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  :}

The Ultimate Leslie Speaker Simulator

You might be wondering what Exit World is up to since not posting here for nearly 4 months. Of course, you might also not be wondering since this blog has only 1 follower and that individual is not much of a bloghead. Regardless, I have been sparsely working on my music. Trying to write some lyrics, finish up "Call On Me" and some other things all in between the many things that life throws at us.

Biggest bit of news I have is a newly acquired effect pedal: a Neo Instruments Ventilator pedal. By its name not even I could tell what it does. Only by its description in a Sweetwater catalog. It is a Leslie speaker simulator for keyboards and guitar.

Note: Those may look like jacks on the front of the unit, but they are actually the switches. The jacks are         located on the side of the unit.

My very first Leslie speaker simulator was a Hughes & Kettner Rotosphere MK II unit that actually had a real tube inside. I was mainly looking for that Leslie sound with a keyboard/organ. I had no interest in plugging a guitar into it. I don't remember using that thing much nor can I verify that I have any recordings featuring it. I do remember it being noisy though. It never gave me that Leslie sound I heard on many favorite tunes. That could've been because I was trying to use it through a $99 Casio keyboard from K-Mart. But that keyboard has some nice pure organ sounds. Yes, I still have it. I purchased it sometime in the late 90's. But that pedal I sold in May 2006. For all I know it may have sounded great with guitar.

I've tried other guitar pedals over the years that might give me that Leslie sound on organ. But they never really worked well. All that was resolved once I bought a Nord Electro 73. That wonderful keyboard featured fully authentic sounding Hammond organ with and without the Leslie effect. Not to mention amazing Wurlitzer and Fender Rhodes electric piano sounds and a fabulous clavinet sound.

So that solved my longing for Leslie-organ. Some years later I developed a desire for Leslie-guitar after listening to countless songs from the 1969-1974 period. The last Leslie simulator pedal I owned before my current one was a Line 6 Roto Machine pedal which never really satisfied. It too had a missing element in the sound and that element was unique growl that came from the original Leslie cabinet. Needless to say I sold that pedal as well, and as far as I know Line 6 no longer makes this pedal. 

Then I found the Ventilator. I ordered one and it sounds absolutely amazing! This is a German-made pedal and it's absolutely wonderful. I was totally ready to send this thing back if it didn't give me that classic sound including growl that I've been seeking. But it came through and I'm completely satisfied. I even made a short video playing some lines from songs featuring this classic sound:

This pedal is very pricey as are all Leslie simulators. But when it comes to that classic rotating speaker sound, there isn't much of a choice. You can seek out an actual vintage Leslie which will surely cost plenty especially if it is in fully working order and in very good cosmetic condition. Or you can purchase a newly made Motion Sound brand rotating speaker cabinet which will also dig deep into your wallet. Or you can purchase one of these pedals, which among all the other brands available are pretty much similarly priced. Well worth it though if you gotta have that sound.

Early Percussion Instruments

Here are some photos of my early percussion instruments. These are the things I used on recordings during junior high and high school and before I ever touched a real drum set. I hadn't seen this items in years as they had been stored away in the garage after our move.

The plastic-reels-with-the-pencil-sticking-up-thing was my 'cymbal' stand. The reels were from 8-track tape cartridges. The actual symbol is not shown because I do not know where it is. It was never mine anyway. It was part of my mother's fancy crystal candy and confection dish. I used to borrow the metallic lid to use for recordings because it was the closest thing I had that sounded like a cymbal, even though it sounded nothing like a cymbal. But hey, it was round and remained suspended on the tip of the pencil. So it looked cool.

Those things are from trees that have pods that fall to the ground in the fall or spring or whenever it is. When they're dry the seeds inside are loose and they make a nice shaker sound. I used them as maracas and as snares underneath my 'snare' drum.

This was my tambourine made from little holiday jingle bells. Gave every recording an instant Christmas feel. Hence, I did not overly use it.

Here is my snare drum. Made from an old, red Fannie May (?) candy can. The bottom was cut out and I tried using cardboard, sheets of paper and plastic as the drum head. As you can tell, by the time I last used this thing I had settled on a sheet of plastic as the drum head. I also added those seed pods underneath to give the snare sound. My drum sticks were markers that no longer worked and a couple of paint brushes for that 'jazz brush' sound.

Finally, as far as my percussion instruments go, these were my toms. Just two coffee cans with plastic lids on top. The brown (or dark) one had just the top metal lid removed. The green one had both the top and bottom metal lids cut and were replaced by the plastic lid. This can also doubled as my bass drum. When I wanted to record bass drum parts I would play it with another non-working marker that had a lot of cloth wrapped around it to give a nice deep sound. Had to be recorded separately though. Could not play the snare, toms, cymbal and bass at the same time. Didn't have the proper set up. In my early recordings I didn't even use the bass drum option. It was just snare, toms and cymbal. Later is when I started using the bass in the way described. In the final stages of using this equipment I was just alternating between playing the snare and the bass just to keep it all in one whole track. When you're doing analog recording--and especially with cheap cassettes--quality starts going down very quickly as you add more and more layers of tracks.

So those items are part of my music history. I still have them and want to keep them as a reminder of what I used to do with much of my spare time when I was in school. Maybe they'll end up in a museum someday?

There is some other gear which I no longer have and others which I do. I'll have to post photos of them when I come across them.

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.