-drum. "Okay, it’s time to get back onstage… guitar – lights – put it in autopilot and go."
I haven’t played publicly since 2003. Not including my wedding, where I whipped out Unchained Melody (guitar and vocals) for my bride. And THOSE jitters had nothing to do with the music!
Tomorrow I have a couple of shows with The Boys From County Hell, and the nerves are back. My main concern is that I’m playing Irish folk music, and until 6 months ago I’d never really listened to it. I’ll be playing these 3-set performances of unfamiliar songs without cheat-sheets to hint at the chord changes. I’m sure I’ll be fine, i've done a lot of rehearsing, but there’s always the things that I don’t know I don’t know… Especially for the first performance with a new group.
I’ve got the stagefright jitters, and I like it!
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