'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.

Christmas Songs - Final Versions

Merry Christmas, readers!

Yes, it's Christmas and here I am blogging. The reason being that I have made some better mixes and masters of my Christmas tunes and I want to get them up here before the day is up because many people will not want to hear holiday music anymore after Christmas. Funny though, because I continue to play Christmas music well into February. I don't like winter very much so playing Christmas music throughout the winter months makes the season more tolerable for me. Besides, many classic songs labelled as Christmas music make no mention of the holiday and are really just winter songs. That's my story. Well, let me get on with this because depending on where you're reading this it may not even be Christmas anymore!

I made a few tweaks here and there on both songs. Most of it will not be noticeable. But comparing my finished products to what I hear on albums just makes me yearn for better equipment and/or funding to have my music professionally polished up.

So here they are.





Hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them. Now off to working on my other goals for the remaining week of the year.

(Doesn't That) Blow Your Mind

I finally uploaded my song, "(Doesn't That) Blow Your Mind" to YouTube. Hadn't done much in terms of uploading my songs to YouTube lately because of the difficulty in trying to make videos that would complement the songs. I don't have the equipment or any willing volunteers nor do I want to 'borrow' other people's photos and videos out there due to copyright issues. So I finally decided on just making the video a still photo of the forthcoming album.

Even though "Blow Your Mind" has been out there on my tumblr and perhaps Soundcloud, I don't really consider it 'out there' until it's on YouTube. Additionally this is a great way to release a single to promote the album.due soon. (I'm not sure if they still put out singles before albums nowadays. I don't really follow the industry and I don't buy much new music. I do know that back in the 1960's and 70's they would sometimes put out singles before the albums they appeared on and other times they would release albums first then put out singles from the album. I never understood the latter because if you had the album you wouldn't need to get the singles. But I digress...)

I guess we'll have to go back to the days before music videos where you would listen to music and come up with your own imagery. So listen to the song and use your imagination:

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  :}