'Song For A Friend' on YouTube

I still want to post here with some level of regularity despite the hardship I am going through right now. Writing here and focusing on my music is actually quite therapeutic. I just wish I had all the time and energy necessary to be devoted to these things. I notice that many of the blogs that I follow post a lot more frequently than I do. I really do hope that things work out to a level where I will have the necessary means in all respects to keep all this going.

Recently I uploaded to YouTube a song I made several years back. This song has been on soundcloud for a while but I never really spread it around that much. This was a special project creation for a young friend who died from cancer in his teens. Some mutual friends decided to create a tribute to him on what would have been the commemoration of his birthday. I decided to contribute a song. Some songs come fast--words and melody--other songs come very slow. This one came fast and it's a good thing it did because the target date for this tribute was his birthday which was not very far off. The recording and everything was finished rather quickly and in time.

I have thought several times about changing some of the lyrics to make for less specific details and perhaps creating a wider audience appeal. I feel the song has tremendous pop sensibilities and I drew inspiration from at least 2 songs--'Leaving Ninety-Nine' by Audio Adrenaline and 'February' by Ten Shekel Shirt--that I like very much. (In fact, the title of the Ten Shekel Shirt song influenced me to originally title the song in a similar fashion. I have gone on to change the title several times). However, as I mentioned before, I'm not very keen on trying to re-work old songs, or at least old songs which have already been recorded. There are a few things I could do to make the recording sonically superior. But as far as a re-write, there are no plans for that unless I received a professional suggestion to do so.

As it stands the song is officially called "Song For A Friend." Here it is:




On this recording I used 2 guitars which I no longer own. One was the emerald green Carvin CT-6 and the other was a Rickenbacker 350V63. I'm not completely sure but there may have been a third guitar used. I did not keep recording notes at that time so I can only go by memory. Bass used was a Fender Jazz bass. This song also features some prominent slide guitar playing which I incorporated during a slide phase I was going through. I certainly do plan to add more slide to my recordings as I see fit.

So what do you think of the song? Someone upon hearing this song for the first time said it sounded like the Beatles. I found that to be interesting.

Full Length Album Coming This Fall!!

I decided that I would release a full length album before the year is up. It's already mid to late September so that does not allow me much time. Especially since I plan on going back and remixing some of my existing songs. That shouldn't take an excessive amount of time as long as I dedicate enough hours to the task. Ideally I want it released no later than November. I already released a 6-song EP in late 2011 but it was a hurried effort and I ended up including an incorrect mix of one of the songs. Additionally, I created the EP without cover artwork so Record Union--the company I submitted the album with--used their own stock photo of a red dog. At the time it didn't matter because I just wanted my best music out there on Amazon and iTunes and Spotify. But this time around I will make sure to provide my own album artwork and the correct versions of my songs.

The reason I've waited so long to do this is due to the nature of my music. It's basically all over the place genre-wise. I have songs that sound pop, rock, jazz, r&b, indie, retro and some that are instrumental in different styles. The songs I ultimately end up including on this full-length album will in no way create a cohesive or thematic listening experience. It will be more like a compilation of an artist who has spent different phases of his career indulging in various styles of music. Perhaps someone like Beck. Or David Bowie. Or Brian Eno. Not sure. But I'm going to do this. And this album will include the best of what I've created between 2001 and 2012 and perhaps even a little something from 2013. I imagine my second full-length album will be more cohesive musically and will be comprised of material recorded over a much shorter period of time.

One of the songs that will be on this album is titled, "Where I Belong," and I just yesterday uploaded it to YouTube. Here it is:

By the way, the photo that accompanies the song in the video will most likely be the album artwork for this upcoming release. I think it looks cool. But getting back to this song--it's a song I recorded in 2007 so it's pretty old relatively speaking. The song opens with some low organ notes and and electric guitar. I was going for a dark feel there. The rest of the song features 6 and 12-string acoustic guitars, 2 electric guitars, electric bass and drums. This song also has the distinction of being the very first where I sang falsetto on. Falsetto is something I've been using a lot more since this song and will continue to do so. I really enjoy falsetto in the modern vein of Chris Martin of Coldplay and James Vincent McMorrow to mention a few.

This song may have a bit of a country feel to it. Maybe alt-country to be more precise. But that's really not the sound I was going for. I was going for a combination of an alternative and power pop and hard rock sound and I think I succeeded in that mission.

I feel the drums came out well-recorded in this song. Not 100% content with it but one of the better recordings I've managed. And as you know, I judge many of my recordings by the quality of the drum set sound. At this time I have no plans to re-work this song in any way for the album release to come. I'm going to leave it with its raw feel and energy. I must also confess that it is not one of my favourite tunes but it does have its moments of what in my world I would call 'perfection,' including that little guitar solo after the first chorus. It is a simple part but the tone of the guitar combined with the notes played over the other layers of instruments is really in my opinion one of my greatest musical moments.

I will try to get more tunes uploaded to my YouTube channel and as I do that I will share them here. Also I will continue to update on my progress of the album release and perhaps even schedule an album release party  :}

Song For A Friend

Back in January of 2010 one of the kids from my youth group passed away at the age of 18 due to cancer. Later in October of that year as we were getting ready to commemorate what would have been his 19th birthday, I wrote and recorded a song for him. It was probably one of the quickest songs I ever wrote, as everything from the lyrics to the melody just came to me amazingly fast. At the time I had a Ten Shekel Shirt song, "February," in heavy rotation. That song was also about the passing of a person or persons. Definitely a sad sounding song but something really attracted me to it.

I had been listening to a lot of piano driven pop/rock songs at the time such as "Leaving Ninety-Nine" by Audio Adrenaline,  "Look What You've Done" by JET, "Bedshaped" by Keane, "Brighter Than Sunshine" by Aqualung and various others. So this song I wrote for my friend was styled on these aforementioned songs. At the time I was also interested in playing slide guitar so there are some slide guitar parts on this song.

I have changed the title of this song various times over the last few years. It started off as "Song For Chris" then "October 24" and currently it is "Song For A Friend." I have been flirting with the idea of rewriting the lyrics for a more generalized sentiment because I feel the song has a very strong modern pop feel to it and may even be the song that helps me break into the music biz. I don't know. But I do know that I have to be flexible and ready, willing & able to rewrite lyrics if I am serious about a career as a songwriter/composer.

This is one of my very few and rare songs that do not feature me playing the drums. Well not real drums anyway. I don't think I had my own drum set yet at that time and going over to my church with all my recording equipment was a major hassle, not to mention that it wasn't sounding all that great on the last few songs I had recorded that way. And this was a song I was trying to get done quickly so I opted to use the drums sounds from my Yamaha S90. Sounds authentic enough but not very practical for doing any kind of genuine sounding fills.

This song also features: piano (Yamaha S90); slide electric guitar; rhythm electric guitar; electric bass; vocal; and 'drums'. I used that blue Rickenbacker guitar I used to have for the rhythm parts.

There are also a few electric guitar parts with volume swells during the verses that I played on the Carvin. Here is the song:




Since I may end up rewriting the lyrics I don't think I will go back and fix up some of the 'too soft' vocal passages or some of the flatter notes on the high parts. One friend when first hearing the song said it sounded like The Beatles. Interesting, but definitely not the sound I was going for. You decide.

Most Amazing

I've gone several days without posting. I apologize. Something unexpected happened but now I'm back. So let's continue with my next song, "Most Amazing."

This was my song for 2005. I was aiming for a different sound from "You Are So Good." I had started to listen to some other bands and more modern music and this is what I came up with. It's definitely a driving alternative rock song featuring several electric guitar tracks, an acoustic guitar, an electric bass, drums and vocal track. At the time, this was the first song that did not include any keyboards. It was also my first song to feature an e-bow. The purchase and use of an e-bow was the result of a strong influence by Marcus Beaumont of Hillsong on their 17 minute epic song titled "Highest." That is the song I could be found listening to/watching the video of almost all the time back then.

This song is also different from anything else I made up to that point in that I tried singing in a different voice during the bridge part. As I was listening to a lot of alternative at the time--The Calling, STP, Live, Creed, Staind, Jeremy Riddle (of Vineyard), Tony Sanchez (of Vineyard), etc.--and was influenced not only by the guitar playing but also the vocal stylizing. Took me a while to get it, but eventually the end result was satisfactory to me.




What was not satisfactory to me is the overall sound of the drums. They sound muddy. The snare especially. The toms I can barely hear. Short of re-recording the drum track, I'm not sure there's much I can do to improve its sound. Also the overall sound of the track is a bit trebly. In particular the vocals and drums.

The guitars used in this song include: the white Les Paul Studio I pictured in the last post; a black Fender Aerodyne Strat which I had for a few years and regrettably traded for an Epiphone Dot; and a Gretsch White Falcon used for the solo during the bridge. I have none of those 4 guitars anymore. Here are some photos of the Aerodyne Strat:

(All these guitars makes me think I should devote one post to all the electric's I've had over the years.)

I entered this song into another Billboard Songwriting Contest and it ended up winning an Honorable Mention by placing in the Top 500. This was the best showing for any of my entries. I even won 2 prizes which included a book and a pair of sunglasses.

Do I want to spend the time reworking the odds and ends of this recording? Not really. I feel it was just another stepping stone to where I am now. It's a part of the past that should stay there. To be honest, I have new and exciting musical endeavours I want to embark on. Going back and working on stuff from the past is regressing, not progressing. This song was great when it happened. But I feel it really pales in comparison to some of the stuff I have done within the last few years. In fact, it has not stood the test of time for me like "You Are So Good" has. I find myself always coming back to listen to "Good." I rarely listen to "Most Amazing." "The Moment of Truth" is another I keep coming back to, especially after I re-recorded the vocals.

Son of God (Starfield/Chris Tomlin) Bass Line

Haven't posted in a few days but now I'm back. Ok, here is another bass tab I have received requests for. This is the Starfield (& Chris Tomlin) song called "Son of God." I just made up a simple bass part to play along with the verses of the song.

Here is the video:

And here is the tab:


G  :-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
D  :-------6-6-------|-------6-6-------|-----------------|-----------------|
A  :-----------6-8-6-|-----------6-8-6-|8------8-8---6---|8------8-8---6-8-|
E  :4----------------|4----------------|-----------8---8-|-----------8-----|

G  :-----------------|-------------------|------------------|
D  :-----------------|-------------------|------------------|
A  :4------4-4-------|4------4-4-----6-h8|6------6-6---6-6-5|
E  :-----------4-6-4-|-----------4-6-----|-----------6------|

G  :----------------------------- 1|
D  :----------6---6-8-8-8-8-p6---*||
A  :4--4-6-h8---8--------------8-*||
E  :----------------------------- ||

That's all it is. It just gives the song a little bit of motion as opposed to the typical bass lines that don't go anywhere and just serve to register low frequencies on a sound system. 

My next post will involve a somewhat complicated fingerpicking acoustic guitar part that I made up for a Darren Clarke song.