journal
Another track in progress
By Dave on Friday, March 3rd 2006 11:20 am
Another track is in the works, with bass and drum tracks in the can. I'm shooting to complete electric and possibly acoustic guitars over the weekend. Again the drumming of Frank Basile is featured.
I should have a rough mix posted over the next week or so.
The piece has the working title "Autumn" and is in part based on an Irish folk melody of the same name. When we started working on the last Electrum album we were running with a concept of pulling influences from different cultures. Gino's material focused on Eastern and Mid-Eastern influences while I was focused on pulling melodic ideas out of European folk music. Since that project came to a screeching halt due to logistics and time we decided to start over again with a blank canvas later this Spring or Summer. So sprinkled throughout my record are leftover ideas like the introduction and main theme in this piece.
Heh, reminds me. Last January was Electrums 10th Aniversary. Weird.
Picnic at the Slag Heap
By Dave on Monday, January 30th 2006 12:04 am
mp3: Picnic at the Slag Heap Update: See the mp3s page for more tracks and a sampler of Abstract Expression.
I finished the guitar tracks on Picnic today and did a rough mix.
Along with the guest drummer mentioned in the previous post this also features Joel Mahathy playing the insane "big muff" guitar solo and Theremin. He used an actual original "big muff" pedal, not some cheezy computer plug in. And if I remember correctly the Theremin is one of the early Moog kits.
This song is named for a line in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. The movie they spoofed was called Robot Monster. The terrifying monster in this flick is a guy in a gorilla suit with a space helmet on. He says cool existential things like "I must, but I cannot". Ro-man comes armed with a death ray and a bubble machine.
No Picnic
By Dave on Sunday, January 29th 2006 12:36 am
Well its a little too cold to do any drum recordings out in the garage so I decided to try an online service called Live Studio Drums from Smart Loops. It's interesting. You upload an mp3 with mix of your music and a second one with a guide drum track. You fill out a form with some basic information about the song and then studio drummer Frank Basile plays drum tracks for you. Once he is done you download the nicely recorded tracks and import them into your song.
I decided to give it a try with a short quirky piece called "Picnic at the Slag Heap". I got my tracks back after a week, with the comment - "this piece was fun but certainly no picnic".
Frank did a great job on the track and I finished the bass guitar track this evening. Frank isn't the only guest appearance on this track...but that's another post.
Steve Canty
By Dave on Saturday, November 12th 2005 12:29 am
Just got in from seeing Kim and Steve. I briefly took guitar lessons from Steve back in high school before I went off to college. He was both an inspirational player and teacher and I think it is safe to say I wouldn't have the passion for music I have today if not for my time with him. Kim (who is a fantastic vocalist) and Steve did fine renditions of some classic rock pieces (Fleetwood Mac, Hendrix, Joplin). My favorite of the evening was Little Wing.
Phil (mentioned previously in this blog), Dave Mills (old friend and bandmate from High school), Steve and myself gabbed for awhile after the performance catching up and talking about everything from the new Star Wars movie to Jeff Becks picking technique. A good time was had by all.
Painting on canvas and paneling
By Dave on Wednesday, October 5th 2005 2:05 am
Phil Clute (vocalist from the previous posted mp3) is doing a couple of paintings that will make up the artwork for the CD. The title is going to be "Abstract Expressions" and I'm more or less giving him creative license to do whatever he likes around that idea. I took this photo of the first painting in its present state hanging on the wall of his apartment. He was giving the heavy layers a paint a few days to dry before adding more layers of color. It is entirely possible this will look nothing like the finished product. We shall see how things develop.
While I have no ability at all in the realm of artistic painting I am in the process of painting over the drab 1970's era wood paneling in my basement studio. After trying about 10 samples Mary and I settled on a yellowish beige color called "Devonshire". The job is about 2/3rds completed. I'm taking a couple of days off work to finish the job before it gets to cold to have the windows open. While I like the color of this "Devonshire" I was fairly puzzled by the name. And as one might expect, a google search of Devonshire turns up a renaissance festival.
All Along the Watchtower
By Dave on Monday, September 19th 2005 3:27 am
Nothing new to report on the album front, but in the meantime here is a version of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" as arranged by the late Michael Hedges (see his "Live on the Double Planet" album) and performed by myself (acoustic guitar) and Phil Clute (vocals). Phil is working on a couple of paintings for the artwork on my CD.
For those who are interested the guitar is in this tuning:
Low D - A - E -
E - A - A High